² He did what was right in the Lord’s sight and walked in the ways of his ancestor David;^(A) he did not turn aside to the right or the left.

Josiah’s Reform

³ In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still a youth, Josiah began to seek the God of his ancestor David,^(B) and in the twelfth year he began to cleanse Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the Asherah poles, the carved images,^(C) and the cast images. ⁴ Then in his presence the altars of the Baals were torn down, and he chopped down the shrines^[a] that were above them. He shattered the Asherah poles, the carved images, and the cast images, crushed them to dust, and scattered^(D) them over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them.^(E)