1 O rei mandou chamar os anciãos de Judá e de Jerusalém para irem ao templo com ele. Todos os sacerdotes e os profetas, mais o povo, tanto os mais pequenos como os mais importantes, de Jerusalém, como de Judá, se reuniram no templo para que o rei lhes lesse todo o livro dos mandamentos de Deus que tinha sido descoberto no templo.3 Ele ficou de pé, ao lado da coluna que está diante do povo, e, tanto ele como o povo fizeram uma promessa solene ao Senhor em como obedeceriam à sua palavra, guardariam os seus mandamentos, andariam com o Senhor com todo o coração e com toda a alma.4 O monarca deu instruções a Hilquias, o sumo sacerdote, e ao resto dos sacerdotes e guardas do templo para destruírem todo o mobiliário e material que serviu para o culto prestado a Baal, a Asera, ao Sol, à Lua e às estrelas. O rei queimou aquilo tudo nos terrenos do vale de Cedron, fora de Jerusalém, e levou as cinzas a Betel. Também matou os sacerdotes do culto idólatra, que tinham sido nomeados para tal pelos reis antecessores de Judá, pois que tinham queimado incenso nos nichos sobre as colinas, em toda a terra de Judá e mesmo em Jerusalém. Também esses tinham oferecido incenso a Baal e ao Sol, à Lua, às estrelas e planetas. Também pôs fora da casa do Senhor o ídolo blasfemo de Asera, e levou-o para Jerusalém, para o ribeiro de Cedron; queimou-o ali e desfê-lo em pó, lançando as cinzas nos túmulos do povo comum. Mandou derrubar as casas dos homens prostitutos à volta do templo, e onde as mulheres faziam roupa em honra do ídolo Asera.8 Tornou a mandar vir para Jerusalém os sacerdotes do Senhor, que viviam noutras cidades de Judá e deitou abaixo todos os nichos sobre as colinas, onde se queimava incenso aos ídolos, mesmo os que estavam muito distantes, como em Gebe e em Berseba. Destruiu igualmente os nichos à entrada do palácio de Josué, o antigo governador da cidade de Jerusalém, à esquerda de quem entra pela porta da cidade. Contudo os sacerdotes desses altares nunca serviram no altar do Senhor em Jerusalém, ainda que comessem com os outros sacerdotes do Senhor.10 Também deitou abaixo o altar erigido a Tofete no vale dos Filhos de Hinom, de forma a que mais ninguém, nunca mais, pudesse ali queimar em holocausto o seu filho ou filha como sacrifício oferecido a Moloque. Mandou destruir igualmente as estátuas de cavalos e carros localizados perto da entrada do templo, nas proximidades da residência de Natã-Meleque, o eunuco. Essas figuras tinham sido dedicadas, por anteriores reis de Judá, ao deus do Sol. Fez o mesmo com os altares que os reis de Judá tinha feito erguer nos terraços do apartamento de Acaz; e ainda com os altares que Manassés levantara nos pátios do templo - esmagou-os, fazendo-os em estilhaços, que depois lançou no vale de Cedron.13 Seguidamente tirou os nichos sobre as colinas a oriente de Jerusalém e a sul do monte da Destruição. (Salomão tinha feito erguer esses nichos a Astarote, a abominável deusa dos sidónios, e a Quemós, o deus execrável de Moabe e também a Milcom, o deus abominável dos amonitas.) Fez desaparecer os obeliscos e os vergonhosos ídolos de Asera; tornou esses terrenos imundos, espalhando neles ossos de cadáveres. Fez o mesmo com o altar e os nichos de Betel, que JeroboãoI mandara fazer e que conduziram Israel a pecar dessa maneira. Fez essas pedras em pó e queimou o repugnante ídolo de Asera.16 Enquanto ia observando a situação no território, Josias reparou em vários túmulos perto da montanha. Deu ordens aos seus homens que tirassem dali os ossos e que os queimassem sobre o altar de Betel, para o tornar impuro, tal como o profeta do Senhor tinha declarado que haveria de acontecer ao altar de Jeroboão .17 Que monumento é aquele ali?, perguntou ele gente da cidade respondeu-lhe: É o túmulo do profeta que veio de Judá e proclamou que havia de acontecer aquilo que tu acabaste justamente de fazer aqui, no altar de Betel!18 Não mexam então nessa sepultura; deixem-na estar assim. Deixaram pois os ossos como estavam, mais os ossos dos profetas que vieram de Samaria .19 Josias demoluiu ainda os nichos das colinas de Samaria. Tinham sido erguidos por vários reis de Israel e suscitado grandemente a ira do Senhor. Desfê-los em pó, tal como fizeram com o altar em Betel. Mandou que os sacerdotes idólatras dos altares sobre as colinas fossem executados sobre os próprios nichos e queimou ossos humanos sobre eles para os tornar impuros. Finalmente regressou a Jerusalém.21 O monarca deu ordens para que fosse observada pelo povo a Páscoa, com as suas cerimónias: De acordo com o que estava escrito pelo Senhor vosso Deus no Livro da Aliança, disse-lhes ele. Não tinha havido comemoração da Páscoa semelhante a essa desde os dias dos juízes de Israel, e nunca mais houve outra assim em todos os anos dos reis de Israel e de Judá. Esta Páscoa teve lugar no décimo oitavo ano do reinado de Josias, e foi celebrada em Jerusalém.24 Josias também mandou exterminar os médiuns, feiticeiros e toda a espécie de culto espírita, idólatra, tanto em Jerusalém como em toda a terra. Porque Josias estava decidido a cumprir com as palavras e mandamentos escritos no livro que o sacerdote Hilquias encontrara no templo. Não houve outro rei assim tão completamente convertido ao Senhor e cumpridor das leis dadas por Moisés; nenhum outro rei depois dele foi tão rectamente obediente.26 Contudo, o Senhor não afastou por isso a sua grande ira contra Judá, devido aos graves pecados do rei Manassés. Porque o Senhor dissera: Destruirei Judá, tal como o fiz com Israel; rejeitarei a minha cidade escolhida de Jerusalém, e o templo, que disse que seriam meus.28 O resto da biografia de Josias está escrito nas Crónicas dos Reis de Judá.29 Nesses dias o rei Neco do Egipto atacou o rei da Assíria, junto ao rio Eufrates, e o rei Josias foi dar-lhe apoio. Mas Neco matou Josias em Megido, logo que ele ali chegou. Os seus chefes militares trouxeram o corpo para Jerusalém e sepultaram-no na sepultura que ele escolhera. O seu filho Jeoacaz foi tomado pelo povo para ser o novo rei.31 O novo rei de Judá foi Jeoacaz. Quando começou a reinar tinha 23 anos. O seu reinado durou 3 meses, em Jerusalém. A sua mãe chamava-se Hamutal; era filha de Jeremias, de Libna.32 Foi um mau rei que fez o que parecia mal aos olhos do Senhor, à semelhança de tudo o que tinham feito de mal os seus antecessores.33 Faraó-Neco mandou-o prender em Ribla, na terra de Hamate, para impedir que reinasse, e levantou uma taxa contra Judá no valor total de três mil quilos de prata e trinta de ouro. O soberano egípcio escolheu Eliaquim, um outro filho de Josias, para reinar em Jerusalém, mudando-lhe o nome para Joaquim. Levou depois o rei Jeoacaz para Egipto, onde morreu. Joaquim levantou um imposto sobre o povo para obter o dinheiro que o Faraó exigia.36 O novo rei de Judá foi Joaquim. Tinha 25 anos quando começou a reinar. Durou 11 anos o seu reinado em Jerusalém. O nome de sua mãe era Zebida; era filha de Pedaías, de Ruma.37 Foi um mau rei; fez como outros reis anteriores o que era mal perante o Senhor.

1 And the king sent, and they gathered to him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem.2 And the king went up into the house of the LORD, and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, both small and great: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of the LORD.3 And the king stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD, and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies, and his statutes, with all their heart and all their soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people stood to the covenant.4 And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the door, to bring forth out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the host of heaven: and he burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of them to Beth-el.5 And he put down the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places around Jerusalem; them also that burned incense to Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven.6 And he brought out the grove from the house of the LORD, without Jerusalem, to the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and stamped it small to powder, and cast the powder of it upon the graves of the children of the people.7 And he broke down the houses of the sodomites that were by the house of the LORD, where the women wove hangings for the grove.8 And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burnt incense, from Geba to Beer-sheba, and broke down the high places of the gates that were in the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on a man's left hand at the gate of the city.9 Nevertheless, the priests of the high places came not up to the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, but they ate of the unleavened bread among their brethren.10 And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.11 And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entrance of the house of the LORD, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the chamberlain, which was in the suburbs, and burned the chariots of the sun with fire.12 And the altars that were on the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the LORD, did the king beat down, and broke them down from thence, and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron.13 And the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon, did the king defile.14 And he broke in pieces the images, and cut down the groves, and filled their places with the bones of men.15 Moreover, the altar that was at Beth-el, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he broke down, and burned the high place, and stamped it small to powder, and burned the grove.16 And as Josiah turned himself, he espied the sepulchers that were there on the mount, and sent, and took the bones out of the sepulchers, and burned them upon the altar, and polluted it, according to the word of the LORD which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words.17 Then he said, What title is that which I see? And the men of the city told him, It is the sepulcher of the man of God, who came from Judah, and proclaimed these things that thou hast done against the altar of Beth-el.18 And he said, Let him alone; let no man move his bones. So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet that came out of Samaria.19 And all the houses also of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke the LORD to anger, Josiah took away, and did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Beth-el.20 And he slew all the priests of the high places, that were there upon the altars, and burnt men's bones upon them, and returned to Jerusalem.21 And the king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the passover to the LORD your God, as it is written in the book of this covenant.22 Surely there was not held such a passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah.23 But in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, in which this passover was held to the LORD in Jerusalem.24 Moreover the workers with familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the images, and the idols, and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he might perform the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the LORD.25 And like him was there no king before him, that turned to the LORD with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him.26 Notwithstanding, the LORD turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath, with which his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations by which Manasseh had provoked him.27 And the LORD said, I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and will reject this city Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there.28 Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?29 In his days Pharaoh-nechoh king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates: and king Josiah went against him; and he slew him at Megiddo, when he had seen him.30 And his servants carried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own sepulcher. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah and anointed him, and made him king in his father's stead.31 Jehoahaz was twenty and three years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.32 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done.33 And Pharaoh-nechoh put him in bands at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem; and subjected the land to a tribute of a hundred talents of silver, and a talent of gold.34 And Pharaoh-nechoh made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the room of Josiah his father, and turned his name to Jehoiakim, and took Jehoahaz away: and he came to Egypt and died there.35 And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh; but he taxed the land to give the money according to the commandment of Pharaoh: he exacted the silver and the gold from the people of the land, from every one according to his taxation, to give it to Pharaoh-nechoh.36 Jehoiakim was twenty and five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Zebudah, the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah.37 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done.