Study Desk

Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and his prayer to his God, and the words of the seers that spoke to him in the name of the LORD God of Israel, behold, they [are written] in the book of the kings of Israel.

His prayer also, and [how God] was entreated by him, and all his sin, and his trespass, and the places in which he built high places, and set up groves and graven images, before he was humbled: behold, they [are] written among the sayings of the seers.

So Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his own house: and Amon his son reigned in his stead.

But he did [that which was] evil in the sight of the LORD, as did Manasseh his father: for Amon sacrificed to all the carved images which Manasseh his father had made, and served them;

And humbled not himself before the LORD, as Manasseh his father had humbled himself; but Amon trespassed more and more.

And his servants conspired against him, and slew him in his own house.

But the people of the land slew all them that had conspired against king Amon; and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his stead.

And he did [that which was] right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the ways of David his father, and declined [neither] to the right hand, nor to the left.

For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father: and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images.

And they broke down the altars of Baalim in his presence; and the images, that [were] on high above them, he cut down; and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images, he broke in pieces, and made dust [of them] and strewed [it] upon the graves of them that had sacrificed to them.

Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land, and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair the house of the LORD his God.

And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the law, that he rent his clothes.

Because thy heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God, when thou didst hear his words against this place, and against its inhabitants, and didst humble thyself before me, and didst rend thy clothes, and weep before me; I have even heard [thee] also, saith the LORD.

And the king stood in his place, 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 his heart, and with all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant which are written in this book.

And Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries that [pertained] to the children of Israel, and made all that were present in Israel, to serve, [even] to serve the LORD their God. [And] all his days they departed not from following the LORD, the God of their fathers.

And said to the Levites that taught all Israel, who were holy to the LORD, Put the holy ark in the house which Solomon the son of David king of Israel built; [it shall] not [be] a burden upon [your] shoulders: serve now the LORD your God, and his people Israel,

And prepare [yourselves] by the houses of your fathers after your courses, according to the writing of David king of Israel, and according to the writing of Solomon his son.

And his princes gave willingly to the people, to the priests, and to the Levites: Hilkiah and Zechariah and Jehiel, rulers of the house of God, gave to the priests for the passover-offerings two thousand and six hundred [small cattle], and three hundred oxen.

Conaniah also, and Shemaiah, and Nethaneel, his brethren, and Hashabiah and Jehiel and Jozabad, chief of the Levites, gave to the Levites for passover-offerings five thousand [small cattle], and five hundred oxen.

Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself that he might fight with him, and hearkened not to the words of Necho from the mouth of God, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo.