2nd Kings Chapter 23

Reading of the law

23:1 AND the king sent, and they gathered to him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem.
23:2 And the king went up into the house of YAHWEH יְהֹוָה‎
Hebrew Yəhōwā, one vocalization of the Tetragrammaton יהוה‎ (YHWH), the proper name of the God of Israel in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. It is considered one of the seven names of God in Judaism and a form of God’s name in Christianity. Covenant making covenant keeping GOD. For more info click here, and all 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 read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of YAHWEH יְהֹוָה‎
Hebrew Yəhōwā, one vocalization of the Tetragrammaton יהוה‎ (YHWH), the proper name of the God of Israel in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. It is considered one of the seven names of God in Judaism and a form of God’s name in Christianity. Covenant making covenant keeping GOD. For more info click here.
23:3 And the king stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before YAHWEH יְהֹוָה‎
Hebrew Yəhōwā, one vocalization of the Tetragrammaton יהוה‎ (YHWH), the proper name of the God of Israel in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. It is considered one of the seven names of God in Judaism and a form of God’s name in Christianity. Covenant making covenant keeping GOD. For more info click here, to walk after YAHWEH יְהֹוָה‎
Hebrew Yəhōwā, one vocalization of the Tetragrammaton יהוה‎ (YHWH), the proper name of the God of Israel in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. It is considered one of the seven names of God in Judaism and a form of God’s name in Christianity. Covenant making covenant keeping GOD. For more info click here, and to keep his commandments 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 stood to the covenant.

Josiah abolishes idolatry

23:4 And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the door, to bring forth out of the temple of YAHWEH יְהֹוָה‎
Hebrew Yəhōwā, one vocalization of the Tetragrammaton יהוה‎ (YHWH), the proper name of the God of Israel in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. It is considered one of the seven names of God in Judaism and a form of God’s name in Christianity. Covenant making covenant keeping GOD. For more info click here all the vessels that were made for Baalבַּעַל
baʿal) (/ˈbeɪ.əl, ˈbɑː.əl/), or Baʽal a fertility god whose cult was widespread in ancient Phoenician and Canaanite lands. For more info click here , and for the grove, and for all the host of heaven: and he burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of them to Bethel.
23:5 And he put down 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 round about Jerusalem; them also that burned incense to Baalבַּעַל
baʿal) (/ˈbeɪ.əl, ˈbɑː.əl/), or Baʽal a fertility god whose cult was widespread in ancient Phoenician and Canaanite lands. For more info click here , to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven.
23:6 And he brought out the grove from the house of YAHWEH יְהֹוָה‎
Hebrew Yəhōwā, one vocalization of the Tetragrammaton יהוה‎ (YHWH), the proper name of the God of Israel in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. It is considered one of the seven names of God in Judaism and a form of God’s name in Christianity. Covenant making covenant keeping GOD. For more info click here, without Jerusalem, to the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and stamped it small to powder, and threw the powder of it upon the graves of the children of the people.
23:7 And he broke down the houses of the sodomites, that were by the house of YAHWEH יְהֹוָה‎
Hebrew Yəhōwā, one vocalization of the Tetragrammaton יהוה‎ (YHWH), the proper name of the God of Israel in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. It is considered one of the seven names of God in Judaism and a form of God’s name in Christianity. Covenant making covenant keeping GOD. For more info click here, where the women wove hangings for the grove.
23:8 And he 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 broke 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.
23:9 Nevertheless the priests of the high places came not up to the altar of YAHWEH יְהֹוָה‎
Hebrew Yəhōwā, one vocalization of the Tetragrammaton יהוה‎ (YHWH), the proper name of the God of Israel in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. It is considered one of the seven names of God in Judaism and a form of God’s name in Christianity. Covenant making covenant keeping GOD. For more info click here in Jerusalem, but they did eat of the unleavened bread among their brethren.
23:10 And he 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.
23:11 And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entering in of the house of YAHWEH יְהֹוָה‎
Hebrew Yəhōwā, one vocalization of the Tetragrammaton יהוה‎ (YHWH), the proper name of the God of Israel in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. It is considered one of the seven names of God in Judaism and a form of God’s name in Christianity. Covenant making covenant keeping GOD. For more info click here, by the chamber of Nathanmelech the chamberlain, which was in the suburbs, and burned the chariots of the sun with fire.
23:12 And the altars that were on the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manassehמְנַשֶּׁה
/məˈnæsə/; Mənaššé, “Forgetter”; Greek: Μανασσῆς Manasses; was the fourteenth king of the Kingdom of Judah. He was the oldest of the sons of Hezekiah and his mother Hephzibah (2 Kings 21:1). He became king at the age of 12 and reigned for 55 years. had made in the two courts of the house of YAHWEH יְהֹוָה‎
Hebrew Yəhōwā, one vocalization of the Tetragrammaton יהוה‎ (YHWH), the proper name of the God of Israel in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. It is considered one of the seven names of God in Judaism and a form of God’s name in Christianity. Covenant making covenant keeping GOD. For more info click here, did the king beat down, and brake them down from thence, and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron.
23:13 And the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mount of corruption, which Solomonשְׁלֹמֹה‎
His two names mean “peaceful” and “friend of God”, both considered “predictive of the character of his reign Reign 970–931 BCE (hypothesised)For more info click here the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth a Canaanite goddess of fertility, love, and war and the daughter of the god El and the goddess Asherah. — This exchanging of vowels formed the word Ashtoreth. The Greek form of the name is Astarte; Ἀστάρτη, Astartē) is the Hellenized form of the Ancient Near Eastern goddess ʿAṯtart. ʿAṯtart was the Northwest Semitic equivalent of the East Semitic goddess Ishtar. the abomination of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon, did the king defile.
23:14 And he brake in pieces the images, and cut down the groves, and filled their places with the bones of men.
23:15 Moreover the altar that was at Bethel, 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 burned the high place, and stamped it small to powder, and burned the grove.
23:16 And as Josiah turned himself, he spied the sepulcher | ˈsepəlkər | (British sepulchre)
noun – a small room or monument, cut in rock or built of stone, in which a dead person is laid or buried. — verb [with object] literary lay or bury in or as if in a sepulcher: tomes are soon out of print and sepulchered in the dust of libraries. – serve as a burial place for – Middle English: via Old French from Latin sepulcrum ‘burial place’, from sepelire ‘bury’. that were there in the mount, and sent, and took the bones out of the sepulcher | ˈsepəlkər | (British sepulchre)
noun – a small room or monument, cut in rock or built of stone, in which a dead person is laid or buried. — verb [with object] literary lay or bury in or as if in a sepulcher: tomes are soon out of print and sepulchered in the dust of libraries. – serve as a burial place for – Middle English: via Old French from Latin sepulcrum ‘burial place’, from sepelire ‘bury’., and burned them upon the altar, and polluted it, according to the word of YAHWEH יְהֹוָה‎
Hebrew Yəhōwā, one vocalization of the Tetragrammaton יהוה‎ (YHWH), the proper name of the God of Israel in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. It is considered one of the seven names of God in Judaism and a form of God’s name in Christianity. Covenant making covenant keeping GOD. For more info click here which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words.
23:17 Then he said, What title is that that I see? And the men of the city told him, It is the sepulcher | ˈsepəlkər | (British sepulchre)
noun – a small room or monument, cut in rock or built of stone, in which a dead person is laid or buried. — verb [with object] literary lay or bury in or as if in a sepulcher: tomes are soon out of print and sepulchered in the dust of libraries. – serve as a burial place for – Middle English: via Old French from Latin sepulcrum ‘burial place’, from sepelire ‘bury’. of the man of God, which came from Judah, and proclaimed these things that you have done against the altar of Bethel.
23:18 And he said, Let him alone; let no man move his bones. So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet that came out of Samaria.
23:19 And all the houses also of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke YAHWEH יְהֹוָה‎
Hebrew Yəhōwā, one vocalization of the Tetragrammaton יהוה‎ (YHWH), the proper name of the God of Israel in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. It is considered one of the seven names of God in Judaism and a form of God’s name in Christianity. Covenant making covenant keeping GOD. For more info click here to anger, Josiah took away, and did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Bethel.
23:20 And he killed all the priests of the high places that were there upon the altars, and burned men’s bones upon them, and returned to Jerusalem.

Passover kept

23:21 And the king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the passover to YAHWEH יְהֹוָה‎
Hebrew Yəhōwā, one vocalization of the Tetragrammaton יהוה‎ (YHWH), the proper name of the God of Israel in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. It is considered one of the seven names of God in Judaism and a form of God’s name in Christianity. Covenant making covenant keeping GOD. For more info click here your God, as it is written in the book of this covenant.
23:22 Surely there was not holden such 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;
23:23 But in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, wherein this passover was holden to YAHWEH יְהֹוָה‎
Hebrew Yəhōwā, one vocalization of the Tetragrammaton יהוה‎ (YHWH), the proper name of the God of Israel in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. It is considered one of the seven names of God in Judaism and a form of God’s name in Christianity. Covenant making covenant keeping GOD. For more info click here in Jerusalem.
23:24 Moreover the workers with familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the images, 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 YAHWEH יְהֹוָה‎
Hebrew Yəhōwā, one vocalization of the Tetragrammaton יהוה‎ (YHWH), the proper name of the God of Israel in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. It is considered one of the seven names of God in Judaism and a form of God’s name in Christianity. Covenant making covenant keeping GOD. For more info click here.
23:25 And like to him was there no king before him, that turned to YAHWEH יְהֹוָה‎
Hebrew Yəhōwā, one vocalization of the Tetragrammaton יהוה‎ (YHWH), the proper name of the God of Israel in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. It is considered one of the seven names of God in Judaism and a form of God’s name in Christianity. Covenant making covenant keeping GOD. For more info click here with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him rose up there any like him.

Final wrath of God against Judah

23:26 Notwithstanding YAHWEH יְהֹוָה‎
Hebrew Yəhōwā, one vocalization of the Tetragrammaton יהוה‎ (YHWH), the proper name of the God of Israel in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. It is considered one of the seven names of God in Judaism and a form of God’s name in Christianity. Covenant making covenant keeping GOD. For more info click here turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations that Manassehמְנַשֶּׁה
/məˈnæsə/; Mənaššé, “Forgetter”; Greek: Μανασσῆς Manasses; was the fourteenth king of the Kingdom of Judah. He was the oldest of the sons of Hezekiah and his mother Hephzibah (2 Kings 21:1). He became king at the age of 12 and reigned for 55 years. had provoked him withal.
23:27 And YAHWEH יְהֹוָה‎
Hebrew Yəhōwā, one vocalization of the Tetragrammaton יהוה‎ (YHWH), the proper name of the God of Israel in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. It is considered one of the seven names of God in Judaism and a form of God’s name in Christianity. Covenant making covenant keeping GOD. For more info click here said, I 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, My name shall be there.
23:28 Now 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?

Josiah killed

23:29 In his days Pharaohnechoh king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates: and king Josiah went against him; and he killed him at Megiddo, when he had seen him.
23:30 And his servants carried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own sepulcher | ˈsepəlkər | (British sepulchre)
noun – a small room or monument, cut in rock or built of stone, in which a dead person is laid or buried. — verb [with object] literary lay or bury in or as if in a sepulcher: tomes are soon out of print and sepulchered in the dust of libraries. – serve as a burial place for – Middle English: via Old French from Latin sepulcrum ‘burial place’, from sepelire ‘bury’.. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father’s stead.
23:31 Jehoahaz was twenty three years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.
23:32 And he did that which was evil in the sight of YAHWEH יְהֹוָה‎
Hebrew Yəhōwā, one vocalization of the Tetragrammaton יהוה‎ (YHWH), the proper name of the God of Israel in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. It is considered one of the seven names of God in Judaism and a form of God’s name in Christianity. Covenant making covenant keeping GOD. For more info click here, according to all that his fathers had done.
23:33 And Pharaohnechoh put him in bands at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem; and put the land to a tribute of an hundred talentsThe Biblical weight of a talent is equal to approximately 34 kilograms or 74.96lbs of silver, and a talent of gold.
23:34 And Pharaohnechoh made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the room of Josiah his father, and turned his name to Jehoiakim, and took Jehoahaz away: and he came to Egypt, and died there.
23:35 And Jehoiakim 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, of every one according to his taxation, to give it to Pharaohnechoh.

Jehoiakim’s reign

23:36 Jehoiakim was twenty 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.
23:37 And he did that which was evil in the sight of YAHWEH יְהֹוָה‎
Hebrew Yəhōwā, one vocalization of the Tetragrammaton יהוה‎ (YHWH), the proper name of the God of Israel in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. It is considered one of the seven names of God in Judaism and a form of God’s name in Christianity. Covenant making covenant keeping GOD. For more info click here, according to all that his fathers had done.