Elijah and Elisha were going from Gilgal, and Elijah said to Elisha, "Tarry here, I pray thee, for the LORD hath sent me to Bethel." But Elisha said, "As surely as the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee." And when they came to Bethel,

the children of the Prophets that were at Bethel came out to Elisha and said to him, "Knowest thou not how that the LORD will take away thy master from thee this day?" And he said, "I know it too; hold your peace."

And he went from thence up to Bethel. And as he was going up in the way, there came little lads out of the city and mocked him, and said to him, "Go up, thou bald head! Go up thou baldhead!"

But from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat which made Israel sin with the golden calves in Bethel and Dan, Jehu departed not.

And then one of the priests which they had carried thence, went and dwelt in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the LORD.

And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and the inferior priests and the keepers of the door, to bring 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 burnt them without Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron and carried the ashes of them into Bethel.

Moreover the altar that was at Bethel, the hill altar made by Jeroboam the son of Nebat which made Israel sin - both the altar and also the hill - he brake down and burnt the hill and stamped it to powder, and burnt the grove.

Then the king said, "What meaneth yonder grave stone that I see?" And the men of the city told him, "It is the sepulchre of the man of God, which came from Judah and openly denounced the selfsame things that thou hast done to the altar of Bethel."

And thereto all the houses of the hill altars of the cities of Samaria which the kings of Israel had made, to anger withal, Josiah put out of the way and did to them in all points as he did in Bethel.