^23:2The 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 aloud² all the words of the scroll of the covenant that had been discovered in the Lord’s temple. ^23:3The king stood by the pillar and renewed³ the covenant before the Lord, agreeing to follow⁴ the Lord and to obey his commandments, laws, and rules with all his heart and being,⁵ by carrying out the terms⁶ of this covenant recorded on this scroll. All the people agreed to keep the covenant.⁷

^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

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Footnotes

2 Heb “read in their ears.”
3 Heb “cut,” that is, “made, agreed to.”
4 Heb “walk after.”
5 Or “soul.”
6 Heb “words.”
7 Heb “stood in the covenant.”
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.