2 Chronicles 34:1-9 ▼

1 Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem.

2 And he did what was right in the sight of Yahweh and walked in the ways of his father David and did not turn aside to the right or to the left.

3 Now in the eighth year of his reign while he was still a youth, he began to seek the God of his father David; and in the twelfth year he began to cleanse Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the Asherim, the graven images, and the molten images.

4 And they tore down the altars of the Baals in his presence, and the incense altars that were high above them he cut in pieces; also the Asherim, the graven images, and the molten images he broke in pieces and ground to powder and scattered it on the graves of those who had sacrificed to them.

5 Then he burned the bones of the priests on their altars and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem.

6 And in the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, Simeon, even as far as Naphtali, in their surrounding ruins,

7 he also tore down the altars and beat the Asherim and the graven images into powder, and cut in pieces all the incense altars throughout the land of Israel. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

8 Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had cleansed the land and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah an official of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair the house of Yahweh his God.

9 And they came to Hilkiah the high priest and gave him the money that was brought into the house of God, which the Levites, the doorkeepers, had gathered from the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim, and from all the remnant of Israel, and from all Judah and Benjamin and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.