Josiah (Chronicles)

Chapter 34

¹Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. ²He did what was pleasing to the Lord, following the ways of his father David without deviating to the right or to the left. ³In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David, and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the shrines, the sacred posts, the idols, and the molten images. ⁴At his bidding, they demolished the altars of the Baals, and he had the incense stands above them cut down; he smashed the sacred posts, the idols, and the images, ground them into dust, and strewed it onto the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. ⁵He burned the bones of priests on their altars and purged Judah and Jerusalem. ⁶In the towns of Manasseh and Ephraim and Simeon, as far as Naphtali, [lying] in ruins on every side, ⁷he demolished the altars and the sacred posts and smashed the idols and ground them into dust; and he hewed down all the incense stands throughout the land of Israel. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

⁸In the eighteenth year of his reign, after purging the land and the House, he commissioned Shaphan son of Azaliah, Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah son of Joahaz the recorder to repair the House of the Lord his God. ⁹They came to the high priest Hilkiah and delivered to him the silver brought to the House of God, which the Levites, the guards of the threshold, had collected from Manasseh and Ephraim and from all the remnant of Israel and from all Judah and Benjamin and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. ¹⁰They delivered it into the custody of the overseers who were in charge at the House of the Lord, and the overseers who worked in the House of the Lord spent it on examining and repairing the House. ¹¹They paid it out to the artisans and the masons to buy quarried stone and wood for the couplings and for making roof-beams for the buildings that the kings of Judah had allowed to fall into ruin. ¹²The men did the work honestly; over them were appointed the Levites Jahath and Obadiah, of the sons of Merari, and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the sons of Kohath, to supervise; while other Levites, all the master musicians, ¹³were over the porters, supervising all who worked at each and every task; some of the Levites were scribes and officials and gatekeepers.

¹⁴As they took out the silver that had been brought to the House of the Lord, the priest Hilkiah found a scroll of the Lord’s Teaching given by Moses. ¹⁵Hilkiah spoke up and said to the scribe Shaphan, “I have found a scroll of the Teaching in the House of the Lord”; and Hilkiah gave the scroll to Shaphan. ¹⁶Shaphan brought the scroll to the king and also reported to the king, “All that was entrusted to your servants is being done; ¹⁷they have melted down the silver that was found in the House of the Lord and delivered it to those who were in charge, to the overseers.” ¹⁸The scribe Shaphan also told the king, “The priest Hilkiah has given me a scroll”; and Shaphan read from it to the king. ¹⁹When the king heard the words of the Teaching, he tore his clothes. ²⁰The king gave orders to Hilkiah, and Ahikam son of Shaphan, and Abdon son of Micah, and the scribe Shaphan, and Asaiah the king’s minister, saying, ²¹“Go, inquire of the Lord on my behalf and on behalf of those who remain in Israel and Judah concerning the words of the scroll that has been found, for great indeed must be the wrath of the Lord that has been poured down upon us because our fathers did not obey the word of the Lord and do all that is written in this scroll.”

²²Hilkiah and those whom the king [had ordered] went to the prophetess Huldah, wife of Shallum son of Tokhath son of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe, who was living in Jerusalem in the Mishneh, and spoke to her accordingly. ²³She responded to them: “Thus said the Lord God of Israel: Say to the man who sent you to Me, ²⁴‘Thus said the Lord: I am going to bring disaster upon this place and its inhabitants—all the curses that are written in the scroll that was read to the king of Judah—²⁵because they forsook Me and made offerings to other gods in order to vex Me with all the works of their hands; My wrath shall be poured out against this place and not be quenched.’ ²⁶But say this to the king of Judah who sent you to inquire of the Lord: ‘Thus said the Lord God of Israel: As for the words which you have heard, ²⁷since your heart was softened and you humbled yourself before God when you heard His words concerning this place and its inhabitants, and you humbled yourself before Me and tore your clothes and wept before Me, I for My part have listened, declares the Lord. ²⁸Assuredly, I will gather you to your fathers, and you will be laid in your grave in peace; your eyes shall see nothing of the disaster that I will bring upon this place and its inhabitants.’” They reported this back to the king.

²⁹Then the king sent word and assembled all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. ³⁰The king went up to the House of the Lord with all the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the priests and the Levites— all the people, young and old—and he read to them the entire text of the covenant scroll that was found in the House of the Lord. ³¹The king stood in his place and solemnized the covenant before the Lord: to follow the Lord and observe His commandments, His injunctions, and His laws with all his heart and soul, to fulfill all the terms of the covenant written in this scroll. ³²He obligated all the men of Jerusalem and Benjamin who were present; and the inhabitants of Jerusalem acted in accord with the Covenant of God, God of their fathers. ³³Josiah removed all the abominations from the whole territory of the Israelites and obliged all who were in Israel to worship the Lord their God. Throughout his reign they did not deviate from following the Lord God of their fathers.

Chapter 35

¹Josiah kept the Passover for the Lord in Jerusalem; the passover sacrifice was slaughtered on the fourteenth day of the first month. ²He reinstated the priests in their shifts and rallied them to the service of the House of the Lord. ³He said to the Levites, consecrated to the Lord, who taught all Israel, “Put the Holy Ark in the House that Solomon son of David, king of Israel, built; as you no longer carry it on your shoulders, see now to the service of the Lord your God and His people Israel, ⁴and dispose yourselves by clans according to your divisions, as prescribed in the writing of King David of Israel and in the document of his son Solomon, ⁵and attend in the Sanctuary, by clan divisions, on your kinsmen, the people—by clan divisions of the Levites. ⁶Having sanctified yourselves, slaughter the passover sacrifice and prepare it for your kinsmen, according to the word of God given by Moses.” ⁷Josiah donated to the people small cattle—lambs and goats, all for passover sacrifices for all present—to the sum of 30,000, and large cattle, 3,000—these from the property of the king. ⁸His officers gave a freewill offering to the people, to the priests, and to the Levites. Hilkiah and Zechariah and Jehiel, the chiefs of the House of God, donated to the priests for passover sacrifices 2,600 [small cattle] and 300 large cattle. ⁹Conaniah, Shemaiah, and Nethanel, his brothers, and Hashabiah and Jeiel and Jozabad, officers of the Levites, donated 5,000 [small cattle] and 500 large cattle to the Levites for passover sacrifices.

¹⁰The service was arranged well: the priests stood at their posts and the Levites in their divisions, by the king’s command. ¹¹They slaughtered the passover sacrifice and the priests [received its blood] from them and dashed it, while the Levites flayed the animals. ¹²They removed the parts to be burnt, distributing them to divisions of the people by clans, and making the sacrifices to the Lord, as prescribed in the scroll of Moses; they did the same for the cattle. ¹³They roasted the passover sacrifice in fire, as prescribed, while the sacred offerings they cooked in pots, cauldrons, and pans, and conveyed them with dispatch to all the people. ¹⁴Afterward they provided for themselves and the priests, for the Aaronite priests were busy offering the burnt offerings and the fatty parts until nightfall, so the Levites provided both for themselves and for the Aaronite priests. ¹⁵The Asaphite singers were at their stations, by command of David and Asaph and Heman and Jeduthun, the seer of the king; and the gatekeepers were at each and every gate. They did not have to leave their tasks, because their Levite brothers provided for them. ¹⁶The entire service of the Lord was arranged well that day, to keep the Passover and to make the burnt offerings on the altar of the Lord, according to the command of King Josiah. ¹⁷All the Israelites present kept the Passover at that time, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days. ¹⁸Since the time of the prophet Samuel, no Passover like that one had ever been kept in Israel; none of the kings of Israel had kept a Passover like the one kept by Josiah and the priests and the Levites and all Judah and Israel there present and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. ¹⁹That Passover was kept in the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah.