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¹ Iosia was eyght yeres olde when he began to raigne, and he raigned in Hierusalem thirtie and one yeres.² And he dyd that whiche was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the wayes of Dauid his father, and bowed neither to the right hand nor to the left.³ In the eyght yere of his raigne, when he was yet a childe, he began to seke after the God of Dauid his father: And in the twelfth yere he began to purge Iuda & Hierusalem from the high places, groues, carued images, and images of metall.⁴ And they brake downe the aulters of Baalim euen in his presence: and other images that were in greater honour then they, he caused to be destroyed: And the groues, carued images, and images of metall he brake and made dust of them, and strowed it vpon the graues of them that had offered vnto them.⁵ And he burnt the bones of the priestes vpon the aulters of them, and clensed Iuda and Hierusalem:⁶ And euen so did he in the cities of Manasse, Ephraim, Simeon, vnto Nephthali, and in the wildernesse of them rounde about,⁷ He plucked asunder the aulters & the groues, & did beate the images & stampe them to powder, and cut downe all the idoles throughout all the lande of Israel, and returned to Hierusalem againe.

⁸ In the eyghtenth yere of his raigne, when he had purged the lande and the temple, he sent Saphan the sonne of Azaliahu, and Maasiah the gouernour of the citie, and Ioah the sonne of Ioahaz the recorder, to repaire the house of the Lorde his God.⁹ And when they came to Helkiah the hie priest, they deliuered the money that was brought into the house of God, whiche the Leuites that kept the entryes had gathered of the hand of Manasse and Ephraim, and of all that yet remayned in Israel, and of all Iuda and Beniamin, and they returned to Hierusalem.¹⁰ And they put it in the handes of the workmen that had the ouersight of the house of the Lorde, & they gaue it to the labourers that wrought in the house of the Lorde, to repaire and mende the house.¹¹ Euen to masons and carpenters gaue they it, to get hewed stone, & timber for couples and for beames of the houses which ye kinges of Iuda had destroyed.¹² And the men did the worke faythfully: And the ouersears of them to courage them forward, were Iahath and Obadiahu Leuites of the children of Merari: and Secharia and Mesullam of the children of the Caathites, and other of the Leuites, whiche all could skill of instrumentes of musicke.¹³ And ouer the bearers of burthens, and ouer all that wrought in whatsoeuer worckmanship it were, were there scribes, officers, & porters of the Leuites.

¹⁴ And when they brought out the money that was brought into the house of the Lorde, Helkia the priest founde the booke of the law of the Lorde [geuen] by Moyses.¹⁵ And Helkia aunswered and sayd to Saphan the scribe: I haue found the booke of the law in the house of the Lord. And Helkia gaue the booke to Saphan.¹⁶ And Saphan caried the booke to the king, and brought the king word againe, saying: All that was committed to thy seruauntes, that do they.¹⁷ And they haue gathered together the money that was founde in the house of the Lord, and haue deliuered it into the handes of the ouersears of the worke, and to the handes of the worckmen.¹⁸ And then Saphan the scribe shewed the king, saying, Helkia the priest hath geuen me a booke: and Saphan read in it before the king.¹⁹ And it fortuned, that when the king had heard the wordes of the lawe, he tare his clothes:²⁰ And the king commaunded Helkia and Ahikam the sonne of Saphan and Abdon the sonne of Micah, and Saphan the scribe, and Asaa a seruaunt of the kinges, saying:²¹ Go and enquire of the Lord for me and for them that are left in Israel and Iuda, concerning the wordes of the booke that is founde: For great is the wrath of the Lord that is fallen vpon vs, because our fathers haue not kept the worde of the Lorde, to do after all that is written in this booke.²² And Helkia and they that the king had [appoynted] went to Hulda a prophetisse, the wyfe of Sallum, the sonne of Thecuath, the sonne of Hasra, keper of the wardrope (for she dwelt in Hierusalem within the seconde wall:) & so they communed with her.²³ She aunswered them, Thus sayth the Lorde God of Israel: Tell ye the man that sent you to me,²⁴ Euen thus sayth the Lorde: Beholde, I will bring euyll vpon this place, and vpon the inhabiters thereof, euen al the curses that are written in the booke whiche they haue read before the king of Iuda:²⁵ Because they haue forsaken me, and haue offred vnto other gods, to anger me with all maner workes of their handes: therfore is my wrath set on fire against this place, and shall not be quenched.²⁶ And as for the king of Iuda which sent you to enquire of the Lord, so shal ye say vnto him: thus sayth the Lorde God of Israel, concerning the wordes whiche thou hast hearde.²⁷ Because thyne heart did melt, and thou diddest meeke thy selfe before God when thou heardest his wordes against this place, and against the inhabiters thereof, and humbledst thy selfe before me, and tarest thy clothes, and weepedst before me: that haue I heard also, sayth the Lorde.²⁸ Behold, I wil take thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be put in thy graue in peace, and thyne eyes shall not see all the mischiefe that I will bring vpon this place, and vpon the inhabiters of the same. And they brought the king worde againe.

²⁹ Then the king sent and gathered together all the elders of Iuda and Hierusalem:³⁰ And the king went vp into the house of the Lorde, and all the men of Iuda, and the inhabiters of Hierusalem, and the priestes and Leuites, and all the people great and smal, and [the king] did reade in their eares all the wordes of the booke of the couenaunt that was founde in the house of the Lorde.³¹ And the king stoode at his standing, and made a couenaunt before the Lorde, to folowe the Lorde, and to kepe his commaundementes, his witnesse, and his statutes, with all his heart, and with al his soule, and to fulfill the wordes of the appoyntment written in the sayd booke.³² And he set in their roome all them that were founde in Hierusalem and Beniamin: and the inhabiters of Hierusalem did according to the couenaunt of the Lorde God of their fathers.³³ And Iosia put away all maner of abhominations out of all landes that parteyned to the children of Israel, and brought in all that were founde in Israel, to worship and to serue the Lorde their God: And they turned not aside from after the Lorde God of their fathers, as long as he liued.