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2 Kings 23:1-30 — Josiah's Reforms

2Kgs.23.1-30

¹The king sent out, and all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem assembled to him. ²Then the king went up to the house of Yahweh with all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, together with the priests, the prophets, and all the people, from small to great; and he read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant that had been found in the house of Yahweh. ³And the king stood by the pillar and made the covenant before Yahweh: to walk after Yahweh and to keep his commandments, his testimonies, and his statutes with all his heart and with all his soul, to uphold the words of this covenant written in this book. And all the people entered into the covenant. ⁴Then the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, the priests of the second rank, and the keepers of the threshold to bring out of the temple of Yahweh all the vessels made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven. He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron Valley and carried their ashes to Bethel. ⁵He did away with the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed to burn incense on the high places in the cities of Judah and around Jerusalem, and also those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, to the moon, to the constellations, and to all the host of heaven. ⁶He brought the Asherah out from the house of Yahweh, outside Jerusalem, to the Kidron Valley; and he burned it in the Kidron Valley, crushed it to dust, and threw its dust on the graves of the common people. ⁷He also tore down the houses of the male cult prostitutes that were in the house of Yahweh, where the women were weaving hangings for Asherah. ⁸Then he brought all the priests from the cities of Judah and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beersheba. He also 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 the left side as one entered the city gate. ⁹Yet the priests of the high places did not come up to the altar of Yahweh in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their brothers. ¹⁰He defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of Ben-hinnom, so that no one might make his son or his daughter pass through the fire to Molech. ¹¹He removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun, from the entrance of the house of Yahweh by the chamber of Nathan-melech the court official, who was in the precincts; and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire. ¹²The king broke down the altars that were on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars that Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of Yahweh. He smashed them there and threw their dust into the Kidron Valley. ¹³The king also defiled the high places that were east of Jerusalem, to the south of the Mount of Corruption , which Solomon king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. ¹⁴He shattered the pillars, cut down the Asherah poles, and filled their places with human bones. ¹⁵He also broke down the altar at Bethel, the high place that Jeroboam son of Nebat, who made Israel sin, had made. He broke down that altar and the high place, burned the high place, crushed it to dust, and burned the Asherah. ¹⁶Then Josiah turned around and saw the tombs that were there on the mountain. He sent and took the bones from the tombs and burned them on the altar, thus defiling it, according to the word of Yahweh proclaimed by the man of God who had proclaimed these things. ¹⁷Then he said, “What is this monument that I see?” And the men of the city said to him, “It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed these things that you have done against the altar of Bethel.” ¹⁸He said, “Leave him alone; let no one disturb his bones.” So they left his bones undisturbed, together with the bones of the prophet who had come from Samaria. ¹⁹Josiah also removed all the houses of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke Yahweh to anger; and he did to them according to all the deeds he had done at Bethel. ²⁰He slaughtered all the priests of the high places who were there on the altars, and he burned human bones on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem. ²¹Then the king commanded all the people, saying, “Keep the Passover to Yahweh your God, as it is written in this Book of the Covenant.” ²²For no Passover like this had been kept from the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah. ²³But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover was kept to Yahweh in Jerusalem. ²⁴Moreover, Josiah swept away the mediums, the spiritists, the household gods, the idols, and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, in order to uphold the words of the law written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of Yahweh. ²⁵Before him there had been no king like him, who turned to Yahweh with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; nor did any like him arise after him. ²⁶Nevertheless, Yahweh did not turn back from the fierceness of his great anger, with which his anger burned against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked him. ²⁷And Yahweh said, “I will also remove Judah from before me, just as I removed Israel, and I will reject this city that I chose, Jerusalem, and the house of which I said, 'My name shall be there.'” ²⁸Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? ²⁹In his days Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria at the Euphrates River. And King Josiah went to meet him, and Neco killed him at Megiddo when he saw him. ³⁰His servants carried him dead from Megiddo by chariot and brought him to Jerusalem, and he was buried in his own tomb. Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz son of Josiah, anointed him, and made him king in place of his father.

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4/11/2026

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