2 Kings 23
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1 |
And the king sent, and they gathered unto
him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem.
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2 |
And the king went up into the house of
the LORD, 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 the LORD.
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3 |
And the king stood by a pillar, and made
a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the
LORD, and to keep his commandments and his
testimonies and his statutes with all their heart and all their soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were
written in this book. And all the people stood to the
covenant.
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Josiah's
Reforms |
2 Chr. 34.3-7 |
4 |
And the king commanded Hilki'ah the
high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of
the door, to bring forth out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels that were made for Ba'al, and for
the grove, 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.
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5 |
And he put down the idolatrous priests,
whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high
places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about
Jerusalem; them also that burned incense unto Ba'al, to the sun, and
to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of
heaven.
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6 |
And he brought out the grove from the
house of the LORD, 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 children of the people. 2 Kgs. 21.3 · 2 Chr. 33.3
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7 |
And he brake down the houses of the
sodomites, that were by the house of the LORD, where the women wove hangings for the
grove.
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8 |
And he brought all the priests out of the
cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had
burned incense, from Geba to Beer-sheba, and brake down the high
places of the gates that were in the entering in of the gate
of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on a man's
left hand at the gate of the city.
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9 |
Nevertheless the priests of the high
places came not up to the altar of the LORD in
Jerusalem, but they did eat of the unleavened bread among their
brethren.
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10 |
And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, Jer. 7.31 ; 19.1-6 ; 32.35 that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass
through the fire to Molech. Lev. 18.21
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11 |
And he took away the horses that the
kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entering in of the house
of the LORD, by the chamber of Na'than-me'lech
the chamberlain, which was in the suburbs, and burned the
chariots of the sun with fire.
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12 |
And the altars that were on the
top of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made,
and the altars which Manas'seh had made in the two courts of the
house of the LORD, 2 Kgs. 21.5 · 2 Chr. 33.5 did the king beat down, and brake them down from
thence, and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron.
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13 |
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
Ash'toreth the abomination of the Zido'ni-ans, and for Chemosh the
abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the
children of Ammon, did the king defile. 1 Kgs. 11.7
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14 |
And he brake in pieces the images, and
cut down the groves, and filled their places with the bones of
men.
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15 |
Moreover the altar that was at
Beth-el, and the high place which Jerobo'am the son of Nebat, 1
Kgs. 12.33 who made Israel to sin, had made, both that
altar and the high place he brake down, and burned the high place, and stamped it small to powder, and burned the
grove.
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16 |
And as Josi'ah turned himself, he spied
the sepulchres that were there in the mount, and sent, and
took the bones out of the sepulchres, and burned them upon
the altar, and polluted it, according to the word of the LORD which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed
these words. 1 Kgs. 13.2
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17 |
Then he said, What title is that
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 proclaimed
these things that thou hast done against the altar of Beth-el. 1 Kgs.
13.30-32
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18 |
And he said, Let him alone; 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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19 |
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 the LORD to
anger, Josi'ah took away, and did to them according to all the acts
that he had done in Beth-el.
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20 |
And he slew all the priests of the high
places that were there upon the altars, and burned men's
bones upon them, and returned to Jerusalem.
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The Passover
Kept |
2 Chr. 35.1-19 |
21 |
And the king commanded all the people,
saying, Keep the passover unto the LORD your
God, as it is written in the book of this covenant.
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22 |
Surely there was not holden 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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23 |
but in the eighteenth year of king
Josi'ah, wherein this passover was holden to the LORD in Jerusalem.
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The LORD's Persistent Anger against Judah |
24 |
Moreover the workers with familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the images, and the idols,
and all the abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in
Jerusalem, did Josi'ah put away, that he might perform the words of
the law, which were written in the book that Hilki'ah the priest
found in the house of the LORD.
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25 |
And like unto him was there no king
before him, that turned to the LORD 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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26 |
Notwithstanding, the LORD turned not from the fierceness of his great
wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all
the provocations that Manas'seh had provoked him withal.
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27 |
And the LORD said, I
will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel,
and will cast off this city Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the
house of which I said, My name shall be there.
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The Death of
Josiah |
2 Chr. 35.20-27 |
28 |
Now the rest of the acts of Josi'ah,
and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the
Chronicles of the kings of Judah?
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29 |
In his days Pha'raoh-ne'choh king of
Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphra'tes:
and king Josi'ah went against him; and he slew him at Megid'do, when
he had seen him.
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30 |
And his servants carried him in a chariot
dead from Megid'do, and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in
his own sepulchre. And the people of the land took Jeho'ahaz the son
of Josi'ah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father's
stead.
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The Reign and
Dethronement of Jehoahaz |
2 Chr. 36.1-4 |
31 |
Jeho'ahaz was twenty and three
years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months in
Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Hamu'tal, the daughter
of Jeremiah of Libnah.
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32 |
And he did that which was evil in
the sight of the LORD, according to all that
his fathers had done.
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33 |
And Pha'raoh-ne'choh put him in bands at
Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem;
and put the land to a tribute of a hundred talents of silver, and a
talent of gold.
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34 |
And Pha'raoh-ne'choh made Eli'akim the
son of Josi'ah king in the room of Josi'ah his father, and turned
his name to Jehoi'akim, and took Jeho'ahaz away: and he came to
Egypt, and died there. Jer. 22.11, 12
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35 |
And Jehoi'akim 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 Pha'raoh-ne'choh.
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The Reign of
Jehoiakim |
2 Chr. 36.5-8 |
36 |
Jehoi'akim Jer. 22.18, 19 ; 26.1-6 ; 35.1-19 was twenty and five years old when he began to reign;
and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Zebu'dah, the daughter of Pedai'ah of Rumah.
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37 |
And he did that which was evil in
the sight of the LORD, according to all that
his fathers had done.
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