23:1 The king summoned all the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem. 1 23:2 The king went up to the Lord’s temple, accompanied by all the people of Judah, all the residents of Jerusalem, the priests, and the prophets. All the people were there, from the youngest to the oldest. He read aloud 2 all the words of the scroll of the covenant that had been discovered in the Lord’s temple. 23:3 The king stood by the pillar and renewed 3 the covenant before the Lord, agreeing to follow 4 the Lord and to obey his commandments, laws, and rules with all his heart and being, 5 by carrying out the terms 6 of this covenant recorded on this scroll. All the people agreed to keep the covenant. 7
23:4 The king ordered Hilkiah the high priest, the high-ranking priests, 8 and the guards 9 to bring out of the Lord’s temple all the items that were used in the worship of 10 Baal, Asherah, and all the stars of the sky. 11 The king 12 burned them outside of Jerusalem in the terraces 13 of Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel. 14 23:5 He eliminated 15 the pagan priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed to offer sacrifices 16 on the high places in the cities of Judah and in the area right around Jerusalem. (They offered sacrifices 17 to Baal, the sun god, the moon god, the constellations, and all the stars in the sky.) 23:6 He removed the Asherah pole from the Lord’s temple and took it outside Jerusalem to the Kidron Valley, where he burned it. 18 He smashed it to dust and then threw the dust in the public graveyard. 19 23:7 He tore down the quarters 20 of the male cultic prostitutes in the Lord’s temple, where women were weaving shrines 21 for Asherah.
1 tn Heb “and the king sent and all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem gathered to him.”
2 tn Heb “read in their ears.”
3 tn Heb “cut,” that is, “made, agreed to.”
4 tn Heb “walk after.”
5 tn Or “soul.”
6 tn Heb “words.”
7 tn Heb “stood in the covenant.”
8 tn Heb “the priests of the second [rank],” that is, those ranked just beneath Hilkiah.
9 tn Or “doorkeepers.”
10 tn Heb “for.”
11 tn Heb “all the host of heaven” (also in v. 5).
12 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
13 tn Or “fields.” For a defense of the translation “terraces,” see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 285.
14 map For location see Map4-G4; Map5-C1; Map6-E3; Map7-D1; Map8-G3.
15 tn Perhaps, “destroyed.”
16 tn Or “burn incense.”
17 tn Or “burned incense.”
18 tn Heb “and he burned it in the Kidron Valley.”
19 tc Heb “on the grave of the sons of the people.” Some Hebrew, Greek, Syriac, Aramaic, and Latin witnesses read the plural “graves.”
20 tn Or “cubicles.” Heb “houses.”
21 tn Heb “houses.” Perhaps tent-shrines made from cloth are in view (see BDB 109 s.v. בַּיִת). M. Cogan and H. Tadmor (II Kings [AB], 286) understand this as referring to clothes made for images of the goddess.