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The Fourth
Book of Kings 23
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
And he broke in pieces the statues, and cut down the
groves: and he filled their places with the bones of
dead men.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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,
As was this phase that was kept to the Lord in Jerusalem,
in the eighteenth year of king Josias.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
And he did evil before the Lord, according to all that
his fathers had done.
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.
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.
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.
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.
And he did evil before the Lord according to all that
his fathers had done. |
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