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chapter 23
1
And
they brought the king word again what she had said. And he sent: and all the
ancients of Juda and Jerusalem were assembled to him.
2 And the king went up to the temple of the Lord, and
all the men of Juda, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, the priests
and the prophets, and all the people both little and great: and in the hearing
of them all he read all the words of the book of the covenant, which was found
in the house of the Lord.
3 And the king stood upon the step: and made a covenant
with the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep his commandments, and his
testimonies and his ceremonies, with all their heart, and with all their soul,
and to perform the words of this covenant, which were written in that book: and
the people agreed to the covenant.
4 And the king commanded Helcias the high priest, and
the priests of the second order, and the doorkeepers, to cast out of the temple
of the Lord all the vessels that had been made for Baal, and for the grove, and
for all the host of heaven: and he burnt them without Jerusalem in the valley
of Cedron, and he carried the ashes of them to Bethel.
5 And he destroyed the soothsayers, whom the kings of
Juda had appointed to sacrifice in the high places in the cities of Juda, and
round about Jerusalem: them also that burnt incense to Baal, and to the sun,
and to the moon, and to the twelve signs, and to all the host of heaven.
6 And he caused the grove to be carried out from the
house of the Lord without Jerusalem to the valley of Cedron, and he burnt it
there, and reduced it to dust, and cast the dust upon the graves of the common
people.
7 He destroyed also the pavilions of the effeminate,
which were in the house of the Lord, for which the women wove as it were little
dwellings for the grove.
8 And he gathered together all the priests out of the
cities of Juda: and he defiled the high places, where the priests offered
sacrifice, from Gabaa to Bersabee: and he broke down the altars of the gates
that were in the entering in of the gate of Josue governor of tile city, which
was on the left hand of the gate of the city.
9 However the priests of the high places came not up to
the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem: but only ate of the unleavened bread among
their brethren.
10 And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of
the son of Ennom: that no man should consecrate there his son or his daughter
through fire to Moloch.
11 And he took away the horses which the kings of Juda
had given to the sun, at the entering in of the temple of the Lord, near the
chamber of Nathanmelech the eunuch, who was in Pharurim: and he burnt the
chariots of the sun with fire.
12 And the altars that were upon the top of the upper
chamber of Achaz, which the kings of Juda had made, and the altars which
Manasses had made in the two courts of the temple of the Lord, the king broke
down: and he ran from thence, and cast the ashes of them into the torrent
Cedron.
13 The high places also that were at Jerusalem on the
right side of the Mount of Offence, O which Solomon king of Israel had built to
Astaroth the idol of the Sidonians, and to Chamos the scandal of Moab, and to
Melchom the abomination of the children of Ammon, the king defiled.
14 And he broke in pieces the statues, and cut down the
groves: and he filled their places with the bones of dead men.
15 Moreover the altar also that was at Bethel, and the
high place, which Jeroboam the son of Nabat, who made Israel to sin, had made:
both the altar, and the high place he broke down and burnt, and reduced to
powder, and burnt the grove.
16 And as Josias turned himself, he saw there the
sepulchres that were in the mount: and he sent and took the bones out of the
sepulchres, and burnt them upon the altar, and defiled it according to the word
of the Lord, which the man of God spoke, who had foretold these things.
17 And he said: What is that monument which I see? And
the men of that city answered: It is the sepulchre of the man of God, who came
from Juda, and foretold these things which thou hast done upon the altar of
Bethel.
18 And he said: Let him alone, let no man move his
bones. So his bones were left untouched with the bones of the prophet that came
out of Samaria.
19 Moreover all the temples of the high places, which
were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke
the Lord, Josias took away: and he did to them according to all the acts that
he had done in Bethel.
20 And he slew all the priests of the high places, that
were there, upon the altars: and he burnt men's bones upon them: and returned
to Jerusalem.
21 And he commanded all the people, saying: Keep the
phase to the Lord your God, according as it is written in the book of this
covenant.
22 Now there was no such a phase kept from the days of
the judges, who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, and
of the kings of Juda,
23 As was this phase that was kept to the Lord in
Jerusalem, in the eighteenth year of king Josias.
24 Moreover the diviners by spirits, and soothsayers,
and the figures of idols, and the uncleannesses, and the abominations, that had
been in the land of Juda, and Jerusalem, Josias took away: that he might
perform the words of the law, that were written in the book which Helcias the
priest had found in the temple of the Lord.
25 There was no king before him like unto him, that
returned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with ail
his strength, according to all the law of Moses: neither after him did there
arise any like him.
26 But yet the Lord turned not away from the wrath of
his great indignation, wherewith his anger was kindled against Juda: because of
the provocations, wherewith Manasses had provoked him.
27 And the Lord said: I will remove Juda also from
before my face, as I have removed Israel: and I will cast off this city
Jerusalem, which I chose, and the house, of which I said: My name shall be
there.
28 Now the rest of the acts of Josias, and all that he
did, are they not written in the book of the words of the days of the kings of
Juda?
29 In his days Pharao Nechao king of Egypt went up
against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates: and king Josias went to
meet him: and was slain at Mageddo, when he had seen him.
30 And his servants carried him dead from Mageddo: and
they brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in Iris own sepulchre. And the
people of the land took Joachaz the son of Josias: and they anointed him, and
made him king in his father's stead.
31 Joachaz was three and twenty years old when he began
to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem: the name of his mother was
Amital, the daughter of Jeremias of Lobna.
32 And he did evil before the Lord, according to all
that his fathers had done.
33 And Pharao Nechao bound him at Rebla, which is in
the land of Emath, that he should not reign in Jerusalem: and he set a fine
upon the land, of a hundred talents of silver, and a talent of gold.
34 And Pharao Nechao made Eliacim the son of Josias
king in the room of Josias his father: and turned his name to Joakim. And he
took Joachaz away and carried him into Egypt, and he died there.
35 And Joakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharao,
after he had taxed the land for every man, to contribute according to the
commandment of Pharao: and he exacted both the silver and the gold of the
people of the land, of every man according to his ability: to give to Pharao
Nechao.
36 Joakim was five and twenty years old when he began
to reign: and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: the name of his mother was
Zebida the daughter of Phadaia of Ruma.
37 And he did evil before the Lord according to all
that his fathers had done.
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