1
And the king sent, and they gathered to him all the elders of Yehudah and Yerushalayim.
2
And the king went up to the House of Yahuah, and all the ish of Yehudah, and all the inhabitants of Yerushalayim with him, and the kohenim, and the prophets, and all the people, from small even to great. And he read in their ears all the words of the Sefer of the Covenant that had been found in the House of Yahuah.
3
And the king stood beside the pillar and cut the Covenant before Yahuah: to walk after Yahuah, and to guard His commandments, and His testimonies, and His statutes, with all the heart and with all the being, to establish the words of this Covenant that were written in this sefer. And all the people stood in the Covenant.
4
And the king commanded Chilqiyahu the great kohen, and the kohenim of the second rank, and the guards of the threshold, to bring out from the Temple of Yahuah all the vessels that had been made for Baal, and for Asherah, and for all the host of the heavens. And he burned them outside Yerushalayim in the fields of Qidron and carried their ashes to Beit-El.
5
And he caused the idolatrous kohenim to cease, whom the kings of Yehudah had appointed to burn incense upon the high places in the cities of Yehudah and all around Yerushalayim, and those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the constellations, and to all the host of the heavens.
6
And he brought out the Asherah from the House of Yahuah outside Yerushalayim, to the wadi Qidron, and burned it at the wadi Qidron and ground it to dust and cast its dust upon the graves of the sons of the people.
7
And he tore down the houses of the male cult prostitutes that were in the House of Yahuah, where the women wove coverings for Asherah.
8
And he brought all the kohenim from the cities of Yehudah and defiled the high places where the kohenim had burned incense, from Geva even to Be’er-Sheva. And he tore down the high places of the gates that were at the entrance of the Gate of Yehoshua, ruler of the city, which was on the left of an ish at the gate of the city.
9
Nevertheless, the kohenim of the high places did not go up to the altar of Yahuah in Yerushalayim, but they ate unleavened bread among their brothers.
10
And he defiled Tofet, which is in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom, so that no ish might cause his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molekh.
11
And he caused the horses that the kings of Yehudah had given to the sun to cease from the entrance of the House of Yahuah, beside the chamber of Netan-Melekh the eunuch, which was in the court. And the chariots of the sun he burned with fire.
12
And the altars that were upon the roof of the upper room of Achaz, which the kings of Yehudah had made, and the altars that Menasheh had made in the two courts of the House of Yahuah, the king tore down and crushed from there and cast their dust into the wadi Qidron.
13
And the high places that were before Yerushalayim, which were on the right hand of the Mount of Destruction, which Shəlomah king of Yisra’el had built for Ashtoret, abomination of the Tzidonim, and for Kemosh, abomination of Moav, and for Milkom, abomination of the sons of Ammon, the king defiled.
14
And he broke the pillars in pieces and cut down the Asherim and filled their places with bones of Adam.
15
And also the altar that was in Beit-El, the high place that Yarovam son of Nevat had made, by which he caused Yisra’el to sin, even that altar and the high place he tore down. And he burned the high place, ground it to dust, and burned the Asherah.
16
And Yoshiyahu turned and saw the graves that were there upon the mountain. And he sent and took the bones from the graves and burned them upon the altar and defiled it, according to the Word of Yahuah that the ish of Elohim had called out, who had called out these matters.
17
And he said: “What is this marker that I see?” And the men of the city said to him: “It is the grave of the ish of Elohim who came from Yehudah and called out these matters that you have done against the altar of Beit-El.”
18
And he said: “Let him rest. Let no ish move his bones.” And they caused his bones to escape, with the bones of the prophet who had come from Shomron.
19
And also all the houses of the high places that were in the cities of Shomron, which the kings of Yisra’el had made to provoke Yahuah to anger, Yoshiyahu removed. And he did to them according to all the deeds that he had done in Beit-El.
20
And he slaughtered all the kohenim of the high places who were there upon the altars and burned bones of Adam upon them. And he returned to Yerushalayim.
21
And the king commanded all the people, saying: “Make Pesach to Yahuah your Elohim, as written in this Sefer of the Covenant.”
22
For surely no Pesach like this had been made from the days of the shofetim who judged Yisra’el, nor in all the days of the kings of Yisra’el, nor of the kings of Yehudah.
23
But in the eighteenth year of King Yoshiyahu, this Pesach was made to Yahuah in Yerushalayim.
24
And also the mediums, and those who knew spirits, and the terafim, and the idols, and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Yehudah and in Yerushalayim, Yoshiyahu removed, in order to establish the words of the Torah that were written in the sefer that Chilqiyahu the kohen had found in the House of Yahuah.
25
And before his face there was no king like him who returned to Yahuah with all his heart, and with all his being, and with all his strength, according to all the Torah of Mosheh. And after him none arose like him.
26
Nevertheless, Yahuah did not turn from the great burning of His anger, with which His anger burned against Yehudah, because of all the provocations with which Menasheh had provoked Him.
27
And Yahuah said: “Also Yehudah I will remove from before My face, as I removed Yisra’el. And I will reject this city, Yerushalayim, which I chose, and the House of which I said: ‘My Name shall be there.’”
28
And the rest of the matters of Yoshiyahu, and all that he did, are they not written in the Sefer of the Matters of the Days of the Kings of Yehudah?
29
In his days Pharaoh Nekho king of Mitzrayim went up against the king of Ashshur to the River Perat. And King Yoshiyahu went to meet him. And he put him to death at Megiddo when he saw him.
30
And his servants caused him to ride dead from Megiddo and brought him to Yerushalayim and buried him in his own tomb. And the people of the land took Yehoachaz son of Yoshiyahu and anointed him and made him king in place of his father.
31
Yehoachaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Yerushalayim. And the name of his mother was Chamutal daughter of Yirmeyahu, from Livnah.
32
And he did what was evil in the eyes of Yahuah, according to all that his fathers had done.
33
And Pharaoh Nekho bound him at Rivlah in the land of Chamat, so that he would not reign in Yerushalayim. And he placed upon the land a tribute of one hundred talents of silver and one talent of gold.
34
And Pharaoh Nekho made Elyaqim son of Yoshiyahu king in place of Yoshiyahu his father and changed his name to Yehoyaqim. And he took Yehoachaz, and he came to Mitzrayim and died there.
35
And Yehoyaqim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh. But he assessed the land to give the silver according to the mouth of Pharaoh. From each ish of the people of the land, according to his valuation, he exacted the silver and the gold to give to Pharaoh Nekho.
36
Yehoyaqim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Yerushalayim. And the name of his mother was Zevuddah daughter of Pedayah, from Rumah.
37
And he did what was evil in the eyes of Yahuah, according to all that his fathers had done.