12. Some of the kings of Judah, especially Manasseh, had built altars in the two courts of the temple and in the room that Ahaz had built on the palace roof. Josiah had these altars torn down and smashed to pieces, and he had the pieces thrown into Kidron Valley, just outside Jerusalem.
13. After that, he closed down the shrines that Solomon had built east of Jerusalem and south of Spoil Hill to honour Astarte the disgusting goddess of Sidon, Chemosh the disgusting god of Moab, and Milcom the disgusting god of Ammon.
14. He tore down the stone images of foreign gods and cut down the sacred pole used in the worship of Asherah. Then he had the whole area covered with human bones.
15. But Josiah had not finished yet. At Bethel he destroyed the shrine and the altar that Jeroboam son of Nebat had built and that had caused the Israelites to sin. Josiah had the shrine and the Asherah pole burnt and ground into dust.
16. As he looked around, he saw graves on the hillside. He had the bones in them dug up and burnt on the altar, so that it could no longer be used. This happened just as God's prophet had said when Jeroboam was standing at the altar, celebrating a festival.Then Josiah saw the grave of the prophet who had said this would happen
17. and he asked, “Whose grave is that?”Some people who lived nearby answered, “It belongs to the prophet from Judah who told what would happen to this altar.”
18. Josiah replied, “Then leave it alone. Don't dig up his bones.” So they did not disturb his bones or the bones of the old prophet from Israel who had also been buried there.
19. Some of the Israelite kings had made the Lord angry by building pagan shrines all over Israel. So Josiah sent troops to destroy these shrines just as he had done to the one in Bethel.
20. He killed the priests who served at them and burnt their bones on the altars.After all that, Josiah went back to Jerusalem.
21. Josiah told the people of Judah, “Celebrate Passover in honour of the Lord your God, just as it says in The Book of God's Law.”
22. This festival had not been celebrated in this way since kings ruled Israel and Judah.
23. But in Josiah's eighteenth year as king of Judah, everyone came to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover.