2 Kings 23:1-20

2 Kings 23:1-20

[1] And the king  sent,  and they gathered  unto him all the elders  of Judah  and of Jerusalem.  [2] And the king  went up  into the house  of the LORD,  and all the men  of Judah  and all the inhabitants  of Jerusalem  with him, and the priests,  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 the LORD.  [3] And the king  stood  by a pillar,  and made  a covenant  before  the LORD,  after  the LORD,  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  the high  priest,  of the second order,  and the keepers  of the door,  to bring forth  out of the temple  of the LORD  all the vessels  that were made  for Baal,  and for the grove,  and for all the host  of heaven:  and he burned  them without  Jerusalem  in the fields  of Kidron,  and carried  the ashes  of them unto Bethel.  [5] And he put down  the idolatrous priests,  whom the kings  of Judah  had ordained  to burn incense  in the high places  in the cities  of Judah,  and in the places round about  Jerusalem;  them also that burned incense  unto 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 grove  from the house  of the LORD,  without  Jerusalem,  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 brake down  the houses  of the sodomites,  that were by the house  of the LORD,  where the women  wove  hangings  for the grove.  [8] 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 Beersheba,  and brake down  the high places  of the gates  that were in the entering in  of the gate  of Joshua  the governor  of the city,  which were on a man's  left hand  at the gate  of the city.  [9] Nevertheless the priests  of the high places  came not up  to the altar  of the LORD  in Jerusalem,  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  had given  to the sun,  at the entering in  of the house  of the LORD,  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 Ahaz,  which the kings  of Judah  had made,  and the altars  which Manasseh  had made  in the two  courts  of the house  of the LORD,  did the king  beat down,  and brake them down  from thence, and cast  the dust  of them into the brook  Kidron.  [13] And the high places  that were before  Jerusalem,  which were on the right hand  of the mount  of corruption,  which Solomon  the king  of Israel  had builded  for Ashtoreth  the abomination  of the Zidonians,  and for Chemosh  the abomination  of the Moabites,  and for Milcom  the abomination  of the children  of Ammon,  did the king  defile.  [14] And he brake in pieces  the images,  and cut down  the groves,  and filled  their places  with the bones  of men.  [15] Moreover the altar  that was at Bethel,  and the high place  which Jeroboam  the son  of Nebat,  who made Israel  to sin,  had made,  both that altar  and the high place  he brake down,  and burned  the high place,  and stamped  it small to powder,  and burned  the grove.  [16] And as Josiah  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 the LORD  which the man  of God  proclaimed,  these words.  [17] Then he said,  What title  is that  that I see?  of the city  told  him, It is the sepulchre  of the man  of God,  which came  from Judah,  and proclaimed  these things  that thou hast done  against the altar  of Bethel.  [18] And he said,  Let him alone;  let no man  move  his bones.  alone,  with the bones  of the prophet  that came out  of Samaria.  [19] And all the houses  also of the high places  that were in the cities  of Samaria,  which the kings  of Israel  had made  to provoke the LORD to anger,  Josiah  took away,  and 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 burned  men's  bones  upon them, and returned  to Jerusalem.