Josiah’s Covenant

23 (A)Then the king sent messengers, and they gathered to him all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. And the king went up to the house of the Lord and every man of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests, the prophets, and all the people, from the small to the great; and (B)he read in their [a]presence all the words of the Book of the Covenant (C)which was found in the house of the Lord. And (D)the king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the Lord, (E)to walk after the Lord, and to keep His commandments, His provisions, and His statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to carry out the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people [b]entered into the covenant.

Reforms under Josiah

Then the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, (F)the priests of the second order, and the [c]doorkeepers (G)to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the utensils that had been made for Baal, for [d]Asherah, and for all the heavenly [e]lights; and (H)he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron Valley, and carried their ashes to Bethel. Then he did away with the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed to burn incense on the high places in the cities of Judah and in the surrounding area of Jerusalem, as well as those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, to the moon, to the constellations, and to all the remaining (I)heavenly [f]lights. He also brought out the Asherah from the house of the Lord outside Jerusalem to the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and (J)ground it to dust, and (K)threw its dust on the graves of the [g]common people. And he tore down the cubicles of the (L)male cult prostitutes which were in the house of the Lord, where (M)the women were weaving [h]hangings for the Asherah. Then he brought all the priests from the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from (N)Geba to Beersheba; and he tore down the high places of the gates that were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on one’s left at the city gate. Nevertheless (O)the priests of the high places did not go up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their brothers. 10 (P)He also defiled [i]Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, (Q)so that no one would make his son or his daughter pass through the fire for (R)Molech. 11 And he did away with the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the (S)sun, at the entrance of the house of the Lord, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the official, which was at the [j]covered courtyard; and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire. 12 The king also tore down (T)the altars that were on the roof, the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and (U)the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courtyards of the house of the Lord; and he [k]smashed them there and (V)threw their dust into the brook Kidron. 13 And the king defiled the high places that were opposite Jerusalem, which were on the right of (W)the mount of destruction which Solomon the king of Israel had built for (X)Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, for (Y)Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the sons of Ammon. 14 (Z)He also smashed to pieces the memorial stones and cut down the [l]Asherim, and (AA)filled their places with human bones.

15 Furthermore, (AB)the altar that was at Bethel and the (AC)high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who misled Israel into sin, had made, even that altar and the high place he tore down. Then he (AD)burned the high place, ground the remains to dust, and burned the Asherah. 16 Now when Josiah turned, he saw the graves that were there on the mountain, and he sent men and took the bones from the graves, and burned them on the altar and defiled it (AE)in accordance with the word of the Lord which the man of God proclaimed, the one who proclaimed these things. 17 Then he said, “What is this gravestone there that I see?” And the men of the city told him, “(AF)It is the grave of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed these things which you have done against the altar of Bethel.” 18 And he said, “Leave him alone; no one is to disturb his bones.” So they left his bones undisturbed (AG)with the bones of the prophet who came from Samaria. 19 Then Josiah also removed all the houses of the high places which were (AH)in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had constructed, [m]provoking the Lord to anger; and he did to them [n]just as he had done in Bethel. 20 And (AI)he slaughtered all the priests of the high places who were there on the altars, and burned human bones on them; then he returned to Jerusalem.

Passover Reinstituted

21 Then the king commanded all the people, saying, “(AJ)Celebrate the Passover to the Lord your God (AK)as it is written in this Book of the Covenant.” 22 (AL)Truly such a Passover had not been celebrated since the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah. 23 But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover was celebrated to the Lord in Jerusalem.

24 Moreover, Josiah removed (AM)the mediums, the spiritists, the [o](AN)household idols, (AO)the idols, and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, (AP)so that he might [p]fulfill the words of the Law which were written (AQ)in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Lord. 25 Before him there was no king (AR)like him who turned to the Lord with all his heart, all his soul, and all his might, in conformity to all the Law of Moses; nor did any like him arise after him.

26 Nevertheless, the Lord did not turn from the fierceness of His great wrath with which His anger burned against Judah, (AS)because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked Him. 27 And the Lord said, “I will also remove Judah from My sight, (AT)just as I have removed Israel. And (AU)I will reject this city which I have chosen, Jerusalem, and the [q]temple of which I said, ‘My name shall be there!’”

Jehoahaz Succeeds Josiah

28 Now 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? 29 (AV)In his days (AW)Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt went up to the king of Assyria at the river Euphrates. And King Josiah went to meet him, and when Pharaoh Neco saw him he killed him at (AX)Megiddo. 30 (AY)His servants carried [r]his body in a chariot from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem and buried him in his own tomb. (AZ)Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah and anointed him and made him king in place of his father.

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Footnotes

  1. 2 Kings 23:2 Lit ears
  2. 2 Kings 23:3 Lit took a stand in
  3. 2 Kings 23:4 Lit keepers of the threshold
  4. 2 Kings 23:4 I.e., a wooden symbol of a female deity, and so throughout the ch
  5. 2 Kings 23:4 Lit host
  6. 2 Kings 23:5 Lit host
  7. 2 Kings 23:6 Lit sons of the people
  8. 2 Kings 23:7 Or dresses
  9. 2 Kings 23:10 I.e., place of burning
  10. 2 Kings 23:11 Meaning of the Heb uncertain
  11. 2 Kings 23:12 Or ran from there
  12. 2 Kings 23:14 I.e., wooden symbols of a female deity (Asherah)
  13. 2 Kings 23:19 As in ancient versions; MT provoking; and he
  14. 2 Kings 23:19 Lit according to all the acts
  15. 2 Kings 23:24 Heb teraphim
  16. 2 Kings 23:24 Or perform
  17. 2 Kings 23:27 Lit house
  18. 2 Kings 23:30 Lit him, dead

23 1-2 Then the king sent for the elders and other leaders of Judah and Jerusalem to go to the Temple with him. So all the priests and prophets and the people, small and great, of Jerusalem and Judah gathered there at the Temple so that the king could read to them the entire book of God’s laws which had been discovered in the Temple. He stood beside the pillar in front of the people, and he and they made a solemn promise to the Lord to obey him at all times and to do everything the book commanded.

Then the king instructed Hilkiah the High Priest and the rest of the priests and the guards of the Temple to destroy all the equipment used in the worship of Baal, Asherah, and the sun, moon, and stars. The king had it all burned in the fields of the Kidron Valley outside Jerusalem, and he carried the ashes to Bethel. He killed the heathen priests who had been appointed by the previous kings of Judah, for they had burned incense in the shrines on the hills throughout Judah and even in Jerusalem. They had also offered incense to Baal and to the sun, moon, stars, and planets. He removed the shameful idol of Asherah from the Temple and took it outside Jerusalem to Kidron Brook; there he burned it and beat it to dust and threw the dust on the graves of the common people. He also tore down the houses of male prostitution around the Temple, where the women wove robes for the Asherah idol.

He brought back to Jerusalem the priests of the Lord, who were living in other cities of Judah, and tore down all the shrines on the hills where they had burned incense, even those as far away as Geba and Beersheba. He also destroyed the shrines at the entrance of the palace of Joshua, the former mayor of Jerusalem, located on the left side as one enters the city gate. However, these priests[a] did not serve at the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, even though they ate with the other priests.

10 Then the king destroyed the altar of Topheth in the valley of the sons of Hinnom, so that no one could ever again use it to burn his son or daughter to death as a sacrifice to Molech. 11 He tore down the statues of horses and chariots located near the entrance of the Temple, next to the quarters of Nathan-melech the eunuch. These had been dedicated by former kings of Judah to the sun god. 12 Then he tore down the altars that the kings of Judah had built on the palace roof above the Ahaz Room. He also destroyed the altars that Manasseh had built in the two courts of the Temple; he smashed them to bits and scattered the pieces in Kidron Valley.

13 Next he removed the shrines on the hills east of Jerusalem and south of Destruction Mountain. (Solomon had built these shrines for Ashtoreth, the evil goddess of the Sidonians; and for Chemosh, the evil god of Moab; and for Milcom, the evil god of the Ammonites.) 14 He smashed the obelisks and cut down the shameful idols of Asherah; then he defiled these places by scattering human bones over them. 15 He also tore down the altar and shrine at Bethel that Jeroboam I had made when he led Israel into sin. He crushed the stones to dust and burned the shameful idol of Asherah.

16 As Josiah was looking around, he noticed several graves in the side of the mountain. He ordered his men to bring out the bones in them and to burn them there upon the altar at Bethel to defile it, just as the Lord’s prophet had declared would happen to Jeroboam’s altar.[b]

17 “What is that monument over there?” he asked.

And the men of the city told him, “It is the grave of the prophet who came from Judah and proclaimed that what you have just done would happen here at the altar at Bethel!”

18 So King Josiah replied, “Leave it alone. Don’t disturb his bones.”

So they didn’t burn his bones or those of the prophet from Samaria.[c]

19 Josiah demolished the shrines on the hills in all of Samaria. They had been built by the various kings of Israel and had made the Lord very angry. But now he crushed them into dust, just as he had done at Bethel. 20 He executed the priests of the heathen shrines upon their own altars, and he burned human bones upon the altars to defile them. Finally he returned to Jerusalem.

21 The king then issued orders for his people to observe the Passover ceremonies as recorded by the Lord their God in The Book of the Covenant. 22 There had not been a Passover celebration like that since the days of the judges of Israel, and there was never another like it in all the years of the kings of Israel and Judah. 23 This Passover was in the eighteenth year of the reign of King Josiah, and it was celebrated in Jerusalem.

24 Josiah also exterminated the mediums and wizards, and every kind of idol worship, both in Jerusalem and throughout the land. For Josiah wanted to follow all the laws that were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest had found in the Temple. 25 There was no other king who so completely turned to the Lord and followed all the laws of Moses; and no king since the time of Josiah has approached his record of obedience.

26 But the Lord still did not hold back his great anger against Judah, caused by the evils of King Manasseh. 27 For the Lord had said, “I will destroy Judah just as I have destroyed Israel; and I will discard my chosen city of Jerusalem and the Temple that I said was mine.”

28 The rest of the biography of Josiah is written in The Annals of the Kings of Judah. 29 In those days King Neco of Egypt went out to help the king of Assyria at the Euphrates River. Then King Josiah went out with his troops to fight King Neco; but King Neco withstood him at Megiddo and killed him. 30 His officers took his body back in a chariot from Megiddo to Jerusalem and buried him in the grave he had selected. And his son Jehoahaz was chosen by the nation as its new king.

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Footnotes

  1. 2 Kings 23:9 these priests, literally, “the priests of the high places.”
  2. 2 Kings 23:16 Jeroboam’s altar, see 1 Kings 13:2.
  3. 2 Kings 23:18 See 1 Kings 13:31-32.