2 Kings 23:1-20

Josiah’s Reforms

1 aThen the king sent, and all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem were gathered to him. 2And 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 bhe read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant cthat had been found in the house of the Lord. 3And the king stood dby the pillar and emade a covenant before the Lord, fto 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.

4And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and the priests gof the second order and the keepers of the threshold to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels made for hBaal, for iAsherah, and for all the host of heaven. jHe burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron and carried their ashes to Bethel. 5And 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 kand all the host of the heavens. 6And he brought out lthe Asherah from the house of the Lord, outside Jerusalem, to the brook Kidron, mand burned it at the brook Kidron nand beat it to dust and cast the dust of it upon the graves oof the common people. 7And he broke down the houses of pthe male cult prostitutes who were in the house of the Lord, qwhere the women wove hangings for rthe Asherah. 8And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had made offerings, from sGeba 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 tHowever, 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. 10And he defiled uTopheth, which is vin the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, wthat no one might burn his son or his daughter as an offering to xMolech.
Hebrew might cause his son or daughter to pass through the fire for Molech
11And he removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun, at the entrance to the house of the Lord, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the chamberlain, which was in the precincts.
The meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain
And he burned the chariots of the sun with fire.
12And the altars aaon the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars abthat Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord, he pulled down and broke in pieces
Hebrew  pieces from there
and cast the dust of them adinto the brook Kidron.
13And the king defiled the high places that were east of Jerusalem, to the south of aethe mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had built for afAshtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for agChemosh the abomination of Moab, and for ahMilcom the abomination of the Ammonites. 14And he broke in pieces the aipillars and cut down the Asherim and filled their places with the bones of men.

15Moreover, the altar at Bethel, the high place erected ajby Jeroboam the son of Nebat, akwho made Israel to sin, althat altar with the high place he pulled down and burned,
Septuagint broke in pieces its stones
reducing it to dust. He also burned the Asherah.
16And as Josiah turned, he saw the tombs there on the mount. And he sent and took the bones out of the tombs and burned them on the altar and defiled it, anaccording to the word of the Lord that the man of God proclaimed, who had predicted these things. 17Then he said, “What is that monument that I see?” And the men of the city told him, ao“It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and predicted
Hebrew called
these things that you have done against the altar at Bethel.”
18And he said, “Let him be; let no man move his bones.” So they let his bones alone, with the bones aqof the prophet who came out of Samaria. 19And Josiah removed all the shrines also of the high places that were arin the cities of Samaria, which kings of Israel had made, provoking the Lord to anger. He did to them according to all that he had done at Bethel. 20And ashe sacrificed all the priests of the high places who were there, on the altars, atand burned human bones on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

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