1. Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned for thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother was Jedidah, daughter of Adaiah, from Bozkath.
2. He did what the Lord approved and followed in his ancestor David’s footsteps; he did not deviate to the right or the left.
3. In the eighteenth year of King Josiah’s reign, the king sent the scribe Shaphan son of Azaliah, son of Meshullam, to the Lord’s temple with these orders:
4. “Go up to Hilkiah the high priest and have him melt down the silver that has been brought by the people to the Lord’s temple and has been collected by the guards at the door.
5. Have them hand it over to the construction foremen assigned to the Lord’s temple. They in turn should pay the temple workers to repair it,
6. including craftsmen, builders, and masons, and should buy wood and chiseled stone for the repair work.
7. Do not audit the foremen who disburse the silver, for they are honest.”
8. Hilkiah the high priest informed Shaphan the scribe, “I found the law scroll in the Lord’s temple.” Hilkiah gave the scroll to Shaphan and he read it.