II Kings 23, Renewal, For a Time

Josiah has found the book of the Law and had it read to him. Prophetess Hulda has said that since Josiah is repentant, the coming disaster will occur after his reign. Meanwhile, there is time for renewal.

2 Kings 23: 1-3, Covenant renewed

Then the king called together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. He went up to the temple of the LORD with the men of Judah, the people of Jerusalem, the priests and the prophets--all the people from the least to the greatest. He read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant, which had been found in the temple of the LORD.

The king stood by the pillar and renewed the covenant in the presence of the LORD--to follow the LORD and keep his commands, regulations and decrees with all his heart and all his soul, thus confirming the words of the covenant written in this book. Then all the people pledged themselves to the covenant.

Josiah has the book read to the people. The audience includes tribal leaders of Judah and leaders of Jerusalem, priests, prophets and many others. This reading is done in the temple. Josiah is following the expectations of a king (Deuteronomy 17: 18-20) who wishes to lead the nation under YHWH's guidance.

2 Kings 23: 4-7, Altars pulled down

The king ordered Hilkiah the high priest, the priests next in rank and the doorkeepers to remove from the temple of the LORD all the articles made for Baal and Asherah and all the starry hosts. He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron Valley and took the ashes to Bethel. He did away with the pagan priests appointed by the kings of Judah to burn incense on the high places of the towns of Judah and on those around Jerusalem--those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun and moon, to the constellations and to all the starry hosts.

He took the Asherah pole from the temple of the LORD to the Kidron Valley outside Jerusalem and burned it there. He ground it to powder and scattered the dust over the graves of the common people. He also tore down the quarters of the male shrine prostitutes, which were in the temple of the LORD and where women did weaving for Asherah.

 

After reading the Law to the people, Josiah makes sure to cleanse the temple and remove all the idols. From this long list of changes, one can see how deeply embedded was the culture of Baal and Asherah! There were even seamstresses in the temple weaving garments for the worship of Asherah!

2 Kings 23: 8-9, Altars pulled down

Josiah brought all the priests from the towns of Judah and desecrated the high places, from Geba to Beersheba, where the priests had burned incense. He broke down the shrines at the gates--at the entrance to the Gate of Joshua, the city governor, which is on the left of the city gate.

Although the priests of the high places did not serve at the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, they ate unleavened bread with their fellow priests.

Throughout the kingdom, Josiah searches out high places and altars dedicated to a variety of idols. This includes shrines built at the city gates. 

Geboa and Beersheba represented, respectively, the most northern and southern towns controlled by Judah at the time. Beersheba (Be'er Sheva today) is about 65 miles southwest of Jerusalem.   

2 Kings 23: 10, Molech

He desecrated Topheth, which was in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, so no one could use it to sacrifice his son or daughter in the fire to Molech.

The lists of idols to be removed continues. Altars to Molech, notorious god of child sacrifices are destroyed.

2 Kings 23: 11, Horses dedicated to the sun

He removed from the entrance to the temple of the LORD the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun. They were in the court near the room of an official named Nathan-Melech. Josiah then burned the chariots dedicated to the sun.

Apparently horses were dedicated to the sun.  Josiah removes the horses from the temple and burns the chariots. 

In 2019 a seal impression of Nathan-Melech was found in a recent dig in Jerusalem. (See this Wikipedia page and this article from the Jerusalem Post. The image below is from that Post article.)

The inscription, in ancient Hebrew script, reads "(belonging) to Nathan-Melech, Servant of the King”.

2 Kings 23: 12, Altars on roofs and in two courts

He pulled down the altars the kings of Judah had erected on the roof near the upper room of Ahaz, and the altars Manasseh had built in the two courts of the temple of the LORD. He removed them from there, smashed them to pieces and threw the rubble into the Kidron Valley.

Kings of Judah had apparently put altars on roofs in two of the courts of the temple. These nearby convenient altars are destroyed and thrown into the Kidron Valley.

2 Kings 23: 13-14, Solomon's old high places

The king also desecrated the high places that were east of Jerusalem on the south of the Hill of Corruption--the ones Solomon king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the vile goddess of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the vile god of Moab, and for Molech the detestable god of the people of Ammon.

Josiah smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles and covered the sites with human bones. 

East of Jerusalem were high places even Solomon had created, altars to Ashtoreth, Chemosh and Molech.

2 Kings 23: 15, Molech

Even the altar at Bethel, the high place made by Jeroboam son of Nebat, who had caused Israel to sin--even that altar and high place he demolished. He burned the high place and ground it to powder, and burned the Asherah pole also.

At Bethel, where long ago Abraham had set up an altar to YHWH, Jeroboam, in his rebellion, had set up a high place and an Asherah pole (1 Kings 12: 28-30.)  This altar too is destroyed.

2 Kings 23: 16-18, Tombs

Then Josiah looked around, and when he saw the tombs that were there on the hillside, he had the bones removed from them and burned on the altar to defile it, in accordance with the word of the LORD proclaimed by the man of God who foretold these things.

The king asked, "What is that tombstone I see?" 

The men of the city said, "It marks the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and pronounced against the altar of Bethel the very things you have done to it."

"Leave it alone," he said. "Don't let anyone disturb his bones." So they spared his bones and those of the prophet who had come from Samaria.

Left alone is a tomb of a man who had spoken out against the altar at Bethel. This satisfies a prophecy from 1 Kings 13: 1-5.

2 Kings 23: 19-20, High places removed and priests killed

Just as he had done at Bethel, Josiah removed and defiled all the shrines at the high places that the kings of Israel had built in the towns of Samaria that had provoked the LORD to anger. Josiah slaughtered all the priests of those high places on the altars and burned human bones on them. Then he went back to Jerusalem.

Josiah even kills some Samarian priests at the altar in the former land of Israel. Josiah is taking seriously the claims that all worship in the land (including that of the former northern kingdom) is to be done in Jerusalem.

2 Kings 23: 21-23, Passover

The king gave this order to all the people: "Celebrate the Passover to the LORD your God, as it is written in this Book of the Covenant." Not since the days of the judges who led Israel, nor throughout the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah, had any such Passover been observed. But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover was celebrated to the LORD in Jerusalem.

 

When this is all done, Josiah celebrates the Passover.  We have heard nothing of the Passover for some centuries; the author claims it had not been celebrated since the days of the judges, more than four centuries prior.

2 Kings 23: 24-25, Mediums and spiritists removed

Furthermore, Josiah got rid of the mediums and spiritists, the household gods, the idols and all the other detestable things seen in Judah and Jerusalem. This he did to fulfill the requirements of the law written in the book that Hilkiah the priest had discovered in the temple of the LORD.

Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to the LORD as he did--with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, in accordance with all the Law of Moses.

Josiah removed the mediums and spiritists (presumably those who attempted to consult the dead.)  Once again, we hear praise for Josiah's commitment to YHWH.

2 Kings 23: 26-27, Still....

Nevertheless, the LORD did not turn away from the heat of his fierce anger, which burned against Judah because of all that Manasseh had done to provoke him to anger.

So the LORD said, "I will remove Judah also from my presence as I removed Israel, and I will reject Jerusalem, the city I chose, and this temple, about which I said, `There shall my Name be.'"

Still, Josiah is battling against the long evil of his grandfather, Manasseh.

2 Kings 23: 28-30, Neco kills Josiah

As for the other events of Josiah's reign, and all he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah?

While Josiah was king, Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt went up to the Euphrates River to help the king of Assyria. King Josiah marched out to meet him in battle, but Neco faced him and killed him at Megiddo. Josiah's servants brought his body in a chariot from Megiddo to Jerusalem and buried him in his own tomb. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz son of Josiah and anointed him and made him king in place of his father.

Eventually Josiah dies in a battle, not against Assyria, but against Egypt. His son, Jehoahaz becomes king.

A parallel passage to this chapter, 2 Chronicles 35, gives more details on Josiah's death. He is mortally wounded by archers and carried back to Jerusalem where he dies.

2 Kings 23: 31-33, Jehoahaz

Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months. His mother's name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah; she was from Libnah. He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, just as his fathers had done.

Pharaoh Neco put him in chains at Riblah in the land of Hamath so that he might not reign in Jerusalem, and he imposed on Judah a levy of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. 

Jehoahaz only lasts three months and is then imprisoned by Neco, who has already defeated Jehoahaz's father.

2 Kings 23: 34-37, Eliakim/Jehoiakim

Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim son of Josiah king in place of his father Josiah and changed Eliakim's name to Jehoiakim. But he took Jehoahaz and carried him off to Egypt, and there he died.

Jehoiakim paid Pharaoh Neco the silver and gold he demanded. In order to do so, he taxed the land and exacted the silver and gold from the people of the land according to their assessments.

Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years. His mother's name was Zebidah daughter of Pedaiah; she was from Rumah.

And he did evil in the eyes of the LORD, just as his fathers had done.

Next in line if Eliakim, another son of Josiah, whom Neco names Jehoiakim.  (Eliakim means "God establishes" and Jehoiakim means "Yahweh establishes".) Eliakim is son of Zebidah from Ramah, a different woman than the mother of Jehoahaz. Josephus in the first century AD, writes of this in The Antiquities of the Jews (Book 10, chapter 5):

Upon the death of Josiah, ... his son, Jehoahaz ... took the kingdom, being about twenty-three years old. He reigned in Jerusalem; and his mother was Hamutal, of the city Libhah. He was an impious man, and impure in his course of life; but as the king of Egypt returned from the battle, he sent for Jehoahaz to come to him, to the city called Hamath which belongs to Syria; and when he was come, he put him in bands, and delivered the kingdom to a brother of his, by the father's side, whose name was Eliakim, and changed his name to Jehoiakim and laid a tribute upon the land of a hundred talents of silver, and a talent of gold; and this sum of money Jehoiakim paid by way of tribute; but Neco carried away Jehoahaz into Egypt, where he died when he had reigned three months and ten days. Now Jehoiakim's mother was called Zebudah, of the city Rumah. He was of a wicked disposition, and ready to do mischief; nor was he either religions towards God, or good-natured towards men.

Neco of Egypt will attempt to use Jehoiakim as a buffer against the approaching Babylonians.

Summary

Despite Josiah's renewal of allegiance to YHWH, the kingdom of Judah continues to deteriorate.  At this time, Egypt controls Judah. But a larger power is growing in the east, taking over Assyria, moving west. The mighty kingdom of Babylon will eventually bring an end to Judah, as we finish out the scroll of Kings.