1 And the king sent, and they gathered unto him all the elders of Judah (Yehudah) and of Jerusalem (Yerushalayim).

2 And the king went up into the house of יהוה, and all the men of Judah (Yehudah) and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem (Yerushalayim) with him, and the priests (kohanim), 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 יהוה.

3 And the king stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before יהוה, to walk after יהוה, 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.

4 And the king commanded Hilkiah (Chilqiyahu) the high priest (kohen gadol), and the priests (kohanim) of the second order, and the keepers of the door, to bring forth out of the temple of יהוה all the vessels that were made for the Baal, and for the Asherah, and for all the host of heaven; and he burned them outside Jerusalem (Yerushalayim) in the fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of them unto Bethel (Beit-El).

5 And he put down the idolatrous priests (kohanim), whom the kings of Judah (Yehudah) had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah (Yehudah), and in the places round about Jerusalem (Yerushalayim); them also that burned incense unto the Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven.

6 And he brought out the Asherah from the house of יהוה, outside Jerusalem (Yerushalayim), 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.

7 And he broke down the houses of the sodomites (male cult prostitutes), that were by the house of יהוה, where the women wove hangings for the Asherah.

8 And he brought all the priests (kohanim) out of the cities of Judah (Yehudah), and defiled the high places where the priests (kohanim) had burned incense, from Geba to Beer-Sheva, and broke down the high places of the gates that were in the entering in of the gate of Joshua (Yehoshua) the governor of the city, which were on a man’s left hand at the gate of the city.

9 Nevertheless the priests (kohanim) of the high places came not up to the altar of יהוה in Jerusalem (Yerushalayim), but they did eat of the unleavened bread among their brethren.

10 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.

11 And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah (Yehudah) had given to the sun, at the entering in of the house of יהוה, by the chamber of Nathanmelech the chamberlain, which was in the suburbs, and burned the chariots of the sun with fire.

12 And the altars that were on the top of the upper chamber of Achaz, which the kings of Judah (Yehudah) had made, and the altars which Menashsheh had made in the two courts of the house of יהוה, did the king beat down, and broke them down from thence, and cast the dust of them into the Brook Kidron.

13 And the high places that were before Jerusalem (Yerushalayim), which were on the right hand of the mount of corruption, which Solomon (Shelomoh) the king of Yisrael had builded for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of the Moavites, and for Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon, did the king defile.

14 And he broke in pieces the images, and cut down the Asherim, and filled their places with the bones of men.

15 Moreover the altar that was at Bethel (Beit-El), and the high place which Jeroboam (Yarovam) the son of Nevat, who made Yisrael to sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he broke down, and burned the high place, and stamped it small to powder, and burned the Asherah.

16 And as Josiah (Yoshiyahu) 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 יהוה which the man of God (Elohim) proclaimed, who proclaimed these words.

17 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 (Elohim), who came from Judah (Yehudah), and proclaimed these things that you have done against the altar of Bethel (Beit-El).”

18 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 (Shomeron).

19 And all the houses also of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria (Shomeron), which the kings of Yisrael had made to provoke יהוה to anger, Josiah (Yoshiyahu) took away, and did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Bethel (Beit-El).

20 And he slew all the priests (kohanim) of the high places that were there upon the altars, and burned men’s bones upon them, and returned to Jerusalem (Yerushalayim).

21 And the king commanded all the people, saying, “Keep the Passover (Pesach) unto יהוה your God (Elohim), as it is written in the book of this covenant.”

22 Surely there was not holden such a Passover (Pesach) from the days of the judges that judged Yisrael, nor in all the days of the kings of Yisrael, nor of the kings of Judah (Yehudah);

23 But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah (Yoshiyahu), wherein this Passover (Pesach) was holden to יהוה in Jerusalem (Yerushalayim).

24 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 (Yehudah) and in Jerusalem (Yerushalayim), did Josiah (Yoshiyahu) put away, that he might perform the words of the Torah which were written in the book that Hilkiah (Chilqiyahu) the priest (kohen) found in the house of יהוה.

25 And like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to יהוה with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the teaching of Moses (Mosheh); neither after him arose there any like him.

26 Notwithstanding יהוה turned not from the fierceness of His great wrath, wherewith His anger was kindled against Judah (Yehudah), because of all the provocations that Menashsheh had provoked Him withal.

27 And יהוה said, “I will remove Judah (Yehudah) also out of My sight, as I have removed Yisrael, and will cast off this city Jerusalem (Yerushalayim) which I have chosen, and the house of which I said, ‘My name shall be there.’”

28 Now the rest of the acts of Josiah (Yoshiyahu), and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Judah (Yehudah)?

29 In his days Pharaoh (Paroh) Nekhoh king of Egypt (Mitsrayim) went up against the king of Assyria (Ashshur) to the river Euphrates; and King Josiah (Yoshiyahu) went against him; and he slew him at Megiddo, when he had seen him.

30 And his servants carried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem (Yerushalayim), and buried him in his own sepulchre. And the people of the land took Yehoachaz the son of Josiah (Yoshiyahu), and anointed him, and made him king in his father’s stead.

31 Yehoachaz was twenty and three years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months in Jerusalem (Yerushalayim). His mother’s name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah (Yirmeyahu) of Libnah.

32 And he did that which was evil in the sight of יהוה, according to all that his fathers had done.

33 And Pharaoh (Paroh) Nekhoh put him in bands at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem (Yerushalayim); and put the land to a tribute of a hundred talents of silver, and a talent of gold.

34 And Pharaoh (Paroh) Nekhoh made Elyaqim the son of Josiah (Yoshiyahu) king in the room of Josiah (Yoshiyahu) his father, and turned his name to Yehoyaqim, and took Yehoachaz away; and he came to Egypt (Mitsrayim), and died there.

35 And Yehoyaqim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh (Paroh); but he taxed the land to give the money according to the commandment of Pharaoh (Paroh); he exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, of every one according to his taxation, to give it unto Pharaoh (Paroh) Nekhoh.

36 Yehoyaqim was twenty and five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem (Yerushalayim). His mother’s name was Zebudah, the daughter of Pedayah of Rumah.

37 And he did that which was evil in the sight of יהוה, according to all that his fathers had done.