20. He killed the priests who served at them and burnt their bones on the altars.After all that, Josiah went back to Jerusalem.
21. Josiah told the people of Judah, “Celebrate Passover in honour of the Lord your God, just as it says in The Book of God's Law.”
22. This festival had not been celebrated in this way since kings ruled Israel and Judah.
23. But in Josiah's eighteenth year as king of Judah, everyone came to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover.
24. Josiah got rid of every disgusting person and thing in Judah and Jerusalem—including magicians, fortune-tellers, and idols. He did his best to obey every law written in the book that the priest Hilkiah found in the Lord's temple.
25. No other king before or after Josiah tried as hard as he did to obey the Law of Moses.
26. But the Lord was still furious with the people of Judah because Manasseh had done so many things to make him angry.
27. The Lord said, “I will desert the people of Judah, just as I deserted the people of Israel. I will reject Jerusalem, even though I chose it to be mine. And I will abandon this temple built to honour me.”
28. Everything else Josiah did while he was king is written in The History of the Kings of Judah.
29. During Josiah's rule, King Neco of Egypt led his army north to the River Euphrates to help the king of Assyria. Josiah led his troops north to fight Neco, but when they met in battle at Megiddo, Josiah was killed.
30. A few of Josiah's servants put his body in a chariot and took it back to Jerusalem, where they buried it in his own tomb. Then the people of Judah found his son Jehoahaz and poured olive oil on his head to show that he was their new king.
31. Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled from Jerusalem only three months. His mother Hamutal was the daughter of Jeremiah from Libnah.
32. Jehoahaz disobeyed the Lord, just as some of his ancestors had done.