He removed the foreign gods and images from the Lord’s temple and all the altars he had built on the hill of the Lord’s temple and in Jerusalem; he threw them outside the city.

They handed it over to the construction foremen assigned to the Lord’s temple. They in turn paid the temple workers to restore and repair it.

The king went up to the Lord’s temple, accompanied by all the people of Judah, the residents of Jerusalem, the priests, and the Levites. All the people were there, from the oldest to the youngest. He read aloud all the words of the scroll of the covenant that had been discovered in the Lord’s temple.

The king stood by his pillar and renewed the covenant before the Lord, agreeing to follow the Lord and to obey his commandments, laws, and rules with all his heart and being, by carrying out the terms of this covenant recorded on this scroll.

Josiah removed all the detestable idols from all the areas belonging to the Israelites and encouraged all who were in Israel to worship the Lord their God. Throughout the rest of his reign they did not turn aside from following the Lord God of their ancestors.

In the first year of the reign of King Cyrus of Persia, in fulfillment of the promise he delivered through Jeremiah, the Lord moved King Cyrus of Persia to issue a written decree throughout his kingdom.

It read: “This is what King Cyrus of Persia says: ‘The Lord God of the heavens has given to me all the kingdoms of the earth. He has appointed me to build for him a temple in Jerusalem in Judah. May the Lord your God energize you who belong to his people, so you may be able to go back there!”

But the bronze altar made by Bezalel son of Uri, son of Hur, was in front of the Lord’s tabernacle. Solomon and the entire assembly prayed to him there.)

Solomon went up to the bronze altar before the Lord which was at the meeting tent, and he offered up a thousand burnt sacrifices.

Now, Lord God, may your promise to my father David be realized, for you have made me king over a great nation as numerous as the dust of the earth.

King Huram of Tyre sent this letter to Solomon: “Because the Lord loves his people, he has made you their king.”

and the pots, shovels, and meat forks. All the items King Solomon assigned Huram Abi to make for the Lord’s temple were made from polished bronze.

The priests brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its assigned place in the inner sanctuary of the temple, in the most holy place under the wings of the cherubs.

There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets Moses had placed there in Horeb. (It was there that the Lord made an agreement with the Israelites after he brought them out of the land of Egypt.)

The priests could not carry out their duties because of the cloud; the Lord’s splendor filled God’s temple.

He said, “The Lord God of Israel is worthy of praise because he has fulfilled what he promised my father David.

The Lord told my father David, ‘It is right for you to have a strong desire to build a temple to honor me.

and set up in it a place for the ark containing the covenant the Lord made with the Israelites.”

and prayed: “O Lord God of Israel, there is no god like you in heaven or on earth! You maintain covenantal loyalty to your servants who obey you with sincerity.

But respond favorably to your servant’s prayer and his request for help, O Lord my God. Answer the desperate prayer your servant is presenting to you.