UNROLL
Dawn on a stony road climbing north between terraced hills: far off and small, a line of the king's men in plain wool tunics walks away up the road with axes, levers and coils of rope over their shoulders, a loaded donkey among them; a calm, clear dawn sky above.

The Book of

2 Kings 23

The king has read the book. Now every idol in the land comes down, from the temple courts to Jeroboam’s altar at Bethel.

37 verses≈ 10 min5 peopleBSB

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In this chapter

Where we are

  1. 1–8ElishaThe prophet's double portion
  2. 9–12JehuThe house of Ahab falls
  3. 13–17Last kings of IsraelSamaria falls
  4. 18–20HezekiahTrust in the LORD
  5. 21–23JosiahThe Book foundChapter 23
  6. 24–25ExileJerusalem falls

Josiah Renews the Covenant

Then the king summoned all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. And he went up to the house of the LORD with all the people of Judah and Jerusalem, as well as the priests and the prophets—all the people small and great—and in their hearing he read all the words of the Book of the Covenant that had been found in the house of the LORD.

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Morning in the temple court, seen from the back of a great crowd: King Josiah stands on a low stone platform beside the right-hand bronze pillar of the plain stone temple, a rolled scroll in one hand and the other raised; priests in white linen and elders near him; men, women and children fill the court, many hands lifted.

So the king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the LORD to follow the LORD and to keep His commandments, decrees, and statutes with all his heart and all his soul, and to carry out the words of the covenant that were written in this book. And all the people entered into the covenant.

to follow the LORD and to keep His commandments, decrees, and statutes with all his heart and all his soul

2 Kings 23:3

Josiah Destroys Idolatry

Then the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, the priests second in rank, and the doorkeepers to remove from the temple of the LORD all the articles made for Baal, Asherah, and all the host of heaven. And he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron and carried their ashes to Bethel.

Josiah also did away with the idolatrous priests ordained by the kings of Judah to burn incense on the high places of the cities of Judah and in the places all around Jerusalem—those who had burned incense to Baal, to the sun and moon, to the constellations, and to all the host of heaven.

He brought the Asherah pole from the house of the LORD to the Kidron Valley outside Jerusalem, and there he burned it, ground it to powder, and threw its dust on the graves of the common people.

He also tore down the quarters of the male shrine prostitutes that were in the house of the LORD, where the women had woven tapestries for Asherah.

Then Josiah brought all the priests from the cities of Judah and desecrated the high places, from Geba to Beersheba, where the priests had burned incense. He tore down the high places of the gates at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which was to the left of the city gate. Although the priests of the high places did not come up to the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, they ate unleavened bread with their fellow priests.

He also desecrated Topheth in the Valley of Ben-hinnom so that no one could sacrifice his son or daughter in the fire to Molech.

Morning on the southern slope of the Mount of Olives: the king's men topple a tall standing stone with ropes and levers and chop down a plain wooden pole beside a broken fieldstone platform; across the Kidron valley, the city wall and the long, plain stone temple on its ridge.

The king also desecrated the high places east of Jerusalem, to the south of the Mount of Corruption, which King Solomon of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. He smashed the sacred pillars to pieces, cut down the Asherah poles, and covered the sites with human bones.

He even pulled down the altar at Bethel, the high place set up by Jeroboam son of Nebat, who had caused Israel to sin. Then he burned the high place, ground it to powder, and burned the Asherah pole.

Evening light on the terraced hillside below Bethel's shrine: a row of rock-cut tomb doors in pale limestone, some open and dark, some closed with square stones, and near them one old, weathered, lichened standing grave marker; smoke drifts from the hilltop above.

And as Josiah turned, he saw the tombs there on the hillside, and he sent someone to take the bones out of the tombs, and he burned them on the altar to defile it, according to the word of the LORD proclaimed by the man of God who had foretold these things.

according to the word of the LORD proclaimed by the man of God who had foretold these things

2 Kings 23:16

Josiah

Then the king asked, “What is this monument I see?”

The men of the city

And the men of the city replied, “It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed these things that you have done to the altar of Bethel.”

Josiah

“Let him rest,” said Josiah. “Do not let anyone disturb his bones.”

So they left his bones undisturbed, along with those of the prophet who had come from Samaria.

Just as Josiah had done at Bethel, so also in the cities of Samaria he removed all the shrines of the high places set up by the kings of Israel who had provoked the LORD to anger. On the altars he slaughtered all the priests of the high places, and he burned human bones on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

Reflect

Down to the dust

Josiah did not just move the idols out of sight. He burned the Asherah pole, “ground it to powder, and threw its dust on the graves of the common people.” Nothing was left to set up again. Is there something in your life you have put away but kept within reach? What would it mean to grind it to dust?

Josiah Restores the Passover

Dusk on a flat Jerusalem rooftop: a family of three generations sits close around a low table with round flat bread, bitter herbs and roast lamb, cloaks belted and sandals on, small clay lamps lit; over the parapet many other rooftops lit the same way, and on the ridge the plain stone temple with smoke rising from its altar.

The king commanded all the people, “Keep the Passover of the LORD your God, as it is written in this Book of the Covenant.”

No such Passover had been observed from the days of the judges who had governed Israel through all the days of the kings of Israel and Judah. But in the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign, this Passover was observed to the LORD in Jerusalem.

Furthermore, Josiah removed the mediums and spiritists, the household gods and idols, and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem. He did this to carry out the words of the law written in the book that Hilkiah the priest had found in the house of the LORD.

Neither before nor after Josiah was there any king like him, who turned to the LORD with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, according to all the Law of Moses.

2 Kings 23:25

Nevertheless, the LORD did not turn away from the fury of His burning anger, which was kindled against Judah because of all that Manasseh had done to provoke Him to anger. For the LORD had said, “I will remove Judah from My sight, just as I removed Israel. I will reject this city Jerusalem, which I chose, and the temple of which I said, ‘My Name shall be there.’”

Question

Quick question

Josiah’s purge reached past Judah’s border, to an altar a man of God had spoken against long before.

Whose altar did Josiah pull down at Bethel?

The Death of Josiah

EgyptEuphratesMegiddoJerusalemRiblahCarchemish

Stylised map · locations approximate

On the map

Megiddo and the Euphrates

In 609 BC Pharaoh Neco marched north from Egypt through the pass at Megiddo to help the last of Assyria against Babylon at Carchemish on the Euphrates. Josiah went out to meet him and died at Megiddo. Neco then ruled Judah from his camp at Riblah in the land of Hamath.

As for the rest of the acts of Josiah and all his accomplishments, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

Early morning at the mouth of the pass below the great mound of Megiddo, its plain wall and gate on the rise: far off, a long column of Egyptian soldiers with tall round-topped shields and spears marches out of the pass with a few light chariots, dust in the low sun; a pale, hazy sky above.

During Josiah’s reign, Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt marched up to help the king of Assyria at the Euphrates River. King Josiah went out to confront him, but Neco faced him and killed him at Megiddo.

From Megiddo his servants carried his body in a chariot, brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own tomb. Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz son of Josiah, anointed him, and made him king in place of his father.

0:25

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Jehoahaz Succeeds Josiah

Judah

Jehoahaz of Judah · 3 months

  1. King at twenty-three

    Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months.

  2. His mother Hamutal of Libnah

    His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah; she was from Libnah.

  3. did evil

    As his fathers had done

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

And Pharaoh Neco imprisoned Jehoahaz at Riblah in the land of Hamath so that he could not reign in Jerusalem, and he imposed on Judah a levy of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. Then Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim son of Josiah king in place of his father Josiah, and he changed Eliakim’s name to Jehoiakim. But Neco took Jehoahaz and carried him off to Egypt, where he died.

Midday in the gate of a Judean town: a royal official in a dyed robe watches as a scribe weighs a landowner's silver rings and lumps in a bronze balance on a plank table; a line of tired townspeople and farmers waits with small cloth bundles.

So Jehoiakim paid the silver and gold to Pharaoh Neco, but to meet Pharaoh’s demand he taxed the land and exacted the silver and the gold from the people, each according to his wealth.

Jehoiakim Reigns in Judah

Judah

Jehoiakim of Judah · 11 years

  1. King at twenty-five

    Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years.

  2. His mother Zebidah of Rumah

    His mother’s name was Zebidah daughter of Pedaiah; she was from Rumah.

  3. did evil

    As his fathers had done

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

Pray

With all his heart

Josiah “turned to the LORD with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, according to all the Law of Moses.” Thank God for His word, found again and read aloud, and for leaders who hear it and do it. Ask Him for a whole heart, not a turning in name only. And pray for the next generation: that your faith would not depend on whether others keep it, and that God would have mercy on your children.

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2 Kings 23

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A verse to carry with you

Neither before nor after Josiah was there any king like him, who turned to the LORD with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, according to all the Law of Moses.

2 Kings 23:25

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