2 Kings 23:16

23:16 When Josiah turned around, he saw the tombs there on the hill. So he ordered the bones from the tombs to be brought; ¹  he burned them on the altar and defiled it. This fulfilled the Lord’s announcement made by the prophet while Jeroboam stood by the altar during a festival. King Josiah ²  turned and saw the grave of the prophet who had foretold this. ³ 

Numbers 19:16

19:16 And whoever touches the body of someone killed with a sword in the open fields, ⁴  or the body of someone who died of natural causes, ⁵  or a human bone, or a grave, will be unclean seven days. ⁶ 

Numbers 19:18

19:18 Then a ceremonially clean person must take hyssop, dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent, on all its furnishings, and on the people who were there, or on the one who touched a bone, or one killed, or one who died, or a grave.

Jeremiah 8:1-2

8:1 The Lord says, “When that time comes, ⁷  the bones of the kings of Judah and its leaders, the bones of the priests and prophets and of all the other people who lived in Jerusalem will be dug up from their graves. 8:2 They will be spread out and exposed to the sun, the moon and the stars. ⁸  These are things they ⁹  adored and served, things to which they paid allegiance, ¹⁰  from which they sought guidance, and worshiped. The bones of these people ¹¹  will never be regathered and reburied. They will be like manure used to fertilize the ground. ¹² 

Ezekiel 39:12-16

39:12 For seven months Israel ¹³  will bury them, in order to cleanse the land. 39:13 All the people of the land will bury them, and it will be a memorial ¹⁴  for them on the day I magnify myself, declares the sovereign Lord. 39:14 They will designate men to scout continually ¹⁵  through the land, burying those who remain on the surface of the ground, ¹⁶  in order to cleanse it. They will search for seven full months. 39:15 When the scouts survey ¹⁷  the land and see a human bone, they will place a sign by it, until those assigned to burial duty have buried it ¹⁸  in the valley of Hamon-Gog. 39:16 (A city by the name of Hamonah ¹⁹  will also be there.) They will cleanse the land.’

Matthew 23:27-28

23:27 “Woe to you, experts in the law ²⁰  and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs that look beautiful on the outside but inside are full of the bones of the dead and of everything unclean. ²¹  23:28 In the same way, on the outside you look righteous to people, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

¹ tn Heb “and he sent and took the bones from the tombs.”

² tn Heb “the king”; this has been specified as “King Josiah” in the translation for clarity (cf. TEV, CEV, NLT).

³ tc The MT is much shorter than this. It reads, “according to the word of the Lord which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words.” The LXX has a much longer text at this point. It reads: “[which was proclaimed by the man of God] while Jeroboam stood by the altar at a celebration. Then he turned and saw the grave of the man of God [who proclaimed these words].” The extra material attested in the LXX was probably accidentally omitted in the Hebrew tradition when a scribe’s eye jumped from the first occurrence of the phrase “man of God” (which appears right before the extra material) and the second occurrence of the phrase (which appears at the end of the extra material).

⁴ tn The expression for “in the open field” is literally “upon the face of the field” (עַל־פְּנֵי הַשָּׂדֶה, ’al pÿne hassadeh). This ruling is in contrast now to what was contacted in the tent.

⁵ tn Heb “a dead body”; but in contrast to the person killed with a sword, this must refer to someone who died of natural causes.

⁶ sn See Matt 23:27 and Acts 23:3 for application of this by the time of Jesus.

⁷ tn Heb “At that time.”

¹⁰ tc MT, 4QJer^a and LXX read “the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven,” but 4QJer^c reads “the sun and all the stars.”

¹¹ tn Heb “the sun, moon, and host of heaven which they…”

¹² tn Heb “followed after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for the idiom.

¹³ tn Heb “they will not” but the referent is far enough removed that it might be ambiguous.

¹⁴ tn Heb “like dung/manure on the surface of the ground.”

¹³ tn Heb “the house of Israel.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “name.”

¹⁹ tn Heb “men of perpetuity.”

²⁰ tn Heb “and bury the travelers and those who remain on the surface of the ground.” The reference to “travelers” seems odd and is omitted in the LXX. It is probably an accidental duplication (see v. 11).

²² tn Heb “as the scouts scout.”

²³ tn That is, the aforementioned bone.

²⁵ tn This name appears to be a feminine form of the word “horde,” used in the name Hamon-Gog.

²⁸ tn Or “scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 2:4.

²⁹ sn This was an idiom for hypocrisy – just as the wall was painted on the outside but something different on the inside, so this person was not what he appeared or pretended to be (for discussion of a similar metaphor, see L&N 88.234; BDAG 1010 s.v. τοῖχος). See Deut 28:22; Ezek 13:10-16; Acts 23:3.