rsv 2Kings:22-23 SEEK
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Josi '
ah was eight years old when he began to reign ,
and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem .
His mother '
s name was Jedi '
dah the daughter of Adai '
ah of Bozkath .
*
And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD ,
and walked in all the way of David his father ,
and he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left .
*
In the eighteenth year of King Josi '
ah ,
the king sent Shaphan the son of Azali '
ah ,
son of Meshul '
lam ,
the secretary ,
to the house of the LORD ,
saying ,
* "
Go up to Hilki '
ah the high priest ,
that he may reckon the amount of the money which has been brought into the house of the LORD ,
which the keepers of the threshold have collected from the people ;
*
and let it be given into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of the LORD ;
and let them give it to the workmen who are at the house of the LORD ,
repairing the house ,
*
that is ,
to the carpenters ,
and to the builders ,
and to the masons ,
as well as for buying timber and quarried stone to repair the house .
*
But no accounting shall be asked from them for the money which is delivered into their hand ,
for they deal honestly ."
*
And Hilki '
ah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary , "
I have found the book of the law in the house of the LORD ."
And Hilki '
ah gave the book to Shaphan ,
and he read it .
*
And Shaphan the secretary came to the king ,
and reported to the king , "
Your servants have emptied out the money that was found in the house ,
and have delivered it into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of the LORD ."
*
Then Shaphan the secretary told the king , "
Hilki '
ah the priest has given me a book ."
And Shaphan read it before the king .
*
And when the king heard the words of the book of the law ,
he rent his clothes .
*
And the king commanded Hilki '
ah the priest ,
and Ahi '
kam the son of Shaphan ,
and Achbor the son of Micai '
ah ,
and Shaphan the secretary ,
and Asai '
ah the king '
s servant ,
saying ,
* "
Go ,
inquire of the LORD for me ,
and for the people ,
and for all Judah ,
concerning the words of this book that has been found ;
for great is the wrath of the LORD that is kindled against us ,
because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book ,
to do according to all that is written concerning us ."
*
So Hilki '
ah the priest ,
and Ahi '
kam ,
and Achbor ,
and Shaphan ,
and Asai '
ah went to Huldah the prophetess ,
the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah ,
son of Harhas ,
keeper of the wardrobe (
now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the Second Quarter );
and they talked with her .
*
And she said to them , "
Thus says the LORD ,
the God of Israel : `
Tell the man who sent you to me ,
*
Thus says the LORD ,
Behold ,
I will bring evil upon this place and upon its inhabitants ,
all the words of the book which the king of Judah has read .
*
Because they have forsaken me and have burned incense to other gods ,
that they might provoke me to anger with all the work of their hands ,
therefore my wrath will be kindled against this place ,
and it will not be quenched .
*
But as to the king of Judah ,
who sent you to inquire of the LORD ,
thus shall you say to him ,
Thus says the LORD ,
the God of Israel :
Regarding the words which you have heard ,
*
because your heart was penitent ,
and you humbled yourself before the LORD ,
when you heard how I spoke against this place ,
and against its inhabitants ,
that they should become a desolation and a curse ,
and you have rent your clothes and wept before me ,
I also have heard you ,
says the LORD .
*
Therefore ,
behold ,
I will gather you to your fathers ,
and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace ,
and your eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place .'"
And they brought back word to the king .
*
Then the king sent ,
and all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem were gathered to him .
*
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 read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant which had been found in the house of the LORD .
*
And the king stood by the 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 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 .
*
And the king commanded Hilki '
ah ,
the high priest ,
and the priests of the second order ,
and the keepers of the threshold ,
to bring out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels made for Ba '
al ,
for Ashe '
rah ,
and for all the host of heaven ;
he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron ,
and carried their ashes to Bethel .
*
And he deposed the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places at the cities of Judah and round about Jerusalem ;
those also who burned incense to Ba '
al ,
to the sun ,
and the moon ,
and the constellations ,
and all the host of the heavens .
*
And he brought out the Ashe '
rah from 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 .
*
And he broke down the houses of the male cult prostitutes which were in the house of the LORD ,
where the women wove hangings for the Ashe '
rah .
*
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 Beer-sheba ;
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 .
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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 brethren .
*
And he defiled To '
pheth ,
which is in the valley of the sons of Hinnom ,
that no one might burn his son or his daughter as an offering to Molech .
*
And he removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun ,
at the entrance to the house of the LORD ,
by the chamber of Nathan-melech the chamberlain ,
which was in the precincts ;
and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire .
*
And the altars on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz ,
which the kings of Judah had made ,
and the altars which Manas '
seh had made in the two courts of the house of the LORD ,
he pulled down and broke in pieces ,
and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron .
*
And the king defiled the high places that were east of Jerusalem ,
to the south of the mount of corruption ,
which Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ash '
toreth the abomination of the Sido '
nians ,
and for Chemosh the abomination of Moab ,
and for Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites .
*
And he broke in pieces the pillars ,
and cut down the Ashe '
rim ,
and filled their places with the bones of men .
*
Moreover the altar at Bethel ,
the high place erected by Jerobo '
am the son of Nebat ,
who made Israel to sin ,
that altar with the high place he pulled down and he broke in pieces its stones ,
crushing them to dust ;
also he burned the Ashe '
rah .
*
And as Josi '
ah turned ,
he saw the tombs there on the mount ;
and he sent and took the bones out of the tombs ,
and burned them upon the altar ,
and defiled it ,
according to the word of the LORD which the man of God proclaimed ,
who had predicted these things .
*
Then he said , "
What is yonder monument that I see ?"
And the men of the city told him , "
It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and predicted these things which you have done against the altar at Bethel ."
*
And he said , "
Let him be ;
let no man move his bones ."
So they let his bones alone ,
with the bones of the prophet who came out of Sama '
ria .
*
And all the shrines also of the high places that were in the cities of Sama '
ria ,
which kings of Israel had made ,
provoking the LORD to anger ,
Josi '
ah removed ;
he did to them according to all that he had done at Bethel .
*
And he slew all the priests of the high places who were there ,
upon the altars ,
and burned the bones of men upon them .
Then he returned to Jerusalem .
*
And the king commanded all the people , "
Keep the passover to the LORD your God ,
as it is written in this book of the covenant ."
*
For no such passover had been kept since the days of the judges who judged Israel ,
or during all the days of the kings of Israel or of the kings of Judah ;
*
but in the eighteenth year of King Josi '
ah this passover was kept to the LORD in Jerusalem .
*
Moreover Josi '
ah put away the mediums and the wizards and the teraphim and the idols and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem ,
that he might establish the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilki '
ah the priest found in the house of the LORD .
*
Before him there was no king like him ,
who 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 ;
nor did any like him arise after him .
*
Still the LORD did not turn from the fierceness of his great wrath ,
by which his anger was kindled against Judah ,
because of all the provocations with which Manas '
seh had provoked him .
*
And the LORD said , "
I will remove Judah also out of my sight ,
as I have removed Israel ,
and I will cast off this city which I have chosen ,
Jerusalem ,
and the house of which I said ,
My name shall be there ."
*
Now the rest of the acts of Josi '
ah ,
and all that he did ,
are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah ?
*
In his days Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt went up to the king of Assyria to the river Euphra '
tes .
King Josi '
ah went to meet him ;
and Pharaoh Neco slew him at Megid '
do ,
when he saw him .
*
And his servants carried him dead in a chariot from Megid '
do ,
and brought him to Jerusalem ,
and buried him in his own tomb .
And the people of the land took Jeho '
ahaz the son of Josi '
ah ,
and anointed him ,
and made him king in his father '
s stead .
*
Jeho '
ahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign ,
and he reigned three months in Jerusalem .
His mother '
s name was Hamu '
tal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah .
*
And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD ,
according to all that his fathers had done .
*
And Pharaoh Neco put him in bonds at Riblah in the land of Hamath ,
that he might not reign in Jerusalem ,
and laid upon the land a tribute of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold .
*
And Pharaoh Neco made Eli '
akim the son of Josi '
ah king in the place of Josi '
ah his father ,
and changed his name to Jehoi '
akim .
But he took Jeho '
ahaz away ;
and he came to Egypt ,
and died there .
*
And Jehoi '
akim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh ,
but he taxed the land to give the money according to the command of Pharaoh .
He exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land ,
from every one according to his assessment ,
to give it to Pharaoh Neco .
*
Jehoi '
akim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign ,
and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem .
His mother '
s name was Zebi '
dah the daughter of Pedai '
ah of Rumah .
*
And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD ,
according to all that his fathers had done .
*
In his days Nebuchadnez '
zar king of Babylon came up ,
and Jehoi '
akim became his servant three years ;
then he turned and rebelled against him .