Discovery Box2 Kings 23:4-7
Context23:4 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 23:5 He eliminated 8 the pagan priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed to offer sacrifices 9 on the high places in the cities of Judah and in the area right around Jerusalem. (They offered sacrifices 10 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. 11 He smashed it to dust and then threw the dust in the public graveyard. 12 23:7 He tore down the quarters 13 of the male cultic prostitutes in the Lord’s temple, where women were weaving shrines 14 for Asherah.
[23:4] 1 tn Heb “the priests of the second [rank],” that is, those ranked just beneath Hilkiah.
[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.
[23:5] 8 tn Perhaps, “destroyed.”
[23:5] 9 tn Or “burn incense.”
[23:5] 10 tn Or “burned incense.”
[23:6] 11 tn Heb “and he burned it in the Kidron Valley.”
[23:6] 12 tc Heb “on the grave of the sons of the people.” Some Hebrew, Greek, Syriac, Aramaic, and Latin witnesses read the plural “graves.”
[23:7] 13 tn Or “cubicles.” Heb “houses.”
[23:7] 14 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.
