Reflections on 2 Kings 23

 2 Kings 23(Contemporary English Version)

1. King Josiah called together the older leaders of Judah and Jerusalem.
2. Then he went to the LORD's temple, together with the people of Judah and Jerusalem, the priests, and the prophets. Finally, when everybody was there, he read aloud The Book of God's Law that had been found in the temple.
3. After Josiah had finished reading, he stood by one of the columns. He asked the people to promise in the LORD's name to faithfully obey the LORD and to follow his commands. The people agreed to do everything written in the book.
4. Josiah told Hilkiah the priest, the assistant priests, and the guards at the temple door to go into the temple and bring out the things used to worship Baal, Asherah, and the stars. Josiah had these things burned in Kidron Valley just outside Jerusalem, and he had the ashes carried away to the town of Bethel.
5. Josiah also got rid of the pagan priests at the local shrines in Judah and around Jerusalem. These were the men that the kings of Judah had appointed to offer sacrifices to Baal and to the sun, moon, and stars.
6. Josiah had the sacred pole for Asherah brought out of the temple and taken to Kidron Valley, where it was burned. He then had its ashes ground into dust and scattered over the public cemetery there.
7. He had the buildings torn down where the male prostitutes lived next to the temple, and where the women wove sacred robes for the idol of Asherah.
8. In almost every town in Judah, priests had been offering sacrifices to the LORD at local shrines. Josiah brought these priests to Jerusalem and had their shrines made unfit for worship--every shrine from Geba just north of Jerusalem to Beersheba in the south. He even tore down the shrine at Beersheba that was just to the left of Joshua Gate, which was named after the highest official of the city.
9. Those local priests could not serve at the LORD's altar in Jerusalem, but they were allowed to eat sacred bread, just like the priests from Jerusalem.
10. Josiah sent some men to Hinnom Valley just outside Jerusalem with orders to make the altar there unfit for worship. That way, people could no longer use it for sacrificing their children to the god Molech.
11. He also got rid of the horses that the kings of Judah used in their ceremonies to worship the sun, and he destroyed the chariots along with them. The horses had been kept near the entrance to the LORD's temple, in a courtyard close to where an official named Nathan-Melech lived.
12. Some of the kings of Judah, especially Manasseh, had built altars in the two courts of the temple and in the room that Ahaz had built on the palace roof. Josiah had these altars torn down and smashed to pieces, and he had the pieces thrown into Kidron Valley, just outside Jerusalem.
13. After that, he closed down the shrines that Solomon had built east of Jerusalem and south of Spoil Hill to honor Astarte the disgusting goddess of Sidon, Chemosh the disgusting god of Moab, and Milcom the disgusting god of Ammon.
14. He tore down the stone images of foreign gods and cut down the sacred pole used in the worship of Asherah. Then he had the whole area covered with human bones.
15. But Josiah was not finished yet. At Bethel he destroyed the shrine and the altar that Jeroboam son of Nebat had built and that had caused the Israelites to sin. Josiah had the shrine and the Asherah pole burned and ground into dust.
16. As he looked around, he saw graves on the hillside. He had the bones in them dug up and burned on the altar, so that it could no longer be used. This happened just as God's prophet had said when Jeroboam was standing at the altar, celebrating a festival. Then Josiah saw the grave of the prophet who had said this would happen
17. and he asked, "Whose grave is that?" Some people who lived nearby answered, "It belongs to the prophet from Judah who told what would happen to this altar."
18. Josiah replied, "Then leave it alone. Don't dig up his bones." So they did not disturb his bones or the bones of the old prophet from Israel who had also been buried there.
19. Some of the Israelite kings had made the LORD angry by building pagan shrines all over Israel. So Josiah sent troops to destroy these shrines just as he had done to the one in Bethel.
20. He killed the priests who served at them and burned their bones on the altars. After all that, Josiah went back to Jerusalem.
21. Josiah told the people of Judah, "Celebrate Passover in honor of the LORD your God, just as it says in The Book of God's Law."
22. This festival had not been celebrated in this way since kings ruled Israel and Judah.
23. But in Josiah's eighteenth year as king of Judah, everyone came to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover.
24. Josiah got rid of every disgusting person and thing in Judah and Jerusalem--including magicians, fortunetellers, and idols. He did his best to obey every law written in the book that the priest Hilkiah found in the LORD's temple.
25. No other king before or after Josiah tried as hard as he did to obey the Law of Moses.
26. But the LORD was still furious with the people of Judah because Manasseh had done so many things to make him angry.
27. The LORD said, "I will desert the people of Judah, just as I deserted the people of Israel. I will reject Jerusalem, even though I chose it to be mine. And I will abandon this temple built to honor me."
28. Everything else Josiah did while he was king is written in The History of the Kings of Judah.
29. During Josiah's rule, King Neco of Egypt led his army north to the Euphrates River to help the king of Assyria. Josiah led his troops north to fight Neco, but when they met in battle at Megiddo, Josiah was killed.
30. A few of Josiah's servants put his body in a chariot and took it back to Jerusalem, where they buried it in his own tomb. Then the people of Judah found his son Jehoahaz and poured olive oil on his head to show that he was their new king.
31. Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled from Jerusalem only three months. His mother Hamutal was the daughter of Jeremiah from Libnah.
32. Jehoahaz disobeyed the LORD, just as some of his ancestors had done.
33. King Neco of Egypt had Jehoahaz arrested and put in prison at Riblah near Hamath. Then he forced the people of Judah to pay him almost four tons of silver and about seventy-five pounds of gold as taxes.
34. Neco appointed Josiah's son Eliakim king of Judah, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. He took Jehoahaz as a prisoner to Egypt, where he died.
35. Jehoiakim forced the people of Judah to pay higher taxes, so he could give Neco the silver and gold he demanded.
36. Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he was appointed king, and he ruled eleven years from Jerusalem. His mother Zebidah was the daughter of Pedaiah from Rumah.
37. Jehoiakim disobeyed the LORD by following the example of his ancestors.

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Chapter 23 continues the account of Josiah's reign as king of Judah. In the previous chapter account is given of Josiah's rebuilding of the temple and the discovery of the book of the law. Chapter 23 continues this account with the reading of the book of the law to all the people, Josiah's commitment to keep the instructions of the book along with that of the people, and then a listing of the various reforms he made in keeping with that commitment.

Josiah's reforms were more extensive than that of any king before him. While previous kings tore down the pagan temples and rid the temple of pagan symbols and altars, Josiah went beyond this to ridding the homes of idols and other pagan paraphernalia. Furthermore, he got rid of all the high places that had become quite numerous. His reforms also extended into old Israel which was at this time under the control of Assyria.

Especially noteworthy among Josiah's accomplishments is the restoration of the Passover. For the first time since the period of the judges, he commanded all the people to keep the Passover. Because of his religious fervor, verse 25 says that, "Before him there was no king like him who turned to the LORD with all his mind and with all his heart and with all his strength according to all the law of Moses, and no one like him arose after him." This would mean that he even exceeded David in his dedication to the Lord. But as dedicated as he was to keeping the Lord's commandments, the sins of Judah had already gone too far. Verse 26 says that, "In spite of all that, the LORD did not turn from the fierceness of His great wrath and anger, which burned against Judah because of all the provocations Manasseh had provoked Him with." Josiah's reforms did not turn away God's judgment but only delayed it in coming. Besides the sins of Manasseh, Josiah's sons, who ruled after him, immediately returned to the sins of the kings before him.

Josiah died prematurely in a battle against Pharaoh Neco of Egypt. Egypt and Assyria had formed an alliance against Babylonia and Josiah evidently saw Babylonia as a lesser threat than Egypt and attempted to stop Egypts attack on Babylonia. But in his attempt to stop Egypt Josiah was killed. His middle son, Jehoahaz, was installed by the people to succeed him as king. Jehoahaz immediately returned to the evil of his ancestors. His reign lasted three months until Pharaoh Neco imprisoned him and imposed a fine on the country of Judah. It appears that the outcome of the battle in which Josiah was killed was that Egypt took control of Judah. Jehoahaz, who followed his father as king, evidently did not prove to be submissive to the Egyptians so Pharoah Neco imprisoned him and made his older brother, Eliakim, king, changing his name to Jehoiakim. Jehoiakim proved to be submissive to the Pharoah and also "evil in the Lord's sight."