Second Book of Kings, Chapter 23

Aug 12, 2020 at 23:02 Twitter · Facebook

2 Kings 23 NASB - New American Standard Bible

Chapter 23 of 2 Kings—New American Standard Bible (NASB)

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1. ¶ ¹Then the king sent, and they gathered to him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem.
2. The king went up to the house of the LORD 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 ²he read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant ³which was found in the house of the LORD.
3. ⁴The king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the LORD, ⁵to walk after the LORD, and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to carry out the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people ^[a]entered into the covenant.
4. ¶ Then the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and ⁶the priests of the second order and the ^[b]doorkeepers, ⁷to bring out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels that were made for Baal, for ^[c]Asherah, and for all the host of heaven; and ⁸he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel.
5. He did away with the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah and in the surrounding area of Jerusalem, also those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun and to the moon and to the constellations and to all the ⁹host of heaven.
6. 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 ¹⁰ground it to dust, and ¹¹threw its dust on the graves of the ^[d]common people.
7. He also broke down the houses of the ¹²male cult prostitutes which were in the house of the LORD, where ¹³the women were weaving ^[e]hangings for the Asherah.
8. Then he brought all the priests from the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from ¹⁴Geba to Beersheba; and he broke down the high places of the gates which were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on one’s left at the city gate.
9. Nevertheless ¹⁵the priests of the high places did not go up to the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their brothers.
10. ¹⁶He also defiled ^[f]Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, ¹⁷that no man might make his son or his daughter pass through the fire for ¹⁸Molech.
11. He did away with the horses which the kings of Judah had given to the ¹⁹sun, at the entrance of the house of the LORD, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the official, which was in the precincts; and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire.
12. ²⁰The altars which were on the roof, the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and ²¹the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the LORD, the king broke down; and he ^[g]smashed them there and ²²threw their dust into the brook Kidron.
13. The high places which were before Jerusalem, which were on the right of ²³the mount of destruction which Solomon the king of Israel had built for ²⁴Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for ²⁵Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the sons of Ammon, the king defiled.
14. ²⁶He broke in pieces the sacred pillars and cut down the Asherim and ²⁷filled their places with human bones.
15. ¶ Furthermore, ²⁸the altar that was at Bethel and the ²⁹high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin, had made, even that altar and the high place he broke down. Then he ^[h]30demolished its stones, ground them to dust, and burned the Asherah.
16. Now when Josiah turned, he saw the graves that were there on the mountain, and he sent and took the bones from the graves and burned them on the altar and defiled it ³¹according to the word of the LORD which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these things.
17. Then he said, “What is this monument that I see?” And the men of the city told him, “³²It is the grave of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed these things which you have done against the altar of Bethel.”
18. He said, “Let him alone; let no one disturb his bones.” So they ^[i]left his bones undisturbed ³³with the bones of the prophet who came from Samaria.
19. Josiah also removed all the houses of the high places which were ³⁴in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made provoking ^[j]the LORD; and he did to them ^[k]just as he had done in Bethel.
20. All the priests of the high places who were there ³⁵he slaughtered on the altars and burned human bones on them; then he returned to Jerusalem.
21. ¶ Then the king commanded all the people saying, “³⁶Celebrate the Passover to the LORD your God ³⁷as it is written in this book of the covenant.”
22. ³⁸Surely such a Passover had not been celebrated from the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel and of the kings of Judah.
23. But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover was observed to the LORD in Jerusalem.
24. ¶ Moreover, Josiah ^[l]removed ³⁹the mediums and the spiritists and the ⁴⁰teraphim and ⁴¹the idols and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, ⁴²that he might ^[m]confirm the words of the law which were written ⁴³in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the LORD.
25. Before him there was no king ⁴⁴like him who turned to the LORD with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; nor did any like him arise after him.
26. ¶ However, the LORD did not turn from the fierceness of His great wrath with which His anger burned against Judah, ⁴⁵because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked Him.
27. The LORD said, “I will remove Judah also from My sight, ⁴⁶as I have removed Israel. And ⁴⁷I will cast off Jerusalem, this city which I have chosen, and the ^[n]temple of which I said, ‘My name shall be there.’”
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?
29. ⁴⁸In his days ⁴⁹Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt went up to the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates. And King Josiah went to meet him, and when Pharaoh Neco saw him he killed him at ⁵⁰Megiddo.
30. ⁵¹His servants drove ^[o]his body in a chariot from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem and buried him in his own tomb. ⁵²Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah and anointed him and made him king in place of his father.
31. ¶ ⁵³Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was ⁵⁴Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.
32. He did evil in the sight of the LORD, ⁵⁵according to all that his fathers had done.
33. ⁵⁶Pharaoh Neco imprisoned him at ⁵⁷Riblah in the land of ⁵⁸Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem; and he imposed on the land a fine of one hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.
34. ¶ Pharaoh Neco made ⁵⁹Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the place of Josiah his father, and ⁶⁰changed his name to Jehoiakim. But he took Jehoahaz away and ^[p]61brought him to Egypt, and he died there.
35. So Jehoiakim ⁶²gave the silver and gold to Pharaoh, but he taxed the land in order to give the money at the ^[q]command of Pharaoh. He exacted the silver and gold from the people of the land, each according to his valuation, to give it to Pharaoh Neco.
36. ¶ ⁶³Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Zebidah the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah.
37. He did evil in the sight of the LORD, ⁶⁴according to all that his fathers had done.

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FOOTNOTES

1. ^ Lit took a stand in
2. ^ Lit keepers of the threshold
3. ^ I.e. a wooden symbol of a female deity, and so throughout the ch
4. ^ Lit sons of the people
5. ^ Or tents; lit houses
6. ^ I.e. place of burning
7. ^ Or ran from there
8. ^ So the Gr; Heb burned the high place
9. ^ Lit let his bones escape with
10. ^ So with ancient versions
11. ^ Lit according to all the acts
12. ^ Lit consumed
13. ^ Or perform
14. ^ Lit house
15. ^ Lit him, dead
16. ^ So with Gr; Heb he came
17. ^ Lit mouth

REFERENCES

1. ^ 2Ch 34:29-32
2. ^ De 31:10-13
3. ^ 2Ki 22:8
4. ^ 2Ki 11:14, 17
5. ^ De 13:4
6. ^ 2Ki 25:18; Je 52:24
7. ^ 2Ki 21:3, 7; 2Ch 33:3
8. ^ 2Ki 23:15
9. ^ 2Ki 21:3
10. ^ 2Ki 23:15
11. ^ 2Ch 34:4
12. ^ 1Ki 14:24; 15:12
13. ^ Ex 35:25, 26; Eze 16:16
14. ^ Jos 21:17; 1Ki 15:22
15. ^ Eze 44:10-14
16. ^ Is 30:33; Je 7:31, 32; 19:4-6
17. ^ Le 18:21
18. ^ 1Ki 11:7
19. ^ De 4:19; Jb 31:26; Eze 8:16
20. ^ Je 19:13; Zp 1:5
21. ^ 2Ki 21:5; 2Ch 33:5
22. ^ 2Ki 23:4, 6
23. ^ 1Ki 11:7
24. ^ 1Ki 11:5
25. ^ Nu 21:29
26. ^ De 7:5, 25
27. ^ 2Ki 23:16
28. ^ 1Ki 13:1
29. ^ 1Ki 12:28-33
30. ^ 2Ki 23:6
31. ^ 1Ki 13:2
32. ^ 1Ki 13:1, 30, 31
33. ^ 1Ki 13:11, 31
34. ^ 2Ch 34:6, 7
35. ^ 2Ki 10:25; 11:18
36. ^ 2Ch 35:1-17
37. ^ Nu 9:2-4; De 16:2-8
38. ^ 2Ch 35:18, 19
39. ^ Le 19:31; 2Ki 21:6
40. ^ Ge 31:19 mg
41. ^ 2Ki 21:11, 21
42. ^ De 18:10-22
43. ^ 2Ki 22:8
44. ^ 2Ki 18:5
45. ^ 2Ki 21:11-13; Je 15:4
46. ^ 2Ki 18:11
47. ^ 2Ki 21:13, 14
48. ^ 2Ch 35:20-24
49. ^ Je 46:2
50. ^ Jg 5:19
51. ^ 2Ki 9:28
52. ^ 2Ch 36:1-4
53. ^ 1Ch 3:15; Je 22:11
54. ^ 2Ki 24:18
55. ^ 2Ki 21:2-7
56. ^ 2Ki 23:29
57. ^ 2Ki 25:6
58. ^ 1Ki 8:65
59. ^ 1Ch 3:15
60. ^ 2Ki 24:17; 2Ch 36:4
61. ^ Je 22:11, 12; Eze 19:3, 4
62. ^ 2Ki 23:33
63. ^ 2Ch 36:5; Je 22:18, 19; 26:1
64. ^ 2Ki 23:32

Read 2 Kings Chapter 23 in other Bible versions:

• 2 Kings Chapter 23 - ASV
• 2 Kings Chapter 23 - KJV
• 2 Kings Chapter 23 - NWT
• 2 Kings Chapter 23 - RSV