18:26 Eliakim son of Hilkiah, Shebna, and Joah said to the chief adviser, “Speak to your servants in Aramaic, 2 for we understand it. Don’t speak with us in the Judahite dialect 3 in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”
22:8 Hilkiah the high priest informed Shaphan the scribe, “I found the law scroll in the Lord’s temple.” Hilkiah gave the scroll to Shaphan and he read it.
22:14 So Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Acbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shullam son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, the supervisor of the wardrobe. 4 (She lived in Jerusalem in the Mishneh 5 district.) They stated their business, 6
23:4 The king ordered Hilkiah the high priest, the high-ranking priests, 7 and the guards 8 to bring out of the Lord’s temple all the items that were used in the worship of 9 Baal, Asherah, and all the stars of the sky. 10 The king 11 burned them outside of Jerusalem in the terraces 12 of Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel. 13
23:24 Josiah also got rid of 14 the ritual pits used to conjure up spirits, 15 the magicians, personal idols, disgusting images, 16 and all the detestable idols that had appeared in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem. In this way he carried out the terms of the law 17 recorded on the scroll that Hilkiah the priest had discovered in the Lord’s temple.
1 tc The MT has וְיַתֵּם (vÿyattem), “and let them add up” (Hiphil of תָּמָם [tammam], “be complete”), but the appearance of הִתִּיכוּ (hitikhu), “they melted down” (Hiphil of נָתַךְ [natakh], “pour out”) in v. 9 suggests that the verb form should be emended to וְיַתֵּךְ (vÿyattekh), “and let him melt down” (a Hiphil of נָתַךְ [natakh]). For a discussion of this and other options see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 281.
1 sn Aramaic was the diplomatic language of the empire.
2 tn Or “Hebrew.”
1 tn Heb “the keeper of the clothes.”
2 tn Or “second.” For a discussion of the possible location of this district, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 283.
3 tn Heb “and they spoke to her.”
1 tn Heb “the priests of the second [rank],” that is, those ranked just beneath Hilkiah.
2 tn Or “doorkeepers.”
3 tn Heb “for.”
4 tn Heb “all the host of heaven” (also in v. 5).
5 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
6 tn Or “fields.” For a defense of the translation “terraces,” see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 285.
7 map For location see Map4-G4; Map5-C1; Map6-E3; Map7-D1; Map8-G3.
1 tn Here בִּעֵר (bi’er) is not the well attested verb “burn,” but the less common homonym meaning “devastate, sweep away, remove.” See HALOT 146 s.v. בער.
2 sn See the note at 2 Kgs 21:6.
3 sn See the note at 1 Kgs 15:12.
4 tn Heb “carrying out the words of the law.”