2 Kings 23
BSASBKing Josiah, moved by the rediscovered Book of the Covenant, renews Judah’s covenant with the LORD and tears out idolatry across the land, even in the old northern kingdom. He keeps a great Passover and is praised as a king unmatched in devotion. Yet Manasseh’s sin has gone too deep, and the chapter ends with Josiah’s death and his sons’ sad reigns.
2 Kings 23:1-2
Josiah gathers the leaders and then all the people, from least to greatest, to the temple. He reads aloud the whole Book of the Covenant found there. God’s word is not kept for experts; everyone hears it, and everyone is answerable to it.
BSA: read (“to call out, to proclaim”): The reading was a public announcement, spoken so all could hear. found (“discovered, uncovered”): The book had been lost under neglect, and its recovery set everything in motion.
See also: 2 Kings 22:8-13; Deuteronomy 31:10-13.
2 Kings 23:3
Standing by the pillar, the king’s customary place, Josiah pledges before the LORD to follow Him wholeheartedly and to carry out what is written. The people join him. Real renewal begins when God’s word is heard and then promised in earnest.
BSA: follow (“walk after, obey”): Following God is pictured as walking behind Him, not merely agreeing with Him.
See also: 2 Chronicles 34:31.
2 Kings 23:4
Josiah starts with the temple itself. The vessels made for Baal, Asherah and the stars are taken out and burned in the Kidron fields. Idolatry had been set up in the very house of the LORD, so cleansing had to begin there.
BSA: host (“army, heavenly bodies”): The sun, moon and stars were worshiped as a heavenly army, though they are only God’s creatures.
2 Kings 23:5
Josiah removes the priests whom earlier kings had appointed to burn incense to Baal, the sun, moon and stars. These men led the people away from the one true God. Worship offered to anything made, however grand, steals what belongs to the Creator.
BSA: high places (“cultic platforms, elevations”): These were raised sites of worship, often borrowed from Canaanite religion.
See also: Deuteronomy 4:19.
2 Kings 23:6-7
The Asherah pole is carried out, burned, ground to dust and scattered on common graves, showing it is utterly worthless and unclean. Josiah also tears down the shrine quarters inside the temple, where the women wove hangings for Asherah. Nothing is left standing.
BSA: ground (“crushed, pulverized”): Destroying it to powder made sure it could never be set up again.
2 Kings 23:8-9
The priests of the country shrines are brought in, and their high places are defiled from Geba in the north to Beersheba in the south. These priests did not serve at the Jerusalem altar, but they were still given a share of the bread. The land was cleansed from end to end.
BSA: desecrated (“defiled, made unclean”): Josiah made the shrines unfit for any further use.
See also: Deuteronomy 12:2-5.
2 Kings 23:10
Josiah defiles Topheth in the Valley of Ben-hinnom, where parents burned their children to Molech. This was among the darkest horrors of Judah’s idolatry. Where life should have been protected, it was offered up to a false god.
BSA: Topheth (“a place of child sacrifice”): The name marks the spot where children were burned in the fire.
See also: Leviticus 18:21; Jeremiah 7:31.
2 Kings 23:11
Horses and chariots dedicated to the sun stood near the temple entrance. Kings of Judah had honored the sun there, which was a direct insult to the God who made it. Josiah removes the horses and burns the chariots.
BSA: dedicated (“given, devoted”): The horses had been formally set apart to the sun, yet they belonged to the LORD alone.
2 Kings 23:12
Altars on the palace roof, some from the kings of Judah and others from Manasseh in the temple courts, are pulled down and pounded to dust. The dust goes into the Kidron. Sins of earlier generations are not left in place; they are dealt with.
See also: 2 Kings 21:5.
2 Kings 23:13-14
Even the shrines Solomon had built for the gods of Sidon, Moab and Ammon were still standing. Josiah defiles them. Covering the sites with human bones made them unclean, so no one would want to worship there again. Old compromises needed to be cleared away too.
BSA: abomination (“idol, disgusting thing”): God calls these gods what they are, repulsive things set against Him.
See also: 1 Kings 11:5-8.
2 Kings 23:15
Josiah goes north to Bethel, where Jeroboam had set up a rival altar and golden calf to keep Israel from going to Jerusalem. He destroys the altar and the high place. The sin that had divided and ruined the north is finally broken up.
BSA: sin (“to miss the mark, go wrong, incur guilt”): Jeroboam led a whole people off target, and the damage lasted for centuries.
See also: 1 Kings 12:28-33.
2 Kings 23:16
Josiah has bones taken from nearby tombs and burned on the altar, defiling it. This fulfills exactly what an unnamed man of God had announced about Bethel’s altar over three hundred years earlier. God’s word stands, even when it waits a long time.
BSA: foretold (“proclaimed, spoken beforehand”): The words had been announced long before and came true to the letter.
See also: 1 Kings 13:1-2.
2 Kings 23:17-18
Josiah spots a monument and learns it marks the grave of the man of God who prophesied these very things. He orders that the bones be left in peace, along with those of the prophet from Samaria. The messenger who told the truth is honored, even long after his death.
See also: 1 Kings 13:30-32.
2 Kings 23:19-20
The reform spreads into the cities of Samaria, the old northern kingdom. Josiah removes the shrines and puts the priests of the high places to death on their altars. This severe act fits the Law’s judgment on idolatry. Then he returns to Jerusalem.
See also: Deuteronomy 13:6-9.
2 Kings 23:21-23
Josiah commands the people to keep the Passover as written in the covenant book. No Passover like it had been kept since the judges. In that feast Israel remembered how the LORD had rescued them from Egypt, and the people were gathered around that story again.
BSA: Passover (“festival of liberation, commemoration”): The feast celebrates God’s freeing His people from slavery in Egypt.
See also: Exodus 12:14; 2 Chronicles 35:18.
2 Kings 23:24
Josiah also clears out mediums, spiritists, household idols and every other detestable thing. His motive is plain: to carry out the words of the law found in the temple. His reform was driven by Scripture, not by politics or personal taste.
BSA: household gods (“teraphim, family idols”): These were small idols kept at home, used to seek guidance and protection apart from God.
Hebrew: הַתְּרָפִים (hatterāphîm, H8655) — “household idols.” The word names small figures kept in homes for guidance and luck. Even private, family-sized idolatry was not spared.
See also: Deuteronomy 18:10-12.
2 Kings 23:25
No king before or after Josiah turned to the LORD so completely. The words echo the great command to love God with heart, soul and strength. This is the highest praise the writer gives any king. It shows what whole-hearted devotion looks like.
BSA: turned (“returned, came back”): Josiah’s life is described as a coming home to the LORD.
See also: Deuteronomy 6:5.
2 Kings 23:26-27
Despite Josiah’s goodness, God’s anger over Manasseh’s long wickedness has not been turned away. The coming exile is certain. Josiah’s faith won him personal mercy and delayed the blow, but it did not undo a nation’s deep rebellion. God takes sin seriously, even while He honors repentance.
BSA: reject (“to spurn, abandon”): Even the chosen city and the temple would be given up if the people persisted in sin.
See also: 2 Kings 21:10-15; 2 Kings 22:19-20.
2 Kings 23:28
The writer points readers to the royal records for the rest of Josiah’s deeds. This account is selective, telling only what matters most for the story of God’s people.
See also: 2 Chronicles 35:26-27.
2 Kings 23:29-30
Pharaoh Neco marches north to join the Assyrians, and Josiah goes out to meet him and is killed at Megiddo. The godly king ends in an unexpected defeat. His body is brought home, and the people make his son Jehoahaz king.
BSA: anointed (“rubbed oil on, set apart”): Oil marked the new king as set apart for rule.
See also: 2 Chronicles 35:20-24.
2 Kings 23:31-32
Jehoahaz is twenty-three and reigns only three months. He does evil just as earlier kings had. After such a reform, the nation’s heart had not really changed, and it quickly slid back to its old ways.
BSA: evil (“bad, morally wrong”): The standard is the LORD’s own judgment, not public opinion.
2 Kings 23:33-35
Neco puts Jehoahaz in chains, makes Eliakim king and renames him Jehoiakim. He then burdens Judah with heavy tribute. Judah has become a puppet of Egypt. The king is shown as the pharaoh’s servant, and the ordinary people carry the cost.
BSA: name (“his identity and character”): Renaming him was a way for Neco to show he now owned the king. taxed (“imposed a burden, levied”): The tribute fell on the people of the land, each according to his wealth.
2 Kings 23:36-37
Jehoiakim is twenty-five and reigns eleven years. He does evil in the LORD’s sight, just as his fathers did. Josiah’s reforms are gone, and the road leads steadily toward the exile God had promised.
See also: Jeremiah 22:13-19.