of Judah hath read: because they have
forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might
provoke me to anger with all the work of their hands; therefore my
wrath shall be kindled against this place, and it shall not be
quenched.' But unto the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the
Lord, thus shall ye say to him, 'Thus saith the Lord, the God of
Israel: As touching the words which thou hast heard, because thine
heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before the Lord, when
thou heardest what I spoke against this place, and against the
inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse,
and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard thee,
saith the Lord. Therefore, behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers,
and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace, neither shall thine
eyes see all the evil which I will bring upon this place.'"

And they brought the king word again. And the king sent, and they
gathered unto him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem. And the
king went up to the house {326} of the Lord, and all the men of Judah
and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests, and
the prophets, and all the people, both small and great: and he read in
their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which was found
in the house of the Lord. And the king stood by the pillar, and made a
covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep his
commandments, and his testimonies, and his statutes, with all his
heart, and all his soul, to confirm the words of this covenant that
were written in this book: and all the people consented to the
covenant. And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the
priests of the second order, and the keepers of the door, to bring
forth out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels that were made for
Baal, and for the Asherah, and for all the host of heaven: and he
burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried the
ashes of them unto Beth-el.

And he put down the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had
ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah,
and in the places round about Jerusalem; them also that burned incense
unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all
the host of heaven. And he brought out the Asherah from the house of
the Lord, without Jerusalem, unto the brook Kidron, and burned it at
the brook Ki