2 Kings 23:3
And the king stood by a 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 their heart and all their soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people stood to the covenant.
The covenant was made as the king stood by a pillar in the court of the temple before a great convocation of the elders and magistrates of Jerusalem and Judah together with the common people and the priests and Levites. He himself had gathered the leaders and the people at the temple and personally read aloud to them all the words of the book of the covenant found in the house of the Lord. He read with deep feeling and a broken heart and earnestness that moved his hearers to seek forgiveness, relying on God's strength and wisdom rather than his own.
His action was driven by conviction when the book of the law was read before him and before the people, because Israel had departed from the statutes of the Lord and trampled upon the precepts of Heaven. Therefore he rent his garments, humbled himself, wept before the Lord, and confessed transgression before the congregation. Standing by the pillar he pledged in solemn covenant before the Lord to walk after the Lord and to keep His commandments and testimonies and statutes with all heart and soul and to perform and carry out the words of the covenant written in the book.
He proposed that those highest in authority unite with the people in solemn covenant before God to cooperate with one another in bringing about and instituting decided reforms and changes. All the people stood to and joined the covenant, committing themselves to the reforms and doing all they could to return from backsliding and serve the living God. That response was more hearty than Josiah had dared hope.
Though the announced retributive judgments could not be altered and future events had to be left with God, opportunity for repentance and reformation remained because God was willing to temper judgment with mercy, and He accepted thorough repentance and reformation. The verse defines the work for today, since God has opened the book of the law and transgression stands revealed. Every soul must repent of past evil, return from backsliding, seek God with all the heart, believe God means just what He says, make no compromise with evil, greatly humble himself before God, consider any loss preferable to loss of His favor, and reform as light shines upon his pathway, or the wrath of God will be upon him, and he must not rest until others do all they can to return and serve God.