1. Josias was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned one and thirty years in Jerusalem.
2. And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the ways of David his father: he declined not, neither to the right hand, nor to the left.
3. And in the eighth year of his reign, when he was yet a boy, he began to seek the God of his father David: and in the twelfth year after he began to reign, he cleansed Juda and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and the idols, and the graven things.
4. And they broke down before him the altars of Baalim, and demolished the idols that had been set upon them: and be cut down the groves and the graven things, and broke them in pieces: and strewed the fragments upon the graves of them that had sacrificed to them.
5. And he burnt the bones of the priests on the altars of the idols, and he cleansed Juda and Jerusalem.
6. And in the cities of Manasses, and of Ephraim, and of Simeon, even to Nephtali he demolished all.
7. And when he had destroyed the altars, and the groves, and had broken the idols in pieces, and had demolished all profane temples throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem.
8. Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had cleansed the land, and the temple of the Lord, he sent Saphan the son of Eselias, and Maasias the governor of the city, Joha the son of Joachaz the recorder, to repair the house of the Lord his God.
9. And they came to Helcias the high priest: and received of him the money which had been brought into the house of the Lord, and which the Levites and porters had gathered together from Manasses, and Ephraim, and all the remnant of Israel, and from all Juda, and Benjamin, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
10. Which they delivered into the hands of them that were over the workmen in the house of the Lord, to repair the temple, and mend all that was weak.
11. But they gave it to the artificers, and to the masons, to buy stones out of the quarries, and timber for the couplings of the building, and to rafter the houses, which the kings of Juda had destroyed.
12. And they did all faithfully. Now the overseers of the workmen were Jahath and Abdias of the sons of Merari, Zacharias and Mosollam of the sons of Caath, who hastened the work: all Levites skilful to play on instruments.
13. But over them that carried burdens for divers uses, were scribes, and masters of the number of the Levites, and porters.
14. Now when they carried out the money that had been brought into the temple of the Lord, Helcias the priest found the book of the law of the Lord, by the hand of Moses.
15. And he said to Saphan the scribe: I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord: and he delivered it to him.
16. But he carried the book to the king, and told him, saying: Lo, all that thou hast committed to thy servants, is accomplished.