2 Kings 23 - EasyEnglish Bible 2024（EASY）

Chapter 23King Josiah obeys the commands in God's Law

1King Josiah told all the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem to come and meet with him.

2He went up to the Lord's temple. All the people who lived in Jerusalem and in the rest of Judah went with him. They included the priests, the prophets, young people and old people. Everyone went to the temple. They all listened while the king read to them all the words in the Book of God's Covenant. That was the book that Hilkiah had found in the Lord's temple.

3Then the king stood in his place beside the pillar in the temple. He promised the Lord that he would obey the covenant. He agreed to serve the Lord faithfully and to obey his commands, laws and rules. Josiah agreed to obey what was written in the Book of God's Covenant. All the people also promised to obey the covenant.

4Then the king gave a command to Hilkiah, the leader of the priests, and to the other priests and the temple guards. He told them to bring out from the Lord's temple everything that people used there to worship false gods. People used those things to worship Baal, Asherah and all the stars in the sky. King Josiah burned those things outside Jerusalem, in the fields of the Kidron Valley. Then he took all the ashes to Bethel.

5He removed the priests who served false gods. The kings of Judah had chosen those priests to make offerings at the altars on the hills. They were on the hills in Judah's cities and all around Jerusalem. These priests offered sacrifices to Baal, to the sun, to the moon and to all the stars in the sky.

6He also removed the Asherah pole from the Lord's temple. He took it outside Jerusalem, to the Kidron Valley. He burned it there. He made its ashes into dust. He threw the dust over the graves of ordinary people.

7King Josiah also destroyed the rooms in the Lord's temple where the male prostitutes lived. Women also made clothes there for the idol of Asherah.

8He brought from the towns of Judah all the priests who served false gods. He destroyed the altars on the hills where those priests offered sacrifices. He did that everywhere in Judah, from Geba to Beersheba. He destroyed the altar that was on the left side of one of Jerusalem city's gates. It was called the Gate of Joshua. Joshua was an officer who had authority over the city.

9The priests who served at those altars did not have authority to serve at the altar in the Lord's temple in Jerusalem. But they could eat the same flat bread that the other priests ate.

10King Josiah destroyed the place called Topheth, which was in Ben Hinnom Valley. After that, nobody could burn his son or his daughter there in the fire as a sacrifice to Molech.

11He removed the images of horses that the kings of Judah had put beside the entrance to the Lord's temple. He also burned the chariots that were there. The kings had put the horses and chariots there to give honour to the sun god. They were in the temple yard near the room of Nathan Melech, a palace officer.

12King Josiah knocked down the altars that were on the roof of the palace. The kings of Judah had built the altars there, above the high room of King Ahaz. He also knocked down the altars that King Manasseh had built in the two yards of the Lord's temple. Josiah broke the altars into small pieces. He threw the bits into the Kidron Valley.

13King Josiah also destroyed the altars that were on the hills east of Jerusalem. Those altars were on the south side of Mount Trouble. King Solomon had built them to worship these false gods:

Ashtoreth, a wicked female god that the people in Sidon worshipped.

Chemosh, a wicked god that the people in Moab worshipped.

Molech, the evil god that the people in Ammon worshipped.

14Josiah broke the stone pillars that people worshipped into small pieces. He cut down the Asherah poles. He covered the ground where they had been with human bones.

15Josiah also destroyed the altar at Bethel. It was an altar for false gods that Nebat's son, King Jeroboam had made. King Jeroboam had caused the people of Israel to do bad things. Josiah completely destroyed that altar. He broke its stones into small pieces so that only dust remained. He also burned the Asherah pole.

16Then Josiah looked around and he saw graves on the hill. He sent someone to bring the bones from them. He burned them on the altar, so that people could not use it again. The Lord had said that this would happen when King Jeroboam was standing beside the altar. A man of God had spoken God's message to Jeroboam during a festival.

Josiah looked up and he saw the grave of the man of God who had spoken God's message.

17He asked, ‘Whose grave stone is that?’

The men from Bethel city said to him, ‘It is the grave of the man of God who came from Judah. You have now done to this altar at Bethel the things that he said would happen.’

18King Josiah said, ‘Do not do anything to his grave. Do not remove his bones.’ So they did not do anything with the bones of the man of God. They also left the bones of the old prophet who had come from Samaria.

19King Josiah removed the altars on the hills in all the towns of Samaria. The kings of Israel had built those altars and that had made the Lord angry. Josiah destroyed all of them, in the same way that he destroyed the altar at Bethel.

20He punished with death all the priests who served false gods at those altars. He killed them on their own altars. He burned human bones on all the altars. After he had done that, he went back to Jerusalem.

21Then the king commanded all the people, ‘The Book of God's Covenant teaches about the Passover festival. Now you must eat that Passover meal to give honour to the Lord your God.’

22Since the time when the judges ruled Israel, the Israelites had not had a Passover festival like that. They had never had it during the time when kings ruled Judah and Israel.

23But in the 18th year that Josiah ruled Judah as king, the people once again had a Passover festival to give honour to the Lord.

24Josiah did other things to obey the rules that were written in the Book of God's Law. That was the book that Hilkiah the priest had found in the Lord's temple. Josiah removed the people who spoke to the spirits of dead people and the other magicians. He destroyed the images that people worshipped in their homes. He destroyed all the other idols that people had started to worship in Jerusalem and in all Judah.

25Josiah turned to the Lord and he served the Lord faithfully with all his strength. He obeyed all the Law of Moses. No other king was like Josiah, either before him or after him.

26But the Lord continued to be angry with the people of Judah. The wicked things that King Manasseh did had made him very angry.

27So the Lord said, ‘I will also send Judah away from me, as I sent Israel away. I will refuse to stay in Jerusalem and in my temple. I chose the city to be my home and the place where people would worship me. But now I will leave there. ’

King Josiah dies in a battle

28The other things that happened while Josiah was king are written in a book. The book is called ‘The history of Judah's kings’. It tells about the things that Josiah did.

29While Josiah was king, Pharaoh Necho, the king of Egypt, took his army up to the Euphrates River. He went there to help the king of Assyria. King Josiah took his army to fight against Pharaoh Necho. But Necho killed Josiah in a battle at Megiddo.

30Josiah's servants put his dead body in a chariot. They took it from Megiddo to Jerusalem. They buried him in his own grave. Then the people of Judah poured olive oil on the head of Josiah's son Jehoahaz. So he became king after his father. King Jehoahaz rules Judah

31Jehoahaz was 23 years old when he became king. He ruled as king in Jerusalem for three months. His mother's name was Hamutal. She was the daughter of Jeremiah, who came from Libnah.

32Jehoahaz did things that the Lord said were evil.

33Pharaoh Necho kept him in a prison at Riblah, so that Jehoahaz could not rule in Jerusalem. Riblah is in the Hamath region. Necho made Judah pay tax to him. It was 3,400 kilograms of silver and 34 kilograms of gold.

34Pharaoh Necho made Josiah's son Eliakim become the new king of Judah. Necho changed Eliakim's name to Jehoiakim. Then he took Jehoahaz away to Egypt. Later, Jehoahaz died in Egypt.

King Jehoiakim rules Judah

35King Jehoiakim paid Pharaoh Necho all the silver and gold that he asked for. But King Jehoiakim had to make the people of Judah pay taxes so that he could pay Pharaoh Necho. Each person in Judah had to pay what was right, if they were rich or if they were poor.

36Jehoiakim was 25 years old when he became king. He ruled for 11 years as king in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Zebidah. She was the daughter of Pedaiah, who came from Rumah.

37Jehoiakim did things that the Lord said were evil, as his ancestors had done.