2 Kings 23
Josiah’s wholehearted return to YHWH transforms Judah’s worship, yet God’s declared judgment remains and the kings who follow return to evil.
King Josiah gathers Judah’s leaders and people at YHWH’s house and reads the recovered book of the covenant aloud. He pledges obedience, removes objects of idol worship from the temple, and destroys shrines throughout Judah and into Samaria. His reforms include killing priests at the northern shrines and keeping the Passover in Jerusalem. Yet God’s judgment against Judah remains. Josiah dies at Megiddo, and the account closes with two sons who do evil and a kingdom under Egyptian control.
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1The king sent, and they gathered to him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem.
2The king went up to the LORD’s house, and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him—with the priests, the prophets, and all the people, both small and great; and he read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the LORD’s house.
3The king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the LORD to walk after the LORD and to keep his commandments, his testimonies, and his statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to confirm the words of this covenant that were written in this book; and all the people agreed to the covenant.
4The king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the threshold, to bring out of the LORD’s temple all the vessels that were made for Baal, for the Asherah, and for all the army of the sky; and he burned them outside of Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel.
5He got rid of the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah and in the places around Jerusalem; those also who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, to the moon, to the planets, and to all the army of the sky.
6He brought out the Asherah from the LORD’s house, outside of Jerusalem, to the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and beat it to dust, and cast its dust on the graves of the common people.
7He broke down the houses of the male shrine prostitutes that were in the LORD’s house, where the women wove hangings for the Asherah.
8He brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba 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 a man’s left hand at the gate of the city.
9Nevertheless the priests of the high places didn’t come up to the LORD’s altar in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their brothers.
10He defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.
11He took away the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun, at the entrance of the LORD’s house, by the room of Nathan Melech the officer who was in the court; and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire.
12The king broke down the altars that were on the roof of the upper room of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the LORD’s house, and beat them down from there, and cast their dust into the brook Kidron.
13The king defiled the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mountain of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon.
14He broke in pieces the pillars, cut down the Asherah poles, and filled their places with men’s bones.
15Moreover the altar that was at Bethel and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, even that altar and the high place he broke down; and he burned the high place and beat it to dust, and burned the Asherah.
16As Josiah turned himself, he spied the tombs that were there in the mountain; and he sent, and took the bones out of the tombs, and burned them on the altar, and defiled it, according to the LORD’s word which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these things.
17Then he said, “What monument is that which I see?” The men of the city told 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, “Let him be! Let no one move his bones.” So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet who came out of Samaria.
19All the houses also of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke the LORD to anger, Josiah took away, and did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Bethel.
20He killed all the priests of the high places that were there, on the altars, and burned men’s bones on them; and he returned to Jerusalem.
21The king commanded all the people, saying, “Keep the Passover to the LORD your God, as it is written in this book of the covenant.”
22Surely there was not kept such a Passover from the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah;
24Moreover, Josiah removed those who had familiar spirits, the wizards, and the teraphim, and the idols, and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might confirm the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the LORD’s house.
25There was no king like him before him, who turned to the LORD with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; and there was none like him who arose after him.
26Notwithstanding, the LORD didn’t turn from the fierceness of his great wrath, with which his anger burned against Judah, because of all the provocation with which Manasseh had provoked him.
27The LORD said, “I will also remove Judah out of my sight, as I have removed Israel; and I will cast off this city which I have chosen, even Jerusalem, and the house of which I said, ‘My name shall be there.’”
29In his days Pharaoh Necoh king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates; and King Josiah went against him, but Pharaoh Necoh killed him at Megiddo when he saw him.
30His servants carried him dead in a chariot from Megiddo, brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own tomb. The people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father’s place.
31Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.
32He did that which was evil in the LORD’s sight, according to all that his fathers had done.
33Pharaoh Necoh put him in bonds at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem; and put the land to a tribute of one hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.
34Pharaoh Necoh made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the place of Josiah his father, and changed his name to Jehoiakim; but he took Jehoahaz away, and he came to Egypt and died there.
35Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh; but he taxed the land to give the money according to the commandment of Pharaoh. He exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, from everyone according to his assessment, to give it to Pharaoh Necoh.
36Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zebidah the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah.
37He did that which was evil in the LORD’s sight, according to all that his fathers had done.
Key versesWhere this chapter reaches
2 Kings 23:3Josiah’s public covenant binds his reforms to the recovered book, and the gathered people agree to its demands.
2 Kings 23:25The narrator’s unmatched praise of Josiah stands beside the declaration that God’s wrath against Judah remains.
2 Kings 23:10Josiah makes Topheth unfit for worship to stop the offering of sons and daughters to Molech.
Josiah’s wholehearted return to YHWH shares Deuteronomy’s language of covenant devotion, while the destruction of Bethel’s altar fulfills the prophecy recorded in 1 Kings. The Passover follows the observance commanded in Exodus, and 2 Chronicles recounts Josiah’s reforms, Passover, and death at Megiddo.
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Notice
After reading the whole chapter
What stands out about the connection between hearing the covenant and Josiah’s actions?
Write on thisHow does the judgment that remains in verses 26–27 shape your reading of Josiah’s faithfulness?
Write on thisQuestions people ask about 2 Kings 23
Why did God still judge Judah after Josiah’s reforms?
Verses 26–27 connect the judgment that remains to Manasseh’s provocations. The narrator praises Josiah’s wholehearted obedience while stating that YHWH’s wrath against Judah has not turned away. His reforms do not cancel the announced removal of Judah or the rejection of Jerusalem and its temple.
What was Topheth in 2 Kings 23?
Topheth was a place in the valley of the children of Hinnom associated with offering children to Molech through fire. Josiah defiled it to stop that practice. Here, defiling a worship site means making it unfit for its religious use; the verse does not describe his method at Topheth.
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