Jerusalem

They spoke against the God of Jerusalem as they had spoken against the gods of the peoples of the earth—the work of human hands.

So the LORD saved Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem from the hands of King Sennacherib of Assyria and all the others, and He gave them rest on every side.

Many brought offerings to Jerusalem for the LORD and valuable gifts for Hezekiah king of Judah, and from then on he was exalted in the eyes of all nations.

But because his heart was proud, Hezekiah did not repay the favor shown to him. Therefore wrath came upon him and upon Judah and Jerusalem.

Then Hezekiah humbled the pride of his heart—he and the people of Jerusalem—so that the wrath of the LORD did not come upon them during the days of Hezekiah.

And Hezekiah rested with his fathers and was buried in the upper tombs of David’s descendants. All Judah and the people of Jerusalem paid him honor at his death. And his son Manasseh reigned in his place.

Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-five years.

Manasseh also built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, “My Name will remain in Jerusalem forever.”

Manasseh even took the carved image he had made and set it up in the house of God, of which God had said to David and his son Solomon, “In this temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will establish My Name forever.

So Manasseh led the people of Judah and Jerusalem astray, so that they did greater evil than the nations that the LORD had destroyed before the Israelites.

And when he prayed to Him, the LORD received his plea and heard his petition; so He brought him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD is God.

He removed the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the LORD, along with all the altars he had built on the temple mount and in Jerusalem, and he dumped them outside the city.

Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem two years.

Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem thirty-one years.

In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, Josiah began to seek the God of his father David, and in the twelfth year he began to cleanse Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the Asherah poles, the carved idols, and the cast images.

Then he burned the bones of the priests on their altars. So he cleansed Judah and Jerusalem.

He tore down the altars and Asherah poles, crushed the idols to powder, and cut to pieces all the incense altars throughout the land of Israel. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

So they went to Hilkiah the high priest and gave him the money that had been brought into the house of God, which the Levites at the doors had collected from the people of Manasseh and Ephraim, from all the remnant of Israel, Judah, and Benjamin, and from the people of Jerusalem.

So Hilkiah and those the king had designated went and spoke to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum son of Tokhath, the son of Hasrah, the keeper of the wardrobe. She lived in Jerusalem, in the Second District.

Then the king summoned all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem.

And he went up to the house of the LORD with all the people of Judah and Jerusalem, as well as the priests and the Levites—all the people small and great—and in their hearing he read all the words of the Book of the Covenant that had been found in the house of the LORD.

Then he had everyone in Jerusalem and Benjamin take a stand in agreement to it. So all the people of Jerusalem carried out the covenant of God, the God of their fathers.

Then Josiah celebrated the Passover to the LORD in Jerusalem, and the Passover lamb was slaughtered on the fourteenth day of the first month.

No such Passover had been observed in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet. None of the kings of Israel ever observed a Passover like the one that Josiah observed with the priests, the Levites, all Judah, the Israelites who were present, and the people of Jerusalem.

So his servants took him out of his chariot, put him in his second chariot, and brought him to Jerusalem, where he died. And Josiah was buried in the tomb of his fathers, and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for him.