1. Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned for thirty-one years in Jerusalem.
2. He did what the Lord approved and followed in his ancestor David’s footsteps; he did not deviate to the right or the left.
3. In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his ancestor David. In his twelfth year he began ridding Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, Asherah poles, idols, and images.
4. He ordered the altars of the Baals to be torn down, and broke the incense altars that were above them. He smashed the Asherah poles, idols and images, crushed them up and sprinkled the dust over the tombs of those who had sacrificed to them.
5. He burned the bones of the pagan priests on their altars; he purified Judah and Jerusalem.
6. In the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, as far as Naphtali, and in the ruins around them,
7. he tore down the altars and Asherah poles, demolished the idols, and smashed all the incense altars throughout the land of Israel. Then he returned to Jerusalem.
8. In the eighteenth year of his reign, he continued his policy of purifying the land and the temple. He sent Shaphan son of Azaliah, Maaseiah the city official, and Joah son of Joahaz the secretary to repair the temple of the Lord his God.
9. They went to Hilkiah the high priest and gave him the silver that had been brought to God’s temple. The Levites who guarded the door had collected it from the people of Manasseh and Ephraim and from all who were left in Israel, as well as from all the people of Judah and Benjamin and the residents of Jerusalem.
10. They handed it over to the construction foremen assigned to the Lord’s temple. They in turn paid the temple workers to restore and repair it.
11. They gave money to the craftsmen and builders to buy chiseled stone and wood for the braces and rafters of the buildings that the kings of Judah had allowed to fall into disrepair.