So the king sent messengers and gathered all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem.The king went up to the Lord’s temple with all the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, as well as the priests and the Levites— all the people from great to small. He read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant that had been found in the Lord’s temple.Then the king stood at his post and made a covenant in the Lord’s presence to follow the Lord and to keep His commands, His decrees, and His statutes with all his heart and with all his soul in order to carry out the words of the covenant written in this book.He had all those present in Jerusalem and Benjamin agree to it. So all the inhabitants of Jerusalem carried out the covenant of God, the God of their ancestors.So Josiah removed everything that was detestable from all the lands belonging to the Israelites, and he required all who were present in Israel to serve the Lord their God. Throughout his reign they did not turn aside from following Yahweh, the God of their ancestors.
Assemble all your tribal elders and officers before me so that I may speak these words directly to them and call heaven and earth as witnesses against them.
