2 Kings 10:26-27

10:26 They hauled out the sacred pillar of the temple of Baal and burned it. 10:27 They demolished ¹  the sacred pillar of Baal and ²  the temple of Baal; it is used as ³  a latrine ⁴  to this very day.

2 Kings 23:4

23:4 The king ordered Hilkiah the high priest, the high-ranking priests, ⁵  and the guards ⁶  to bring out of the Lord’s temple all the items that were used in the worship of ⁷  Baal, Asherah, and all the stars of the sky. ⁸  The king ⁹  burned them outside of Jerusalem in the terraces ¹⁰  of Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel. ¹¹ 

2 Kings 23:6

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. ¹²  He smashed it to dust and then threw the dust in the public graveyard. ¹³ 

[10:27]  ¹ tn Or “pulled down.”

[10:27]  ² tn The verb “they demolished” is repeated in the Hebrew text.

[10:27]  ³ tn Heb “and they made it into.”

[10:27]  ⁴ tn The consonantal text (Kethib) has the hapax legomenon מַחֲרָאוֹת (makhara’ot), “places to defecate” or “dung houses” (note the related noun חרא (khr’)/חרי (khri), “dung,” HALOT 348-49 s.v. *חֲרָאִים). The marginal reading (Qere) glosses this, perhaps euphemistically, מוֹצָאוֹת (motsa’ot), “outhouses.”

[23:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “the priests of the second [rank],” that is, those ranked just beneath Hilkiah.

[23:4]  ⁶ tn Or “doorkeepers.”

[23:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “for.”

[23:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “all the host of heaven” (also in v. 5).

[23:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[23:4]  ¹⁰ tn Or “fields.” For a defense of the translation “terraces,” see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 285.

[23:4]  ¹¹ map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

[23:6]  ¹² tn Heb “and he burned it in the Kidron Valley.”

[23:6]  ¹³ tc Heb “on the grave of the sons of the people.” Some Hebrew, Greek, Syriac, Aramaic, and Latin witnesses read the plural “graves.”