2 Kings 23:4

23:4 The king ordered Hilkiah the high priest, the high-ranking priests, ¹  and the guards ²  to bring out of the Lord’s temple all the items that were used in the worship of ³  Baal, Asherah, and all the stars of the sky. ⁴  The king ⁵  burned them outside of Jerusalem in the terraces ⁶  of Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel. ⁷ 

2 Kings 23:8

23:8 He brought all the priests from the cities of Judah and ruined ⁸  the high places where the priests had offered sacrifices, from Geba to Beer Sheba. ⁹  He tore down the high place of the goat idols ¹⁰  situated at the entrance of the gate of Joshua, the city official, on the left side of the city gate.

[23:4]  ¹ tn Heb “the priests of the second [rank],” that is, those ranked just beneath Hilkiah.

[23:4]  ² tn Or “doorkeepers.”

[23:4]  ³ tn Heb “for.”

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

[23:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[23:4]  ⁶ tn Or “fields.” For a defense of the translation “terraces,” see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 285.

[23:4]  ⁷ map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

[23:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “defiled; desecrated,” that is, “made ritually unclean and unusable.”

[23:8]  ⁹ sn These towns marked Judah’s northern and southern borders, respectively, at the time of Josiah.

[23:8]  ¹⁰ tc The Hebrew text reads “the high places of the gates,” which is problematic in that the rest of the verse speaks of a specific gate. The translation assumes an emendation to בָּמוֹת הַשְּׁעָרִים (bamot hashÿ’arim), “the high place of the goats” (that is, goat idols). Worship of such images is referred to in Lev 17:7 and 2 Chr 11:15. For a discussion of the textual issue, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 286-87.