1Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem.2He did what was upright in the eyes of the LORD and walked in the ways of David his father; he did not turn aside to the right or to the left.3In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still a youth, he began to seek the God of David his father; and in the twelfth year he began to cleanse Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, the Asherah, the idols, and the cast images.4They tore down before him the altars of the Baal and the incense altars that were above them; they cut them down. They broke and crushed the Asherah, the idols, and the cast images, and scattered the fragments over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them.5They burned the bones of the priests on their altars and thereby purified Judah and Jerusalem.6They did this also in the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, and as far as Naphtali, in their mountain districts with the sword on every side.7He tore down the altars and the Asherah; the idols he crushed to pieces. He cut down all the incense altars throughout all the land of Israel and then returned to Jerusalem.8In the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purified the land and the house, he sent Shaphan son of Azaliah, Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah son of Joahaz the recorder to strengthen the house of the LORD his God.9They came to Hilkiah the high priest and gave him the silver that had been brought into the house of God, which the Levites who kept the threshold had collected from Manasseh, Ephraim, and all the remnant of Israel, and from all Judah and Benjamin; then they returned to Jerusalem.10They entrusted the silver to the supervisors of the work who were appointed over the house of the LORD, and they in turn gave it to the workmen who were carrying out the work in the house of the LORD, to repair and strengthen the house.11They gave it to the craftsmen and the builders to purchase hewn stone and timber for the clamps, and to roof the houses that the kings of Judah had allowed to fall into ruin.12The men who did the work faithfully were under the oversight of Jahath and Obadiah the Levites, of the sons of Merari, and of Zechariah and Meshullam, of the sons of the Kohathites, to direct; and all the Levites who were skilled with musical instruments.13They also supervised the burden-bearers and all who performed any kind of service; and from the Levites came the scribes, the officers, and the gatekeepers.