2 Kings 23
23
Covenant Renewal
1So the king sent messengers, # 2Ch 34:29-32 and they gathered all the elders # 2Kg 10:1 of Jerusalem and Judah to him. 2Then 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. As they listened, he read all the words of the book of the covenant # Dt 31:10-13 that had been found in the Lord’s temple. # 2Kg 22:8 3Next, the king stood by the pillar # 2Ch 34:31 reads platform # 1Kg 7:15; 2Kg 11:14 and made a covenant # 2Kg 11:17 in the presence of the Lord to follow the Lord and to keep His commands, His decrees, and His statutes with all his mind and with all his heart, # Dt 6:4-6; 13:4 and to carry out the words of this covenant that were written in this book; all the people agreed to # Lit people took a stand in the covenant. # Ex 24:3-8; Jos 24:14-28
Josiah’s Reforms
4Then the king commanded Hilkiah # 2Kg 22:8,14 the high priest and the priests of the second rank # 2Kg 25:18; Jr 35:4; 52:24 and the doorkeepers to bring out of the Lord’s temple all the articles made for Baal, Asherah, and the whole heavenly host. # 2Kg 21:3,7; 2Ch 33:3 He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron and carried their ashes to Bethel. # 2Kg 23:15 5Then he did away with the idolatrous priests the kings of Judah had appointed to burn incense at the high places # 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 the whole heavenly host. # 2Kg 21:3 6He brought out the Asherah pole # 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, # 1Kg 15:13 beat it to dust, # 2Kg 23:15 and threw its dust on the graves of the common people. # Lit the sons of the people # 2Ch 34:4; Jr 26:23 7He also tore down the houses of the male cult prostitutes # Dt 23:17; 1Kg 14:24; 15:12 that were in the Lord’s temple, in which the women were weaving tapestries # Or clothing for Asherah. # Ex 38:8; Ezk 16:16
8Then Josiah brought all the priests from the cities of Judah, and he defiled the high places # 2Kg 18:4 from Geba # Jos 21:17; 1Kg 15:22 to Beer-sheba, # 1Sm 3:20 where the priests had burned incense. He tore down the high places of the gates at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city (on the left at the city gate). 9The 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. # Ezk 44:10-14
10He defiled Topheth, # Is 30:33; Jr 7:31-32 which is in the Valley of Hinnom, # Jos 15:8 so that no one could make his son or daughter pass through the fire # Lv 18:21; 20:2-5 to Molech. # 1Kg 11:7; Jr 32:35 11He 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 court official, and he burned up the chariots of the sun. # Dt 4:19; Ezk 8:16
12The king tore down the altars that were on the roof # Jr 19:13; Zph 1:4-5 — Ahaz’s upper chamber # 2Kg 20:11 that the kings of Judah had made — and the altars that Manasseh had made # 2Kg 21:5; 2Ch 33:5 in the two courtyards of the Lord’s temple. Then he smashed them # Text emended; MT reads he ran from there and threw their dust into the Kidron Valley. 13The 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 detestable idol of the Sidonians; for Chemosh, the detestable idol of Moab; and for Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites. # 1Kg 11:5-8 14He broke the sacred pillars into pieces, # Ex 23:24 cut down the Asherah poles, # 2Kg 18:4 then filled their places with human bones.
15He even tore down the altar at Bethel # 1Kg 13:1-3 and the high place # 1Kg 12:28-33 that Jeroboam son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin, had made. Then he burned the high place, crushed it to dust, and burned the Asherah. # 2Kg 23:6 16As 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. # 2Ch 34:5 He defiled it according to the word of the Lord proclaimed by the man of God # 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. # 1Kg 13:2 17Then 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.” # 1Kg 13:1,31-32
18So 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. # 1Kg 13:29-31
19Josiah also removed all the shrines of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke the Lord. # 2Ch 34:6-7 Josiah did the same things to them that he had done at Bethel. 20He slaughtered on the altars all the priests of the high places # 1Kg 12:31; 13:2 who were there, and he burned human bones on the altars. # 2Kg 10:25; 11:18; 2Ch 34:5 Then he returned to Jerusalem.
Passover Observed
21The king commanded all the people, “Keep the Passover of the Lord your God as written in the book of the covenant.” # Nm 9:1-14; Dt 16:1-8; 2Ch 35:1-6 22No such Passover had ever been kept from the time of the judges who judged Israel through the entire time of the kings of Israel and Judah. 23But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover was observed to the Lord in Jerusalem. # 2Ch 35:18-19
Further Zeal for the Lord
24In addition, Josiah removed the mediums, the spiritists, # Lv 19:31; 2Kg 21:6 household idols, # Gn 31:19 images, and all the detestable things # 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 Hilkiah the priest found in the Lord’s temple. # 2Kg 22:8; 23:2-3 25Before him there was no king like him who turned to the Lord with all his mind and with all his heart and with all his strength # Dt 6:4-9; 2Kg 23:3 according to all the law of Moses, and no one like him arose after him. # 1Kg 3:12; 2Kg 18:5
26In spite of all that, the Lord did not turn from the fury of His great burning anger, which burned against Judah because of all that Manasseh had provoked Him with. # 2Kg 21:11-13; Jr 15:4 27For the Lord had said, “I will also remove Judah from My sight just as I have removed Israel. # 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.’ ” # Dt 12:11; 1Kg 9:3; 2Kg 21:4
Josiah’s Death
28The rest of the events of Josiah’s reign, # 2Ch 35:20-27 along with all his accomplishments, are written in the Historical Record of Judah’s Kings. 29During his reign, Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt # Jr 46:2 marched up to help the king of Assyria at the Euphrates River. King Josiah went to confront him, and at Megiddo # Jdg 5:19 when Neco saw him he killed him. 30From Megiddo his servants carried his dead body in a chariot, brought him into Jerusalem, and buried him in his own tomb. # 2Kg 9:28 Then the common people # Lit the people of the land took Jehoahaz son of Josiah, anointed him, and made him king in place of his father. # 2Ch 36:1
Judah’s King Jehoahaz
31Jehoahaz # 1Ch 3:15; Jr 22:11 was # 2Ch 36:2-3 23 years old when he became king and reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal # 2Kg 24:18 daughter of Jeremiah, from Libnah. 32He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight just as his ancestors had done. # 2Kg 21:2-7 33Pharaoh Neco imprisoned him at Riblah # 2Kg 25:6 in the land of Hamath # 1Kg 8:65 to keep him from reigning in Jerusalem, and he imposed on the land a fine of 7,500 pounds # Lit 100 talents of silver and 75 pounds # Lit one talent of gold.
Judah’s King Jehoiakim
34Then # 2Ch 36:4-5 Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim # 1Ch 3:15 son of Josiah king in place of his father Josiah and changed Eliakim’s name to Jehoiakim. # 2Kg 24:17; 2Ch 36:4 But Neco took Jehoahaz and went to Egypt, and he died there. # Jr 22:11-12; Ezk 19:3-4 35So Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh, but at Pharaoh’s command he taxed the land to give the money. He exacted the silver and the gold from the common people, # Lit the people of the land each man according to his assessment, # Ex 30:12-16; Lv 27:2-8 to give it to Pharaoh Neco.
36Jehoiakim was 25 years old when he became king and reigned 11 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zebidah daughter of Pedaiah, from Rumah. 37He did what was evil # Jr 22:13-19; 36:1-26 in the Lord’s sight just as his ancestors had done.
Currently Selected:
2 Kings 23: HCSB
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
© 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee. All rights reserved.
Melaḵim Bĕt (2 Kings) 23
23
1And the sovereign sent, and they gathered all the elders of Yehuḏah and Yerushalayim to him.
2And the sovereign went up to the House of יהוה with all the men of Yehuḏah, and all the inhabitants of Yerushalayim with him, and the priests and the prophets and all the people, both small and great. And he read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant which had been found in the House of יהוה.
3And the sovereign stood by the column and made a covenant before יהוה, to follow יהוה and to guard His commands and His witnesses and His laws, with all his heart and all his being, to establish the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people stood to the covenant.
4Then the sovereign commanded Ḥilqiyahu the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the doorkeepers, to bring out of the Hĕḵal of יהוה all the objects that were made for Ba‛al, and for Ashĕrah, and for all the host of the heavens. And he burned them outside Yerushalayim in the fields of Qiḏron, and took their ashes to Bĕyth Ěl.
5And he put down the black-robed priests#Heb. kemarim. whom the sovereigns of Yehuḏah had appointed to burn incense on the high places in the cities of Yehuḏah and in the places all around Yerushalayim, and those who burned incense to Ba‛al, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the constellations, and to all the host of the heavens.
6And he brought out the Ashĕrah from the House of יהוה, to the wadi Qiḏron outside Yerushalayim, and burned it at the wadi Qiḏron and ground it to ashes, and threw its ashes on the burial-sites of the sons of the people.
7And he broke down the houses of the male cult prostitutes that were in the House of יהוה, where the women wove tapestries for the Ashĕrah.
8And he brought all the priests from the cities of Yehuḏah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geḇa to Be’ĕrsheḇa, and broke down the high places at the gates which were at the entrance of the Gate of Yehoshua the governor of the city, which were to the left of the city gate.
9However, the priests of the high places did not come up to the slaughter-place of יהוה in Yerushalayim, but they ate unleavened bread among their brothers.
10And he defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, so that no man could make his son or his daughter pass through the fire to Moleḵ.
11And he did away with the horses that the sovereigns of Yehuḏah had given to the sun, at the entrance to the House of יהוה, by the room of Nathan-Meleḵ the eunuch, that were in the court. And he burned the chariots of the sun with fire.
12And the slaughter-places that were on the roof of the upper room of Aḥaz, which the sovereigns of Yehuḏah had made, and the slaughter-places which Menashsheh had made in the two courtyards of the House of יהוה, the sovereign broke down, and rushed from there, and threw their dust into the wadi Qiḏron.
13And the sovereign defiled the high places that were before Yerushalayim, which were on the right hand of the Mountain of Destruction, which Shelomoh sovereign of Yisra’ĕl built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Tsiḏonians, and for Kemosh the abomination of the Mo’aḇites, and for Milkom the abomination of the children of Ammon.
14And he broke in pieces the pillars and cut down the Ashĕrim, and filled their places with the bones of men.
15And also the slaughter-place that was at Bĕyth Ěl, and the high place which Yaroḇ‛am son of Neḇat made, by which he made Yisra’ĕl sin, both that slaughter-place and the high place he broke down. And he burned the high place and ground it to dust, and burned the Ashĕrah.
16Then Yoshiyahu turned, and saw the burial-sites that were there on the mountain. And he sent and took the bones out of the burial-sites and burned them on the slaughter-place, and defiled it according to the word of יהוה which the man of Elohim proclaimed, who proclaimed these words.
17And he said, “What tombstone is this that I see?” And the men of the city said to him, “It is the burial-site of the man of Elohim who came from Yehuḏah and proclaimed these matters which you have done against the slaughter-place of Bĕyth Ěl.”
18And he said, “Let him alone, let no one move his bones.” So they left his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet who came from Shomeron.
19And Yoshiyahu also took away all the houses of the high places that were in the cities of Shomeron, which the sovereigns of Yisra’ĕl had made to provoke. And he did to them according to all the deeds he did in Bĕyth Ěl.
20And he slaughtered all the priests of the high places who were there, on the slaughter-places, and burned men’s bones on them, and went back to Yerushalayim.
21And the sovereign commanded all the people, saying, “Prepare the Pĕsaḥ to יהוה your Elohim, as it is written in this Book of the Covenant.”
22For such a Pĕsaḥ had not been prepared since the days of the rulers who ruled Yisra’ĕl, nor in all the days of the sovereigns of Yisra’ĕl and the sovereigns of Yehuḏah,
23but in the eighteenth year of Sovereign Yoshiyahu this Pĕsaḥ was prepared before יהוה in Yerushalayim.
24And also, Yoshiyahu put away those who consulted mediums and spiritists, and the household mighty ones and idols, and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Yehuḏah and in Yerushalayim, in order to establish the words of the Torah which were written in the book that Ḥilqiyahu the priest found in the House of יהוה.
25And before him there was no sovereign like him, who turned back to יהוה with all his heart, and with all his being, and with all his might, according to all the Torah of Mosheh; and after him none rose up like him.
26However, יהוה did not turn from the fierceness of His great wrath, with which His wrath burned against Yehuḏah, because of all the provocations with which Menashsheh had provoked Him.
27And יהוה said, “Even Yehuḏah I shall remove from My presence, as I have removed Yisra’ĕl, and I shall reject this city Yerushalayim which I have chosen, and the House of which I said, ‘My Name is there.’ ”
28And the rest of the acts of Yoshiyahu, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the sovereigns of Yehuḏah?
29In his days Pharaoh Neḵo sovereign of Mitsrayim went up against the sovereign of Ashshur, to the River Euphrates. And Sovereign Yoshiyahu went out to him, and he killed him at Meḡiddo when he saw him.
30And his servants conveyed his body in a chariot from Meḡiddo, and brought him to Yerushalayim, and buried him in his own burial-place. And the people of the land took Yeho’aḥaz son of Yoshiyahu, and anointed him, and set him up to reign in his father’s place.
31Yeho’aḥaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three new moons in Yerushalayim. And his mother’s name was Ḥamutal the daughter of Yirmeyahu of Liḇnah.
32And he did evil in the eyes of יהוה, according to all that his fathers did.
33And Pharaoh Neḵo imprisoned him at Riblah in the land of Ḥamath, to keep him from reigning in Yerushalayim. And he imposed on the land a fine of one hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.
34And Pharaoh Neḵo set up Elyaqim son of Yoshiyahu to reign in place of his father Yoshiyahu, and changed his name to Yehoyaqim. And Pharaoh took Yeho’aḥaz and went to Mitsrayim, and he died there.
35And Yehoyaqim gave the silver and gold to Pharaoh. Only, he taxed the land to give silver according to the mouth of Pharaoh. He exacted the silver and gold from the people of the land, from every one according to his assessment, to give it to Pharaoh Neḵo.
36Yehoyaqim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Yerushalayim. And his mother’s name was Zeḇiḏah the daughter of Peḏayah of Rumah.
37And he did evil in the eyes of יהוה, according to all that his fathers did.
Currently Selected:
:
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
Copyright© 1993 – 2015 by the Institute for Scripture Research (ISR). All rights reserved.