2 Kings 23:1-6

Josiah's Covenant

1 ¹Then the king sent, and they gathered to him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem.

2 The king went up to the house of the LORD and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests and the prophets and all the people, both small and great; and ²he read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant ³which was found in the house of the LORD.

3 ⁴The king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the LORD, ⁵to walk after the LORD, and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to carry out the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people entered into the covenant.

Reforms under Josiah

4 Then the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and ⁶the priests of the second order and the doorkeepers, ⁷to bring out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels that were made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven; and ⁸he burned them outside * Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel

5 He did away with the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah and in the surrounding area of Jerusalem, also those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun and to the moon and to the constellations and to all the ⁹host of heaven.

6 He brought out the Asherah from the house of the LORD outside * Jerusalem to the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and ¹⁰ground it to dust, and ¹¹threw its dust on the graves of the common people.

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2 Kings 23:1-6 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 2 KINGS 23

This chapter treats of Josiah's reading the book of the law, and of him and the people renewing the covenant with God, 2Ki 23:1-3, and of his removing idols and idolatry in every shape, and witchcraft, out of the land, which he did in the sincerity of his heart, 2Ki 23:4-25, yet the wrath of God was still determined upon the land, 2Ki 23:26-28 and Josiah was taken away by an untimely death, 2Ki 23:29,30 and was succeeded by two sons of his, one after another, whose reigns were wicked, 2Ki 23:31-37.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 11

1. 2 Chronicles 34:29-32
2. Deuteronomy 31:10-13
3. 2 Kings 22:8
4. 2 Kings 11:14, 17
5. Deuteronomy 13:4
6. 2 Kings 25:18; Jeremiah 52:24
7. 2 Kings 21:3, 7; 2 Chronicles 33:3
8. 2 Kings 23:15
9. 2 Kings 21:3
10. 2 Kings 23:15
11. 2 Chronicles 34:4

Footnotes 4

[a]. Lit "took a stand in"
[b]. Lit "keepers of the threshold"
[c]. I.e. a wooden symbol of a female deity, and so throughout the ch
[d]. Lit "sons of the people"