took away the strange gods, and the idol out of the house of the
Lord.'



JOSIAH

'Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in
Jerusalem one and thirty years. 2. And he did that which was right in
the sight of the Lord, and walked in the ways of David his father, and
declined neither to the right hand, nor to the left. 3. For in the
eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek
after the God of David his father: and in the twelfth year he began to
purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and
the carved images, and the molten images. 4. And they brake down the
altars of Baalim in his presence; and the images, that were on high
above them, he cut down; and the groves, and the carved images, and
the molten images, he brake in pieces, and made dust of them, and
strowed it upon the graves of them that had sacrificed unto them. 5.
And he burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars, and cleansed
Judah and Jerusalem. 6. And so did he in the cities of Manasseh, and
Ephraim, and Simeon, even unto Naphtali, with their mattocks round
about. 7. And when he had broken down the altars and the groves, and
had beaten the graven images into powder, and cut down all the idols
throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem. 8. Now in
the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land, and the
house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor
of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair the
house of the Lord his God. 9. And when they came to Hilkiah the high
priest, they delivered the money that was brought into the house of