2 Kings 23

Then the king sent word, and they gathered around him all the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem.

1And the king sent, and they gathered unto him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem.

2The king went up to the house of the LORD. With him went all the men of Judah, everyone who lived in Jerusalem, the priests, the prophets, and all the people, from the least important to the greatest. He read out loud to them every word of the book of the covenant that had been found in the house of the LORD.

2And the king went up into the house of the LORD, and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, both small and great: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of the LORD.

NoteThe "book of the covenant" is the scroll discovered during temple repairs in the previous chapter (2 Kings 22). Its contents are not described here; the reforms that follow match the laws of Deuteronomy closely, and many readers ancient and modern have connected the two, though the text itself does not name it.

3The king stood by the pillar and made an agreement before the LORD: to follow the LORD, and to keep his commands, his rules, and his laws with all their heart and all their soul, so that the words of this agreement written in the book would be carried out. And all the people committed themselves to the agreement.

3And 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.

Note"Stood by a pillar" points to a fixed, recognized spot in the temple courtyard where the king took his place on formal occasions, the same position mentioned at Joash's coronation in 2 Kings 11:14. "Covenant" is a binding, formally sworn agreement, the kind of instrument used between a ruler and his people or between states. KJV's "commandments, testimonies and statutes" are three near-synonyms for categories of law, piled up for completeness rather than to mark three distinct kinds.

4Then the king ordered Hilkiah the high priest, the priests next in rank, and the guards at the doors to carry out of the LORD's temple every object made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the stars of the sky. He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron Valley and had their ashes carried to Bethel.

4And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the door, to bring forth out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the host of heaven: and he burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of them unto Bethel.

NoteBaal was the Canaanite storm and fertility god, worshiped across the region. Asherah (KJV "the grove") was a goddess whose emblem was an upright wooden pole set beside an altar, KJV translators guessed "grove" from an old Greek rendering, but the object is a single carved pole, not a stand of trees. "The host of heaven" means the sun, moon, stars and planets worshiped as divine beings. The Kidron is the ravine running along the east side of Jerusalem, the city's dumping ground for refuse. Sending the ashes to Bethel is an insult: Bethel was the rival northern sanctuary, so the polluted remains were tipped onto the place that had rivaled the temple.

5He got rid of the priests of other gods, the ones the kings of Judah had appointed to burn incense at the worship sites on the hills in the towns of Judah and in the places around Jerusalem. He also got rid of those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, the moon, the constellations, and all the stars of the sky.

5And he put down the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem; them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven.

NoteBurning incense was a standard act of worship at an altar, not merely perfuming a room. "High places" were open-air worship sites, usually on hilltops or raised platforms, with an altar and sacred objects; they had been ordinary places of worship for centuries, and the reform's point is that they are now forbidden in favor of Jerusalem alone. KJV's "planets" translates a word for the signs of the zodiac or constellations.

6He took the Asherah pole out of the house of the LORD and carried it outside Jerusalem to the Kidron Valley. There he burned it, ground it into powder, and threw the powder on the graves of the ordinary people.

6And he brought out the grove from the house of the LORD, without Jerusalem, unto the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and stamped it small to powder, and cast the powder thereof upon the graves of the children of the people.

NoteGrinding the pole to dust and scattering it over a public burial ground made it permanently unusable: contact with the dead rendered a thing ritually unclean, so the ashes could never be gathered up and treated as sacred again. "The graves of the children of the people" means the common cemetery where ordinary citizens were buried, as opposed to family tombs of the wealthy.

7He tore down the living quarters of the male shrine prostitutes, which were in the house of the LORD, where the women wove cloth for Asherah.

7And he brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were by the house of the LORD, where the women wove hangings for the grove.

NoteThe Hebrew word behind KJV's "sodomites" is *qedeshim*, literally "consecrated men", men attached to a shrine. Whether their role was sexual, and in what way, is disputed among scholars; the older translations assumed male prostitution, but the text says only that they were shrine personnel housed at the temple.

8He brought all the priests in from the towns of Judah, and he made the hill worship sites unfit for use, from Geba to Beersheba, where those priests had burned incense. He also tore down the shrines at the gates, at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the city governor, which stood on the left as a person entered the city gate.

8And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beersheba, and brake down the high places of the gates that were in the entering in of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on a man’s left hand at the gate of the city.

NoteGeba lay at Judah's northern edge and Beersheba at its southern edge; "from Geba to Beersheba" is a stock phrase meaning the whole kingdom, end to end. To "defile" a site was a deliberate act: making it ritually unclean so that no one could use it for worship again. City gates were public spaces with chambers and shrines built into the gatehouse structure.

9The priests of those hill shrines did not serve at the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, but they did eat the bread made without yeast along with their fellow priests.

9Nevertheless the priests of the high places came not up to the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, but they did eat of the unleavened bread among their brethren.

NotePriests removed from the country shrines were barred from serving at the Jerusalem altar, but still drew a share of the priestly food allowance. The "unleavened bread" is the bread baked without yeast that formed part of the offerings and was eaten by priests as their portion.

10He also made Topheth unfit for use. It was in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, and he did this so that no one could sacrifice his son or daughter in the fire to Molech.

10And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.

NoteTopheth was the installation in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, just outside Jerusalem's southern wall, where children were burned as sacrifices. "Pass through the fire" is the standard phrase for this. Molech (or Molek) is either the name of a god or a term for the type of offering; both readings are argued. The valley's name, *ge-hinnom*, later became the word Gehenna.

11He removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun. They stood at the entrance to the house of the LORD, in the courtyard near the room of an official named Nathan-melech. He also burned up the chariots dedicated to the sun.

11And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entering in of the house of the LORD, by the chamber of Nathanmelech the chamberlain, which was in the suburbs, and burned the chariots of the sun with fire.

NoteHorses and chariots dedicated to the sun belong to a widespread Near Eastern practice of picturing the sun god driving across the sky in a chariot; the animals and vehicles were real, kept at the temple entrance as sacred property. KJV's "chamberlain" means a court official with charge of rooms or household duties, not a eunuch attendant in the later sense; "suburbs" here means an outer courtyard or precinct of the temple complex, not a residential district.

12The king pulled down the altars on the roof of the upper room of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars Manasseh had made in the two courtyards of the house of the LORD. He smashed them there and threw the rubble into the Kidron Valley.

12And the altars that were on the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the LORD, did the king beat down, and brake them down from thence, and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron.

NoteFlat roofs were used for worship of the stars, which is why altars stood there. Ahaz and Manasseh were earlier kings of Judah (2 Kings 16 and 21) who had installed these altars; Manasseh was Josiah's own grandfather.

13The king also made unfit for use the hill worship sites east of Jerusalem, south of the Mount of Corruption. King Solomon of Israel had built them for Ashtoreth, the detestable god of the Sidonians, for Chemosh, the detestable god of the Moabites, and for Milcom, the detestable god of the Ammonites.

13And the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had builded for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon, did the king defile.

NoteThe "mount of corruption" is the southern ridge of the Mount of Olives, east of the city. The name is a deliberate distortion: the Hebrew for "anointing" or "oil" has been altered by one sound into the word for "destruction" or "corruption." Ashtoreth, Chemosh and Milcom were the chief deities of Sidon (Phoenicia), Moab and Ammon, Israel's neighbors. Solomon had built these shrines for his foreign wives some three centuries earlier (1 Kings 11), so they had stood a very long time. "Abomination" is a term of disgust for a forbidden object of worship; it is a label the writer applies, not the neighbors' own word for their gods.

14He smashed the sacred stone pillars to pieces, cut down the Asherah poles, and covered those places with human bones.

14And he brake in pieces the images, and cut down the groves, and filled their places with the bones of men.

NoteThe "images" (KJV) are standing stones, upright slabs set up to mark a sacred site or represent a deity's presence. Scattering human bones over the sites made them permanently unclean and so unusable for worship.

15He also pulled down the altar at Bethel and the hill shrine that Jeroboam son of Nebat had built, the king who led Israel into sin. He tore down that altar and that shrine, burned the shrine, ground it into powder, and burned the Asherah pole.

15Moreover the altar that was at Bethel, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he brake down, and burned the high place, and stamped it small to powder, and burned the grove.

NoteJeroboam son of Nebat was the first king of the northern kingdom of Israel after it split from Judah, roughly three centuries earlier. He set up sanctuaries at Bethel and Dan so his subjects would not travel to Jerusalem to worship; the books of Kings treat this as the founding sin of the north and repeat the phrase "who made Israel to sin" as a fixed tag for him.

16As Josiah turned around, he noticed the tombs there on the hillside. He sent men to take the bones out of the tombs and burned them on the altar to make it unfit for use. This matched the word of the LORD that the man of God had announced when he foretold these things.

16And as Josiah turned himself, he spied the sepulchres that were there in the mount, and sent, and took the bones out of the sepulchres, and burned them upon the altar, and polluted it, according to the word of the LORD which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words.

NoteThe "man of God" is the unnamed prophet of 1 Kings 13, who had stood at this altar generations earlier and announced that a king named Josiah would one day burn human bones on it. "Polluted" means made ritually unclean and therefore unfit for use.

17Then Josiah asked, "What is that grave marker I see?" The men of the town answered, "It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and announced these very things that you have done to the altar at Bethel."

17Then he said, What title is that that I see? And the men of the city told him, It is the sepulchre of the man of God, which came from Judah, and proclaimed these things that thou hast done against the altar of Bethel.

NoteKJV's "title" means an inscribed marker or monument over a grave, the sense the English word had in 1611, not a rank or a heading.

18Josiah said, "Leave him alone. No one is to disturb his bones." So they left his bones untouched, along with the bones of the prophet who had come from Samaria.

18And he said, Let him alone; let no man move his bones. So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet that came out of Samaria.

NoteThe prophet from Samaria is the old prophet of Bethel in 1 Kings 13, who asked to be buried in the same tomb as the man of God from Judah. "Samaria" is used loosely here for the northern territory; the city of Samaria itself was not yet founded in that prophet's lifetime.

19Josiah also removed all the shrine buildings at the hill worship sites in the towns of Samaria, the ones the kings of Israel had built, which had made the LORD angry. He did to them exactly what he had done at Bethel.

19And all the houses also of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke the Lord to anger, Josiah took away, and did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Bethel.

NoteBy Josiah's day Samaria was no longer an independent kingdom: Assyria had destroyed it about a century earlier and ruled it as a province. Josiah is therefore acting well outside his own borders, in territory that was not formally his.

20He killed all the priests of those hill shrines on their own altars, and he burned human bones on the altars. Then he went back to Jerusalem.

20And he slew all the priests of the high places that were there upon the altars, and burned men’s bones upon them, and returned to Jerusalem.

21The king gave this order to all the people: "Celebrate the Passover to the LORD your God, just as it is written in this book of the covenant."

21And the king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the passover unto the LORD your God, as it is written in the book of this covenant.

NotePassover was the annual festival marking Israel's escape from Egypt, kept with a lamb slaughtered and eaten by household. The novelty here is that it is held centrally in Jerusalem rather than in homes and local shrines across the country.

22No Passover like this one had been held since the days of the judges who led Israel, nor during all the years of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah.

22Surely there was not holden such a passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah;

Note"The days of the judges" refers to the period before Israel had kings, described in the book of Judges, several hundred years earlier. The claim is about how the festival was kept, not that it had never been kept at all.

23But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover was held to the LORD in Jerusalem.

23But in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, wherein this passover was holden to the LORD in Jerusalem.

NoteJosiah's eighteenth year is around 622 BC. The same year is given in 2 Kings 22:3 as the year the scroll was found, so the discovery, the covenant ceremony, the purge and the Passover are all dated to a single year.

24Josiah also cleared out the mediums and the spiritists, the household gods, the idols, and all the detestable things that could be seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem. He did this to carry out the words of the law written in the book that Hilkiah the priest had found in the house of the LORD.

24Moreover the workers with familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the images, and the idols, and all the abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he might perform the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the LORD.

NoteKJV's "workers with familiar spirits" and "wizards" mean mediums who consulted the dead and practitioners who claimed knowledge from spirits. The "images" are *teraphim*, small household figures kept in ordinary homes, used for protection and for divination.

25There was no king like him before him, one who turned to the LORD with all his heart, all his soul, and all his strength, following the whole law of Moses. And no king like him rose up after him.

25And like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the LORD with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him.

Note"Heart, soul and might" is the wording of Deuteronomy 6:5, quoted here; "soul" in Hebrew means the whole living self, not an immaterial part of a person, and "might" means force or capacity, including property.

26Even so, the LORD did not turn away from the heat of his great anger, which burned against Judah because of all the ways Manasseh had provoked him.

26Notwithstanding the LORD turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him withal.

NoteManasseh, Josiah's grandfather, reigned fifty-five years and is described in 2 Kings 21 as having filled Judah with the practices Josiah is now dismantling.

27The LORD had said, "I will remove Judah from my sight, just as I removed Israel. I will reject this city, Jerusalem, which I chose, and the temple about which I said, 'My name will be there.'"

27And the LORD said, I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and will cast off this city Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there.

Note"I have removed Israel" refers to the northern kingdom's destruction by Assyria about a century before. Putting one's name on a place is an ancient idiom of ownership and claim, used in royal inscriptions as well: the temple is marked as belonging to the LORD.

28The rest of what Josiah did, everything he accomplished, is written in the book of the record of the kings of Judah.

28Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

NoteThis "book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah" is a royal record kept at court, now lost. It is not the biblical books of 1 and 2 Chronicles, which were written later.

29During his reign, Pharaoh Neco, king of Egypt, marched to the Euphrates River to the king of Assyria. King Josiah went out to meet him in battle, and Neco faced him and killed him at Megiddo.

29In his days Pharaohnechoh king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates: and king Josiah went against him; and he slew him at Megiddo, when he had seen him.

NoteAround 609 BC. The Hebrew preposition is ambiguous and can mean Neco marched "against" the king of Assyria or "to" him; other sources indicate Egypt was going to support what remained of Assyria against the rising power of Babylon, but the wording itself leaves both readings open. Megiddo commanded the main pass through the Carmel ridge on the coastal highway, the standard route for armies moving north.

30His servants carried his body in a chariot from Megiddo, brought it to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own tomb. Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz son of Josiah, poured oil on him to mark him as king, and made him king in place of his father.

30And his servants carried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own sepulchre. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father’s stead.

Note"The people of the land" is a set term for the landholding citizens of Judah, a body with real political weight who several times chose or confirmed a king. Pouring oil on the head was the formal act that installed a king; the Hebrew word for it gives the term "messiah," meaning simply "anointed one."

31Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he ruled in Jerusalem for three months. His mother's name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah, from Libnah.

31Jehoahaz was twenty and three years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.

NoteThe books of Kings name the mother of each king of Judah as part of a fixed formula, along with age at accession and length of reign; the queen mother held a recognized position at court. Libnah was a town in Judah's lowlands.

32He did what the LORD said was evil, just as his ancestors had done.

32And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done.

33Pharaoh Neco chained him up at Riblah in the land of Hamath so he could not rule in Jerusalem. Neco also made the land pay a fine of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.

33And Pharaohnechoh put him in bands at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem; and put the land to a tribute of an hundred talents of silver, and a talent of gold.

NoteRiblah, in the region of Hamath in what is now Syria, was a standard forward base for armies operating in the north; Egypt used it as a command post. KJV's "put him in bands" means put him in irons. A talent was a weight of roughly seventy-five pounds (about thirty-four kilograms), so the levy came to something over three tons of silver and about seventy-five pounds of gold, a crushing sum for a small kingdom.

34Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim son of Josiah king in place of his father Josiah, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. Neco took Jehoahaz away to Egypt, and he died there.

34And Pharaohnechoh made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the room of Josiah his father, and turned his name to Jehoiakim, and took Jehoahaz away: and he came to Egypt, and died there.

NoteRenaming a vassal king was a public assertion of control by the overlord who installed him. Both names are built on Hebrew words for God: Eliakim means roughly "God establishes," Jehoiakim "the LORD establishes." KJV's "in the room of" simply means "in place of."

35Jehoiakim paid the silver and the gold to Pharaoh, but he taxed the land to raise the money Pharaoh demanded. He collected the silver and gold from the people of the land, from each person according to what he was assessed, and gave it to Pharaoh Neco.

35And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh; but he taxed the land to give the money according to the commandment of Pharaoh: he exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, of every one according to his taxation, to give it unto Pharaohnechoh.

Note"According to his taxation" means each person was assessed individually, by property or means. The point is that Jehoiakim did not pay the tribute from royal treasure but levied it on the population.

36Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he ruled in Jerusalem for eleven years. His mother's name was Zebidah daughter of Pedaiah, from Rumah.

36Jehoiakim was twenty and five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Zebudah, the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah.

37He did what the LORD said was evil, just as his ancestors had done.

37And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done.