2 Kings 23:1-20--Josiah's Reforms

2 Kings 23:1-20
English Standard Version

Josiah's Reforms
23 Then the king sent, and all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem were gathered to him. 2 And the king went up to the house of the LORD, and with him all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the priests and the prophets, all the people, both small and great. And he read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant that had been found in the house of the LORD. 3 And the king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people joined in the covenant.

4 And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and the priests of the second order and the keepers of the threshold to bring out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven. He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron and carried their ashes to Bethel. 5 And he deposed the priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to make offerings in the high places at the cities of Judah and around Jerusalem; those also who burned incense to Baal, to the sun and the moon and the constellations and all the host of the heavens. 6 And he brought out the Asherah from the house of the LORD, outside Jerusalem, to the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron and beat it to dust and cast the dust of it upon the graves of the common people. 7 And he broke down the houses of the male cult prostitutes who were in the house of the LORD, where the women wove hangings for the Asherah. 8 And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had made offerings, 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 one's left at the gate of the city. 9 However, the priests of the high places did not come up to the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their brothers. 10 And he defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, that no one might burn his son or his daughter as an offering to Molech. 11 And he removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun, at the entrance to the house of the LORD, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the chamberlain, which was in the precincts. And he burned the chariots of the sun with fire. 12 And the altars on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars that Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the LORD, he pulled down and broke in pieces and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron. 13 And the king defiled the high places that were east of Jerusalem, to the south of the mount 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 Ammonites. 14 And he broke in pieces the pillars and cut down the Asherim and filled their places with the bones of men.

​15 Moreover, the altar at Bethel, the high place erected by Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, that altar with the high place he pulled down and burned, reducing it to dust. He also burned the Asherah. 16 And as Josiah turned, he saw the tombs there on the mount. And he sent and took the bones out of the tombs and burned them on the altar and defiled it, according to the word of the LORD that the man of God proclaimed, who had predicted these things. 17 Then he said, “What is that monument that I see?” And the men of the city told him, “It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and predicted these things that you have done against the altar at Bethel.” 18 And he said, “Let him be; let no man move his bones.” So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet who came out of Samaria. 19 And Josiah removed all the shrines also of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which kings of Israel had made, provoking the LORD to anger. He did to them according to all that he had done at Bethel. 20 And he sacrificed all the priests of the high places who were there, on the altars, and burned human bones on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

---

After hearing the words of the Book of the Law, Josiah knew that these were words that the people needed to hear and understand, because he was going to start making reforms to comply with the Law that he was now aware of.  The king, in the presence of all the people made a covenant with the LORD to keep His commandments, testimonies, and statutes with all his heart and soul, and to keep the words of the covenant that were written in the Book of the Law (again, probably Deuteronomy).  All the people in the hearing of the king also joined in the covenant.

The temple was then cleansed of all the articles that were made for the worship of Baal and Asherah and those items were burned with fire outside of Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and the ashes of these items were carried to Bethel.  Josiah then deposed all the priests that were ordained by the bad kings to be priests in the service of the false gods and goddesses where the people worshiped in the high places.

He tore down the Asherah pole that was in the Temple and also burned that with fire and sprinkled its ashes on the graves of the common people (a graveyard would already be an "unclean" place, so this would not defile a place that was clean).  He then tore down the houses of all the male cult prostitutes which were marked with symbols that showed their dedication to the goddess Asherah.

He gathered all the priests of the cities of Judah and defiled all the high places where people worshiped the false gods and he broke down the altars at the high places where the sacrifices had been offered, including those near the gates of the cities.  He also defiled the place where people went to make child sacrifices to Molech so that no one could go there any more to make these detestable child sacrifices.

There were kings that the previous king had dedicated to the sun at the gate to the Temple, and he removed them also, and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire for they had been dedicated to the sun by those who were sun-worshipers.  He also pulled down and removed the altars that Ahaz and Manasseh had made and when he had pulverized them, he spread the dust in the Kidron Brook.

Josiah also defiled the high places that were to the east of Jerusalem, to the south of the mount of corruption--were Solomon had built places of worship for all of his foreign wives and concubines.  He broke down the pillars, cut down the Asherim, and filled those places with bones of men to make them unclean and unable to be used as a place of worship.

Then Josiah dealt with the sin of Jeroboam (though that was at Bethel in the north) and he tore down, burnt and pulverized the altar that Jeroboam had built which had lead the northern kingdom of Israel to sin.  He also burned the Asherah that were there.  Josiah saw the tombs there were there and he took the bones out of the tombs and burned them on the altar to defile it, according to the world of the LORD that was spoken to Jeroboam by the prophet.  When he saw the tomb of that prophet and was told that it was the man of God whose prophecy he had just fulfilled, Josiah said to leave his bones be and that no one should touch his tomb.

Then Josiah continued his campaign in the north to remove all the shrines and high places in Samaria (there were a lot of them), and he sacrificed (put to death) all the pagan priests at these high places where were there and burned human bones on top of them to defile them.  Only after all this was done did Josiah return to Jerusalem.  While the Land may have been cleared of idols, the hearts of the people were not cleansed from their idolatry, and though they professed that they would obey the Law of the LORD with their mouths, their lives would suggest something else entirely.