1. Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned 31 years in Jerusalem.
2. He did right in the eyes of Adonai, and walked in the ways of his father David. He did not turn aside to the right or to the left.
3. In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek after the God of his father David. In the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, the Asherah poles, and the carved and molten images.
4. They tore down the altars of the Baal in his presence and chopped down the sun-images that were above them. Also the Asherah poles and the carved and molten images he smashed into pieces, ground into dust, and scattered upon the graves of those who had sacrificed to them.
5. Then he burned the bones of the priests on their altars—so he purged Judah and Jerusalem.
6. In the towns of Manasseh, Ephraim, Simeon, and as far as Naphtali, with their surrounding ruins,
7. he broke down the altars, the Asherah poles, crushed the carved images into powder, and chopped down all the sun-images throughout all the land of Israel. Then he returned to Jerusalem.
8. Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, after purging the land and the House, he sent Shaphan son of Azaliah, Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair the House of Adonai his God.