The Second Book of the Kings, commonly called the Fourth Book of the Kings
2 Kings 23
Chapter XXIII · Vol. II, pp. 800–803
1 Josiah causeth the book to be read in a solemn assembly. 3 He reneweth the covenant of the Lord. 4 He destroyeth idolatry. 15 He burned dead men's bones upon the altar of Bethel, according to the prophecy. 21 He kept a most solemn passover. 24 He put away witches and all abomination. 26 God's final wrath against Judah. 29 Josiah, provoking Pharaoh-nechoh, is slain at Megiddo. 31 Jehoahaz, succeeding him, is imprisoned by Pharaoh-nechoh, who made Jehoiakim king. 36 Jehoiakim's wicked reign.
1 And thea king sent, and they gathered unto him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem.
a 2 Ch.34.29,30; 29.20; 30.2. De.31.28.
2 And the king went up into the house of the LORD, and ball 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 he read1 in their ears all the words of cthe book of the covenant which was found in the house of the LORD.
3 And the dking stood by a pillar,2 and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD, and to keep his ecommandments, and his testimonies, and his statutes, with all their heart, and all their soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book: and all the people fstood to the covenant.
4 And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the gpriests of the second order, and the keepers of the door, to bring forth out of the temple of the LORD all the hvessels that were made for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the host of heaven:3 and he burnt them without Jerusalem iin the fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of them unto kBeth-el.
g 1 Ch.24.4-7; 26.1-19.
h ch.21.4-7; 17.16. 2 Ch.34.3-7.
3 'Baal' signifies 'lord, master, ruler;' and is here used as a name for the sun, as the chief luminary of the earth, and ruler of the planetary system. 'The grove,' or Asherah, most probably the idol called by the Greek and Roman heathens Venus. 'All the host of heaven,' all the constellations, which, for the sake of order, astronomers have distributed into arbitrary forms, and distinguished by specific names. C.—See note on ch.17.16.—P.
i ver.10. Je.7.31,32.
k 1 Ki.12.29. Am.4.4. Ho.4.15.
5 And he put down4 thel 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 round about Jerusalem; them also that burnt incense unto mBaal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets,5 and to all the host of heaven.
4 Heb. caused to cease.
l Heb. Chemarin, Ho.10.5. Zep.1.4.
m ch.21.2-7,21; 17.16. Je.44.17-25.
5 Or, twelve signs or constellations.
6 And he brought out the ngrove6 from the house of the LORD, without Jerusalem, unto the brook Kidron, and burnt it at the brook Kidron, and stamped it small to powder, and cast the powder thereof upon the graves7 of the children of the people.8
n ch.21.7.
6 Evidently the image of the grove-idol 'Asherah.'—C.
7 Thus rendering it unclean, so that none might attempt to collect it for relics.—C.
8 The spot where the idols were destroyed and burned was doubtless in the deep valley south-east of the city, where Hinnom falls into the Kidron. There the shrine of Moloch was placed; and the whole sides of the valley, with the cliffs and rocks overhead, were filled with tombs. It was thus easy to scatter the dust of the broken images upon 'the graves of the children of the people.'—P.
7 And he brake down the houses of the sodomites,o that were by the house of the LORD, where the women wove phangings9 for the grove.
o 1 Ki.14.24; 15.12; 22.46. 2 Ch.34.33. De.23.17. Jude 7. Ro.1.26,27.
p Or, shrines, Ac.19.24.
9 'Hangings,' either robes for the idol, or curtains and screens for her abominable worship.—C.
8 And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burnt incense, from Gebaq to Beer-sheba,1 and brake down the high places of the gates that were in the entering in of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on a man's left hand at the gate of the city.
q Jos.18.24. 1 Ki.15.22. Ge.21.31. Ju.20.1.
1 From Geba, six miles north of Jerusalem, to Beersheba, 40 miles south of it; i.e. throughout the whole length of the kingdom of Judah.—P.
9 Nevertheless the rpriests of the high places came not up to the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, but they did eat of the unleavened bread among their brethren.
r ver.8. Mal.2.8,9. 1 Sa.2.30,36. Eze.44.10-14,29-31.
10 And he defiled sTopheth,2 which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom,3 thatt no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.
s ver.4. Je.7.31,32; 19.6,11. Jos.15.8.
2 So called from tophet, a drum. Such noisy instruments are still used in India, to drown the cries of the widows immolated in the Braminical suttees.—C.
3 'The valley of Ben-Hinnom,' for thus ought the Hebrew to be translated, winds round the western and southern sides of Mount Zion, and falls into the Kidron at En-rogel. It is a deep, narrow, dark ravine.—P.
t Le.18.21. De.18.10. ch.16.3; 21.6. Eze.23.37,39.
11 And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the usun,4 at the entering in of the house of the LORD, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the chamberlain,v which was in the suburbs, and burnt the chariots of the sun with fire.
u Eze.8.16.
v Or eunuch, or officer.
4 The heathen Greeks and Romans, deriving their ideas from the Phœnician idolatry, represented Apollo, or the sun, as drawn by fleet horses in a chariot. Whether the horses mentioned in the text were sculptures, or real horses dedicated to the sun, does not appear. It is most probable they were living horses, as, had they been statuary, of bronze or marble, they had likely shared the fate of the idolatrous altar, recorded ver. 13,14.—C.
12 And the altars that were xon the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which yManasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the LORD, did the king beat down, and brake them down from thence,6 and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron.
13 And the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of zthe mount of Corruption,7 which aSolomon the king of Israel had builded for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for bMilcom the abomination of the children of Ammon, did the king defile.
z That is, the Mount of Olives, 2 Sa.15.30.
7 One of the three tops of the Mount of Olives, denominated 'Corruption,' because of the idolatry practised on it by Solomon. See De.32.5.—C.
b Or, Molech, 1 Ki.11.5,7.
14 And he cbrake in pieces the 8images, and cut down the groves, and filled their places dwith the bones of men.
15 Moreover, ethe altar that was at 9Beth-el, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he brake down, and burnt the high place, and stamped it small to powder, and burnt the grove.
e 1 Ki.12.29,31; 13.2. Thus the man of God's prediction was fulfilled.
9 Josiah had evidently some authority over a great part of the former kingdom of Israel, no doubt by permission of the king of Assyria. He had carried the ashes of the idolatrous vessels to Bethel (ver. 4), in order to render both it and the ashes abominable to the people.—I.
16 And as Josiah turned himself, he spied the sepulchres that were there in the mount, and sent, and took the bones out of the sepulchres, and fburnt them upon the altar, and polluted it, according to the word of the LORD which the man of God proclaimed,1 who proclaimed these words.2
f 1 Ki.13.1,2.
1 The Sept. and the Hexaplar Syr. vers. of Paris insert immediately after these words, 'the man of God proclaimed,' 'when Jeroboam stood by the altar at the feast. And (king Josiah) turning about, cast his eyes on the sepulchre of the man of God who proclaimed these words.' This makes the sense more complete.—I.
2 Above 300 years before.
17 Then he said, What title3 is that that I see? And the men of the city told him, It is gthe sepulchre of the man of God, which came from Judah, and proclaimed these things that thou hast done against the altar of Beth-el.
3 'Title,' inscription, perhaps rendered illegible by the lapse of 300 years, unless to those who knew it by local tradition.—C.
18 And he said, Let him alone; let no man move his bones. So they let his bones halone, with the bones of the iprophet that came out of Samaria.
19 And kall the houses also of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria,4 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 Beth-el.
k 1 Ki.12.31. ch.17.9. 2 Ch.34.6.
4 As Samaria had belonged to the ten tribes, it seems strange that Josiah carried his reformation into that district. But it is most probable that being in amity with the king of Assyria, he ruled over Samaria by a delegated authority.—C.
20 And he lslew all the priests of the high places that were there upon the altars, and burnt men's bones5 upon them, and returned to Jerusalem.
l Or, sacrificed, Ex.22.20. Is.34.6. ch.10.25; 11.18. De.xiii. xvii. 1 Ki.18.40.
5 The design of this was to render their idolatry detestable; for, according to the ceremonial law, nothing was so polluting as a human carcass, or any part of it.—I.
21 And the king commanded all the people, saying, mKeep the passover unto the LORD your God, as it is written in the book of this covenant.
22 Surely there was not holden nsuch a passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah;
n 2 Ch.35.7-9,18,19, with 30.1-27. Not one so exactly observed in every respect.
23 But in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, wherein this passover was holden to the LORD in Jerusalem.
24 Moreover, the oworkers with familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the images,6 and the idols, and all the abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he might perform the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the LORD.
A.M. 3381. B.C. 623.
o ch.21.3,6; 22.8. Le.20.27. De.18.11,12. 2 Ch.34.3-7,33. Is.8.19.
6 Or, teraphim.
25 And plike unto him was there no king before him,7 that turned to the LORD with qall his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him.
p 1 Ki.15.5. 2 Ki.18.5. None so blameless.
7 Among the good kings recorded in Scripture, David was signalized by many excellences, but was also guilty of great errors, and one surpassing crime, never passed over by the recording Spirit of God. So that his real eminence lies in his deep remorse and repentance, through faith in the Redeemer. Hezekiah stands next distinguished above all other kings, by confidence in God—whom yet he partially forgot in the day of his prosperity—and whom threatened judgments were necessary to bring to his remembrance, ch.20.13,15-19. Josiah stands above them all in purity of life, and ardent and untiring zeal for reformation.—C.
26 Notwithstanding rthe LORD turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations8 that Manasseh had provoked him withal.9
27 And the LORD said, sI will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and will cast off this city Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the house of which I said, Myt name shall be there.
28 Nowu 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?
u 1 Ki.11.41,43; 14.29,31; 15.23,24; 22.45,50. ch.15.6,7,36,38; 20.20,21.
29 Inx his days Pharaoh-nechoh king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates: and king Josiah went against him; and he yslew him1 at Megiddo,2 when he had zseen him.3
y ver.25. Ec.8.14; 9.1,2. Ps.36.6. Ro.11.33. Is.57.1,2; 54.10. Re.14.13.
1 B.C. 610.
2 A city of Manasseh, within the limits of Issachar, about 17 miles north-west of Samaria. Here Josiah attempted to arrest Pharaoh's march to the Euphrates—an act to which he was obligated both by regard to his own safety, and his fealty for Samaria to the king of Assyria.—C.
z ch.14.8,11.
3 As soon as he had discovered him—at the first onset. C.—This sad event is more fully detailed in 2 Ch.35.20.—P.
30 And his servants carried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own sepulchre: and athe people of the land took Jehoahaz4 the son of Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father's stead.
31 Jehoahaz was twenty and three years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was bHamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.
b ch.24.18.
32 And che did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done.
c ch.16.2-4; 21.2-7,21,22.
33 And Pharaoh-nechoh dput him in bands at eRiblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign5 in Jerusalem; and put the land to a tribute of an 6hundred talents of silver[≈ 3.4 tonnes · 3.4 tons · silver worth ≈ US$5.9 million], and a talent of gold[≈ 34 kg · 75 lb · gold worth ≈ US$4.5 million].7
d 2 Ch.36.3. Eze.19.3,4.
e Nu.34.11. ch.25.6,20,21. Je.39.5,6; 52.10. Eze.47.17.
5 Or, because he reigned.
6 £39,694.
7 By comparing the narrative here given with 2 Ch.26.2, we learn that Pharaoh, when on his way to Assyria, captured Jerusalem after the death of Josiah, and took the new-made king Jehoahaz with him northwards, to Riblah on the Orontes. He then raised Eliakim, the elder brother of Jehoahaz, to the throne, where he ruled as the vassal of the Egyptian monarch. Riblah is situated on the right bank of the Orontes, in a fertile plain, near the northern termination of the range of Antilebanon.—P.
34 And Pharaoh-nechoh made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the room of Josiah his father, and fturned his name to gJehoiakim,8 and took Jehoahaz away: and he came hto Egypt, and died there.
A.M. 3394. B.C. 610.
f ch.24.17. Da.1.6.
g Mat.1.11. 1 Ch.3.15,16. 2 Ch.36.4.
8 Eliakim, God shall arise—Jehoiakim, Jehovah shall arise. Jehovah having been the name by which God was revealed in Egypt, the Egyptian monarch seems to convey by the change, either heathenish contempt for the name, or a superstitious evidence that he, and not the king of Judah, was now Jehovah's favourite.—C.
h Je.22.11.
35 And Jehoiakim igave 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, of every one according to his taxation, to give it unto Pharaoh-nechoh.
i ver.33; ch.15.19,20.
36 Jehoiakimk was twenty and five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Zebudah, the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah.
k 2 Ch.36.5,8.
Notes
[Ver. 2. In the parallel passage in 2 Ch. 34. 30, instead of 'prophets' we find 'Levites.' In Hebrew the two words not only resemble each other closely in letters, but even more closely in pronunciation. It is probable that one of the passages, and perhaps this in Kings, may be a mistake of an early copyist; though both may be genuine—the one historian mentioning 'prophets,' the other 'Levites.' P.]
Ver. 7. [Reference is made in this verse to the infamous rites and libidinous orgies by which Astarte was worshipped. These are fully described and indignantly denounced by Augustin, who was an eyewitness of their horrors in Carthage. Her priests were eunuchs in women's attire; and her shrine was surrounded by women who prostituted themselves to enrich the temple. It is this abominable practice which is referred to in De. 23. 18. P.]
Reflections.—When God's wrath hangs over our head, it is high time to attend to and learn his law; and to concur in hearty and cheerful promising with God in Christ. But it is principally God's love and promise of grace that binds men fast to him, and their most solemn vows and promises. Nothing tends more to the welfare of princes than their zealous promoting of the true knowledge and worship of God. But, alas! what fearful abominations may be found among people who have not entirely abandoned the worship of the true God! and shameful discoveries of these are made whenever reformation is thoroughly attempted. There is therefore need of much knowledge, prudence, courage, and zeal, to carry reformation to a proper pitch. God's promises and threatenings are all fulfilled at last, notwithstanding the longest delays. Such as truly covenant with God must not only remove corruptions, but restore the purity and strict observation of the ordinances of God; and particular regard must be had to the exact observation of the instituted seals of his covenant. God takes a peculiar pleasure to perpetuate their honour who have been sincere and active for him in their generation. But irreversible is the doom of nations when once ripened by wickedness. Often the best of princes must taste a little of their cup, especially if they attempt to help their ungodly neighbours. When those who stood in the gap to retard deserved judgments are removed by death, with what tremendous speed do those judgments hasten to ruin the guilty! and when neither warnings restrain, nor good examples influence, destruction is evidently near.
Measures in square brackets are modern equivalents added for this edition. They are not in the King James text or in Brown’s notes. They use common scholarly estimates: a cubit is about 45.7 cm (18 in), a shekel about 11.4 g (0.4 oz), an ephah about 22 litres. Money values give the worth of the silver or gold at spot prices on 28 October 2026, not what the sum would buy in the ancient world.