^23:4The king ordered Hilkiah the high priest, the high-ranking priests,⁸ and the guards⁹ to bring out of the Lord’s temple all the items that were used in the worship of¹⁰ Baal, Asherah, and all the stars of the sky.¹¹ The king¹² burned them outside of Jerusalem in the terraces¹³ of Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel.¹⁴^23:5He eliminated¹⁵ the pagan priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed to offer sacrifices¹⁶ on the high places in the cities of Judah and in the area right around Jerusalem. (They offered sacrifices¹⁷ to Baal, the sun god, the moon god, the constellations, and all the stars in the sky.) ^23:6He removed the Asherah pole from the Lord’s temple and took it outside Jerusalem to the Kidron Valley, where he burned it.¹⁸ He smashed it to dust and then threw the dust in the public graveyard.¹⁹^23:7He tore down the quarters²⁰ of the male cultic prostitutes in the Lord’s temple, where women were weaving shrines²¹ for Asherah.

^23:8He brought all the priests from the cities of Judah and ruined²² the high places where the priests had offered sacrifices, from Geba to Beer Sheba.²³ He tore down the high place of the goat idols²⁴ situated at the entrance of the gate of Joshua, the city official, on the left side of the city gate.

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Footnotes

8 Heb “the priests of the second [rank],” that is, those ranked just beneath Hilkiah.
9 Or “doorkeepers.”
10 Heb “for.”
11 Heb “all the host of heaven” (also in v. 5).
12 Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
13 Or “fields.” For a defense of the translation “terraces,” see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (), .
14 For location see ; ; ; ; .
15 Perhaps, “destroyed.”
16 Or “burn incense.”
17 Or “burned incense.”
18 Heb “and he burned it in the Kidron Valley.”
19 Heb “on the grave of the sons of the people.” Some Hebrew, Greek, , Aramaic, and Latin witnesses read the plural “graves.” The phrase “sons of the people” refers here to the common people (see 766 עַם), as opposed to the upper classes who would have private tombs.
20 Or “cubicles.” Heb “houses.”
21 Heb “houses.” Perhaps tent-shrines made from cloth are in view (see 109 בַּיִת). M. Cogan and H. Tadmor (II Kings [], ) understand this as referring to clothes made for images of the goddess.
22 Heb “defiled; desecrated,” that is, “made ritually unclean and unusable.”
23 These towns marked Judah’s northern and southern borders, respectively, at the time of Josiah.
24 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 hashé’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 (), .