2 Kings 23 · WEB
Josiah's Sweeping Reforms; Passover Celebrated; Josiah Killed at Megiddo
Listen — WEB narration 0:00 / 0:00 Narration: World English Bible (David Williams), public domain — AudioTreasure.
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The king sent, and they gathered to him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem.
2The king went up to Yahweh's house, 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 hearing all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in Yahweh's house.
3The king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before Yahweh, to walk after Yahweh and to keep his commandments, his testimonies, and his statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to confirm the words of this covenant that were written in this book; and all the people stood to the covenant.
4The king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the threshold, to bring out of Yahweh's temple all the vessels that were made for Baal, for the Asherah, and for all the army of the sky; and he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel.
5He 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 around Jerusalem; those also who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the army of the sky.
6He brought out the Asherah from Yahweh's house outside Jerusalem to the Kidron Valley, and burned it at the Kidron Valley, and beat it to dust, and cast its dust on the graves of the common people.
7He broke down the houses of the male shrine prostitutes that were in Yahweh's house, where the women wove hangings for the Asherah.
8He 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 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 a man's left hand at the gate of the city.
9Nevertheless the priests of the high places didn't come up to Yahweh's altar in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their brothers.
10He 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.
11He took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entrance of Yahweh's house, by the chamber of Nathan Melech the officer, who was in the precincts; and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire.
12The altars that were on the roof of the upper room of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of Yahweh's house, the king broke down, and beat them down from there, and cast their dust into the Kidron Valley.
13The king defiled the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the Mount of Destruction, 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 children of Ammon.
14He broke in pieces the pillars and cut down the Asherim, and filled their places with the bones of men.
15Moreover the altar that was at Bethel and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made — both the altar and the high place he broke down; and he burned the high place and beat it to dust, and burned the Asherah.
16As Josiah turned, he spied the tombs that were there on the mountain; 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 Yahweh which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these things.
17Then he said, "What monument is that which I see?" The men of the city told him, "It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed these things that you have done against the altar of Bethel."
18He said, "Let him be. Let no man move his bones." So they left his bones alone with the bones of the prophet who came out of Samaria.
19Josiah also removed all the houses of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke Yahweh to anger, and did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Bethel.
20He killed all the priests of the high places that were there, on the altars, and burned men's bones on them; and he returned to Jerusalem.
21The king commanded all the people, saying, "Keep the Passover to Yahweh your God, as it is written in this book of the covenant."
22For there was no Passover kept like this in Israel from the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah;
23but in the eighteenth year of king Josiah was this Passover kept to Yahweh in Jerusalem.
24Moreover Josiah removed those who had familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the teraphim, and the idols, and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might confirm the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in Yahweh's house.
25Like him was no king before him who turned to Yahweh with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; and no one like him arose after him.
26Notwithstanding, Yahweh didn't turn from the fierceness of his great wrath with which his anger burned against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked him.
27Yahweh said, "I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and I will reject this city which I have chosen, even Jerusalem, and the house of which I said, 'My name shall be there.'"
28Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and all that he did, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
29In his days Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates. King Josiah went to meet him; and Pharaoh Neco killed him at Megiddo when he had seen him.
30His servants carried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem and buried him in his own tomb. The people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah and anointed him and made him king in his father's place.
31Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.
32He did that which was evil in Yahweh's sight, according to all that his fathers had done.
33Pharaoh Neco put him in bonds at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem; and put the land to a tribute of one hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.
34Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the room of Josiah his father, and changed his name to Jehoiakim; and he took Jehoahaz away. He came to Egypt and died there.
35Jehoiakim 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 assessment, to give to Pharaoh Neco.
36Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Zebidah the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah.
37He did that which was evil in Yahweh's sight, according to all that his fathers had done.
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Summary
Josiah leads one of the most comprehensive covenant renewal ceremonies in Israel's history, reading the Book of the Law publicly before all Judah and making a solemn national covenant. His reforms are sweeping and comprehensive: he purges the Temple of every Baal and Asherah artifact, destroys Topheth where child sacrifices occurred in the Valley of Hinnom, removes sun worship, and even extends his reforms north to Bethel where he destroys Jeroboam's altar — fulfilling a prophecy made three centuries earlier. He celebrates a Passover unparalleled since the time of the judges. Yet God announces that Manasseh's sins have made Judah's exile inevitable. Josiah is killed at Megiddo by Pharaoh Necho II in a battle he had no prophetic mandate to fight, and the rapid decline under Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim follows.
Themes
- The greatest individual reform in Judah's history cannot reverse God's determined judgment
- Public covenant renewal as the appropriate communal response to God's word
- The fulfillment of ancient prophecy — Bethel's altar destroyed exactly as predicted 300 years earlier
- The fragility of reform when it depends on one exceptional leader
Key verses
- 2 Kgs 23:25 — “Like him was no king before him who turned to Yahweh with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might… and no one like him arose after him.”
- 2 Kgs 23:26 — “Notwithstanding, Yahweh didn't turn from the fierceness of his great wrath… because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked him.”
- 2 Kgs 23:3 — “The king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before Yahweh, to walk after Yahweh… with all his heart and all his soul.”
Context & background
Megiddo (modern Tel Megiddo, northern Israel, in the Jezreel Valley) was one of the most strategically important cities in the ancient Near East, controlling the pass through the Carmel ridge — which is why it became synonymous with final battle (Armageddon = "Mountain of Megiddo," Revelation 16:16). Josiah's intervention against Pharaoh Necho II (609 BC) came as Egypt marched to support the collapsing Assyrian empire against Babylon. Josiah may have calculated that a weakened Assyria was in Israel's interest, or that Babylon's rise was preferable — we don't know his full reasoning. Topheth in the Valley of Hinnom (just south of Jerusalem, modern Jerusalem, Israel) was the site of child sacrifice — the valley would later be used as a garbage dump burning constantly, giving rise to the word "Gehenna" (hell). The man of God's tomb at Bethel (modern Beitin, West Bank) whose bones Josiah spared fulfilled the 1 Kings 13 prophecy with stunning precision.
Cross-references
- 1 Kgs 13:1-3 — The man of God's 300-year-old prophecy against Bethel's altar, fulfilled in verse 16-17
- 2 Chr 35:20-25 — The Chronicler's account of Josiah's death, including his lament song
- Deut 6:4-5 — "Love Yahweh your God with all your heart, soul, and might" — the standard Josiah uniquely met
- Jer 22:15-16 — Jeremiah's eulogy of Josiah as the model of just and God-fearing kingship
- Rev 16:16 — Armageddon — the name derived from Megiddo where Josiah was killed