¹ Listen to this word which I take up for a lamentation over you, O house of Israel.

² "The virgin of Israel has fallen; She shall rise no more. She is cast down on her land; there is no one to raise her up."

³ For thus says the Lord Yahweh: "The city that went forth a thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which went forth one hundred shall have ten left to the house of Israel."

⁴ For thus says Yahweh to the house of Israel: "Seek me, and you will live;

⁵ but don't seek Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and don't pass to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nothing.

⁶ Seek Yahweh, and you will live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and it devour, and there be no one to quench it in Bethel.

⁷ You who turn justice to wormwood, and cast down righteousness to the earth:

⁸ seek him who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns the shadow of death into the morning, and makes the day dark with night; who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the surface of the earth, Yahweh is his name,

⁹ who brings sudden destruction on the strong, so that destruction comes on the fortress.

¹⁰ They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks blamelessly.

¹¹ Forasmuch therefore as you trample on the poor, and take taxes from him of wheat: You have built houses of cut stone, but you will not dwell in them. You have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine.

¹² For I know how many your offenses, and how great are your sins-- you who afflict the just, who take a bribe, and who turn aside the needy in the courts.

¹³ Therefore a prudent person keeps silent in such a time, for it is an evil time.

¹⁴ Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so Yahweh, the God of Armies, will be with you, as you say.

¹⁵ Hate evil, love good, and establish justice in the courts. It may be that Yahweh, the God of Armies, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph."

¹⁶ Therefore thus says Yahweh, the God of Armies, the Lord: "Wailing will be in all the broad ways; and they will say in all the streets, 'Alas! Alas!' and they will call the farmer to mourning, and those who are skillful in lamentation to wailing.

¹⁷ In all vineyards there will be wailing; for I will pass through the midst of you," says Yahweh.

¹⁸ "Woe to you who desire the day of Yahweh! Why do you long for the day of Yahweh? It is darkness, and not light.

¹⁹ As if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him; Or he went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall, and a snake bit him.

²⁰ Won't the day of Yahweh be darkness, and not light? Even very dark, and no brightness in it?

²¹ I hate, I despise your feasts, and I can't stand your solemn assemblies.

²² Yes, though you offer me your burnt offerings and meal offerings, I will not accept them; neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat animals.

²³ Take away from me the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.

²⁴ But let justice roll on like rivers, and righteousness like a mighty stream.

²⁵ "Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, house of Israel?

²⁶ You also carried the tent of your king and the shrine of your images, the star of your god, which you made for yourselves.

²⁷ Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus," says Yahweh, whose name is the God of Armies.

¹ Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign; and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem.

² He 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.

³ For 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.

⁴ They broke down the altars of the Baals in his presence; and the incense altars that were on high above them he cut 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.

⁵ He 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, around in their ruins.

⁷ He broke down the altars, and beat the Asherim and the engraved images into powder, and cut down all the incense altars throughout all the land of Israel, and returned to Jerusalem.

⁸ Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair the house of Yahweh his God.

⁹ They came to Hilkiah the high priest, and delivered the money that was brought into the house of God, which the Levites, the keepers of the threshold, had gathered of the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim, and of all the remnant of Israel, and of all Judah and Benjamin, and of the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

¹⁰ They delivered it into the hand of the workmen who had the oversight of the house of Yahweh; and the workmen who labored in the house of Yahweh gave it to mend and repair the house;

¹¹ even to the carpenters and to the builders gave they it, to buy cut stone, and timber for couplings, and to make beams for the houses which the kings of Judah had destroyed.

¹² The men did the work faithfully: and the overseers of them were Jahath and Obadiah, the Levites, of the sons of Merari; and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the sons of the Kohathites, to set it forward; and [others of] the Levites, all who were skillful with instruments of music.

¹³ Also they were over the bearers of burdens, and set forward all who did the work in every kind of service: and of the Levites there were scribes, and officers, and porters.

¹⁴ When they brought out the money that was brought into the house of Yahweh, Hilkiah the priest found the book of the law of Yahweh [given] by Moses.

¹⁵ Hilkiah answered Shaphan the scribe, "I have found the book of the law in the house of Yahweh." Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan.

¹⁶ Shaphan carried the book to the king, and moreover brought back word to the king, saying, "All that was committed to your servants, they are doing.

¹⁷ They have emptied out the money that was found in the house of Yahweh, and have delivered it into the hand of the overseers, and into the hand of the workmen."

¹⁸ Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, "Hilkiah the priest has delivered me a book." Shaphan read therein before the king.

¹⁹ It happened, when the king had heard the words of the law, that he tore his clothes.

²⁰ The king commanded Hilkiah, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Abdon the son of Micah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah the king's servant, saying,

²¹ "Go inquire of Yahweh for me, and for those who are left in Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book that is found; for great is the wrath of Yahweh that is poured out on us, because our fathers have not kept the word of Yahweh, to do according to all that is written in this book."

²² So Hilkiah, and they whom the king [had commanded], went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tokhath, the son of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe; (now she lived in Jerusalem in the second quarter;) and they spoke to her to that effect.

²³ She said to them, "Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: 'Tell the man who sent you to me,

²⁴ "Thus says Yahweh, 'Behold, I will bring evil on this place, and on its inhabitants, even all the curses that are written in the book which they have read before the king of Judah.

²⁵ Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore is my wrath poured out on this place, and it shall not be quenched.'"'

²⁶ But to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of Yahweh, thus you shall tell him, 'Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: "As touching the words which you have heard,

²⁷ because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before God, when you heard his words against this place, and against its inhabitants, and have humbled yourself before me, and have torn your clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard you," says Yahweh.

²⁸ "Behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, neither shall your eyes see all the evil that I will bring on this place, and on its inhabitants."'" They brought back word to the king.

²⁹ Then the king sent and gathered together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem.

³⁰ The king went up to the house of Yahweh, and all the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests, and the Levites, and all the people, both great and small: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant that was found in the house of Yahweh.

³¹ The king stood in his place, and made a covenant before Yahweh, to walk after Yahweh, and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies, and his statutes, with all his heart, and with all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant that were written in this book.

³² He caused all who were found in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand [to it]. The inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers.

³³ Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries that pertained to the children of Israel, and made all who were found in Israel to serve, even to serve Yahweh their God. All his days they didn't depart from following Yahweh, the God of their fathers.