The Daily Audio Bible

The Book of the Law Found

³ In the eighteenth year of King Josiah the king sent Shaphan son of Azaliah, son of Meshullam, the scribe, to the house of the Lord, saying, ⁴ “Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, and have him prepare the money that has been brought to the house of the Lord, which the keepers of the threshold have gathered from the people. ⁵ Let them deliver it to the hand of the appointed workers of the house of the Lord, and let them give it to the workers who are in the house of the Lord to repair the damages to the house, ⁶ that is, to the carpenters, the builders, and the masons to buy timber and cut stone to repair the house. ⁷ But there need be no settling of accounts with them concerning the money that was given to their hand, because they are behaving honestly.”

⁸ Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the scribe, “I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord.” Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it. ⁹ Then Shaphan the scribe came to the king and brought the king a report. He said, “Your servants have emptied the money that was found in the house and have given it into the hand of the appointed workers of the house of the Lord.” ¹⁰ Shaphan the scribe informed the king, saying, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” So Shaphan read it before the king.

¹¹ When the king had heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes. ¹² Then the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Akbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah, a servant of the king, saying, ¹³ “Go, inquire of the Lord for me, for the people, and for all Judah concerning the words of this book that has been found, for great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book by doing according to all that is written concerning us.”

¹⁴ So Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Akbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went to Huldah the prophetess, wife of Shallum, son of Tikvah, son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe (she lived in Jerusalem in the second quarter), and they spoke with her.

¹⁵ She said to them, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: Tell the man that sent you to Me, ¹⁶ Thus says the Lord: See, I will bring evil on this place and on its inhabitants—all the words of the book that the king of Judah has read. ¹⁷ Because they have forsaken Me and have made offerings to other gods, so that they have provoked Me to anger with all the works of their hands, therefore My wrath will be kindled against this place, and it will not be quenched. ¹⁸ But to the king of Judah who sent you to inquire of the Lord, thus shall you say to him, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel with regard to the words you have heard: ¹⁹ Because your heart was timid, and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and you have torn your clothes and wept before Me, I also have heard you, declares the Lord. ²⁰ Therefore, I will gather you to your fathers, and you will be gathered to your grave in peace. Your eyes will not see all the evil which I am about to bring upon this place.”

Then they brought the king a report.

Josiah Renews the Covenant^(A)

23 Then the king sent them away and they gathered all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem to him. ² The king went up to the house of the Lord, and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, the priests, the prophets, and all the people, both small and great. He read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant that was found in the house of the Lord. ³ The king stood by a pillar and made a covenant before the Lord to follow the Lord, to keep His commandments, His testimonies, and His statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. All the people agreed with the covenant.

⁴ The king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the threshold to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the implements that were made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven. Then he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron and carried their ashes to Bethel. ⁵ Then he removed the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense on the high places at the cities of Judah and around Jerusalem; those also who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, to the moon, to the constellations, and to all the host of heaven. ⁶ He brought out the Asherah from the house of the Lord to the outside of Jerusalem, to the Kidron Valley. Then he burned it at the Kidron Valley, crushed it to dust, and threw its dust upon the graves of the people. ⁷ He tore down the houses of the male cult prostitutes that were in the house of the Lord, where the women were weaving hangings for the Asherah.

⁸ He brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah and defiled the high places where the priests had made offerings, from Geba to Beersheba. He broke down the high places of the gates at the entry of the gates of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on the left at the gate of the city. ⁹ However the priests of the high places did not go up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem. Instead they ate unleavened bread among their fellow priests.

¹⁰ He defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, so that no man would make his son or his daughter pass through the fire to Molek. ¹¹ He removed the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entry of the house of the Lord, by the hall of Nathan-Melek the eunuch, which was in the vestibule. The chariots of the sun he burned with fire.

¹² The altars that were on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord the king tore down and banished from there and threw their dust into the Kidron Valley. ¹³ The high places east of Jerusalem, south of the Mount of Corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Molek the abomination of the Ammonites, the king defiled. ¹⁴ He broke the standing stones, cut down the Asherah poles, and filled their sites with human bones.

¹⁵ Moreover, the altar that was at Bethel and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he tore down. Then he burned the high place and crushed it to powder, and he burned the Asherah. ¹⁶ As Josiah turned, he saw the tombs that were there on the mount. He took the bones out of the tombs and burned them on the altar and defiled it, according to the word of the Lord that the man of God proclaimed, the one who announced these things.

¹⁷ Then he said, “What is this monument that I see?”

The men of the city said to him, “It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed these things that you have done against the altar of Bethel.”

¹⁸ He said, “Let him rest. No one shall disturb his bones.” So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet who came out of Samaria.

¹⁹ Moreover, all the houses of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke the Lord to anger, Josiah removed. He did to them just as he had done in Bethel. ²⁰ He slaughtered on the altars all the priests of the high places who were there, and burned human bones on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

²¹ The king commanded all the people, “Keep the Passover to the Lord your God as it is written in this Book of the Covenant.” ²² For such a Passover had not been kept from the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah. ²³ But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover was kept to the Lord in Jerusalem.

²⁴ Moreover, Josiah disposed of the mediums, the soothsayers, the teraphim, the idols, and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, so that he established the words of the law that were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Lord. ²⁵ Now there had been no king like him before or after, who turned to the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses.

²⁶ However, the Lord did not turn from the fierceness of His great wrath, by which His anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked Him. ²⁷ The Lord said, “I will also remove Judah from before Me, as I have removed Israel. I will reject this city that I have chosen, Jerusalem, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there.”

Josiah Dies in Battle

²⁸ Now the rest of the deeds of Josiah, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah?

²⁹ In his days Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt, went up against the king of Assyria to the River Euphrates. King Josiah went to meet him, but he killed him at Megiddo when he had seen him. ³⁰ His servants carried him dead in a chariot from Megiddo, brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own tomb. The people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, anointed him, and made him king in place of his father.

Paul Defends Himself

³⁷ As Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he said to the commander, “May I speak to you?”

He replied, “Do you know how to speak Greek? ³⁸ Are you not the Egyptian who in past days caused an uproar and led the four thousand men of the Sicarii^[a] out into the wilderness?”

³⁹ Paul said, “I am a Jew, from Tarsus of Cilicia, a citizen of no common city. I beg of you, permit me to speak to the people.”

⁴⁰ When he had given him permission, Paul stood on the stairs and motioned with his hand to the people. When there was great silence, he addressed them in the Hebrew language, saying,

22 “Brothers and fathers, hear my defense which I now make to you.”

² When they heard that he addressed them in the Hebrew language, they became even more quiet.

Then he said, ³ “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city. At the feet of Gamaliel I was trained in the strict tradition of the law of the fathers, being zealous toward God as you all are today. ⁴ I persecuted this Way to the death, arresting and imprisoning both men and women, ⁵ as even the high priest and the council of elders bear witness of me. From them I received letters to the brothers in Damascus, where I went to take even those who were there and lead them in chains to Jerusalem to be punished.

Paul Tells of His Conversion^(A)

⁶ “As I journeyed and came near Damascus, about noon suddenly a great light from heaven shone around me. ⁷ I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?’

⁸ “I answered, ‘Who are You, Lord?’

“He said to me, ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.’ ⁹ Those who were with me saw the light and were afraid, but they did not hear the voice of Him who was speaking to me.

¹⁰ “I said, ‘What shall I do, Lord?’

“The Lord said to me, ‘Rise and go into Damascus. There you will be told what you have been appointed to do.’ ¹¹ Since I was blinded by the glory of that light, those who were with me led me by the hand into Damascus.

¹² “Ananias, a devout man according to the law, who was well spoken of by all the Jews living there, ¹³ came and stood by me, and said, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight.’ And at that moment I looked up at him.

¹⁴ “Then he said, ‘The God of our fathers has appointed you to know His will and to see the Just One and to hear His voice, ¹⁵ for you will be His witness to all men of what you have seen and heard. ¹⁶ And now why do you wait? Rise, be baptized and wash away your sins, and call on the name of the Lord.’

BOOK ONE

Psalms 1–41

Psalm 1