The Book in the Temple

2 Chronicles tells more. While he was still young, in the eighth year of his reign, he began to seek God, the God of his ancestor David. In the twelfth year he began to clear the high places out of Judah and Jerusalem, along with the Asherah poles and the idols, both the carved idols and those cast from metal.

As he watched, the altars of the Baals were broken down. He cut down the incense altars above them, smashed the Asherah poles and the idols, ground them to dust, and scattered the dust on the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. He burned the bones of the priests on their altars and made Judah and Jerusalem clean. He did the same in the towns of Manasseh, Ephraim and Simeon, all the way to Naphtali, among their ruins. Throughout the land of Israel he broke down the altars and beat the idols to powder. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

“Oh, Lord God!” Jeremiah said. “Look, I don’t know how to speak. I am a child.”

But the Lord said to him, “Don’t say, ‘I am a child.’ You must go to whoever I send you to, and you must say whatever I command you. Don’t be afraid of them. I am with you to rescue you.”

Then the Lord stretched out his hand and touched Jeremiah’s mouth. “Look,” he said, “I have put my words in your mouth. And today I have set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to uproot and to tear down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”

The Lord’s word came to him again: “Jeremiah, what do you see?”

“I see a branch of an almond tree,” he said.

“You have seen well,” the Lord said, “because I am watching over my word to carry it out.”

The Lord’s word came to him a second time: “What do you see?”

“I see a boiling cauldron,” he said, “and it is tipping away from the north.”

Then the Lord said to him, “Out of the north, harm will break out on everyone who lives in the land. I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north. They will come, and each of them will set up his throne at the entrance of Jerusalem’s gates. They will come against its walls all around, and against all the cities of Judah. I will speak my judgments against them for all their wickedness, because they have left me, burned incense to other gods, and worshiped what their own hands have made.

“So get ready. Put on your belt, get up, and tell them everything I command you. Don’t be frightened of them, or I will frighten you in front of them. Look, today I have made you into a fortified city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls against the whole land: against the kings of Judah, against its leaders, against its priests, and against the people of the land. They will fight against you, but they won’t defeat you, because I am with you to rescue you,” says the Lord.

“Have it handed to the men in charge of the work on the Lord’s house. They will pay the carpenters, the builders and the masons who are repairing it, and buy timber and cut stone for the repairs. No one needs to check how they spend the money, because they can be trusted.”

2 Chronicles says this was after he had made the land and the Lord’s house clean. It names two men sent with Shaphan: Maaseiah the city governor, and Joah son of Joahaz, the record keeper. It says the Levites at the doors had collected the money from the people of Manasseh, Ephraim and the rest of Israel, as well as from Judah, Benjamin and Jerusalem. The money paid for cut stone and timber for the buildings the kings of Judah had destroyed. The men worked faithfully. Levites directed them: Jahath and Obadiah, from Merari’s family, and Zechariah and Meshullam, from Kohath’s, along with other Levites, who were all skilled with musical instruments. Levites were also in charge of the men who carried loads, and some Levites were scribes, officials and gatekeepers.

Then Hilkiah the high priest told Shaphan the scribe, “I have found the book of the law in the Lord’s house.” He gave the book to Shaphan, and Shaphan read it. 2 Chronicles says Hilkiah found it as they were bringing out the money, and calls it the book of the Lord’s law given through Moses.

Shaphan went back to the king. “Your men have emptied out the money that was found in the house,” he said, “and handed it to the men in charge of the work.” In 2 Chronicles he brings the book with him and first says, “Your men are doing everything they were given to do.”

Then Shaphan the scribe told the king, “Hilkiah the priest has handed a book to me.” And Shaphan read it in front of the king.

“Go and ask the Lord about the words of this book that was found,” he said, “for me, for the people and for all Judah. The Lord is burning with great anger against us, because our ancestors didn’t listen to the words of this book and do everything it says about us.” In 2 Chronicles he asks “for me, and for those who are left in Israel and in Judah.”

So the five men went to Huldah the prophetess and talked with her. She was the wife of Shallum, the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe. Her home was in Jerusalem, in the second quarter of the city. 2 Chronicles spells the names Tokhath and Hasrah.

She said to them, “The Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Tell the man who sent you to me, “The Lord says: I will bring harm on this place and on the people who live here: all that is written in the book that the king of Judah has read. They have left me and burned incense to other gods. They have made me angry by everything their hands have made. So my anger will flare up against this place, and it will not be put out.”’” 2 Chronicles has “all the curses that are written in the book”, and the Lord’s anger “poured out” on this place.

“But tell the king of Judah, who sent you to ask the Lord,” she went on, “that the Lord, the God of Israel, says this about the words he has heard: ‘Your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself in the Lord’s presence when you heard what I said against this place and against its people, that they would become a wasteland and a curse. You tore your clothes and wept in my presence. Because of this, I have heard you, says the Lord. So I will gather you to your ancestors. You will be gathered to your grave in peace. Your eyes will not see all the harm I will bring on this place.’”

The men brought her message back to the king.

The king stood by the pillar. There, in the Lord’s presence, he made a covenant. He would follow the Lord and keep his commands, his instructions and his laws with all his heart and all his soul, and carry out the words of this covenant written in this book. And all the people agreed to the covenant. 2 Chronicles says the king stood in his place and made everyone in Jerusalem and Benjamin stand, and that the people of Jerusalem kept the covenant of God, the God of their ancestors.

2 Chronicles goes on: Josiah took away all the detestable things from every land that belonged to the Israelites, and he made everyone in Israel serve the Lord their God. All his life they didn’t stop following the Lord, the God of their ancestors.

He got rid of the idol priests the kings of Judah had put in place to burn incense at the high places in Judah’s towns and around Jerusalem. He also got rid of those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, to the moon, to the planets and to all the army of the sky.

He took the Asherah pole out of the Lord’s house to the Kidron brook, burned it there, ground it to dust, and scattered the dust on the graves of the common people. He tore down the houses of the male shrine prostitutes in the Lord’s house, where women wove hangings for Asherah.

He brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah. From Geba to Beersheba, he defiled the high places where they had burned incense, making them unfit for worship. He also broke down the high places at the gates. They stood at the entrance to the gate of Joshua, the city governor, on your left at the city gate. But the priests of the high places didn’t come up to the Lord’s altar in Jerusalem. They ate unleavened bread among their fellow priests.

He defiled Topheth in the valley of the sons of Hinnom, so that no one could make a son or daughter pass through the fire to Molech.

He took away the horses that the kings of Judah had set apart for the sun. They were at the entrance to the Lord’s house, by the room of Nathan Melech, the officer who was in the court. And he burned the chariots of the sun.

The king broke down the altars the kings of Judah had put up on the roof of Ahaz’s upper room, and the altars Manasseh had made in the two courts of the Lord’s house. He smashed them and threw their dust into the Kidron brook.

Solomon king of Israel had built high places for three detestable gods: Ashtoreth of the Sidonians, Chemosh of Moab and Milcom of the Ammonites. They stood facing Jerusalem, on the right side of the mountain of corruption. The king defiled them too. He smashed the stone pillars, cut down the Asherah poles, and filled the places where they had stood with human bones.

Long before, when Jeroboam was standing by that altar to burn incense, a man of God had come from Judah and cried out against it at the Lord’s command: “Altar! Altar! The Lord says: ‘A son will be born to David’s family, and his name will be Josiah. On you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and human bones will be burned on you.’” Later an old prophet buried the man of God in his own grave and told his sons, “When I am dead, lay my bones beside his.”

As Josiah turned around, he saw the tombs there on the hillside. He sent men to bring the bones out of the tombs. He burned them on the altar and defiled it, just as the Lord had said through the man of God who announced these things.

“What is that monument I see?” he asked.

The men of the city told him, “It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and announced these very things you have done against the altar of Bethel.”

“Leave him alone,” said Josiah. “Don’t let anyone move his bones.” So they left his bones alone, along with the bones of the prophet who had come from Samaria.

In the towns of Samaria, Josiah took away all the shrines on the high places that the kings of Israel had set up to make the Lord angry, and he did to them everything he had done at Bethel. There he killed all the priests of the high places on their altars, and burned human bones on them. Then Josiah went back to Jerusalem.

2 Chronicles tells how it was kept. Josiah set the priests in their places and encouraged them in the service of the Lord’s house. He told the Levites, who taught all Israel and were holy to the Lord, “Put the holy ark in the house built by Solomon son of David, king of Israel. You won’t have to carry it on your shoulders anymore. Now serve the Lord your God and his people Israel. Stand in the holy place by your families and divisions, as David and his son Solomon wrote down. Each family of the people should have a group of Levites. Kill the Passover lambs, make yourselves holy, and get things ready for your fellow Israelites, as the Lord said through Moses.”

From his own property Josiah gave the people thirty thousand lambs and young goats for the Passover offerings, for everyone who was there. He also gave three thousand bulls. His officials also gave freely to the people, to the priests and to the Levites. Hilkiah, Zechariah and Jehiel, the leaders of God’s house, gave the priests two thousand six hundred sheep and goats and three hundred cattle. Conaniah and five other chiefs of the Levites gave the Levites five thousand sheep and goats and five hundred cattle.

When all was ready, the priests and the Levites took their places, as the king had commanded. They killed the Passover lambs. The priests sprinkled the blood handed to them, and the Levites skinned the lambs. They set aside the burnt offerings for the family groups of the people to offer to the Lord, as the book of Moses says, and did the same with the cattle. Next they roasted the Passover lambs over the fire, as the rule was. They boiled the holy offerings in pots, cauldrons and pans, and quickly carried them to the people. Afterward the Levites got things ready for themselves and for the priests, Aaron’s descendants, because the priests were busy until night offering the burnt offerings and the fat.

The singers, Asaph’s descendants, were in their places, as David, Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun the king’s seer had commanded. The gatekeepers were at every gate. They didn’t have to leave their work, because the other Levites got things ready for them.

So that day all the service of the Lord was set in order for keeping the Passover and offering burnt offerings on the Lord’s altar, as King Josiah had commanded. The Israelites who were there kept the Passover, and then the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days.

There had been no Passover like it since the time of the judges who ruled Israel, not in all the days of the kings of Israel or the kings of Judah. 2 Chronicles says there had been none like it since the days of Samuel the prophet, and that no king of Israel had kept a Passover like the one Josiah kept with the priests, the Levites, all Judah and Israel and the people of Jerusalem. It was kept to the Lord in Jerusalem in the eighteenth year of King Josiah.

There had been no king like him before him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, keeping all the law of Moses. And none like him came after him.

Even so, the Lord did not turn from his great anger. It burned fiercely against Judah because of everything Manasseh had done to make him angry. The Lord said, “I will remove Judah from my sight too, as I removed Israel. I will reject this city I chose, Jerusalem, and the house I spoke of when I said, ‘My name will be there.’”

His servants carried his body from Megiddo in a chariot, brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own tomb.

2 Chronicles, which spells the name Neco, tells more. After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Neco went up to fight against Carchemish by the Euphrates, and Josiah went out against him. Neco sent messengers to him: “What quarrel do I have with you, king of Judah? It isn’t you I am coming against today, but the house I am at war with. God has told me to hurry. Be careful: God is with me. Don’t let him destroy you.”

But Josiah would not back away from him. He disguised himself so that he could fight him. He didn’t listen to Neco’s words, which came from the mouth of God, and he came to fight in the valley of Megiddo.

The archers shot at King Josiah. “Take me away,” the king told his servants, “because I am seriously wounded!”

So his servants took him out of the chariot, put him in the second chariot he had, and brought him to Jerusalem, and he died. He was buried in his ancestors’ tombs, and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.

Jeremiah lamented for Josiah. All the singing men and singing women spoke of Josiah in their laments, their songs of mourning, and they still did when 2 Chronicles was written. They made these laments a custom in Israel, and they are written down among the laments.

The rest of what Josiah did is written in the records of the kings of Judah. 2 Chronicles says it is in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah: everything he did, first to last, and his good deeds, done as the Lord’s law says. The people of the land took Josiah’s son Jehoahaz, anointed him, and made him king in his father’s place.