A reading from the book of Second Kings.

Then the king sent, and all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem were gathered to him,

and the king went up to the house of the Lord, and with him all the men of Judah,

and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests and the prophets,

all the people, both small and great,

and he read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant that had been found in the house of the Lord, and the king stood by the pillar and made a

covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies,

and his statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant

that were written in this book, and all the people

joined in the covenant. And the king commanded Hilkaya the high priest, and the priest of the second

order, and the keepers of the threshold to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels

made for bail, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven. He burned them outside Jerusalem in the

fields of the Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel, and he deposed the priests whom the kings of heaven. He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron and carried

their ashes to Bethel. And he deposed the priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to make offerings

in the high places at the cities of Judah and around Jerusalem, those also who burned incense to

bail, to the sun and the moon and the constellations, and all the host of the heavens.

And he brought out the Asherah from the House of the Lord outside Jerusalem to the Brook Kidron,

and burned it at the Brook Kidron, and beat it to dust, and cast the dust of it upon the graves of the common people.

And he broke down the houses of the male cult prostitutes, who were in the House of the Lord,

where the women wove hangings for the Asherah, and he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and

defiled the high places where the priests had made offerings, from Giba to Birshiba, and he broke

down the high places of the gates that were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua, the governor

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