II Kings 23 · מלכים ב

And the king sent, and they gathered to him all the elders of Yehuda and Yerushalayim.

And the king went up into the house of the Lord, and all the men of Yehuda and all the inhabitants of Yerushalayim 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.

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.

And the king commanded Ḥilqiyyahu the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the door, to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels that were made for the Ba῾al, and for the ashera, and for all the host of heaven: and he burned them outside Yerushalayim on the terraces of Qidron, and carried the ashes of them to Bet-el.

And he put down the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Yehuda had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Yehuda, and in the places round about Yerushalayim, them also that burned incense to Ba῾al, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven.

And he brought out the ashera from the house of the Lord, outside Yerushalayim, to the Qidron, and burned it at the wadi Qidron, and beat it into dust, and cast the dust of it upon the graves of the common people.

And he pulled down the houses of the male prostitutes, that were by the house of the Lord, where the women wove covering for the ashera.

And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Yehuda, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geva to Be᾽er-sheva, and pulled down the high places of the gates that were in the entrance of the gate of Yehoshua the governor of the city, which was on a man’s left hand at the gate of the city.

Nevertheless the priests of the high places did not come up to the altar of the Lord in Yerushalayim, but they did eat of the unleavened bread among their brethren.

And he defiled the Tofet, which is in the valley of Ben-hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter pass through the fire to the Molekh.

And he took away the horses that the kings of Yehuda had given to the sun, to the chamber of Netan-melekh the chamberlain which was in the suburbs, denying them entrance to the house of the Lord, and burned the chariots of the sun with fire.

And the altars that were on the top of the upper chamber of Aĥaz, which the kings of Yehuda had made, and the altars which Menashshe had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord, did the king pull down, and beat them down from there, and cast the dust of them into wadi Qidron.

And the high places that were before Yerushalayim, which were on the right hand of the Mount of Corruption, which Shelomo the king of Yisra᾽el had built for ῾Ashtoret the abomination of the Żidonim, and for Kemosh the abomination of Mo᾽av, and for Milkom the abomination of the children of ῾Ammon, did the king defile.

And he broke the pillars in pieces, and cut down the asherim, and filled their place with the bones of men.

Moreover the altar that was at Bet-el, and the high place which Yorov῾am the son of Nevat, who made Yisra᾽el to sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he pulled down, and burned the high place, and beat it into dust, and burned the ashera.

And as Yoshiyyahu turned himself, he saw the graves that were there on the mount, and sent, and took the bones out of the graves, 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.

Then he said, What monument is that that I see? And the men of the city told him, It is the tomb of the man of God, who came from Yehuda, and proclaimed these things that thou hast done against the altar of Bet-el.

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 Shomeron.

And all the houses also of the high places that were in the cities of Shomeron, which the kings of Yisra᾽el had made to provoke to anger, did Yoshiyyahu remove, and he did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Bet-el.

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 Yerushalayim.

And the king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the passover to the Lord your God, as it is written in the book of the covenant.

Surely there no such passover was held from the days of the judges that judged Yisra᾽el, nor in all the days of the kings of Yisra᾽el, nor of the kings of Yehuda;

but in the eighteenth year of king Yo­shiyyahu, was this passover held to the Lord in Yerushalayim.

Moreover the mediums, and the wizards, and the images, and the idols, and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Yehuda and in Yerushalayim, did Yoshiyyahu put away, that he might perform the words of the Tora which were written in the book that Ḥilqiyyahu the priest had found in the house of the Lord.

And like 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 Tora of Moshe; neither after him arose there any like him.

Nevertheless, the Lord did not turn back from the fierceness of that great anger with which his anger burned against Yehuda, on account of all the provocations with which Menashshe had provoked him.

And the Lord said, I will remove Yehuda also out of my sight, as I have removed Yisra᾽el, and I will cast off this city Yerushalayim which I have chosen, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there.

Now the rest of the acts of Yoshiyyahu, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Yehuda?

In his days Par῾o-nekho king of Miżrayim went up against the king of Ashshur to the river Perat: and king Yoshiyyahu went against him; and he slew him at Megiddo, when he had seen him.

And his servants carried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo, and brought him to Yerushalayim, and buried him in his own tomb. And the people of the land took Yeho᾽aĥaz the son of Yoshiyyahu, and anointed him, and made him king in his father’s stead.

Yeho᾽aĥaz was twenty three years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months in Yeru-shalayim. And his mother’s name was Ḥamutal, the daughter of Yirmeyahu from Livna.

And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done.

And Par῾o-nekho put him in bands at Rivla in the land of Ḥamat, that he might not reign in Yerushalayim; and put the land to a tribute of a hundred talents of silver, and a talent of gold.

And Par῾o-nekho made Elyaqim the son of Yoshiyyahu king in place of Yoshiyyahu, his father, and turned his name to Yehoyaqim, and took Yeho᾽aĥaz away: and he came to Miżrayim where he died.

And Yehoyaqim gave the silver and the gold to Par῾o; but he taxed the land to give the money according to the commandment of Par῾o: he exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, of every one according to his taxation, to give it to Par῾o-nekho.

Yehoyaqim was twenty five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Yerushalayim. And his mother’s name was Zevudda, the daughter of Pedaya of Ruma.

And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done.