1Josiah was of eight years, when he began to reign, and he reigned one and thirty years in Jerusalem; the name of his mother was Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah of Boscath.

2And he did that, that was pleasant before the Lord, and he went by all the ways of David, his father; he bowed not, neither to the right side, nor of the left side.

3Forsooth in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, the king sent Shaphan, the son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, [the] scribe, either doctor, of the temple of the Lord, and said to him,

4Go thou to Hilkiah, the great priest, and command that the money, which is borne into the temple of the Lord, be molten together, which money the porters of the temple have gathered of the people;

5and that it be given to craftsmen by the sovereigns of the house of the Lord; which also parted [or dealed] that money to them that work in the temple of the Lord, to repair the roofs of the temple of the Lord,

6that is, to carpenters, and to masons, and to them that make [together] broken things, and that timber and stones of quarriers be bought, to repair the temple of the Lord;

7nevertheless the silver, that the workmen take, be not reckoned to them, but have they it in power, and in faith.

8And Hilkiah, the bishop, said to Shaphan, the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord. And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, the scribe, which also read it.

9Also Shaphan, the scribe, came to the king, and told to him those things, which Hilkiah had commanded, and he said, Thy servants have spended the money, that was found in the house of the Lord, and they have given, that it should be parted to [the] craftsmen of the sovereigns of [the] works of the temple of the Lord.

10Also Shaphan, the scribe, told to the king, and said, Hilkiah, the priest of God, hath given to me a book; and when Shaphan had read that book before the king,

11and the king had heard the words of the book of the law of the Lord, he rent his clothes.

12And he commanded to Hilkiah, the priest, and to Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, and to Achbor, the son of Michaiah, and to Shaphan the scribe, and to Asahiah, servant of the king, and said,

13Go ye, and ask, or counsel ye, the Lord on me, and on the people, and on all Judah, of the words of this book, that is found; for great ire of the Lord is kindled against us, for our fathers heard not the words of this book, to do all thing which is written to us.

14Therefore Hilkiah, the priest, and Ahikam, and Achbor, and Shaphan, and Asahiah, went to Huldah, the prophet-ess, the wife of Shallum, the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the clothes, the which Huldah dwelled in Jerusalem, in the second dwelling or the second environing of the wall; and they spake to her.

15And she answered to them, The Lord God of Israel saith these things, Say ye to the man, that sent you to me,

16The Lord God of Israel saith these things, Lo! I shall bring evils upon this place, and upon the dwellers thereof, and I shall fulfill all the words [of the law], which the king of Judah read;

17for they forsook me, and made sacrifice to alien gods, and stirred me to ire in all the works of their hands; and mine indignation shall be kindled in this place, and shall not be quenched.

18Soothly to the king of Judah, that sent you, that ye shall counsel with the Lord or that ye shall ask the Lord’s counsel, ye shall say thus, The Lord God of Israel saith these things, For thou heardest the words of the book,

19and thine heart was afeared, and thou were made meek before the Lord, when his words were heard against this place, and against the dwellers thereof, that is, that they should be made into wondering, and into cursing, and thou rentest thy clothes, and weptest before me, and I heard, saith the Lord;

20therefore I shall gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered to thy sepulchre in peace; that thine eyes see not all the evils, which I shall bring in upon this place. And they told to the king that, that she said;