2 Kings 23

Covenant Renewal

1 So the king sent messengers,  * 23:1 2Ch 34:29–32 and they gathered all the elders  * 23:1 2Kg 10:1 of Judah and Jerusalem to him. 2 Then the king went to the Lord’s temple with all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, as well as the priests and the prophets — all the people from the youngest to the oldest. He read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant  * 23:2 Dt 31:10–13 that had been found in the Lord’s temple.  * 23:2 2Kg 22:83 Next, the king stood by the pillar  * 23:3 2Ch 34:31 reads platform,* 23:3 1Kg 7:15; 2Kg 11:14 and made a covenant  * 23:3 2Kg 11:17 in the Lord’s presence to follow the Lord and to keep his commands, his decrees, and his statutes with all his heart and with all his soul  * 23:3 Dt 6:4–6; 13:4 in order to carry out the words of this covenant that were written in this book; all the people agreed to  * 23:3 Lit people took a stand in the covenant.  * 23:3 Ex 24:3–8; Jos 24:14–28

Josiah’s Reforms

4 Then the king commanded the high priest Hilkiah  * 23:4 2Kg 22:8,14 and the priests of the second rank  * 23:4 2Kg 25:18; Jr 35:4; 52:24 and the doorkeepers to bring out of the Lord’s sanctuary all the articles made for Baal, Asherah, and all the stars in the sky.  * 23:4 2Kg 21:3,7; 2Ch 33:3 He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron and carried their ashes to Bethel.  * 23:4 2Kg 23:155 Then he did away with the idolatrous priests the kings of Judah had appointed to burn incense at the high places  * 23:5 2Kg 16:4 in the cities of Judah and in the areas surrounding Jerusalem. They had burned incense to Baal, and to the sun, moon, constellations, and all the stars in the sky.  * 23:5 2Kg 21:36 He brought out the Asherah pole  * 23:6 1Kg 14:15,23; 2Kg 18:4; 21:7 from the Lord’s temple to the Kidron Valley outside Jerusalem. He burned it at the Kidron Valley,  * 23:6 1Kg 15:13 beat it to dust,  * 23:6 2Kg 23:15 and threw its dust on the graves of the common people.  * 23:6 Lit the sons of the people,* 23:6 2Ch 34:4; Jr 26:237 He also tore down the houses of the male cult prostitutes  * 23:7 Dt 23:17; 1Kg 14:24; 15:12 that were in the Lord’s temple, in which the women were weaving tapestries  * 23:7 Or clothing for Asherah.  * 23:7 Ex 38:8; Ezk 16:16

8 Then Josiah brought all the priests from the cities of Judah, and he defiled the high places  * 23:8 2Kg 18:4 from Geba  * 23:8 Jos 21:17; 1Kg 15:22 to Beer-sheba,  * 23:8 1Sm 3:20 where the priests had burned incense. He tore down the high places of the city gates at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city (on the left at the city gate). 9 The priests of the high places, however, did not come up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem; instead, they ate unleavened bread with their fellow priests.  * 23:9 Ezk 44:10–14

10 He defiled Topheth,  * 23:10 Is 30:33; Jr 7:31–32 which is in Ben Hinnom Valley,  * 23:10 Jos 15:8 so that no one could sacrifice his son or daughter in the fire  * 23:10 Lit could make his son or daughter pass through the fire,* 23:10 Lv 18:21; 20:2–5 to Molech.  * 23:10 1Kg 11:7; Jr 32:3511 He did away with the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun. They had been at the entrance of the Lord’s temple in the precincts by the chamber of Nathan-melech, the eunuch. He also burned the chariots of the sun.  * 23:11 Dt 4:19; Ezk 8:16

12 The king tore down the altars that the kings of Judah had made on the roof  * 23:12 Jr 19:13; Zph 1:4–5 of Ahaz’s upper chamber.  * 23:12 2Kg 20:11 He also tore down the altars that Manasseh had made  * 23:12 2Kg 21:5; 2Ch 33:5 in the two courtyards of the Lord’s temple. Then he smashed them  * 23:12 Text emended; MT reads he ran from there and threw their dust into the Kidron Valley. 13 The king also defiled the high places that were across from Jerusalem, to the south of the Mount of Destruction, which King Solomon of Israel had built for Ashtoreth, the abhorrent idol of the Sidonians; for Chemosh, the abhorrent idol of Moab; and for Milcom, the detestable idol of the Ammonites.  * 23:13 1Kg 11:5–814 He broke the sacred pillars into pieces,  * 23:14 Ex 23:24 cut down the Asherah poles,  * 23:14 2Kg 18:4 then filled their places with human bones.

15 He even tore down the altar at Bethel  * 23:15 1Kg 13:1–3 and the high place  * 23:15 1Kg 12:28–33 that had been made by Jeroboam son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin. He burned the high place, crushed it to dust, and burned the Asherah.  * 23:15 2Kg 23:616 As Josiah turned, he saw the tombs there on the mountain. He sent someone to take the bones out of the tombs, and he burned them on the altar.  * 23:16 2Ch 34:5 He defiled it according to the word of the Lord proclaimed by the man of God  * 23:16 LXX adds when Jeroboam stood by the altar of the feast. And he turned and raised his eyes to the tomb of the man of God who proclaimed these things.  * 23:16 1Kg 13:217 Then he said, "What is this monument I see? "

The men of the city told him, "It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed these things that you have done to the altar at Bethel."  * 23:17 1Kg 13:1,31–32

18 So he said, "Let him rest. Don’t let anyone disturb his bones." So they left his bones undisturbed with the bones of the prophet who came from Samaria.  * 23:18 1Kg 13:29–31

19 Josiah also removed all the shrines of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to anger the Lord.  * 23:19 2Ch 34:6–7 Josiah did the same things to them that he had done at Bethel. 20 He slaughtered on the altars all the priests of those high places,  * 23:20 1Kg 12:31; 13:2 and he burned human bones on the altars.  * 23:20 2Kg 10:25; 11:18; 2Ch 34:5 Then he returned to Jerusalem.

Passover Observed

21 The king commanded all the people, "Observe the Passover of the Lord your God as written in the book of the covenant."  * 23:21 Nm 9:1–14; Dt 16:1–8; 2Ch 35:1–622 No such Passover had ever been observed from the time of the judges who judged Israel through the entire time of the kings of Israel and Judah. 23 But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, the Lord’s Passover was observed in Jerusalem.  * 23:22–23 2Ch 35:18–19

Further Zeal for the Lord

24 In addition, Josiah eradicated the mediums, the spiritists,  * 23:24 Lv 19:31; 2Kg 21:6 household idols,  * 23:24 Gn 31:19 images, and all the abhorrent things  * 23:24 Dt 7:26; 2Kg 16:3 that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem. He did this in order to carry out the words of the law that were written in the book that the priest Hilkiah found in the Lord’s temple.  * 23:24 2Kg 22:8; 23:2–325 Before him there was no king like him who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength  * 23:25 Dt 6:4–9; 2Kg 23:3 according to all the law of Moses, and no one like him arose after him.  * 23:25 1Kg 3:12; 2Kg 18:5

26 In spite of all that, the Lord did not turn from the fury of his intense burning anger, which burned against Judah because of all the affronts with which Manasseh had angered him.  * 23:26 2Kg 21:11–13; Jr 15:427 For the Lord had said, "I will also remove Judah from my presence just as I have removed Israel.  * 23:27 2Kg 18:11–12 I will reject this city Jerusalem, that I have chosen, and the temple about which I said, ‘My name will be there.’ "  * 23:27 Dt 12:11; 1Kg 9:3; 2Kg 21:4

Josiah’s Death

28 The rest of the events of Josiah’s reign,  * 23:28–30 2Ch 35:20–27 along with all his accomplishments, are written in the Historical Record of Judah’s Kings. 29 During his reign, Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt  * 23:29 Jr 46:2 marched up to help the king of Assyria at the Euphrates River. King Josiah went to confront him, and at Megiddo  * 23:29 Jdg 5:19 when Neco saw him he killed him. 30 From Megiddo his servants carried his dead body in a chariot, brought him into Jerusalem, and buried him in his own tomb.  * 23:30 2Kg 9:28 Then the common people  * 23:30 Lit the people of the land, also in v. 35 took Jehoahaz son of Josiah, anointed him, and made him king in place of his father.  * 23:30 2Ch 36:1

Judah’s King Jehoahaz

31 Jehoahaz  * 23:31 1Ch 3:15; Jr 22:11 was  * 23:31–33 2Ch 36:2–3 twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal  * 23:31 2Kg 24:18 daughter of Jeremiah; she was from Libnah. 32 He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight just as his ancestors had done.  * 23:32 2Kg 21:2–733 Pharaoh Neco imprisoned him at Riblah  * 23:33 2Kg 25:6 in the land of Hamath  * 23:33 1Kg 8:65 to keep him from reigning in Jerusalem, and he imposed on the land a fine of seventy-five hundred pounds  * 23:33 Lit 100 talents of silver and seventy-five pounds  * 23:33 Lit one talent of gold.

Judah’s King Jehoiakim

34 Then  * 23:34–37 2Ch 36:4–5 Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim  * 23:34 1Ch 3:15 son of Josiah king in place of his father Josiah and changed Eliakim’s name to Jehoiakim.  * 23:34 2Kg 24:17; 2Ch 36:4 But Neco took Jehoahaz and went to Egypt, and he died there.  * 23:34 Jr 22:11–12; Ezk 19:3–435 So Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh, but at Pharaoh’s command he taxed the land to give it. He exacted the silver and the gold from the common people, each according to his assessment,  * 23:35 Ex 30:12–16; Lv 27:2–8 to give it to Pharaoh Neco.

36 Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zebidah daughter of Pedaiah; she was from Rumah. 37 He did what was evil  * 23:37 Jr 22:13–19; 36:1–26 in the Lord’s sight just as his ancestors had done.