2 Kings 23:1-10

Josiah’s Reforms

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

2 And the king went up to the house of the Lord, and with him all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the priests and the prophets, all the people, both small and great. And ²he read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant ³that had been found in the house of the Lord.

3 And the king stood ⁴by the pillar and ⁵made a covenant before the Lord, ⁶to walk after the Lord and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people joined in the covenant.

4 And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and the priests ⁷of the second order and the keepers of the threshold to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels made for ⁸Baal, for ⁹Asherah, and for all the host of heaven. ¹⁰He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron and carried their ashes to Bethel.

5 And he deposed the priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to make offerings in the high places at the cities of Judah and around Jerusalem; those also who burned incense to Baal, to the sun and the moon and the constellations ¹¹and all the host of the heavens.

6 And he brought out ¹²the Asherah from the house of the Lord, outside Jerusalem, to the brook Kidron, ¹³and burned it at the brook Kidron ¹⁴and beat it to dust and cast the dust of it upon the graves ¹⁵of the common people.

7 And he broke down the houses of ¹⁶the male cult prostitutes who were in the house of the Lord, ¹⁷where the women wove hangings for ¹⁸the Asherah.

8 And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had made offerings, from ¹⁹Geba to Beersheba. And he broke down the high places of the gates that were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on one’s left at the gate of the city.

9 ²⁰However, the priests of the high places did not come up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their brothers.

10 And he defiled ²¹Topheth, which is ²²in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, ²³that no one might burn his son or his daughter as an offering to ²⁴Molech. ^[a]

2 Kings 23:1-10 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.

Cross References

• 1. 23:1 For ver. 1-3, see 2 Chr. 34:29-32
• 2. 23:2 See Deut. 31:11
• 3. 23:2 ch. 22:8
• 4. 23:3 ch. 11:14
• 5. 23:3 [ch. 11:17]
• 6. 23:3 Deut. 13:4
• 7. 23:4 [ch. 25:18; Jer. 52:24]
• 8. 23:4 ch. 21:3
• 9. 23:4 See Deut. 16:21
• 10. 23:4 ver. 15
• 11. 23:5 ch. 21:3
• 12. 23:6 See Deut. 16:21
• 13. 23:6 ver. 15
• 14. 23:6 ver. 15; [2 Chr. 15:16]
• 15. 23:6 [2 Chr. 34:4]
• 16. 23:7 1 Kgs. 14:24; 15:12; See Deut. 23:17
• 17. 23:7 [Ezek. 16:16]
• 18. 23:7 [See ver. 6 above]
• 19. 23:8 1 Kgs. 15:22
• 20. 23:9 See Ezek. 44:10-14
• 21. 23:10 Isa. 30:33; Jer. 7:31, 32; 19:6, 11-14
• 22. 23:10 See Josh. 15:8
• 23. 23:10 See Lev. 18:21
• 24. 23:10 See 1 Kgs. 11:7

Footnotes

• [a] 23:10 Hebrew 'might cause his son or daughter to pass through the fire for Molech'