He brought the letter to king of Israel. It read: “This is a letter of introduction for my servant Naaman, ¹  whom I have sent to be cured of his skin disease.”

Hilkiah the high priest informed Shaphan the scribe, “I found the law scroll in the Lord’s temple.” Hilkiah gave the scroll to Shaphan and he read it.

“You have with you the sons of your master, chariots and horses, a fortified city, and weapons. So when this letter arrives, ¹ 

When they received the letter, they seized the king’s sons and executed all seventy of them. ¹  They put their heads in baskets and sent them to him in Jezreel.

They summoned the king, so Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace supervisor, accompanied by Shebna the scribe and Joah son of Asaph, the secretary, went out to meet them.

He sent Eliakim the palace supervisor, Shebna the scribe, and the leading priests, ¹  clothed in sackcloth, with this message to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz:

In the eighteenth year of King Josiah’s reign, the king sent the scribe Shaphan son of Azaliah, son of Meshullam, to the Lord’s temple with these orders: ¹ 

Then Shaphan the scribe told the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a scroll.” Shaphan read it out loud before the king.

“Go, seek an oracle from ¹  the Lord for me and the people – for all Judah. Find out about ²  the words of this scroll that has been discovered. For the Lord’s fury has been ignited against us, ³  because our ancestors have not obeyed the words of this scroll by doing all that it instructs us to do.” ⁴ 

When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God? Can I kill or restore life? Why does he ask me to cure a man of his skin disease? ¹  Certainly you must see that he is looking for an excuse to fight me!” ² 

Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace supervisor, accompanied by Shebna the scribe and Joah son of Asaph, the secretary, went to Hezekiah with their clothes torn ¹  and reported to him what the chief adviser had said.

Shaphan the scribe went to the king and reported, ¹  “Your servants melted down the silver in the temple ²  and handed it over to the construction foremen assigned to the Lord’s temple.”

The king ordered Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Acbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah the king’s servant,

“This is what the Lord says: ‘I am about to bring disaster on this place and its residents, the details of which are recorded in the scroll which the king of Judah has read. ¹ 

The king stood by the pillar and renewed ¹  the covenant before the Lord, agreeing to follow ²  the Lord and to obey his commandments, laws, and rules with all his heart and being, ³  by carrying out the terms ⁴  of this covenant recorded on this scroll. All the people agreed to keep the covenant. ⁵ 

Josiah also got rid of ¹  the ritual pits used to conjure up spirits, ²  the magicians, personal idols, disgusting images, ³  and all the detestable idols that had appeared in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem. In this way he carried out the terms of the law ⁴  recorded on the scroll that Hilkiah the priest had discovered in the Lord’s temple.

From the city he took a eunuch who was in charge of the soldiers, five ¹  of the king’s advisers ²  who were discovered in the city, an official army secretary who drafted citizens ³  for military service, and sixty citizens from the people of the land who were discovered in the city.