The Daily Audio Bible

Hilkiah finds the Book of God's Law

³ When Josiah had been king for 18 years, he sent Shaphan to the Lord's temple. Shaphan was the son of Azaliah, and the grandson of Meshullam. He was the king's secretary. Josiah told Shaphan, ⁴ ‘Go to meet Hilkiah, the leader of the priests. Ask him to count the money that people have brought as gifts into the Lord's temple. Those are the offerings that the temple guards have received from people. ⁵ The priests must give the money to the men who have authority over the work on the Lord's temple. Those leaders must pay the men who are doing the repairs. ⁶ Those workers are the carpenters, the builders and the men who work with stones. The leaders of the work must also buy wood. And they must buy stones that are ready to use. They need those things to repair the temple. ⁷ The leaders of the work are honest men. So they do not need to give a report on how they use the money.’

⁸ Hilkiah, the leader of the priests, told Shaphan, the king's secretary, ‘I have found the Book of the Law in the Lord's temple.’ He gave the book to Shaphan and Shaphan read it. ⁹ Then Shaphan went to the king. He said to him, ‘Your officers have paid out all the money that was in the Lord's temple. They have given it to the men who are working on the temple repairs and to their leaders.’ ¹⁰ Then Shaphan told the king, ‘Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.’ Shaphan started to read the book while the king listened.

¹¹ When the king heard the words from the Book of the Law, he was very upset. He tore his clothes. ¹² He gave a command to Hilkiah the priest, Shaphan's son Ahikam, Micaiah's son Acbor, Shaphan the secretary and Asaiah the king's servant. ¹³ He told them, ‘Go to the temple. Ask the Lord about the message in this book that Hilkiah has found. I need to know what I should do, as well as all the people of Judah. The Lord has become very angry with us because our ancestors have not obeyed the words in this book. They have not done the things that it tells us we should do.’

¹⁴ So Hilkiah, Ahikam, Acbor, Shaphan and Asaiah went to speak to Huldah. Huldah was a prophetess who lived in the north part of Jerusalem. She was the wife of Shallum, the son of Tikvah. Tikvah was the son of Harhas, who took care of the king's clothes. The king's men told Huldah why they had come to meet her. ¹⁵ She said to them, ‘The Lord, Israel's God, says, “Tell this to the man who sent you here to me: ¹⁶ This is what the Lord says. I will bring great trouble to this place and the people who live here. The message of the book that the king of Judah has read tells about what will happen. ¹⁷ I will send this trouble because they have turned away from me. They have offered sacrifices to other gods. I am very angry with them because of all the idols that they have made for themselves. My anger is like a fire that is burning and nobody can stop it!” ¹⁸ The king of Judah sent you here to ask for the Lord's answer. Say to the king, “The Lord, Israel's God, says this about the message that you have heard:

¹⁹ When you heard the message that I had spoken, you were very upset. You made yourself humble to respect me. You tore your clothes and you wept. You did that when you heard how I would punish this place and the people who live here. I said that I would destroy this place so that people would use its name as a curse. Because you became so upset, I have heard your prayer. ²⁰ So I will let you die in peace and people will bury you beside your ancestors. You yourself will never see the great trouble that I will bring to this place.” That is what the Lord says.’

The men took Huldah's answer back to the king.

King Josiah obeys God

23 King Josiah told all the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem to come and meet with him.

² He went up to the Lord's temple.^[a] All the people who lived in Jerusalem and in the rest of Judah went with him. They included the priests, the prophets, young people and old people. Everyone went to the temple. They all listened while the king read to them all the words in the Book of God's Covenant. That was the book that Hilkiah had found in the Lord's temple.

³ Then the king stood in his place beside the pillar in the temple. He promised the Lord that he would obey the covenant. He agreed to serve the Lord faithfully and to obey his commands, laws and rules. Josiah agreed to obey what was written in the Book of God's Covenant. All the people also promised to obey the covenant.

⁴ Then the king gave a command to Hilkiah, the leader of the priests, and to the other priests and the temple guards. He told them to bring out from the Lord's temple everything that people used there to worship false gods. People used those things to worship Baal, Asherah and all the stars in the sky. King Josiah burned those things outside Jerusalem, in the fields of the Kidron Valley. Then he took all the ashes to Bethel.^[b]

⁵ He removed the priests who served false gods. The kings of Judah had chosen those priests to make offerings at the altars on the hills. They were on the hills in Judah's cities and all around Jerusalem. These priests offered sacrifices to Baal, to the sun, to the moon and to all the stars in the sky. ⁶ He also removed the Asherah pole from the Lord's temple. He took it outside Jerusalem, to the Kidron Valley. He burned it there. He made its ashes into dust. He threw the dust over the graves of ordinary people.^[c]

⁷ King Josiah also destroyed the rooms in the Lord's temple where the male prostitutes lived. Women also made clothes there for the idol of Asherah. ⁸ He brought from the towns of Judah all the priests who served false gods. He destroyed the altars on the hills where those priests offered sacrifices. He did that everywhere in Judah, from Geba to Beersheba. He destroyed the altar that was on the left side of one of Jerusalem city's gates. It was called the Gate of Joshua. Joshua was an officer who had authority over the city. ⁹ The priests who served at those altars did not have authority to serve at the altar in the Lord's temple in Jerusalem. But they could eat the same flat bread that the other priests ate.

¹⁰ King Josiah destroyed the place called Topheth, which was in the Valley of Ben Hinnom.^[d] After that, nobody could burn his son or his daughter there in the fire as a sacrifice to Molech. ¹¹ He removed the images of horses that the kings of Judah had put beside the entrance to the Lord's temple. He also burned the chariots that were there. The kings had put the horses and chariots there to give honour to the sun god. They were in the temple yard near the room of Nathan Melech, a palace officer.^[e]

¹² King Josiah knocked down the altars that were on the roof of the palace. The kings of Judah had built the altars there, above the high room of King Ahaz. He also knocked down the altars that King Manasseh had built in the two yards of the Lord's temple. Josiah broke the altars into small pieces. He threw the bits into the Kidron Valley.

¹³ King Josiah also destroyed the altars that were on the hills east of Jerusalem. Those altars were on the south side of Mount Trouble.^[f] King Solomon had built them to worship these false gods:

¹⁴ Josiah broke the stone pillars that people worshipped into small pieces. He cut down the Asherah poles. He covered the ground where they had been with human bones.^[g]

¹⁵ Josiah also destroyed the altar at Bethel. It was an altar for false gods that Nebat's son, King Jeroboam had made. King Jeroboam had caused the people of Israel to do bad things. Josiah completely destroyed that altar. He broke its stones into small pieces so that only dust remained. He also burned the Asherah pole.

¹⁶ Then Josiah looked around and he saw graves on the hill. He sent someone to bring the bones from them. He burned them on the altar, so that people could not use it again. The Lord had said that this would happen when King Jeroboam was standing beside the altar. A man of God had spoken God's message to Jeroboam during a festival.

Josiah looked up and he saw the grave of the man of God who had spoken God's message. ¹⁷ He asked, ‘Whose grave stone is that?’ The men from Bethel city said to him, ‘It is the grave of the man of God who came from Judah. You have now done to this altar at Bethel the things that he said would happen.’ ¹⁸ King Josiah said, ‘Do not do anything to his grave. Do not remove his bones.’ So they did not do anything with the bones of the man of God. They also left the bones of the old prophet who had come from Samaria.^[h]

¹⁹ King Josiah removed the altars on the hills in all the towns of Samaria. The kings of Israel had built those altars and that had made the Lord angry. Josiah destroyed all of them, in the same way that he destroyed the altar at Bethel. ²⁰ He punished with death all the priests who served false gods at those altars. He killed them on their own altars. He burned human bones on all the altars. After he had done that, he went back to Jerusalem.

²¹ Then the king commanded all the people, ‘The Book of God's Covenant teaches about the Passover festival. Now you must eat that Passover meal to give honour to the Lord your God.’ ²² Since the time when the judges ruled Israel, the Israelites had not had a Passover festival like that. They had never had it during the time when kings ruled Judah and Israel. ²³ But in the 18th year that Josiah ruled Judah as king, the people once again had a Passover festival to give honour to the Lord.

²⁴ Josiah did other things to obey the rules that were written in the Book of God's Law. That was the book that Hilkiah the priest had found in the Lord's temple. Josiah removed the people who spoke to the spirits of dead people and the other magicians. He destroyed the images that people worshipped in their homes. He destroyed all the other idols that people had started to worship in Jerusalem and in all Judah.

²⁵ Josiah turned to the Lord and he served the Lord faithfully with all his strength. He obeyed all the Law of Moses. No other king was like Josiah, either before him or after him.

²⁶ But the Lord continued to be angry with the people of Judah. The wicked things that King Manasseh did had made him very angry. ²⁷ So the Lord said, ‘I will also send Judah away from me, as I sent Israel away. I will refuse to stay in Jerusalem and in my temple. I chose the city to be my home and the place where people would worship me. But now I will leave there. ’

King Josiah dies

²⁸ The other things that happened while Josiah was king are written in a book. The book is called ‘The history of Judah's kings’. It tells about the things that Josiah did.

²⁹ While Josiah was king, Pharaoh Necho, the king of Egypt, took his army up to the River Euphrates. He went there to help the king of Assyria. King Josiah took his army to fight against Pharaoh Necho. But Necho killed Josiah in a battle at Megiddo. ³⁰ Josiah's servants put his dead body in a chariot. They took it from Megiddo to Jerusalem. They buried him in his own grave. Then the people of Judah poured olive oil on the head of Josiah's son Jehoahaz. So he became king after his father.^[i]

³⁷ While the soldiers were leading Paul into their building, he asked their leader, ‘Please may I say something to you?’

The soldiers' leader replied, ‘Oh! Do you speak the Greek language? ³⁸ I thought that you must be that bad man who came from Egypt. He was the one who fought against our Roman government. Some time ago, he led 4,000 of his own men out into the wilderness, with their weapons.’

³⁹ Paul answered, ‘I am a Jew and I was born in Tarsus in the region called Cilicia. So you see, I am a man from an important city. Please, let me speak to this crowd.’

⁴⁰ The leader of the soldiers said to Paul, ‘Yes, you may speak to the people.’ So Paul stood still on the steps of the soldiers' building. He raised his hands towards them so that the people became quiet. Then he spoke to them in Aramaic, the Jewish people's own language.

Paul speaks to the crowd in Jerusalem

22 Paul said to the crowd, ‘Please, listen to me, you Jewish leaders and all you other people who are Jews like me. I want to explain to you what has happened here.’

² The crowd heard Paul speaking to them in their own Hebrew language. So they became really quiet.

Paul continued to speak. He said, ³ ‘I am a Jew. I was born in Tarsus in the region of Cilicia. I lived here in Jerusalem when I was a boy. I studied God's Law for many years and Gamaliel was my teacher.^[a] I learned very well how to obey the laws of our ancestors. I tried to obey God as carefully as all of you do today.

⁴ I caused great trouble to the disciples of Jesus. I even wanted to kill them. I took hold of them and I put them in prison. I did that to both men and women. ⁵ The most important priest and all the group of Jewish leaders can tell you that this is true. They gave me letters for the Jewish leaders in Damascus. So I travelled to Damascus to take hold of the believers in that city. I wanted to tie them up and bring them back to Jerusalem. Then the leaders here could punish them.’

Paul tells the crowd how he began to believe in Jesus

⁶ Paul continued to say, ‘As I was travelling, I came near to Damascus. About midday, a bright light from the sky suddenly shone round me. ⁷ I fell down to the ground. Then I heard a voice that said to me, “Saul, Saul, why do you fight against me?”

⁸ “Lord, who are you?” I asked.

He said to me, “I am Jesus from Nazareth. And you are fighting against me.” ⁹ The men who travelled with me saw the light. But they did not understand the voice that spoke to me.

¹⁰ I asked, “Lord, what must I do?” He said to me, “Get up now and go into Damascus. When you arrive in the city, someone will come to you. He will tell you what God wants you to do.” ¹¹ The bright light hurt my eyes so that I could not see. So the men who were with me held my hand. They led me into Damascus.

¹² In Damascus, there was a man called Ananias. He worshipped God and he obeyed our Law. All the Jews in Damascus said good things about him. ¹³ Ananias came to see me. He stood near to me and he said, “Brother Saul, see again!” Then immediately I could see again. I could look at him.

¹⁴ Then Ananias said to me, “The God that we worship and our ancestors worshipped has chosen you. He will tell you what he wants you to do. God has let you see his special servant, who is completely good. You have heard this servant's message to you. ¹⁵ You will tell people everywhere about the things that you have seen and heard. That is what God wants you to do. ¹⁶ So now you do not need to wait any longer. Stand up and I will baptize you. Believe in the Lord Jesus so that God will forgive you for your sins.”

The two paths^[a]