1. Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem.
2. He did what was right in the Lord’s sight, walking in the way of David his father, not turning right or left.
3. In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still a youth, he began to seek after the God of David his father. Then in his twelfth year he began to purify Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the asherahs, and the carved and molten images.
4. In his presence, the altars of the Baals were torn down; the incense stands erected above them he broke down; the asherahs and the carved and molten images he smashed and beat into dust, which he scattered over the tombs of those who had sacrificed to them;
5. and the bones of the priests he burned upon their altars. Thus he purified Judah and Jerusalem.
6. He did likewise in the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, Simeon, and in the ruined villages of the surrounding country as far as Naphtali;
7. he tore down the altars and asherahs, and the carved images he beat into dust, and broke down the incense stands throughout the land of Israel. Then he returned to Jerusalem.