2 Kings 23:4-14

Evangelical Heritage Version

Josiah Cleanses the Land

⁴ Then the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, the lower-ranking priests, and the gatekeepers that they should remove from the temple of the Lord all the articles which had been made for Baal, for Asherah, and for the whole army of the heavens.^[a] He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron Valley, and he took the ashes to Bethel. ⁵ He removed the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had appointed to burn incense at the high places^[b] in the cities of Judah and in the area around Jerusalem, those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, to the moon, to the constellations, and to the whole army of the heavens. ⁶ He took the Asherah pole from the House of the Lord to the Kidron Valley, outside of Jerusalem. He burned it there. He crushed it to dust and scattered the dust on the graves of the common people. ⁷ He tore down the houses of the male shrine prostitutes, which were in the House of the Lord, where women were weaving hangings for Asherah.

⁸ Then he brought all the priests from the cities of Judah and defiled the high places where the priests had been burning incense, from Gibeah to Beersheba. He tore down the high places by the gates, which were at the entrance to the Gate of Joshua, who was the official over the city. This gate was to the left of the main gate to the city. ⁹ The priests from the high places could not go up to the Lord’s altar in Jerusalem, but they were allowed to eat unleavened bread in the midst of their brothers.

¹⁰ He defiled Tophet, which was in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, so that no one could make his son or daughter pass through the fire for Molek. ¹¹ He removed the horses, which the kings of Judah had set up for the sun, from the entrance to the Lord’s house. They were near the office of Nathan Melek, the high official, which was in the temple courtyard. Then he burned the chariots of the sun.

¹² The king tore down the altars that were on the roof of the chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars that Manasseh had made in the two courtyards of the House of the Lord. He smashed them and threw the dust into the Kidron Valley. ¹³ The king defiled the high places which were east of Jerusalem on the south end of the Mount of Corruption,^[c] which Solomon king of Israel had made for Ashtarte, the detestable goddess of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh, the detestable god of Moab, and for Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites. ¹⁴ He smashed the sacred memorial stones to bits, and he cut down the Asherah poles. Then he filled their sites with human bones.