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2 Kings 23:4-14
New Living Translation

4 Then the king instructed Hilkiah the high priest and the priests of the second rank and the Temple gatekeepers to remove from the Lord’s Temple all the articles that were used to worship Baal, Asherah, and all the powers of the heavens. The king had all these things burned outside Jerusalem on the terraces of the Kidron Valley, and he carried the ashes away to Bethel. 5 He did away with the idolatrous priests, who had been appointed by the previous kings of Judah, for they had offered sacrifices at the pagan shrines throughout Judah and even in the vicinity of Jerusalem. They had also offered sacrifices to Baal, and to the sun, the moon, the constellations, and to all the powers of the heavens. 6 The king removed the Asherah pole from the Lord’s Temple and took it outside Jerusalem to the Kidron Valley, where he burned it. Then he ground the ashes of the pole to dust and threw the dust over the graves of the people. 7 He also tore down the living quarters of the male and female shrine prostitutes that were inside the Temple of the Lord, where the women wove coverings for the Asherah pole.

8 Josiah brought to Jerusalem all the priests who were living in other towns of Judah. He also defiled the pagan shrines, where they had offered sacrifices—all the way from Geba to Beersheba. He destroyed the shrines at the entrance to the gate of Joshua, the governor of Jerusalem. This gate was located to the left of the city gate as one enters the city. 9 The priests who had served at the pagan shrines were not allowed to serve at[a] the Lord’s altar in Jerusalem, but they were allowed to eat unleavened bread with the other priests.

10 Then the king defiled the altar of Topheth in the valley of Ben-Hinnom, so no one could ever again use it to sacrifice a son or daughter in the fire[b] as an offering to Molech. 11 He removed from the entrance of the Lord’s Temple the horse statues that the former kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun. They were near the quarters of Nathan-melech the eunuch, an officer of the court.[c] The king also burned the chariots dedicated to the sun.

12 Josiah tore down the altars that the kings of Judah had built on the palace roof above the upper room of Ahaz. The king destroyed the altars that Manasseh had built in the two courtyards of the Lord’s Temple. He smashed them to bits[d] and scattered the pieces in the Kidron Valley. 13 The king also desecrated the pagan shrines east of Jerusalem, to the south of the Mount of Corruption, where King Solomon of Israel had built shrines for Ashtoreth, the detestable goddess of the Sidonians; and for Chemosh, the detestable god of the Moabites; and for Molech,[e] the vile god of the Ammonites. 14 He smashed the sacred pillars and cut down the Asherah poles. Then he desecrated these places by scattering human bones over them.

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Footnotes

  1. 23:9 Hebrew did not come up to.
  2. 23:10 Or to make a son or daughter pass through the fire.
  3. 23:11 The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
  4. 23:12 Or He quickly removed them.
  5. 23:13 Hebrew Milcom, a variant spelling of Molech.
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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.

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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.”
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