Josiah’s Covenant

1 aThen the king sent, and they gathered to him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem.

2 The king went up to the house of the Lord and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests and the prophets and all the people, both small and great; and ahe read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant bwhich was found in the house of the Lord.

3 aThe king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the Lord, bto walk after the Lord, and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to carry out the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people 1entered into the covenant.

Reforms under Josiah

4 Then the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and athe priests of the second order and the 1doorkeepers, bto bring out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels that were made for Baal, for 2Asherah, and for all the host of heaven; and che burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel.

5 He did away with the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah and in the surrounding area of Jerusalem, also those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun and to the moon and to the constellations and to all the ahost of heaven.

6 He brought out the Asherah from the house of the Lord outside Jerusalem to the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and aground it to dust, and bthrew its dust on the graves of the 1common people.

7 He also broke down the houses of the amale cult prostitutes which were in the house of the Lord, where bthe women were weaving 1hangings for the Asherah.

8 Then he brought all the priests from the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from aGeba to Beersheba; and he broke down the high places of the gates which were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on one’s left at the city gate.

9 Nevertheless athe priests of the high places did not go up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their brothers.