And he cried against the altar by the word of the LORD, and said, O altar, altar, thus says the LORD; Behold, a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name; and upon you shall he offer the priests of the high places that burn incense upon you, and men’s bones shall be burnt upon you.

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 Beer-sheba, and broke down the high places of the gates that were in the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on a man’s left hand at the gate of the city.

And as Josiah turned, he saw the sepulchers that were there in the mount, and sent, and took the bones out of the sepulchers, and burned them upon the altar, and polluted it, according to the word of the LORD which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words.

And he slew all the priests of the high places that were there upon the altars, and burned men’s bones upon them, and returned to Jerusalem.

For he took away the altars of the foreign gods, and the high places, and broke down the images, and cut down the idol poles:

Also he took away out of all the cities of Judah the high places and the incense altars: and the kingdom was quiet under him.

Then all the people went to the house of Baal, and broke it down, and broke its altars and its images in pieces, and killed Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars.

Now when all this was finished, all Israel that were present went out to the cities of Judah, and broke the sacred pillars in pieces, and cut down the idol poles, and threw down the high places and the altars out of all Judah and Benjamin, in Ephraim also and Manasseh, until they had utterly destroyed them all. Then all the children of Israel returned, every man to his possession, into their own cities.

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 idol poles, and the carved images, and the molten images.

And he burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars, and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem.

And when he had broken down the altars and the idol poles, and had beaten the graven images into powder, and cut down all the incense altars throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem.

By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit of taking away his sin; when he makes all the stones of the altar like chalkstones that are beaten to dust, the idol poles and incense altars shall not remain standing.

At that time, says the LORD, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves:

And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the rest of them that remain of this evil family, which remain in all the places where I have driven them, says the LORD of hosts.

And say, You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD; Thus says the Lord GOD to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys; Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places.

And I will lay the dead bodies of the children of Israel before their idols; and I will scatter your bones round about your altars.

And I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you.

And if you shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhors my judgments, so that you will not do all my commandments, but that you break my covenant:

And you shall not walk in the customs of the nation, which I cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them.

For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.

When God heard this, he was full of anger, and greatly abhorred Israel:

But you have cast off and abhorred, you have been angry with your anointed.

Have you utterly rejected Judah? has your soul loathed Zion? why have you smitten us, and there is no healing for us? we looked for peace, and there is no good; and for the time of healing, and behold trouble!