2 Kings 23:4-20 - Josiah's Reforms

⁴ And the king will command Hilkiah the great priest and the priests of the second rank, and the watchers of the threshold to bring forth out of the temple of Jehovah all the vessels being made for Baal and for the image, and for all the army of the heavens: and they will burn them without Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and he lifted up their dust to the house of God. ⁵ And he caused the obscurations to cease which the kings of Judah gave, and he will burn incense in the heights in the cities of Judah, and those being round about Jerusalem, and those burning incense to Baal, to the sun and to the moon and to the constellations and to all the army of the heavens. ⁶ And he will bring forth the image from the house of Jehovah from without Jerusalem to the torrent Kidron, and he will burn it by the torrent Kidron, and he will beat small to dust and cast the dust upon the grave of the sons of the people. ⁷ And he will break down the houses of the holy places, which were in the house of Jehovah, where the women wove there houses for the image.

⁸ And he will bring all the priests out of the cities of Judah and defile the heights where the priests burnt incense there from the hill even to the Well of the Oath, and he brake down the heights of the gates which were at the door of the gate of Joshua chief of the city which were at the left of a man in the gate of the city. ⁹ But the priests of the heights will not come up to the altar of Jehovah in Jerusalem, but they ate the unleavened in the midst of their brethren.

¹⁰ And he defiled Topheth in the valley of the sons of Hinnom, for a man not to cause his son and his daughter to pass through in fire to the king. ¹¹ And he will take away the horses which the kings of Judah gave to the sun at the going in of the house of Jehovah into the chamber the king gave the eunuch which was in the open portico, and he burnt the chariots of the sun in fire.

¹² And the altars which were upon the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz which the kings of Judah made, and the altars which Manasseh made in the two enclosures of the house of Jehovah, the king broke down, and he will break in pieces from thence, and cast their dust into the torrent Kidron. ¹³ And the heights which were before Jerusalem which were from the right to the mount of destruction which Solomon king of Israel built to Ashtaroth the abomination of the Sidonians, and to Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and to Milcom the abomination of the sons of Ammon the king defiled. ¹⁴ He brake in pieces the statues and he will cut off the images, and fill their places with bones of man.

¹⁵ And also the altar which was in the house of God, the height which Jeroboam son of Nebat who caused Israel to sin, made, also that altar and height he broke down and he will burn the height, and he beat small to dust, and he burnt the image. ¹⁶ And Josiah will turn and see the tombs which were there in the mount, and he will send and take the bones from the tombs and burn upon the altar, and he will defile it according to the word of Jehovah which the man of God called who called these words. ¹⁷ And he will say, What this pillar which I see? And the man of the city will say to him, The tomb of the man of God who came from Judah, and he will call these words which thou didst upon the altar of the house of God.

¹⁸ And he will say, Give rest to him; a man shall not move his bones; and they will let escape his bones and the bones of the prophet who came from Shomeron.

¹⁹ And also all the houses of the heights which were in the cities of Shomeron which the kings of Israel made to irritate, Josiah turned away, and he will do to them according to all the doings which he did in the house of God. ²⁰ And he will sacrifice all the priests of the heights which were there upon the altars, and he will burn the bones of man upon them, and he will turn back to Jerusalem.