2 Kings 23:15

15 Josiah also tore down the altar that was in Bethel. That was the shrine made by Jeroboam, Nebat's son, who caused Israel to sin. Josiah tore down that altar and its shrine. He burned the shrine, grinding it into dust. Then he burned its sacred pole.

2 Kings 23:15 Meaning and Commentary

2 Kings 23:15

Moreover, the altar that was at Bethel, and the high place
which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made.
] For the worship of the calf there:

both that altar, and the high place, he brake down;
according to an ancient prophecy of the man of God, ( 1 Kings 13:3 ) and of Amos in later times, ( Amos 9:1 )

and burnt the high place, and stamped it small to powder;
that there might be no remains of it:

and burnt the grove;
either the grove of trees on it, or the idol that was in it.

2 Kings 23:15 In-Context

13 The king then defiled the shrines facing Jerusalem, south of the Mountain of Destruction. Solomon the king of Israel had built these for Ashtoreth, the monstrous Sidonian god, for Chemosh, the monstrous Moabite god, and for Milcom, the detestable Ammonite god.

14 He smashed the sacred pillars and cut down the sacred poles, filling the places where they had been with human bones

15 Josiah also tore down the altar that was in Bethel. That was the shrine made by Jeroboam, Nebat's son, who caused Israel to sin. Josiah tore down that altar and its shrine. He burned the shrine, grinding it into dust. Then he burned its sacred pole.

16 When Josiah turned around, he noticed tombs up on the hillside. So he ordered the bones to be taken out of the tombs. He then burned them on the altar, desecrating it. (This was in agreement with the word that the LORD announced by the man of God when Jeroboam stood by the altar at the festival.) Josiah then turned and saw the tomb of the man of God who had predicted these things.

17 "What's this gravestone I see?" Josiah asked. The people of the city replied, "That tomb belongs to the man of God who came from Judah and announced what you would do to the altar of Bethel."

Footnotes

• [a]. Heb asherah, perhaps an object devoted to the goddess Asherah