2 Kings 23 Study Notes

23:1-2 All the purifying works of this chapter began quickly after the discovery of the law since, assuming chronological sequencing, these works culminated in the great Passover remembrance, still in Josiah’s eighteenth year (1Kg 22:3; 23:23).

23:3 Perhaps this pillar was the same place used by Joash (see notes at 11:13-14a; 1Kg 7:15-22) for a covenant renewal. The unclear parallel passage in 2 Chronicles probably identifies this same location by a different object. King Josiah, then, committed himself to obedience to the covenant. All the people also committed themselves to the covenant.

23:4 Apparently Josiah’s earlier piety had not moved him to a complete rejection of all false gods, but at this point his devotion to the Lord became exclusive, and the cleansing of Judah from false worship began in earnest.

23:5-7 In Judah the orders of idolatrous priests, founded and perhaps also funded by earlier kings, were deposed or disbanded rather than being slaughtered as in the north (v. 20). Allowing male religious prostitutes in the temple until this point indicated extreme degradation and a surprising tolerance for paganism.

23:8-9 Defiling the high places disqualified these altars for further use, at least until they were ritually purified. The priests of the high places seemed to have been incorporated into the ranks of the regular priests, although they were not permitted to come to Jerusalem to participate in worship. This leniency might indicate that these high places were illegal shrines for Yahweh worship rather than shrines for pagan deities.

23:10 Topheth was a place of human sacrifice (Jr 7:31), and here it specifies that it honored the god Molech. Again, Josiah desecrated a sacred site in order to disable it.

23:11 Apparently these horses symbolically pulled the chariots of the sun across the heavens.

23:12-14 Josiah’s program continued with the desecration of every illegal altar or place of worship he could find, even those founded by Solomon. These also were defiled by human remains.

23:15-20 It is almost certain that this cleansing of the north took place in the brief period between the fall of Assyrian imperial administration of Samaria and the time when the Egyptians seized control of Judah. It is difficult to tell whether this was political expansionism, religious cleansing, or both. If this cleansing all took place in Josiah’s eighteenth year, it could not have been very thorough.

This expedition must have touched the developing Samaritan Jewish community with their alternate, Torah-based tradition. Seeing the general apostasy of Judah, the Samaritans could not have been much worse than the Judeans of that time. So we should not minimize the potential good influence of their loyalty to their Torah, whenever that loyalty developed. Josiah may have impacted this community in one of two ways. If his sense of orthodoxy made the Samaritan community enemies, he could have been a threat to their growth and development. On the other hand, his suppression of gross idolatry could have weakened forces hostile to their positive development. This expedition might have increased the number of pious northerners who shared in Josiah’s Passover observance (2Ch 35:17).

23:15-16 Josiah had to travel only ten miles north to cleanse Bethel by destroying its high place and desecrating the site with human remains. This fulfilled the prophecy of 1Kg 13:1-2. The gold calf already had been carried off by the Assyrians.

23:17-18 Then Josiah became aware of the tomb of the Judean prophet who predicted the deeds Josiah had just done. The prophet’s bones were left undisturbed, but Josiah had still desecrated other graves near Bethel. In this context from Samaria may indicate only that the prophet was native to Israel, often referred to collectively as “Samaria.”

23:19-20 Josiah’s reforms took a more brutal turn in the north with a systematic slaughter of the illegal priests of the north. Josiah desecrated the altars by killing the priests on their own altars.

23:21-23 The events detailed above must have occurred in Josiah’s eighteenth year before the observance of the Passover. The high point of Josiah’s reforms was this Passover celebration. The description here does not give adequate reason for this glowing evaluation, but in the Chronicles account (2Ch 35) its importance becomes clear. Chronicles comes close to presenting this Passover as the reestablishment of the guilds and personnel for the ritual life of the Israelites.

23:24 This verse contains a rare mention of the household idols in Judah (Jdg 17:5; 18:14-21; 1Sm 19:13). Archaeology documents the presence of this sin in the south as well as the north.

23:25 Such high praise of Josiah is joined to a quote from Dt 6:5.

23:26-27 Once again, the writer returned to the theme of failure. The national repentance fell far short of what was needed to avoid God’s judgment. History shows that the people had not been reached by this revival.

23:28 A formal closer concludes Josiah’s reign, except for the following record of his death.

23:29-30 Assyria had earlier suffered major defeats. A coalition of Medes and Babylonians had destroyed Nineveh in 612 BC and captured Haran in 610 BC. Pharaoh Neco of Egypt then went north toward the Euphrates River to help the Assyrians recapture Haran. Josiah intercepted the Egyptian army near Megiddo. He died from wounds he received in this battle. Josiah’s accomplishments confirmed his greatness. Though his reforms did not halt God’s judgment, his reestablishment of ritual and the religious guilds was essential for the renewal of Israel’s religious life after the exile.

23:31-33 The people made Josiah’s son Jehoahaz (also referred to as Shallum, Jr 22:11-12) king. Pharaoh Neco imprisoned Jehoahaz and put Judah under tribute. Neco’s victory over Josiah apparently eliminated the Judean army as a significant fighting force.

23:34-35 Jehoahaz’s brother Eliakim, renamed Jehoiakim by Neco, was made king. Renaming a vassal symbolized the ruler’s power over the subject king. Jehoiakim sent tribute to Pharaoh. Jehoahaz was a political prisoner in Egypt.

23:36-37 The formal opening statements for Jehoiakim identify him as another bad king. The prophet Jeremiah condemned him for social injustice in building a huge palace, while ignoring the poor (Jr 22:13-17).