The Divided Kingdom

However, they did not require an accounting from the supervisors given the money to spend, because they dealt honestly.

Hilkiyahu the cohen hagadol said to Shafan the secretary, "I have found the scroll of the Torah in the house of ADONAI." Hilkiyah gave the scroll to Shafan, who read it.

Then Shafan the secretary went back to the king and gave the king this report: "Your servants have poured out the money found in the house and handed it over to the people supervising the work in the house of ADONAI."

Shafan the secretary also told the king, "Hilkiyah the cohen hagadol gave me a scroll." Then Shafan read it aloud before the king.

After the king had heard what was written in the scroll of the Torah, he tore his clothes.

Then the king issued this order to Hilkiyah the cohen, Achikam the son of Shafan, 'Akhbor the son of Mikhayah, Shafan the secretary and 'Asayah the king's servant:

"Go; and consult ADONAI for me, for the people and for all Y'hudah in regard to what is written in this scroll which has been found. For ADONAI must be furious at us, since our ancestors did not listen to the words written in this scroll and didn't do everything written there that concerns us."

So Hilkiyahu the cohen, Achikam, Akhbor, Shafan and 'Asayah went to Huldah the prophet, the wife of Shalum the son of Tikvah, the son of Harchas, keeper of the wardrobe - she lived in the Second Quarter of Yerushalayim - and spoke with her.

She told them, "ADONAI the God of Isra'el says to tell the man who sent you to me

that ADONAI says this: 'I am going to bring calamity on this place and on its inhabitants, every word in the scroll the king of Y'hudah has read;

because they have abandoned me and offered to other gods, in order to provoke me with everything they do. Therefore my anger will burn against this place and will not be quenched.'

But you are to tell the king of Y'hudah, who sent you to consult ADONAI, that ADONAI the God of Isra'el also says this: 'In regard to the words you have heard,

because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before ADONAI when you heard what I said against this place and its inhabitants - that they would become an object of astonishment and cursing - and have torn your clothes and cried before me, I have also heard you, says ADONAI.

Therefore I will gather you to your ancestors, you will go to your grave in peace, and your eyes will not see all the calamity I am going to bring on this place.'" So they brought word back to the king.

Then the king summoned all the leaders of Y'hudah and Yerushalayim, and they assembled with him.

The king went up to the house of ADONAI with all the men of Y'hudah, all those living in Yerushalayim, the cohanim, the prophets and all the people, both small and great; and he read in their hearing everything written in the scroll of the covenant that had been found in the house of ADONAI.

The king stood on the platform and made a covenant in the presence of ADONAI to live following ADONAI, observing his mitzvot, instructions and regulations wholeheartedly and with all his being, so as to confirm the words of the covenant written in this scroll. All the people stood, pledging themselves to keep the covenant.

Then the king ordered Hilkiyahu the cohen hagadol, the cohanim of the second rank and the doorkeepers to remove from the sanctuary of ADONAI all the articles that had been made for Ba'al, for the asherah and for the entire army of heaven; and he burned them up outside Yerushalayim in the fields of Kidron and carried their ashes to Beit-El

He deposed the idolatrous priests the kings of Y'hudah had ordained to offer on the high places by the cities of Y'hudah and in the places surrounding Yerushalayim; he also deposed those who offered to Ba'al, the sun, the moon, the constellations and the whole army of heaven.

He took the asherah from the house of ADONAI to Vadi Kidron outside Yerushalayim and burned it in Vadi Kidron, stamped the ashes to powder and threw the powder onto the burial-ground for the common people.

He smashed the houses of the cult prostitutes that were in the house of ADONAI, where the women also wove garments for the asherah.

He removed the cohanim from the cities of Y'hudah; then, from Geva to Be'er-Sheva, he desecrated the high places where the cohanim had been making offerings. He also smashed the High Places of the Gates that were at the entrance of the Gate of Y'hoshua the governor of the city, on the left as one enters the city.

But although the cohanim who had been at the high places did not come up to the altar of ADONAI in Yerushalayim, nevertheless they did share matzah with their kinsmen.

He desecrated the Tofet fire pit in the Ben-Hinnom Valley, so that no one could cause his son or daughter to pass through fire [as a sacrifice] to Molekh.

He confiscated the horses which the kings of Y'hudah had given to the sun, at the entrance to the house of ADONAI near the room of the officer N'tan-Melekh, in the side-courtyard; and he burned up the chariots of the sun.