1Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign; and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem.
2He did that which was right in the eyes of Yahweh, and walked in the ways of David his father, and didn`t turn aside to the right hand or to the left.
3For 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 Asherim, and the engraved images, and the molten images.
4They broke down the altars of the Baals in his presence; and the sun-images that were on high above them he hewed down; and the Asherim, and the engraved images, and the molten images, he broke in pieces, and made dust of them, and strewed it on the graves [of those] who had sacrificed to them.
5He burnt the bones of the priests on their altars, and purged Judah and Jerusalem.
6[So did he] in the cities of Manasseh and Ephraim and Simeon, even to Naphtali, in their ruins round about.
7He broke down the altars, and beat the Asherim and the engraved images into powder, and hewed down all the sun-images throughout all the land of Israel, and returned to Jerusalem.
