2Kings:23-24

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* And the king sent , and they gathered unto him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem . * And the king went up into 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 he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of the LORD . * And the king stood by a pillar , and made a 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 . * And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest , and the 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 carried the ashes of them unto Bethel . * And he put down the 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 . * And he brought out the 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 the graves of the children of the people . * And he brake down the houses of the sodomites , that were by the house of the LORD , where the women wove hangings for the grove . * And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah , and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense , from Geba to Beersheba , and brake down the high places of the gates that were in the entering in of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city , which were on a man 's left hand at the gate of the city . * Nevertheless the priests of the high places came not up to the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem , but they did eat of the unleavened bread among their brethren . * And he defiled 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 . * And he took away the 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 . * And the altars that were on the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz , which the kings of Judah had made , and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the LORD , did the king beat down , and brake them down from thence , and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron . * And the high places that were before Jerusalem , which were on the right hand of the 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 . * And he brake in pieces the images , and cut down the groves , and filled their places with the bones of men . * Moreover 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 . * 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 the man of God proclaimed , who proclaimed these words . * Then he said , What title is that that I see ? And the men of the city told him , It is the sepulchre of the man of God , which came from Judah , and proclaimed these things that thou hast done against the altar of Bethel . * And he said , Let him alone ; let no man move his bones . So they let his bones alone , with the bones of the prophet that came out of Samaria . * And all the houses also of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria , which the kings of Israel had made to provoke the LORD to anger , Josiah took away , and did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Bethel . * And he slew all the priests of the high places that were there upon the altars , and burned men 's bones upon them , and returned to Jerusalem . * And the king commanded all the people , saying , Keep the passover unto the LORD your God , as it is written in the book of this covenant . * Surely there was not holden 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 ; * But in the eighteenth year of king Josiah , wherein this passover was holden to the LORD in Jerusalem . * Moreover the workers with familiar spirits , and the wizards , and the images , and the idols , and all the abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem , did Josiah put away , that he might perform the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the LORD . * And like unto him was there no king before him , that turned to the LORD with all his heart , and with all his soul , and with all his might , according to all the law of Moses ; neither after him arose there any like him . * Notwithstanding the LORD turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath , wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah , because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him withal . * And the LORD said , I will remove Judah also out of my sight , as I have removed Israel , and will cast off this city Jerusalem which I have chosen , and the house of which I said , My name shall be there . * Now the rest of the acts of Josiah , and all that he did , are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah ? * In his days Pharaohnechoh king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates : and king Josiah went against him ; and he slew him at Megiddo , when he had seen him . * And his servants carried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo , and brought him to Jerusalem , and buried him in his own sepulchre . And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah , and anointed him , and made him king in his father 's stead . * Jehoahaz was twenty and three years old when he began to reign ; and he reigned three months in Jerusalem . And his mother 's name was Hamutal , the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah . * And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD , according to all that his fathers had done . * And Pharaohnechoh put him in bands 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 . * And Pharaohnechoh made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the room of Josiah his father , and turned his name to Jehoiakim , and took Jehoahaz away : and he came to Egypt , and died there . * And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh ; but he taxed the land to give the money according to the commandment of Pharaoh : he exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land , of every one according to his taxation , to give it unto Pharaohnechoh . * Jehoiakim was twenty and five years old when he began to reign ; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem . And his mother 's name was Zebudah , the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah . * And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD , according to all that his fathers had done . * In his days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up , and Jehoiakim became his servant three years : then he turned and rebelled against him . * And the LORD sent against him bands of the Chaldees , and bands of the Syrians , and bands of the Moabites , and bands of the children of Ammon , and sent them against Judah to destroy it , according to the word of the LORD , which he spake by his servants the prophets . * Surely at the commandment of the LORD came this upon Judah , to remove them out of his sight , for the sins of Manasseh , according to all that he did ; * And also for the innocent blood that he shed : for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood ; which the LORD would not pardon . * Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim , and all that he did , are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah ? * So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers : and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead . * And the king of Egypt came not again any more out of his land : for the king of Babylon had taken from the river of Egypt unto the river Euphrates all that pertained to the king of Egypt . * Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign , and he reigned in Jerusalem three months . And his mother 's name was Nehushta , the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem . * And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD , according to all that his father had done . * At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against Jerusalem , and the city was besieged . * And Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came against the city , and his servants did besiege it . * And Jehoiachin the king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon , he , and his mother , and his servants , and his princes , and his officers : and the king of Babylon took him in the eighth year of his reign . * And he carried out thence all the treasures of the house of the LORD , and the treasures of the king 's house , and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold which Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the LORD , as the LORD had said . * And he carried away all Jerusalem , and all the princes , and all the mighty men of valour , even ten thousand captives , and all the craftsmen and smiths : none remained , save the poorest sort of the people of the land . * And he carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon , and the king 's mother , and the king 's wives , and his officers , and the mighty of the land , those carried he into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon . * And all the men of might , even seven thousand , and craftsmen and smiths a thousand , all that were strong and apt for war , even them the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon . * And the king of Babylon made Mattaniah his father 's brother king in his stead , and changed his name to Zedekiah . * Zedekiah was twenty and one years old when he began to reign , and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem . And his mother 's name was Hamutal , the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah . * And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD , according to all that Jehoiakim had done . * For through the anger of the LORD it came to pass in Jerusalem and Judah , until he had cast them out from his presence , that Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon . * And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign , in the tenth month , in the tenth day of the month , that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came , he , and all his host , against Jerusalem , and pitched against it ; and they built forts against it round about .

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