Passage Resources Hebrew/Greek Your Content
Previous Next
Add parallel Print Page Options
Close NET

2 Kings 23:4-14
New English Translation

4 The king ordered Hilkiah the high priest, the high-ranking priests,[a] and the guards[b] to bring out of the Lord’s temple all the items that were used in the worship of[c] Baal, Asherah, and all the stars of the sky.[d] The king[e] burned them outside of Jerusalem in the terraces[f] of Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel. 5 He eliminated[g] the pagan priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed to offer sacrifices[h] on the high places in the cities of Judah and in the area right around Jerusalem. (They offered sacrifices[i] to Baal, the sun god, the moon god, the constellations, and all the stars in the sky.) 6 He removed the Asherah pole from the Lord’s temple and took it outside Jerusalem to the Kidron Valley, where he burned it.[j] He smashed it to dust and then threw the dust in the public graveyard.[k] 7 He tore down the quarters[l] of the male cultic prostitutes in the Lord’s temple, where women were weaving shrines[m] for Asherah.

8 He brought all the priests from the cities of Judah and ruined[n] the high places where the priests had offered sacrifices, from Geba to Beer Sheba.[o] He tore down the high place of the goat idols[p] situated at the entrance of the gate of Joshua, the city official, on the left side of the city gate. 9 (Now the priests of the high places did not go up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, but they did eat unleavened cakes among their fellow priests.)[q] 10 The king[r] ruined Topheth in the Valley of Ben Hinnom so that no one could pass his son or his daughter through the fire to Molech.[s] 11 He removed from the entrance to the Lord’s temple the statues of horses[t] that the kings of Judah had placed there in honor of the sun god. (They were kept near the room of Nathan Melech the eunuch, which was situated among the courtyards.)[u] He burned up the chariots devoted to the sun god.[v] 12 The king tore down the altars the kings of Judah had set up on the roof of Ahaz’s upper room, as well as the altars Manasseh had set up in the two courtyards of the Lord’s temple. He crushed them[w] and threw the dust in the Kidron Valley. 13 The king ruined the high places east of Jerusalem, south of the Mount of Destruction,[x] that King Solomon of Israel had built for the detestable Sidonian goddess Astarte, the detestable Moabite god Chemosh, and the horrible Ammonite god Milcom. 14 He smashed the sacred pillars to bits, cut down the Asherah poles, and filled those shrines[y] with human bones.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 2 Kings 23:4 tn Heb “the priests of the second [rank],” that is, those ranked just beneath Hilkiah.
  2. 2 Kings 23:4 tn Or “doorkeepers.”
  3. 2 Kings 23:4 tn Heb “for.”
  4. 2 Kings 23:4 tn Heb “all the host of heaven” (also in v. 5).
  5. 2 Kings 23:4 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  6. 2 Kings 23:4 tn Or “fields.” For a defense of the translation “terraces,” see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 285.
  7. 2 Kings 23:5 tn Perhaps, “destroyed.”
  8. 2 Kings 23:5 tn Or “burn incense.”
  9. 2 Kings 23:5 tn Or “burned incense.”
  10. 2 Kings 23:6 tn Heb “and he burned it in the Kidron Valley.”
  11. 2 Kings 23:6 tc Heb “on the grave of the sons of the people.” Some Hebrew, Greek, Syriac, Aramaic, and Latin witnesses read the plural “graves.” tn The phrase “sons of the people” refers here to the common people (see BDB 766 s.v. עַם), as opposed to the upper classes who would have private tombs.
  12. 2 Kings 23:7 tn Or “cubicles.” Heb “houses.”
  13. 2 Kings 23:7 tn Heb “houses.” Perhaps tent-shrines made from cloth are in view (see BDB 109 s.v. בַּיִת). M. Cogan and H. Tadmor (II Kings [AB], 286) understand this as referring to clothes made for images of the goddess.
  14. 2 Kings 23:8 tn Heb “defiled; desecrated,” that is, “made ritually unclean and unusable.”
  15. 2 Kings 23:8 sn These towns marked Judah’s northern and southern borders, respectively, at the time of Josiah.
  16. 2 Kings 23:8 tc The Hebrew text reads “the high places of the gates,” which is problematic in that the rest of the verse speaks of a specific gate. The translation assumes an emendation to בָּמוֹת הַשְּׁעָרִים (bamot hasheʿarim), “the high place of the goats” (that is, goat idols). Worship of such images is referred to in Lev 17:7 and 2 Chr 11:15. For a discussion of the textual issue, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 286-87.
  17. 2 Kings 23:9 tn Heb “their brothers.”
  18. 2 Kings 23:10 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  19. 2 Kings 23:10 sn Attempts to identify this deity with a god known from the ancient Near East have not yet yielded a consensus. For brief discussions see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor II Kings (AB), 288 and HALOT 592 s.v. מֹלֶךְ. For more extensive studies see George C. Heider, The Cult of Molek, and John Day, Molech: A God of Human Sacrifice in the Old Testament.
  20. 2 Kings 23:11 tn The MT simply reads “the horses.” The words “statues of” have been supplied in the translation for clarity.
  21. 2 Kings 23:11 tn Heb “who/which was in the […?].” The meaning of the Hebrew term פַּרְוָרִים (parvarim), translated here “courtyards,” is uncertain. The relative clause may indicate where the room was located or explain who Nathan Melech was, “the eunuch who was in the courtyards.” See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 288-89, who translate “the officer of the precincts.”
  22. 2 Kings 23:11 tn Heb “and the chariots of the sun he burned with fire.”
  23. 2 Kings 23:12 tc The MT reads, “he ran from there,” which makes little if any sense in this context. Some prefer to emend the verbal form (Qal of רוּץ [ruts], “run”) to a Hiphil of רוּץ with third plural suffix and translate, “he quickly removed them” (see BDB 930 s.v. רוּץ, and M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings [AB], 289). The suffix could have been lost in MT by haplography (note the mem [מ] that immediately follows the verb on the form מִשָּׁם, misham, “from there”). Another option, the one reflected in the translation, is to emend the verb to a Piel of רָצַץ (ratsats), “crush,” with third plural suffix.
  24. 2 Kings 23:13 sn This is a derogatory name for the Mount of Olives, involving a wordplay between מִשְׁחָה (mishkhah), “anointing,” and מַשְׁחִית (mashkhit), “destruction.” See HALOT 644 s.v. מַשְׁחִית and M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 289.
  25. 2 Kings 23:14 tn Heb “their place.”
Close LSB

2 Kings 23:4-14
Legacy Standard Bible

4 Then the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and (A)the priests of the second order and the [a]doorkeepers, (B)to bring out of the temple of Yahweh all the vessels that were made for Baal, for [b]Asherah, and for all the host of heaven; and (C)he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel. 5 And he did away with the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed and who burn incense in 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 and to the moon and to the constellations and to all the (D)host of heaven. 6 And he brought out the Asherah from the house of Yahweh outside Jerusalem to the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and (E)ground it to dust, and (F)threw its dust on the graves of the [c]common people. 7 He also tore down the houses of the (G)male cult prostitutes which were in the house of Yahweh, where (H)the women were weaving [d]hangings for the Asherah. 8 Then he brought all the priests from the cities of Judah and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from (I)Geba to Beersheba; and he tore down the high places of the gates which were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the ruler of the city, which were on one’s left at the city gate. 9 Nevertheless (J)the priests of the high places did not go up to the altar of Yahweh in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their brothers. 10 (K)He also defiled [e]Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, (L)that no man might make his son or his daughter pass through the fire for (M)Molech. 11 And he did away with the horses which the kings of Judah had given to the (N)sun, at the entrance of the house of Yahweh, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the official, which was in the precincts; and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire. 12 (O)Also, the altars which were on the roof, the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and (P)the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of Yahweh, the king tore down; and he [f]crushed them there and (Q)threw their dust into the brook Kidron. 13 And the high places which were before Jerusalem, which were on the right of (R)the mount of destruction which Solomon the king of Israel had built for (S)Ashtoreth the detestable idol of the Sidonians, and for (T)Chemosh the detestable idol of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the sons of Ammon, the king defiled. 14 (U)And he broke in pieces the sacred pillars and cut down the Asherim and (V)filled their places with human bones.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 2 Kings 23:4 Lit keepers of the threshold
  2. 2 Kings 23:4 A wooden symbol of a female deity, so in ch
  3. 2 Kings 23:6 Lit sons of the people
  4. 2 Kings 23:7 Or tents; lit houses
  5. 2 Kings 23:10 Lit place of burning
  6. 2 Kings 23:12 Or ran from there
Next
2 Kings 22
2 Kings 24
Next
dropdown
New English Translation (NET)

NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2017 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com All rights reserved.

Legacy Standard Bible (LSB)

Legacy Standard Bible Copyright ©2021 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc. LSBible.org For Permission to Quote Information visit https://www.LSBible.org.