II Kings 23 Josiah Gathers All the People and Renews the Lord's Covenant

 II Kings 23

Josiah Gathers All the People and Renews the Lord's Covenant

1 Then the king gave orders, and all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem assembled before him.

2 Then the king went up to the house of the Lord, and with him all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests and the prophets, and all the people, both small and great. And he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant that was found in the house of the Lord.

3 Then the king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk with the Lord and to keep his commandments, his testimonies, and his statutes with all their heart and with all their soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in the book. And all the people stood by the covenant.

4 Then the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the threshold, to remove from the temple of the Lord all the vessels that had been made for Baal and for the Asherah and for all the host of heaven. He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and brought their ashes to Bethel. 

5 He also removed the priests whom the kings of Judah had set to burn incense on the high places in the cities of Judah and around Jerusalem, and those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, to the moon, to the planets, and to all the host of heaven. 

6 He also removed the Asherah from the house of the Lord outside Jerusalem as far as the Kidron Valley, and burned it at the Kidron Valley, and ground it to powder and scattered its powder on the graves of the people. 

7 He also tore down the houses of the shameless young men who were in the house of the Lord, where the women wove little houses for the Asherah poles.

8 He brought all the priests from the cities of Judah and defiled the high places where the priests burned incense, from Geba to Beersheba. He also tore down the high places at the entrance to the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on the left hand of the one entering the gate of the city.

9 But the priests of the high places did not sacrifice on the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, but ate unleavened bread among their brothers.

10 He also defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Children of Hinnom, so that no one would make his son or his daughter pass through the fire to Molech. 11 He also took away the horses that the kings of Judah had set apart for the sun at the entrance to the house of the Lord, near the chamber of Nathan-melech the eunuch, who was in the precincts; and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire.

12 The king also tore down the altars that were on the roof of the upper room of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars that Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord, and he took them from there in pieces, and threw their dust into the Kidron Valley.

13 The king also defiled the high places that were before Jerusalem, on the right side of Mount Masith, which Solomon king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for Hamosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.

 14 He also broke down the images, and cut down the groves, and filled their places with the bones of men.