1 ^jThen the king sent, and all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem were gathered to him. 2 And the king went up to the house of the Lord, and with him all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the priests and the prophets, all the people, both small and great. And he ^kread in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant that had been found in the house of the Lord. 3 And the king ^lstood by the pillar and ^mmade a covenant before the Lord, to ⁿwalk after the Lord and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people joined in the covenant.

4 And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and the priests of the ^osecond order and the ^pkeepers of the threshold to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven. He ^qburned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron and carried their ashes to ^rBethel. 5 And he deposed the ^spriests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to make offerings in the high places at the cities of Judah and around Jerusalem; those also who ^tburned incense to Baal, to the ^usun and the moon and the constellations and all the host of the heavens. 6 And he brought out the Asherah ^vfrom the house of the Lord, outside Jerusalem, to the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron and beat it to dust and cast the dust of it upon the graves of the common people. 7 And he broke down the houses of the ^wmale cult prostitutes who were in the house of the Lord, where the women wove hangings for the Asherah. 8 And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had made offerings, from Geba to Beersheba. And he broke down the high places of the gates that were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on one’s left at the gate of the city. 9 However, the priests of the high places did not come up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their brothers. 10 And he defiled ^xTopheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, that no one might ^yburn his son or his daughter as an offering ^zto Molech.¹ 11 And he removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the ^asun, at the entrance to the house of the Lord, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the chamberlain, which was in the precincts.² And he burned the chariots of the sun with fire. 12 And the altars ^bon the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and ^cthe altars that Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord, he pulled down and broke in pieces³ and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron. 13 And the king defiled ^dthe high places that were east of Jerusalem, to the south of the mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. 14 And he broke in pieces the pillars and cut down the Asherim and filled their places with the bones of men.

15 Moreover, the ^ealtar at Bethel, the high place erected by Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, that altar with the high place he pulled down and burned,⁴ reducing it to dust. He also burned the Asherah. 16 And as Josiah turned, he saw the tombs there on the mount. And he sent and took the bones out of the tombs and burned them on the altar and defiled it, ^faccording to the word of the Lord that the man of God proclaimed, who had predicted these things. 17 Then he said, “What is that monument that I see?” And the men of the city told him, “It is the tomb of the ^gman of God who came from Judah and predicted⁵ these things that you have done against the altar at Bethel.” 18 And he said, “Let him be; let no man move his bones.” So they let his bones alone, ^hwith the bones of the ⁱprophet who came out of Samaria. 19 And Josiah removed all the ^jshrines also of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which kings of Israel had made, provoking the Lord to anger. He did to them according to all that he had done at Bethel. 20 And he ^ksacrificed all the priests of the high places who were there, on the altars, and burned human bones on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.