2 Chronicles / Josiah's Early Reforms and Temple Repair

Josiah's Early Reforms and Temple Repair

2 Chronicles 34:1-13

Chapter 34

¹ Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. ² And he did what was upright in the eyes of the LORD, and he walked in the ways of David his father, and he did not turn aside to the right or left. ³ And in the eighth year of his kingship, when he was still a boy, he began to inquire of the God of David his father. And in the twelfth year he began to purify Judah and Jerusalem from the high places and the Asherim and the pesilim and the molten images. ⁴ They demolished the altars of the Baals before him, and he cut down the sun-images which were above upon them. And he broke the Asherim and the cultic idols and the molten images, ground them fine, and threw them upon the face of the graves of those sacrificing to them. ⁵ And he burned the bones of priests on their altars and purified Judah and Jerusalem. ⁶ and in the cities of Manasseh and Ephraim and Simeon, as far as Naphtali, in their ruins all around. ⁷ And he demolished the altars and the Asherim and the cultic images—he pulverized them to powder—and all the sun-images he cut down throughout the land of Israel, and he returned to Jerusalem. ⁸ And in the eighteenth year of his kingdom, to purify the land and the house, he sent Shaphan son of Azaliah, Maaseiah ruler of the city, and Joah son of Joahaz the recorder to strengthen the house of the LORD his God. ⁹ And they came to Hilkiah the high priest, and they gave him the silver that had been brought to the house of God, which the Levites, the keepers of the silver, had gathered from the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim and from all the remnant of Israel and from all Judah and Benjamin, and they dwelt in Jerusalem. ¹⁰ They gave it into the hand of the overseers of the workers in the house of the LORD, and they gave it to the workers who were working in the house of the LORD, to inspect and to strengthen the house. ¹¹ And they gave to the craftsmen and to the brickmakers to buy quarried stones and woods for joinings and to roof the houses that the kings of Judah had destroyed. ¹² And the men doing the work faithfully in the Temple service, and over them overseers Ziza and Obadiah the Levites from sons of Merari, and Zechariah and Meshullam from sons of the Kohathites to oversee, and the Levites all understanding in all instruments of song. ¹³ And over the burden-bearers and overseers for all who did the work of service and servants of service, and the Levites, scribes, officers, and gatekeepers.