1. Josiah was 8 years old when he began to rule, and he was king for 31 years in Jerusalem.
2. He did what the Lord considered right. He lived in the ways of his ancestor David and never stopped living this way.
3. In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still a boy, he began to dedicate his life to serving the God of his ancestor David. In his twelfth year as king, he began to make Judah and Jerusalem clean by destroying the illegal places of worship, poles dedicated to the goddess Asherah, carved idols, and metal idols.
4. He had the altars of the various Baal gods torn down. He cut down the incense altars that were above them. He destroyed the Asherah poles, carved idols, and metal idols. He ground them into powder and scattered the powder over the tombs of those who had sacrificed to them.
5. He burned the bones of the priests on their altars. So he made Judah and Jerusalem clean.
6. In the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, Simeon, and as far as Naphtali, he removed all their temples,
7. tore down the altars, beat the Asherah poles and idols into powder, and cut down all the incense altars everywhere in Israel. Then he went back to Jerusalem.
8. In the eighteenth year of his reign as he was making the land and the temple clean, Josiah sent Shaphan, son of Azaliah, Maaseiah, the mayor of the city, and Joah, the royal historian and son of Joahaz, to repair the temple of the Lord his God.
9. They came to the chief priest Hilkiah and gave him the money that had been brought to God’s temple, the money that the Levite doorkeepers had collected from the tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim, from all who were left in Israel, from everyone in the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and from the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
10. They gave the money to the foremen who were in charge of the Lord’s temple. These foremen gave it to the workmen who were restoring and repairing the temple.
11. (These workers included carpenters and builders.) They were to buy quarried stones and wood for the fittings and beams of the buildings that the kings of Judah had allowed to become run-down.
12. The men did their work faithfully under the supervision of Jahath and Obadiah (Levites descended from Merari), and Zechariah and Meshullam (descendants of Kohath). The Levites, who were skilled musicians,
13. also supervised the workers and directed all the workmen on the various jobs. Some of the Levites served as scribes, officials, or gatekeepers.
14. When they brought out the money that had been deposited in the Lord’s temple, the priest Hilkiah found the Book of the Lord’s Teachings written by Moses.
15. Hilkiah told the scribe Shaphan, “I have found the Book of the Teachings in the Lord’s temple.” Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan.