atening God would certainly execute upon them, that they might be
persuaded that he is God, and had not deceived them in any respect as
to what he had denounced by his prophets; that yet, because Josiah was
a righteous man, he would at present delay those calamities, but that
after his death he would send on the multitude what miseries he had
determined for them.

3. So these messengers, upon this prophecy of the woman, came and told
it to the king; whereupon he sent to the people every where, and ordered
that the priests and the Levites should come together to Jerusalem; and
commanded that those of every age should be present also. And when they
had gathered together, he first read to them the holy books; after which
he stood upon a pulpit, in the midst of the multitude, and obliged them
to make a covenant, with an oath, that they would worship God, and keep
the laws of Moses. Accordingly, they gave their assent willingly,
and undertook to do what the king had recommended to them. So they
immediately offered sacrifices, and that after an acceptable manner, and
besought God to be gracious and merciful to them. He also enjoined the
high priest, that if there remained in the temple any vessel that was
dedicated to idols, or to foreign gods, they should cast it out. So when
a great number of such vessels were got together, he burnt them, and
scattered their ashes abroad, and slew the priests of the idols that
were not of the family of Aaron.

4. And when he had done thus in Jerusalem, he came into the country, and
utterly destroyed what buildings had been made therein by king Jeroboam,
in honor of strange gods; and he burnt the bones of the false prophets
upon that altar which Jeroboam first built; and, as the prophet [Jadon],
who came to Jeroboam when he was offering sacrifice, and when all the
people heard him, foretold what would come to pass, viz. that a certain
man of the house of David, Josiah by name, should do what is here
mentioned. And it happened that those predictions took effect after
three hundred and sixty-one years.

5. After these things, Josiah went also to such other Israelites as had
escaped captivity and slavery under the Assyrians, and persuaded them
to desist from their impious practices, and to leave off the honors they
paid to strange gods, but to worship rightly their own Almighty God, and
adhere to him. He also searched the houses, and the villages, and the
cities, out of a suspicion that someb