28. I will gather you to your ancestors and you shall go to your grave in peace, and your eyes shall not see all the evil I am about to bring upon this place and upon its inhabitants.”This they reported to the king.
29. The king then had all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem summoned before him.
30. The king went up to the house of the Lord with all the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: priests, Levites, and all the people, great and small. He read aloud to them all the words of the book of the covenant that had been found in the house of the Lord.
31. The king stood by the column and made a covenant in the presence of the Lord to follow the Lord and to observe his commandments, statutes, and decrees with his whole heart and soul, carrying out the words of the covenant written in this book.
32. He thereby committed all who were in Jerusalem and Benjamin, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem acted according to the covenant of God, the God of their ancestors.
33. Josiah removed every abomination from all the territories belonging to the Israelites, and he obliged all who were in Israel to serve the Lord, their God. During his lifetime they did not turn away from following the Lord, the God of their ancestors.