The King Institutes Religious Reform, 1-30

23:1 The king summoned all the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem. 23:2 The 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. 23:3 The 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.

See also 2 Chron 34.

He read in their hearing – ‘Even after the invention of the alphabet, many of the people in the ancient Near East were illiterate, and thus the public reading of documents had an important function.’ (IVP Background Commentary)

The reading of the entire book of Deuteronomy would have taken 2-3 hours.

All the people pledged themselves to the covenant – ‘As the Book of God’s Law was read to Josiah, he was shocked, frightened, and humbled. He realized what a great gap existed between his efforts to lead his people to God and God’s expectations for his chosen nation. He was overwhelmed by God’s holiness and immediately tried to expose his people to that holiness. The people did respond, but the Bible makes it clear that their renewed worship of God was much more out of respect for Josiah than out of personal understanding of their own guilt before God.’ (Life Application)

We do not get the impression that the people responded with wholeheartedness, enthusiasm, or even remorse. Just as an earlier generation had followed Manasseh too readily, so this generation followed Josiah, but not from the heart.

‘How would you describe your relationship with God? Are your feeble efforts at holiness based mostly on a desire to “go along” with a well-liked leader or popular opinion? Or are you, like Josiah, deeply humbled by God’s Word, realizing that great gap between your life and the kind of life God expects, realizing your deep need to be cleansed and renewed by him? Humble obedience pleases God. Good intentions, even reforms, are not enough. You must allow God’s Word to truly humble you and change your life.’ (Life Application)

23:4 The 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. 23:5 He 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.) 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. He smashed it to dust and then threw the dust in the public graveyard. 23:7 He tore down the quarters of the male cultic prostitutes in the LORD’s temple, where women were weaving shrines for Asherah.

‘These verses (4-24) catalogue the removal and destruction of all the paraphernalia of the idolatrous practices introduced by Manasseh. The fact that the report of this follows the renewal of the covenant implies that all these actions were carried out in reponse to the lawbook. However, several of them involved the temple precincts (4, 6, 7, 11, 12), which were already being renovated when the book was found. It therefore seems likely that the writer has put together reforms which occurred both before and after the discovery of the lawbook (a view supported by 2 Chron 34:3-7).’ (NBC)

Josiah’s reforms deal with ten separate issues:-

1. He orders the priests to remove from the temple all cultic vessels used in worship of other gods. When they complete the task, the king burns them all.
2. “He causes to cease” the “pagan priests” who staff the high places where the people worship idols.
3. He burns the Asherah pole Manasseh placed in the temple.
4. He demolishes the living quarters of “male shrine prostitutes”.
5. He desecrates the high places “from Geba to Beersheba,” Judah’s northern and southern boundaries.
6. He demolishes shrines in the city gates.
7. He defiles Topheth, where child sacrifices had been made in honor of Molech.
8. He takes ornamental horses “dedicated to the sun” from the temple entrance.
9. He removes altars on roofs, probably set aside for worship of astral deities (cf. 2 Kings 20:11; 21:3–5; Zeph 1:5).
10. He desecrates, then smashes, the high places Solomon built for his wives.

(NAC, whose wording is closely followed here)

All the starry hosts – ‘Worship of the starry hosts refers to the worship of the celestial gods (sun god, moon god and Venus particularly; in Babylonia, Shamash, Sin and Ishtar respectively), who were primary in most ancient religions. Controlling the calendar and time, seasons and weather, they were viewed as the most powerful of the gods. They provided signs by which omens were read, and they looked down on all…Stamp seals from Israel in this period show that astral deities were very popular. There were many constellations recognized by the Mesopotamian astrologers (many, though not all, the same we recognize today, transmitted through the Greeks), but the Zodiac is not yet known at this time.’ (IVP Background Commentary)

‘Evidence of Josiah’s purge is found in the record preserved in Israelite stamp seals. The seals portraying familiar symbols of fertility gods, sun god and astral deities of earlier periods are replaced in this period with seals that contain only the inscription identifying the individual, with occasional decoration such as pomegranates.’ (IVP Background Commentary)

The pagan priests – ‘It is plausible that these priests mentioned here served the shrines of West Semitic deities such as Baal and Asherah, though some consider them renegade priests of Yahweh.’ (IVP Background Commentary)

Burned…ground…scattered – indicating total destruction and desecration of the deity.

The male shrine prostitutes – The underlying term refers to ‘sacred males’, and it is not clear that prostitution was involved. What is more clear is that they were devotees of foreign deities.

Women did weaving for Asherah – ‘The fashioning of woven and embroidered garments used to place on the statues of gods in Mesopotamia is well known.’ (IVP Background Commentary)

23:8 He 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. 23:9 (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.) 23:10 The 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. 23:11 He 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. 23:12 The 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 up and threw the dust in the Kidron Valley. 23:13 The 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. 23:14 He smashed the sacred pillars to bits, cut down the Asherah pole, and filled those shrines with human bones.

From Geba to Beersheba – representing north and south respectively. Josiah purged the entire land of Judah of foreign worship practices.

The shrines at the gates – At Dan just such a shrine has been found just inside the city gate.

Jeremiah also refers to Topheth (the name means ‘hearth’) as a place where human sacrifices occurred. (Jer 7:31)

Horses…dedicated to the sun – ‘In Assyrian mythology the sun (god) was carried across the sky in a chariot driven by his charioteer Rakibil. In the syncretism referred to here, Yahweh was probably being worshiped as a sun god, and the chariot and horses represented his vehicle. Archaeological evidence is provided by Iron Age horse figurines with solar disks and by the Taanach cult stand, which portrays a horse with a sun-disk on its back.’ (IVP Background Commentary)

Solomon had provided altars and shrines for his wives to worship their own gods, 1 Kings 11:5-7.

23:15 He 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. 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; 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 turned and saw the grave of the prophet who had foretold this. 23:17 He 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.” 23:18 The 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.

v16 ‘Josiah is fulfilling the prophecy in 1 Kings 13:2. In both Mesopotamia and Israel the worst criminals were not accorded a proper burial, and their bones were either burned or discarded. This was the worst possible thing for an individual, since one’s spiritual existence was intertwined with their physical existence (for more information see comments on Nu 3:12-13 and Jos 8:29). Thus if one’s bones were destroyed, the individual’s existence was also extinguished.’ (IVP Background Commentary)

23:19 Josiah 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. 23:20 He sacrificed all the priests of the high places on the altars located there, and burned human bones on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

‘Josiah goes beyond Bethel into the country of Israel and destroys the shrines the Israelites had built for their idol worship. He has the priests serving in these shrines killed. Josiah could move in Israelite territory quite freely to do this because Assyria, which had conquered Israel a century before, was declining in power and losing control of its outlying areas, and would soon be conquered by Babylon.’ (Evangelical Commentary on the Bible)

23:21 The king ordered all the people, “Observe the Passover of the LORD your God, as prescribed in this scroll of the covenant.” 23:22 He issued this edict because a Passover like this had not been observed since the days of the judges; it was neglected for the entire period of the kings of Israel and Judah. 23:23 But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah’s reign, such a Passover of the LORD was observed in Jerusalem.

‘Josiah next undertakes positive action. He calls for the celebration of the Passover. (see Ex 12:14 Le 23:4-5 Nu 28:16 Deut 16:2-3) The Passover had not been celebrated in full accordance with Mosaic law since early days in Canaan. Even David, Solomon, and Hezekiah had not done so completely.’ (Evangelical Commentary on the Bible)

‘Josiah’s Passover was not simply a jamboree to celebrate his reforms. The Passover itself was observed in obedience to the Book of the Covenant (21). These verses do not mean that no Passover had been celebrated at all during the Judges period or the monarchy; the point is rather that Josiah’s Passover was unique in its scope and the way it was observed. Instead of the family festival celebrated at home, as envisaged in Ex. 12-13, Josiah held a national festival focused on Jerusalem, in keeping with Dt. 16:1-8. (According to 2 Chron 30 Hezekiah had held a national Passover festival in Jerusalem, but that had been somewhat irregular since it had taken place in the second month instead of the first.)’ (NBC)

‘Josiah’s emphasis on the Passover is one more attempt on his part to take the covenant nation back to their roots. It is as if he believes the nation has a chance to survive if the people will return to basics like an emphasis on God’s Word, on covenant keeping, and on ceremonies that pass the faith from one generation to another. Despite Huldah’s prophetic message that predicts Judah’s doom, the king works to save the nation. In this way he acts like Moses, who serves God and Israel even after he knows that neither he nor his people will reach Canaan. Both leaders work to redeem the time and the remnant and to offer the witness that God is worth serving under any and all circumstances.’ (NAC)

23:24 Josiah 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. 23:25 No 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.

This is in accordance with Deut 18:8-14.

Personal idols – The Teraphim, believed to have been effigies of ancestors and used in divination.

23:26 Yet the LORD’s great anger against Judah did not subside; he was still infuriated by all the things Manasseh had done. 23:27 The 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.”

Could not good king Josiah’s thirty-year reign make up for all the wickedness of his grandfather Manasseh and his father Amon?

Manasseh himself had the advantage of being the son of a good king – Hezekiah. Indeed, it is likely that he was co-regent with his father for ten years. Nevertheless, he repeated all the sins of the Canaanites. ‘He murdered so many righteous men that there were too few to defend Jerusalem when the need arose; (2 Kings 21:10-15) all of which the people tolerated. This ruthless monarch ordered Isaiah “sawed in two.” (Heb 11:37) Manasseh’s idolatry and unrighteousness brought Judah and Jerusalem to unavoidable rejection by God’ (2 Kings 24:3 Jer 15:4) (HSB).

Manasseh did indeed have a ‘deathbed conversion’, 2 Chron 33:12-13. But it was too late to reverse the trends in his own household and in society. 2 Chron 33:23 points out that his son Amon ‘did not humble himself before the Lord.

From the beginning of his reign at the age of 8, Josiah walked in the ways of David and not those of his father and grandfather. He initiated a period of great reformation and revival. But it did not succeed in reversing the deep evil in society. Outward and gross forms of idolatry were abolished. The people followed their king – perhaps out of fear. ‘If the early chapters of Jeremiah reflect the conditions under King Josiah, then they describe the people’s deep inner apostasy, not only before Josiah’s reform and discovery of the Book of the Law, but also during and following it’ (HSB). The repentance and reformation were ‘too little, too late’, and the judgement that had been foretold was duly executed.

23:28 The 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. 23:29 During 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. 23:30 His 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.

Jehoahaz’s Reign over Judah, 31-35

23:31 Jehoahaz 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. 23:32 He did evil in the sight of the LORD as his ancestors had done. 23:33 Pharaoh 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 one hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. 23:34 Pharaoh 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. 23:35 Jehoiakim 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.

Jehoiakim’s Reign over Judah, 36-37

23:36 Jehoiakim 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. 23:37 He did evil in the sight of the LORD as his ancestors had done.