Josiah



"Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem one and thirty years. And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the ways of David his father, and declined neither to the right hand, nor to the left."

"For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images. And they brake down the altars of Baalim in his presence; and the images, that were on high above them, he cut down; and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images, he brake in pieces, and made dust of them, and strewed it upon the graves of them that had sacrificed unto them. And he burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars, and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem."

"And so did he in the cities of Manasseh, and Ephraim, and Simeon, even unto Naphtali, with their mattocks round about. And when he had broken down the altars and the groves, and had beaten the graven images into powder, and cut down all the idols throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem."

In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah, when he had made an end of purging the land and the house, he set to work to repair the house of the Lord his God; and when they brought out the money that had been laid up in the house of the Lord, Hilkiah the priest found a book of the law of the Lord given by Moses.

On hearing this book read, Josiah was greatly distressed; for he knew that his people had transgressed the law written in the book, and that terrible curses were pronounced upon those who should do as they had done.

So he sent men to inquire of Huldah the prophetess in regard to their fate. In answer to their inquiry she said that these judgments would certainly fall upon Jerusalem, and upon the people who worshiped false gods; but that they should be withheld until after the death of Josiah, because his heart was tender, and he was willing to humble himself before God.

Then the king had all the people called together, and read the book of the law in their hearing. After this, he made a covenant before the Lord, promising to keep his commandments with all his heart, and to obey all that was written in the book. "And he caused all that were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand to it."

Then Josiah kept the Passover. To the poor people who were present, he gave thirty thousand lambs and kids, and three thousand bullocks. The princes, following the example of the king, also gave liberally, so that all the people were supplied with animals for sacrifices. "And there was no Passover like to that kept in Israel, from the days of Samuel the prophet; neither did all the kings of Israel keep such a Passover as Josiah kept."