2 Reis 23

¹ And the kingBecause he saw the great plagues of God that were threatened, he knew no more speedy way to avoid them, than to turn to God by repentance which cannot come but from faith, and faith by hearing the word of God.sent, and they gathered unto him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem.

² And the King went vp into the house of the Lord, with all the men of Iudah and all the inhabitants of Ierusalem with him, and the Priests & Prophets, and all the people both smal and great: and he reade in their eares all the wordes of the booke of the couenant, which was found in the house of the Lord.

³ And the king stood byWhere the king had his place, (2Ki_11:14).a pillar, and made aAs Joshua did, (Jos_24:22, Jos_24:25).covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD, and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all [their] heart and all [their] soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people stood to the covenant.

⁴ And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and theMeaning, they who were next in dignity to the high priest.priests of the second order, and the keepers of the door, to bring forth out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the host of heaven: and he burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carriedIn contempt of the altar Jeroboam had built there to sacrifice to his calves.the ashes of them unto Bethel.

⁵ And he put down theOr Chemarims, meaning the priests of Baal who were called Chemarims either because they wore black garments or else were smoked with burning incense to idols.idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem; them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven.

⁶ And he brought out theHe removed the grove which idolaters for devotion had planted near the temple, contrary to the commandment of the Lord, (Deu_16:21), or as some read, the similitude of a grove which was hung in the temple.grove from the house of the LORD, without Jerusalem, unto the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and stamped [it] small to powder, and cast the powder thereof upon theBoth in contempt of the idols and reproach of them who had worshipped them in their lives.graves of the children of the people.

⁷ And hee brake downe the houses of the Sodomites, that were in the house of the Lord, where the women woue hangings for the groue.

⁸ Also he brought all the priests out of the cities of Iudah, and defiled the hie places where the Priests had burnt incense, euen from Geba to Beer-sheba, and destroyed the hie places of the gates, that were in the entring in of the gate of Ioshua the gouernour of the citie, which was at the left hand of the gate of the citie.

⁹ Nevertheless the priests of the high placesBecause they who had forsaken the Lord to serve idols, were not fit to minister in the service of the Lord for the instruction of others.came not up to the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, but they did eat of the unleavened bread among their brethren.

¹⁰ And he defiledWhich was a valley near to Jerusalem, and signifies a tabret because they smote on the tabret while their children were burning, that their cry should not be heard, (Lev_18:21), after which Josiah commanded trash to be cast in contempt of it.Topheth, which [is] in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.

¹¹ And he took away theThe idolatrous kings had dedicated horses and chariots to the sun, either to carry about the image of it as the heathen did, or else to sacrifice them as a most agreeable sacrifice.horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entering in of the house of the LORD, by the chamber of Nathanmelech the chamberlain, which [was] in the suburbs, and burned the chariots of the sun with fire.

¹² And the altars that were on the top of the chamber of Ahaz, which the Kings of Iudah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord did the King breake downe, and hasted thence, & cast the dust of them in the brooke Kedron.

¹³ And the high places that [were] before Jerusalem, which [were] on the right hand of theThat was the mount of olives, so called because it was full of idols.mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had builded for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon, did the king defile.

¹⁴ And he brake the images in pieces, & cut downe the groues and filled their places with the bones of men.

¹⁵ MoreoverWhich Jeroboam had built in Israel, (1Ki_12:28-29).the altar that [was] at Bethel, [and] the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he brake down, and burned the high place, [and] stamped [it] small to powder, and burned the grove.

¹⁶ And as Josiah turned himself, he spied the sepulchres that [were] there in the mount, and sent, and took the bones out of the sepulchres, and burned [them] upon the altar, and polluted it, according to the word of the LORD which theAccording to the prophecy of Iddo, (1Ki_13:2).man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words.

¹⁷ Then he sayde, What title is that which I see? And the men of the citie sayd vnto him, It is the sepulchre of the man of God, which came from Iudah, and tolde these things that thou hast done to the altar of Beth-el.

¹⁸ And he said, Let him alone; let no man move his bones. So they let his bones alone, with the bones of theMeaning, the prophet who came after him, and caused him to eat contrary to the command of the Lord, who were both buried in the same grave, (1Ki_13:31).prophet that came out of Samaria.

¹⁹ Iosiah also tooke away all the houses of the hie places, which were in the cities of Samaria, which the Kings of Israel had made to anger the Lord, and did to them according to all the factes that he had done in Beth-el.

²⁰ And he sacrificed all the Priests of the hie places, that were there vpon the altars, and burnt mens bones vpon them, & returned to Ierusalem.

²¹ Then the king commanded all the people, saying, Keepe the passeouer vnto the Lorde your God, as it is written in the booke of this couenant.

²² Surely there was not holdenFor the multitude and zeal of the people with the great preparation.such a passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah;

²³ And in the eightenth yere of King Iosiah was this Passeouer celebrated to the Lord in Ierusalem.

²⁴ Iosiah also tooke away them that had familiar spirits, and the soothsayers, and the images, and the idoles, and al the abominations that were espied in the lande of Iudah and in Ierusalem, to performe the wordes of the Lawe, which were written in the booke that Hilkiah the Priest found in the house of the Lord.

²⁵ Like vnto him was there no King before him, that turned to the Lord with al his heart, and with all his soule, and with all his might according to all the Lawe of Moses, neither after him arose there anie like him.

²⁶ Notwithstanding the LORD turned not from theBecause of the wicked heart of the people, who would not turn to him by repentance.fierceness of his great wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him withal.

²⁷ Therefore the Lorde saide, I will put Iudah also out of my sight, as I haue put away Israel, and will cast off this citie Ierusalem, which I haue chosen, and the house whereof I said, My name shalbe there.

²⁸ Concerning the rest of the actes of Iosiah, and all that hee did, are they not written in the booke of the Chronicles of the Kings of Iudah?

²⁹ In his days Pharaohnechoh king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates: and king JosiahBecause Pharaoh passed through his country, he was afraid Pharaoh would have done him harm and would have stopped him, yet he did not consult the Lord, and therefore was slain.went against him; and he slew him at Megiddo, when he had seen him.

³⁰ Then his seruants caryed him dead from Megiddo, and brought him to Ierusalem, and buried him in his owne sepulchre; the people of the lande tooke Iehoahaz the sonne of Iosiah, and anointed him, and made him King in his fathers steade.

³¹ Iehoahaz was three and twentie yeere olde when he beganne to reigne, and reigned three moneths in Ierusalem. His mothers name also was Hamutal the daughter of Ieremiah of Libnah.

³² And he did [that which was] evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that hisMeaning, the wicked kings before.fathers had done.

³³ And Pharaohnechoh put him in bandsWhich was Antiochia in Syria, also called Hamath.at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem; and put the land to a tribute of an hundred talents of silver, and a talent of gold.

³⁴ And Pharaoh Nechoh made Eliakim the sonne of Iosiah King in steade of Iosiah his father, and turned his name to Iehoiakim, and tooke Iehoahaz away, which when he came to Egypt, dyed there.

³⁵ And Iehoiakim gaue the siluer and the golde to Pharaoh, and taxed the land to giue the money, according to the commadement of Pharaoh: he leuyed of euery man of the people of the lande, according to his value, siluer and golde to giue vnto Pharaoh Nechoh.

³⁶ Iehoiakim was fiue and twentie yere olde, when he began to reigne, and he reigned eleuen yeeres in Ierusalem. His mothers name also was Zebudah the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah.

³⁷ And he did euill in the sight of the Lorde, according to all that his fathers had done.