2 Kings 23 (NET)

2 Kings 23:1¹The king summoned all the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem.Copy LinkCopy VerseKJV+Strong’sMany Bible VersionsAsk AICross Refs:2 Chr 34:29-332 Chr 29:202 Chr 30:2Deut 31:282 Sam 6:1

2 Kings 23:2²The 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 all the words of the scroll of the covenant that had been discovered in the Lord ’s temple.Copy LinkCopy VerseKJV+Strong’sMany Bible VersionsAsk AICross Refs:2 Kgs 22:8Deut 31:10-13Rev 20:121 Kgs 8:91 Sam 30:21 Sam 5:92 Chr 15:132 Chr 17:9Acts 26:22Deut 31:26

2 Kings 23:3³The king stood by the pillar and renewed the covenant before the Lord, agreeing to follow the Lord and to obey his commandments, laws, and rules with all his heart and being, by carrying out the terms of this covenant recorded on this scroll. All the people agreed to keep the covenant.Copy LinkCopy VerseKJV+Strong’sMany Bible VersionsAsk AICross Refs:2 Kgs 11:142 Kgs 11:17Deut 13:42 Chr 15:12-142 Chr 23:132 Chr 23:162 Chr 29:102 Chr 34:31-33Deut 10:12Deut 11:13

2 Kings 23:4⁴The king ordered Hilkiah the high priest, the high-ranking priests, and the guards to bring out of the Lord ’s temple all the items that were used in the worship of Baal, Asherah, and all the stars of the sky. The king burned them outside of Jerusalem in the terraces of Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel.Copy LinkCopy VerseKJV+Strong’sMany Bible VersionsAsk AICross Refs:2 Kgs 21:32 Kgs 21:72 Chr 33:32 Kgs 25:181 Chr 24:4-191 Chr 26:1-191 Kgs 12:291 Kgs 16:311 Kgs 18:191 Kgs 18:26

2 Kings 23:5⁵He eliminated the pagan priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed to offer sacrifices on the high places in the cities of Judah and in the area right around Jerusalem. (They offered sacrifices to Baal, the sun god, the moon god, the constellations, and all the stars in the sky.)Copy LinkCopy VerseKJV+Strong’sMany Bible VersionsAsk AICross Refs:Jer 44:17-192 Kgs 21:3-4Hos 10:5Jer 8:1-2

2 Kings 23:6⁶He removed the Asherah pole from the Lord ’s temple and took it outside Jerusalem to the Kidron Valley, where he burned it. He smashed it to dust and then threw the dust in the public graveyard.Copy LinkCopy VerseKJV+Strong’sMany Bible VersionsAsk AICross Refs:2 Chr 34:42 Kgs 23:151 Kgs 14:231 Kgs 16:332 Kgs 10:272 Kgs 21:7Deut 7:25Deut 9:21Exod 32:20Jer 17:2

2 Kings 23:7⁷He tore down the quarters of the male cultic prostitutes in the Lord ’s temple, where women were weaving shrines for Asherah.Copy LinkCopy VerseKJV+Strong’sMany Bible VersionsAsk AICross Refs:1 Kgs 15:12Ezek 16:161 Kgs 14:24Exod 35:25-261 Kgs 22:462 Chr 34:33Ezek 8:14Gen 19:4-5Hos 2:13Rom 1:26-27

2 Kings 23:8⁸He brought all the priests from the cities of Judah and ruined the high places where the priests had offered sacrifices, from Geba to Beer Sheba. He tore down the high place of the goat idols situated at the entrance of the gate of Joshua, the city official, on the left side of the city gate.Copy LinkCopy VerseKJV+Strong’sMany Bible VersionsAsk AICross Refs:1 Kgs 15:22Josh 21:171 Chr 6:601 Kgs 19:3Gen 21:31Gen 26:23Isa 10:29Judg 20:1Zech 14:10

2 Kings 23:9⁹(Now the priests of the high places did not go up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, but they did eat unleavened cakes among their fellow priests.)Copy LinkCopy VerseKJV+Strong’sMany Bible VersionsAsk AICross Refs:Ezek 44:10-141 Sam 2:36Ezek 44:29-31Mal 2:8-9

2 Kings 23:10¹⁰The king ruined Topheth in the Valley of Ben Hinnom so that no one could pass his son or his daughter through the fire to Molech.Copy LinkCopy VerseKJV+Strong’sMany Bible VersionsAsk AICross Refs:Isa 30:33Jer 19:6Jer 7:31-32Lev 18:21Jer 32:35Josh 15:8Deut 18:10Jer 19:11-131 Kgs 11:72 Chr 28:3

2 Kings 23:11¹¹He removed from the entrance to the Lord ’s temple the statues of horses that the kings of Judah had placed there in honor of the sun god. (They were kept near the room of Nathan Melech the eunuch, which was situated among the courtyards.) He burned up the chariots devoted to the sun god.Copy LinkCopy VerseKJV+Strong’sMany Bible VersionsAsk AICross Refs:Ezek 8:162 Chr 14:52 Chr 34:42 Kgs 23:5Deut 4:19

2 Kings 23:12¹²The king tore down the altars the kings of Judah had set up on the roof of Ahaz’s upper room, as well as the altars Manasseh had set up in the two courtyards of the Lord ’s temple. He crushed them and threw the dust in the Kidron Valley.Copy LinkCopy VerseKJV+Strong’sMany Bible VersionsAsk AICross Refs:2 Kgs 21:5Jer 19:13Zeph 1:52 Chr 33:52 Chr 33:152 Kgs 21:21-222 Kgs 23:42 Kgs 23:6Deut 22:8

2 Kings 23:13¹³The king ruined the high places east of Jerusalem, south of the Mount of Destruction, that King Solomon of Israel had built for the detestable Sidonian goddess Astarte, the detestable Moabite god Chemosh, and the horrible Ammonite god Milcom.Copy LinkCopy VerseKJV+Strong’sMany Bible VersionsAsk AICross Refs:1 Kgs 11:51 Kgs 11:7Num 21:291 Kgs 11:331 Sam 12:101 Sam 7:4Jer 48:13Jer 48:16Jer 48:7Judg 10:6

2 Kings 23:14¹⁴He smashed the sacred pillars to bits, cut down the Asherah poles, and filled those shrines with human bones.Copy LinkCopy VerseKJV+Strong’sMany Bible VersionsAsk AICross Refs:Deut 7:5Exod 23:242 Kgs 23:162 Chr 34:3-4Deut 7:25-26Ezek 39:12-16Jer 8:1-2Matt 23:27-28Mic 1:7Num 19:16

2 Kings 23:15¹⁵He also tore down the altar in Bethel at the high place made by Jeroboam son of Nebat, who encouraged Israel to sin. He burned all the combustible items at that high place and crushed them to dust, including the Asherah pole.Copy LinkCopy VerseKJV+Strong’sMany Bible VersionsAsk AICross Refs:1 Kgs 14:162 Kgs 23:61 Kgs 12:28-13:11 Kgs 15:301 Kgs 21:222 Kgs 10:31

2 Kings 23:16¹⁶When Josiah turned around, he saw the tombs there on the hill. So he ordered the bones from the tombs to be brought; he burned them on the altar and defiled it, just as in the Lord ’s message that was announced by the prophet while Jeroboam stood by the altar during a festival. Then the king turned and saw the grave of the prophet who had foretold this.Copy LinkCopy VerseKJV+Strong’sMany Bible VersionsAsk AICross Refs:1 Kgs 13:1-21 Kgs 13:32John 10:35Matt 24:35

2 Kings 23:17¹⁷He asked, “What is this grave marker I see?” The men from the city replied, “It’s the grave of the prophet who came from Judah and foretold these very things you have done to the altar of Bethel.”Copy LinkCopy VerseKJV+Strong’sMany Bible VersionsAsk AICross Refs:1 Kgs 13:11 Kgs 13:30-31

2 Kings 23:18¹⁸The king said, “Leave it alone! No one must touch his bones.” So they left his bones undisturbed, as well as the bones of the Israelite prophet buried beside him.Copy LinkCopy VerseKJV+Strong’sMany Bible VersionsAsk AICross Refs:1 Kgs 13:311 Kgs 13:1-22

2 Kings 23:19¹⁹Josiah also removed all the shrines on the high places in the cities of Samaria. The kings of Israel had made them and angered the Lord. He did to them what he had done to the high place in Bethel.Copy LinkCopy VerseKJV+Strong’sMany Bible VersionsAsk AICross Refs:2 Chr 34:6-71 Kgs 12:311 Kgs 13:321 Kgs 16:332 Chr 30:6-112 Chr 31:12 Kgs 17:16-182 Kgs 17:92 Kgs 21:62 Kgs 8:18

2 Kings 23:20²⁰He sacrificed all the priests of the high places on the altars located there, and burned human bones on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.Copy LinkCopy VerseKJV+Strong’sMany Bible VersionsAsk AICross Refs:2 Kgs 11:182 Chr 34:52 Kgs 10:25Exod 22:201 Kgs 13:21 Kgs 18:40Deut 13:5Isa 34:6Zech 13:2-3

2 Kings 23:21²¹The king ordered all the people, “Observe the Passover of the Lord your God, as prescribed in this scroll of the covenant.”Copy LinkCopy VerseKJV+Strong’sMany Bible VersionsAsk AICross Refs:Deut 16:1-8Num 9:2-52 Chr 35:1-19Exod 12:3-20Lev 23:5-8Num 28:16-25

2 Kings 23:22²²He issued this edict because a Passover like this had not been observed since the days of the judges who led Israel; it was neglected for the entire period of the kings of Israel and Judah.Copy LinkCopy VerseKJV+Strong’sMany Bible VersionsAsk AICross Refs:2 Chr 30:1-32 Chr 30:13-202 Chr 35:3-19

2 Kings 23:23²³But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah’s reign, such a Passover of the Lord was observed in Jerusalem.Copy LinkCopy VerseKJV+Strong’sMany Bible VersionsAsk AI

2 Kings 23:24²⁴Josiah also got rid of the ritual pits used to conjure up spirits, the magicians, personal idols, disgusting images, and all the detestable idols that had appeared in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem. In this way he carried out the terms of the law recorded on the scroll that Hilkiah the priest had discovered in the Lord ’s temple.Copy LinkCopy VerseKJV+Strong’sMany Bible VersionsAsk AICross Refs:Lev 19:312 Kgs 21:6Gen 31:19Deut 18:10-12Lev 20:271 Sam 28:3-72 Chr 34:14-192 Kgs 21:112 Kgs 21:212 Kgs 21:3

2 Kings 23:25²⁵No king before or after repented before the Lord as he did, with his whole heart, soul, and being in accordance with the whole law of Moses.Copy LinkCopy VerseKJV+Strong’sMany Bible VersionsAsk AICross Refs:2 Kgs 18:5Jer 29:131 Kgs 8:482 Kgs 23:3Deut 6:5John 1:171 Kgs 15:51 Kgs 2:4Deut 4:29John 7:19

2 Kings 23:26²⁶Yet the Lord ’s great anger against Judah did not subside; he was still infuriated by all the things Manasseh had done.Copy LinkCopy VerseKJV+Strong’sMany Bible VersionsAsk AICross Refs:2 Kgs 21:11-132 Kgs 24:42 Chr 36:162 Kgs 22:16-172 Kgs 24:2Jer 15:1-4Jer 3:7-10

2 Kings 23:27²⁷The Lord announced, “I will also spurn Judah, just as I spurned Israel. I will reject this city that I chose—both Jerusalem and the temple, about which I said, ‘I will live there.’Copy LinkCopy VerseKJV+Strong’sMany Bible VersionsAsk AICross Refs:2 Kgs 18:112 Kgs 21:132 Kgs 17:182 Kgs 17:202 Kgs 21:4Jer 33:241 Kgs 8:291 Kgs 9:32 Kgs 21:72 Kgs 24:3

2 Kings 23:28²⁸The rest of the events of Josiah’s reign and all his accomplishments are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Judah.Copy LinkCopy VerseKJV+Strong’sMany Bible VersionsAsk AICross Refs:2 Kgs 20:20

2 Kings 23:29²⁹During Josiah’s reign Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt marched toward the Euphrates River to help the king of Assyria. King Josiah marched out to fight him, but Necho killed him at Megiddo when he saw him.Copy LinkCopy VerseKJV+Strong’sMany Bible VersionsAsk AICross Refs:Jer 46:22 Chr 35:20-24Judg 5:19Zech 12:111 Kgs 4:122 Kgs 14:112 Kgs 14:82 Kgs 22:202 Kgs 23:33-352 Kgs 24:7

2 Kings 23:30³⁰His servants transported his dead body from Megiddo in a chariot and brought it to Jerusalem, where they buried him in his tomb. The people of the land took Josiah’s son Jehoahaz, poured olive oil on his head, and made him king in his father’s place.Copy LinkCopy VerseKJV+Strong’sMany Bible VersionsAsk AICross Refs:2 Kgs 9:282 Chr 36:1-41 Kgs 22:33-382 Chr 35:242 Kgs 14:212 Kgs 21:24

2 Kings 23:31³¹Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah, from Libnah.Copy LinkCopy VerseKJV+Strong’sMany Bible VersionsAsk AICross Refs:1 Chr 3:152 Kgs 24:18Jer 22:11

2 Kings 23:32³²He did evil in the sight of the Lord as his ancestors had done.Copy LinkCopy VerseKJV+Strong’sMany Bible VersionsAsk AICross Refs:2 Kgs 21:2-72 Kgs 21:21-22

2 Kings 23:33³³Pharaoh Necho imprisoned him in Riblah in the land of Hamath and prevented him from ruling in Jerusalem. He imposed on the land a special tax of 100 talents of silver and a talent of gold.Copy LinkCopy VerseKJV+Strong’sMany Bible VersionsAsk AICross Refs:1 Kgs 8:652 Kgs 25:6Jer 39:5-6Jer 52:26-27Jer 52:9-102 Chr 36:3-42 Kgs 18:142 Kgs 23:29Exod 21:22Ezek 19:3-4

2 Kings 23:34³⁴Pharaoh Necho made Josiah’s son Eliakim king in Josiah’s place, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. He took Jehoahaz to Egypt, where he died.Copy LinkCopy VerseKJV+Strong’sMany Bible VersionsAsk AICross Refs:Ezek 19:3-41 Chr 3:152 Kgs 24:17Jer 22:11-12Dan 1:72 Chr 36:3-4Gen 41:45Josh 18:18

2 Kings 23:35³⁵Jehoiakim paid Pharaoh the required amount of silver and gold, but to meet Pharaoh’s demands Jehoiakim had to tax the land. He collected an assessed amount from each man among the people of the land in order to pay Pharaoh Necho.Copy LinkCopy VerseKJV+Strong’sMany Bible VersionsAsk AICross Refs:2 Kgs 23:332 Kgs 15:19-20

2 Kings 23:36³⁶Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned for eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother was Zebidah the daughter of Pedaiah, from Rumah.Copy LinkCopy VerseKJV+Strong’sMany Bible VersionsAsk AICross Refs:2 Chr 36:51 Chr 3:15Jer 1:3Jer 26:1

2 Kings 23:37³⁷He did evil in the sight of the Lord as his ancestors had done.Copy LinkCopy VerseKJV+Strong’sMany Bible VersionsAsk AICross Refs:2 Chr 28:22-252 Chr 33:22-232 Chr 33:4-102 Kgs 23:32Ezek 19:5-9Jer 22:13-17Jer 26:20-23Jer 36:23-26Jer 36:31