4 And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, the apriests of the second order, and the doorkeepers, to bring bout of the temple of the Lord all the articles that were made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven; and he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel.
5 Then he removed the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense on the high places in the cities of Judah and in the places all around Jerusalem, and those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, to the moon, to the1 constellations, and to aall the host of heaven.
6 And he brought out the awooden image from the house of the Lord, to the Brook Kidron outside Jerusalem, burned it at the Brook Kidron and ground it to bashes, and threw its ashes on cthe graves of the common people.
7 Then he tore down the ritual1 booths aof the perverted persons that were in the house of the Lord, bwhere the cwomen wove hangings for the wooden image.
8 And he brought all the priests from the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from aGeba to Beersheba; also he broke down the high places at the gates which were at the entrance of the Gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were to the left of the city gate.
9aNevertheless the priests of the high places did not come up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, bbut they ate unleavened bread among their brethren.
10 And he defiled aTopheth, which is in bthe Valley of the Son of Hinnom, cthat no man might make his son or his daughter dpass through the fire to Molech.
11 Then he removed the horses that the kings of Judah had1 dedicated to the sun, at the entrance to the house of the Lord, by the chamber of Nathan-Melech, the officer who was in the court; and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire.
12 The altars that wereaon the roof, the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which bManasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord, the king broke down and pulverized there, and threw their dust into the Brook Kidron.
13 Then the king defiled the1 high places that were east of Jerusalem, which were on the2 south of the Mount of Corruption, which aSolomon king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the people of Ammon.
14 And he abroke in pieces the sacred pillars and cut down the wooden images, and filled their places with the bones of men.
15 Moreover the altar that was at Bethel, and the high place awhich Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he broke down; and he burned the high place and crushed it to powder, and burned the wooden image.
16 As Josiah turned, he saw the tombs that were there on the mountain. And he sent and took the bones out of the tombs and burned them on the altar, and defiled it according to the aword of the Lord which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words.
THE FIRST AND SECOND BOOKS OF KINGS, in the ancient copies of the Hebrew Bible, constitute one book. Various titles have been given them; in the Septuagint and the Vulgate they are called the Third and Fourth Books of Kings. The authorship of these books is unknown; but the prevailing opinion is that they were compiled by Ezra, or one of the later prophets, from the ancient documents that are so frequently referred to in the course of the history as of public and established authority. Their inspired character was acknowledged by the Jewish Church, which ranked them in the sacred canon; and, besides, it is attested by our Lord, who frequently quotes from them (compare I Kings 17:9; II Kings 5:14 with Luke 4:24-27; I Kings 10:1 with Matthew 12:42).
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