dron, and beat it to dust, and cast the dust thereof upon
the graves of the common people. And he brought all the priests out of
the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had
burned incense, from Geba to {327} Beer-sheba; and he broke down the
high places of the gates that were at the entering in of the gate of
Joshua the governor of the city, which were on a man's left hand at
the gate of the city. Nevertheless the priests of the high places came
not up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, but they did eat bread
among their brethren. And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley
of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his
daughter to pass through the fire to Molech. And he took away the
horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun; and he burned the
chariots of the sun with fire. And 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, did the king break down, and beat them down from thence, and
cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron. And the high places that
were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mount of
corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had builded for heathen
gods, did the king defile.

Moreover the altar that was at Beth-el, and the high place which
Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, even that
altar and the high place he broke down; and he burned the high place
and beat it to dust, and burned the Asherah.

And the king commanded all the people, saying, "Keep the passover unto
the Lord your God, as it is written in this book of the covenant."
Surely there was not kept such a passover from the days of the judges
that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of
the kings of Judah.

{328}

But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah was this passover kept to
the Lord in Jerusalem. And like unto him was there no king before him,
that turned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and
with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after
him arose there any like him. Notwithstanding the Lord turned not from
the fierceness of his great wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled
against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had
provoked him. And the Lord said, "I will remove Judah also out of my
sight, as I ha