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¹ And then the king sent, and there gathered vnto him all the elders of Iuda and of Hierusalem.² And the king went vp into the house of the Lorde, with all the men of Iuda, and all the inhabitours of Hierusalem, with the priestes, and prophetes, and all the people both small and great: And he read in the eares of them al the wordes of the couenaunt which was founde in the house of the Lorde.³ And the king stoode by a piller, & made a couenaunt before the Lorde, that they should walke after the Lorde, and kepe his commaundementes, his witnesses, and his statutes, with all their heart and all their soule, and make good the wordes of the sayde appoyntment, that were written in the foresayde booke: And all the people consented to the appoyntment.

⁴ And the king commaunded Helchia the hie prieste, and the inferior priestes, and the kepers of the ornamentes, to bryng out of the temple of the Lorde all the vessels that were made for Baal, for the idoll groues, and for all the hoast of heauen: And he burnt them without Hierusalem in the fieldes of Cedron, and carryed the asshes of them into Bethel.⁵ And he put downe the ministers [of Baal] whom the kinges of Iuda had founded to burne incense in the high places and cities of Iuda that were rounde about Hierusalem, & also them that burnt incense vnto Baal, to the sunne, to the moone, to the planets, and to all the hoast of heauen.⁶ And he brought out the groue from the temple of the Lorde without Hierusalem vnto the brooke Cedron, and burnt it there at the brooke Cedron, and stampt it to powder, and cast the dust thereof vpon the graues of the children of the people.⁷ And he brake downe the celles of the male stewes that were by the house of the Lorde, where the women woue hanginges for the idol groue.⁸ And he brought all the priestes out of the cities of Iuda, and defiled the high places where the priestes had burnt incense, euen from Geba to Beerseba, and destroyed the high places of the gates that were in the entering in of the gate of Iosua ye gouernour of the citie, which were [as a man goeth in] on the left hande of the gate of the citie.⁹ Neuerthelesse, the priestes of the high places came not vp to the aulter of the Lorde in Hierusalem, saue onely they did eate of the sweete bread among their brethren.¹⁰ And he defiled Thopheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, because no man should offer his sonne or his daughter in fire to Moloch.¹¹ He put downe the horses that the kinges of Iuda had geuen to the sunne, at the entering in of the house of the Lorde, by the chambre of Nathanmelech the chamberlayne, which was ruler of the suburbes, and burnt the charets of the sunne with fire.¹² And the aulters that were on the top of the parlour of Ahaz which the kinges of Iuda had made, and the aulters which Manasse had made in the two courtes of the house of the Lorde, did the king breake downe, & ran thence, and cast the dust of them into the brooke Cedron.¹³ And the high places that were before Hierusalem, on the right hand of the mount Oliuet, which Solomon the king of Israel had builded for Astaroth the idol of the Zidons, and for Chamos the idol of the Moabites, and for Milthon the abhominable idoll of the children of Ammon, those the king defiled:¹⁴ And brake the images, and cut downe the idol groues, and filled their places with the bones of men.¹⁵ Moreouer, the aulter that was at Bethel, the high places made by Ieroboam the sonne of Nabat which made Israel sinne, both the aulter and also the high places he brake downe, and burnt the high places, and stampt it to powder, and burnt the idol groue.¹⁶ And as Iosia turned him selfe, he spyed the graues that were in the mount, and sent and fet the bones out of the graues, and burnt them vpon the aulter, to pollute it, according to the word of the Lorde that the man of God proclaymed which tolde the same wordes.¹⁷ Then he saide: What title is that that I see? And the men of the citie tolde him: It is the sepulchre of the man of God, which came from Iuda, and tolde the selfe same thinges that thou hast done to the aulter of Bethel.¹⁸ And he saide, let him be: see that no man moue his bones. And so his bones were saued, with the bones of a prophete that came out of Samaria.¹⁹ And all the houses of the high places in the cities of Samaria, which the king of Israel had made to anger [the Lorde withal] those Iosia put out of the way, & did to them according to all the actes that he had done in Bethel.²⁰ And he sacrifised all the priestes of the high places that were there, euen vpon the aulters, and burnt mens bones vpon them, and returned to Hierusalem.²¹ And the king commaunded all the people, saying: Kepe the feast of Passouer vnto the Lorde your God, as it is written in the booke of this couenaunt.²² There was no Passouer holden lyke that from the dayes of the iudges that iudged Israel, and in all the dayes of the kinges of Israel and of the kinges of Iuda.²³ In the eighteenth yere of king Iosia, was this Passouer holden to the Lord in Hierusalem.²⁴ And therto workers with spirites, & soothsayers, images, idols, and all the abhominations that were spyed in the lande of Iuda and in Hierusalem, those did Iosia put out of the way, to perfourme the wordes of the lawe, which were written in the booke that Helchia the priest founde in the house of the Lorde

²⁵ Lyke vnto him was there no king before him that turned to the Lorde with all his heart, with all his soule, and all his might, according to all the lawe of Moyses, neither after him arose ther any such as he.²⁶ Notwithstanding, the Lorde turned not from the fiercenesse of his great wrath wherewith he was angry against Iuda, because of all the prouocations that Manasse had prouoked him withall.²⁷ And the Lorde sayde: I wyll put Iuda also out of my sight, as I haue done away Israel, and wyll cast of this citie Hierusalem which I haue chosen, and the house of which I sayde, My name shall be there.²⁸ The rest of the wordes that concerne Iosia, and all that he did, are they not written in the booke of the cronicles of the kinges of Iuda?²⁹ In his dayes Pharao Necho king of Egypt went vp against the king of Assyria to the riuer of Euphrates: And king Iosia went against him, and was slaine of him at Megiddo when he had seene him.³⁰ And his seruauntes carryed him dead from Megiddo, and brought him to Hierusalem, & buryed him in his owne sepulchre: And the people of the lande toke Iehoahaz the sonne of Iosia, and annoynted him, and made him king in his fathers steade.

³¹ Iehoahaz was twentie & three yeres olde when he began to raigne, and raigned three monethes in Hierusalem: His mothers name also was Hamiel, the daughter of Ierenna of Libna.³² And he did euil in the sight of the Lord, according to all thinges as his fathers had done.³³ And Pharao Necho put him in bondes at Ribla in the lande of Hamath while he raigned in Hierusalem, and put the lande to a tribute of an hundred talents of siluer, and a talent of golde.³⁴ And Pharao Necho made Eliakim the sonne of Iosia king in the roome of Iosia his father, and turned his name to Iehoakim, and toke Iehoahaz away: which when he came to Egypt, dyed there.³⁵ And Iehoakim gaue the siluer and the golde to Pharao, & tayed the lande, to geue the money according to the commaundement of Pharao: requiring of euery man according to their habilitie siluer and golde, euen of the people of the lande, to geue vnto Pharao Necho.³⁶ Iehoakim was twentie & fiue yeres olde when he began to raigne, and he raigned aleuen yeres in Hierusalem: His mothers name also was Zebuda, the daughter of Pedaia of Ruma.³⁷ And he did that which was euill in the sight of the Lord, according to al things as his fathers had done.