Book 11 : NEVIIM - II KINGS - Chapter 023
23:001
And the king sent, and they gathered unto him all the
elders of Judah and of Jerusalem
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And the king went up to the house of HaShem, and all the
men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests, and
the prophets, and all the people, both small and great; and he read in their
ears all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of
HaShem
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And the king stood on the platform, and made a covenant
before HaShem, to walk after HaShem, and to keep His commandments, and His
testimonies, and His statutes, with all his heart, and all his soul, to confirm
the words of this covenant that were written in this book; and all the people
stood to the covenant
23:004
And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the
priests of the second order, and the keepers of the door, to bring forth out of
the temple of HaShem all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the
Asherah, and for all the host of heaven; and he burned them without Jerusalem in
the fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of them unto Beth-el
23:005
And he put down the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of
Judah had ordained to offer in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in
the places round about Jerusalem; them also that offered unto Baal, to the sun,
and to the moon, and to the constellations, and to all the host of heaven
23:006
And he brought out the Asherah from the house of HaShem,
without Jerusalem, unto the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and
stamped it small to powder, and cast the powder thereof upon the graves of the
common people
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And he broke down the houses of the sodomites, that were in
the house of HaShem, where the women wove coverings for the Asherah
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And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah,
and defiled the high places where the priests had made offerings, from Geba to
Beer-sheba; and he broke down the high places of the gates that were at the
entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on a man's
left hand as he entered the gate of the city
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Nevertheless the priests of the high places came not up to
the altar of HaShem in Jerusalem, but they did eat unleavened bread among their
brethren
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And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the son
of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the
fire to Molech
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And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had
given to the sun, at the entrance of the house of HaShem, by the chamber of
Nethan-melech the officer, which was in the precincts; and he burned the
chariots of the sun with fire
23:012
And the altars that were on the roof of the upper chamber
of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had
made in the two courts of the house of HaShem, did the king break down, and beat
them down from thence, and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron
23:013
And the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were
on the right hand of the mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel
had builded for Ashtoreth the detestation of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh the
detestation of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon,
did the king defile
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And he broke in pieces the pillars, and cut down the
Asherim, and filled their places with the bones of men
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Moreover the altar that was at Beth-el, and the high place
which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, even that
altar and the high place he broke down; and he burned the high place and stamped
it small to powder, and burned the Asherah
23:016
And as Josiah turned himself, he spied the sepulchres that
were there in the mount; and he sent, and took the bones out of the sepulchres,
and burned them upon the altar, and defiled it, according to the word of HaShem
which the man of G-d proclaimed, who proclaimed these things
23:017
Then he said: 'What monument is that which I see' And the
men of the city told him: 'It is the sepulchre of the man of G-d, who came from
Judah, and proclaimed these things that thou hast done against the altar of
Beth-el.
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And he said: 'Let him be; let no man move his bones.' So
they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet that came out of
Samaria
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And all the houses also of the high places that were in
the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke HaShem,
Josiah took away, and did to them according to all the acts that he had done in
Beth-el
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And he slew all the priests of the high places that were
there, upon the altars, and burned men's bones upon them; and he returned to
Jerusalem
23:021
And the king commanded all the people, saying: 'Keep the
passover unto HaShem your G-d, as it is written in this book of the covenant.
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For there was not kept such a passover from the days of
the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor
of the kings of Judah
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but in the eighteenth year of king Josiah was this
passover kept to HaShem in Jerusalem
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Moreover them that divined by a ghost or a familiar
spirit, and the teraphim, and the idols, and all the detestable things that were
spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he might
confirm the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the
priest found in the house of HaShem
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And like unto him was there no king before him, that
turned to HaShem with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his
might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like
him
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Notwithstanding HaShem turned not from the fierceness of
His great wrath, wherewith His anger was kindled against Judah, because of all
the provocations wherewith Manasseh had provoked Him
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And HaShem said: 'I will remove Judah also out of My
sight, as I have removed Israel, and I will cast off this city which I have
chosen, even Jerusalem, and the house of which I said: My name shall be there.
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Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and all that he did,
are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah
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In his days Pharaoh-necoh king of Egypt went up against
the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates; and king Josiah went against him;
and he slew him at Megiddo, when he had seen him
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And his servants carried him in a chariot dead from
Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own sepulchre. And
the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and anointed him, and
made him king in his father's stead
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Jehoahaz was twenty and three years old when he began to
reign; and he reigned three months in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was
Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah
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And he did that which was evil in the sight of HaShem,
according to all that his fathers had done
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And Pharaoh-necoh put him in bands at Riblah in the land
of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem; and put the land to a fine of a
hundred talents of silver, and a talent of gold
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And Pharaoh-necoh made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in
the room of Josiah his father, and changed his name to Jehoiakim; but he took
Jehoahaz away; and he came to Egypt, and died there
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And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh; but
he taxed the land to give the money according to the commandment of Pharaoh; he
exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, of every one
according to his taxation, to give it unto Pharaoh-necoh
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Jehoiakim was twenty and five years old when he began to
reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was
Zebudah the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah
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And he did that which was evil in the sight of HaShem,
according to all that his fathers had done
Book 11 : NEVIIM - II KINGS - Chapter 023
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