Josiah Renews the Covenant (2 Chronicles 34:29–33)
1 UST King Josiah then sent messengers to summon all the elders of Jerusalem and of the other places in the kingdom of Judah. BSB BSB: Then the king summoned all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem.
2 UST Those elders, along with many ordinary people from Judah and Jerusalem, gathered in the temple courtyard with the king. Many priests and prophets also came. A great crowd representing all the kinds of people in the city was there. While they all listened, the king read to them from the scroll that had been in the temple. He all of the laws that Yahweh had given the Israelites when he made his solemn agreement with them. BSB BSB: And he went up to the house of the LORD with all the people of Judah and Jerusalem, as well as the priests and the prophets—all the people small and great—and in their hearing he read all the words of the Book of the Covenant that had been found in the house of the LORD.
3 UST Then the king stood next to a pillar{ on the temple porch} and he made a solemn agreement with Yahweh that he would live as Yahweh wanted him to live. He promised to obey all of Yahweh’ s laws sincerely and devotedly. In that way, the solemn agreement that the scroll from the temple described became the law of Israel once again. The Judean people who had gathered at the temple courtyard promised to obey that solemn agreement. BSB BSB: So the king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the LORD to follow the LORD and to keep His commandments, decrees, and statutes with all his heart and all his soul, and to carry out the words of the covenant that were written in this book. And all the people entered into the covenant.
Josiah Destroys Idolatry (1 Kings 13:1–10; 2 Chronicles 34:3–7)
4 UST Then the king gave a command to the high priest Hilkiah, the other leading priests, and the priests who supervised the courtyard entrance. He told them to remove from the temple all the objects that people had been using to worship Baal, Asherah, and the sun, moon, and stars. They took those outside the city to the Kidron Valley and burned them completely there. Then they took all the ashes to the city of Bethel. BSB BSB: Then the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, the priests second in rank, and the doorkeepers to remove from the temple of the LORD all the articles made for Baal, Asherah, and all the host of heaven. And he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron and carried their ashes to Bethel. 5 UST Previous kings of Judah had appointed many pagan priests to burn incense at hilltop shrines near many cities in Judah and in the area around Jerusalem. Those priests had been offering sacrifices to Baal and to the sun, moon, and stars. King Josiah stopped them from doing those things. BSB BSB: Josiah also did away with the idolatrous priests ordained by the kings of Judah to burn incense on the high places of the cities of Judah and in the places all around Jerusalem—those who had burned incense to Baal, to the sun and moon, to the constellations, and to all the host of heaven.
6 UST Josiah ordered his servants to remove the pole for the worship of the goddess Asherah that was inside the temple building. He told them to take it outside Jerusalem to the Kidron Valley and burn it. He ordered them to pound the ashes to powder and scatter the powder in a graveyard for ordinary people that was in that area. BSB BSB: He brought the Asherah pole from the house of the LORD to the Kidron Valley outside Jerusalem, and there he burned it, ground it to powder, and threw its dust on the graves of the common people.
7 UST There were male prostitutes living in small houses near the temple. In those houses, women also wove articles that people used in the worship of Asherah. Josiah tore down those houses{ and ended the activities that took place in them}. BSB BSB: He also tore down the quarters of the male shrine prostitutes that were in the house of the LORD, where the women had woven tapestries for Asherah.
9 UST (Josiah did not allow the priests he had brought to Jerusalem from the hilltop shrines to offer sacrifices on the altar in the temple courtyard in Jerusalem. But he did allow them to eat the food that the priests received as their share of sacrifices that people brought.) BSB BSB: Although the priests of the high places did not come up to the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, they ate unleavened bread with their fellow priests.
10 UST There was a place that people called Topheth in the Valley of Ben Hinnom where people used to burn their children as sacrifices to the false god Molech. Josiah had his servants destroy that place{ so that no one would do that anymore}. BSB BSB: He also desecrated Topheth in the Valley of Ben-hinnom so that no one could sacrifice his son or daughter in the fire to Molech.
12 UST Previous kings of Judah had built altars{ for worshiping the sun, moon, and stars} on the palace roof. They were near the room that King Ahaz had made for himself. King Manasseh had also built altars in the two courtyards in the temple area. Josiah commanded his servants to destroy all those altars. He told them to take the debris from the altars away quickly and throw it down into the Kidron Valley. BSB BSB: He pulled down the altars that the kings of Judah had set up on the roof near the upper chamber of Ahaz, and the altars that Manasseh had set up in the two courtyards of the house of the LORD. The king pulverized them there and threw their dust into the Kidron Valley.
14 UST He also had them smash the stone pillars that represented Baal. He had them cut down{ and burn} the poles that people had set up for worshiping the goddess Asherah. And he had them scatter human bones on the ground there{ to make those places ritually unclean}. BSB BSB: He smashed the sacred pillars to pieces, cut down the Asherah poles, and covered the sites with human bones.
15 UST Jeroboam son of Nebat had made an altar and a shrine at Bethel. He had influenced the Israelites to sin{ by worshiping idols} when he did that. Josiah had his servants tear down the altar and the shrine, and he had them burn the shrine and crush what remained into dust. He also had them burn the pole that people had been using to worship Asherah. BSB BSB: He even pulled down the altar at Bethel, the high place set up by Jeroboam son of Nebat, who had caused Israel to sin. Then he burned the high place, ground it to powder, and burned the Asherah pole.
16 UST Then Josiah looked around and saw some tombs on a nearby hill. He commanded his servants to take bones out of those tombs and burn them on the altar. This made the altar ritually unclean. Josiah did exactly what Yahweh had told a prophet{ many years before} to say would happen. BSB BSB: And as Josiah turned, he saw the tombs there on the hillside, and he sent someone to take the bones out of the tombs, and he burned them on the altar to defile it, according to the word of the LORD proclaimed by the man of God who had foretold these things.
17 UST Then Josiah{ saw a tomb and} asked,“Whose tomb is that?” The people of Bethel replied,“It is the tomb of the prophet who came from Judah and predicted these things that you have just done to this altar.” BSB BSB: Then the king asked, “What is this monument I see?” And the men of the city replied, “It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed these things that you have done to the altar of Bethel.”
18 UST Josiah replied,“Leave the bones of that prophet in his tomb.” So the people did not remove his bones or the bones of the old prophet who had lived in that area{ and who had deceived the other prophet so that he died}. BSB BSB: “Let him rest,” said Josiah. “Do not let anyone disturb his bones.” So they left his bones undisturbed, along with those of the prophet who had come from Samaria.
19 UST Josiah also ordered his servants to destroy all the hilltop shrines that were near cities in what had been the kingdom of Israel. The kings of Israel had built those shrines and made Yahweh very angry. Josiah had his servants tear down those shrines{ and burn them and crush the remains and then scatter human bones on the sites}, just as he had done to the shrine at Bethel. BSB BSB: Just as Josiah had done at Bethel, so also in the cities of Samaria he removed all the shrines of the high places set up by the kings of Israel who had provoked the LORD to anger.
20 UST Josiah also ordered his servants to kill all the priests of those hilltop shrines right on the altars{ where they had offered sacrifices to false gods}. Then he had them burn human bones on those altars{ so that no one could use them for worship again}. After that, Josiah went back to Jerusalem. BSB BSB: On the altars he slaughtered all the priests of the high places, and he burned human bones on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.
Josiah Restores the Passover (2 Chronicles 35:1–19)
21 UST Then the king commanded the people,“Celebrate the Passover festival to honor Yahweh your God. That is what the Law of Moses says to do{ every year}.” BSB BSB: The king commanded all the people, “Keep the Passover of the LORD your God, as it is written in this Book of the Covenant.”
22 UST During all the years when the judges ruled Israel, and during all the years when kings reigned in Israel and Judah, the Israelites had not celebrated Passover like that. BSB BSB: No such Passover had been observed from the days of the judges who had governed Israel through all the days of the kings of Israel and Judah.
23 UST But now, after Josiah had been ruling for almost 18 years, the people of Jerusalem celebrated this Passover festival to honor Yahweh. BSB BSB: But in the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign, this Passover was observed to the LORD in Jerusalem.
24 UST Furthermore, Josiah made the people who lived in Jerusalem and in other places in Judah stop doing detestable things. He forbade people to dig pits to try to contact people who had died or to try to talk to spirits that they thought could tell them secret things. He made the people throw away their household idols. He destroyed all the other kinds of idols. Hilkiah the priest had found a scroll in the temple that recorded the law of Moses. Josiah did all those things so that what the scroll recorded would become the law of Israel once again. BSB BSB: Furthermore, Josiah removed the mediums and spiritists, the household gods and idols, and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem. He did this to carry out the words of the law written in the book that Hilkiah the priest had found in the house of the LORD.
25 UST Josiah sincerely, devotedly, and powerfully led the Judeans to worship Yahweh once again. He obeyed all the laws of Moses. No previous king was as devoted to Yahweh as he was, and no later king was that devoted either. BSB BSB: Neither before nor after Josiah was there any king like him, who turned to the LORD with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, according to all the Law of Moses.
26 UST Even so, King Manasseh had done many things that had made Yahweh extremely angry with the people of Judah, and he continued to be very angry. BSB BSB: Nevertheless, the LORD did not turn away from the fury of His burning anger, which was kindled against Judah because of all that Manasseh had done to provoke Him to anger.
27 UST He had said,“I will allow an enemy to take the people of Judah away to a foreign country, just as an enemy took the people of Israel away. And I will reject Jerusalem, the city that I chose to be the place for the temple in which I said people would worship me.” BSB BSB: For the LORD had said, “I will remove Judah from My sight, just as I removed Israel. I will reject this city Jerusalem, which I chose, and the temple of which I said, ‘My Name shall be there.’”
The Death of Josiah (2 Chronicles 35:20–24)
28 UST The book in which the kings of Judah recorded what happened during their reigns describes further things that Josiah did. BSB BSB: As for the rest of the acts of Josiah and all his accomplishments, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?
30 UST His soldiers put his body in a chariot and transported it back to Jerusalem. There the Judeans buried him in his own tomb. Then the people of Judah chose Josiah’ s son Jehoahaz to be their next king. They poured olive oil on his head to show that they were appointing him as their king. BSB BSB: From Megiddo his servants carried his body in a chariot, brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own tomb. Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz son of Josiah, anointed him, and made him king in place of his father.
Jehoahaz Succeeds Josiah (2 Chronicles 36:1–4)
31 UST Jehoahaz was 23 years old when he became the king of Judah, but he ruled from Jerusalem for only three months. His mother was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah. She was from the city of Libnah. BSB BSB: Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah; she was from Libnah.
32 UST Jehoahaz did many things that Yahweh had told the Israelites were evil, just as many of his ancestors had done. BSB BSB: And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, just as his fathers had done.
33 UST At the city of Riblah in the district of Hamath, Pharaoh Neco made Jehoahaz his prisoner so that he would no longer rule in Jerusalem. Neco then forced the people of Judah to pay to him a tribute of about 3. 3 metric tons of silver and 33 kilograms of gold. BSB BSB: And Pharaoh Neco imprisoned Jehoahaz at Riblah in the land of Hamath so that he could not reign in Jerusalem, and he imposed on Judah a levy of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.
34 UST Pharaoh Neco appointed another son of Josiah, Eliakim, to be the next king of Judah instead. He changed Eliakim’ s name to Jehoiakim. But he took Jehoahaz away to Egypt, and later Jehoahaz died there. BSB BSB: Then Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim son of Josiah king in place of his father Josiah, and he changed Eliakim’s name to Jehoiakim. But Neco took Jehoahaz and carried him off to Egypt, where he died.
35 UST In order to pay Neco the silver and gold that he had demanded, Jehoiakim collected a tax from the people of Judah. He collected more from the rich people and less from the poor people. After he had collected the silver and gold from them, he paid it to Neco. BSB BSB: So Jehoiakim paid the silver and gold to Pharaoh Neco, but to meet Pharaoh’s demand he taxed the land and exacted the silver and the gold from the people, each according to his wealth.
Jehoiakim Reigns in Judah (2 Chronicles 36:5–8)
36 UST Jehoiakim was 25 years old when he became the king of Judah, and he ruled from Jerusalem for 11 years. His mother was Zebidah daughter of Pedaiah. She was from the city of Rumah. BSB BSB: Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years. His mother’s name was Zebidah daughter of Pedaiah; she was from Rumah.
37 UST He did many things that Yahweh had told the Israelites were evil, just as many of his ancestors had done. BSB BSB: And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, just as his fathers had done.
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