2 Kings 23:20

Easy-to-Read Version

Josiah killed all the priests of the high places that were in Samaria. He killed the priests on those altars and burned men's bones on the altars so that they could never be used again. Then he went back to Jerusalem.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
He slaughtered on the altars all the priests of those high places, and he burned human bones on the altars. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

Hebrew Names Version
He killed all the Kohanim of the high places that were there, on the altars, and burned men's bones on them; and he returned to Yerushalayim.

King James Version
And he slew all the priests of the high places that were there upon the altars, and burned men's bones upon them, and returned to Jerusalem.

English Standard Version
And he sacrificed all the priests of the high places who were there, on the altars, and burned human bones on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

New Century Version
He killed all the priests of those places of worship; he killed them on the altars and burned human bones on the altars. Then he went back to Jerusalem.

New English Translation
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.

Amplified Bible
All the priests of the high places who were there he slaughtered on the altars, and burned human bones on them [to desecrate the places forever]. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

New American Standard Bible
And he slaughtered all the priests of the high places who were there on the altars, and burned human bones on them; then he returned to Jerusalem.

World English Bible
He killed all the priests of the high places that were there, on the altars, and burned men's bones on them; and he returned to Jerusalem.

Geneva Bible (1587)
And he sacrificed all the Priests of the hie places, that were there vpon the altars, and burnt mens bones vpon them, & returned to Ierusalem.

Legacy Standard Bible
And all the priests of the high places who were there he slaughtered on the altars and burned human bones on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

Berean Standard Bible
On the altars he slaughtered all the priests of the high places, and he burned human bones on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

Contemporary English Version
He killed the priests who served at them and burned their bones on the altars. After all that, Josiah went back to Jerusalem.

Complete Jewish Bible
He put to death all the priests of those high places on the altars there, then burned human bones on them. Finally he returned to Yerushalayim.

Darby Translation
And he sacrificed upon the altars all the priests of the high places that were there, and burned men's bones upon them. And he returned to Jerusalem.

George Lamsa Translation
And he slew all the priests of the high places, who burned incense upon the altars and burned mens bones upon them, and he returned to Jerusalem.

Good News Translation
He killed all the pagan priests on the altars where they served, and he burned human bones on every altar. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

Lexham English Bible
Then he slaughtered all of the priests of the high places who were there, on the altars, and he burned the bones of the humans on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

Literal Translation
And he slaughtered all the priests of the high places who were there by the altars, and burned the bones of man upon them, and returned to Jerusalem.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
And all ye prestes of the hye places that were there, offred he vp vpon the altares, and so brent he mens bones theron, and came agayne to Ierusalem.

American Standard Version
And he slew all the priests of the high places that were there, upon the altars, and burned men's bones upon them; and he returned to Jerusalem.

Bible in Basic English
And all the priests of the high places there he put to death on the altars, burning the bones of the dead on them; and then he went back to Jerusalem.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And he sacrifised all the priestes of the high places that were there, euen vpon the aulters, and burnt mens bones vpon them, and returned to Hierusalem.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
And he slew all the priests of the high places that were there, upon the altars, and burned men's bones upon them; and he returned to Jerusalem.

King James Version (1611)
And he slew all the priests of the high places that were there, vpon the altars, and burnt mens bones vpon them, and returned to Ierusalem.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And he sacrificed all the priests of the high places that were there on the altars, and burnt the bones of men upon them, and returned to Jerusalem.

English Revised Version
And he slew all the priests of the high places that were there, upon the altars, and burned men’s bones upon them; and he returned to Jerusalem.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And he killide alle the preestis of hiye thingis, that weren there on the auteris, and he brente mennus boonus on tho auteris; and he turnede ayen to Jerusalem;

Update Bible Version
And he slew all the priests of the high places that were there, on the altars, and burned man's bones on them; and he returned to Jerusalem.

Webster's Bible Translation
And he slew all the priests of the high places, that [were] there upon the altars, and burnt men's bones upon them, and returned to Jerusalem.

New King James Version
He executed all the priests of the high places who were there, on the altars, and burned men's bones on them; and he returned to Jerusalem.

New Living Translation
He executed the priests of the pagan shrines on their own altars, and he burned human bones on the altars to desecrate them. Finally, he returned to Jerusalem.

New Life Bible
And he killed on the altar all the religious leaders of the high places who were there. He burned human bones on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

New Revised Standard
He slaughtered on the altars all the priests of the high places who were there, and burned human bones on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
and he sacrificed all the priests of the high places, who were there, by the altars, and burned human bones thereupon, - and returned to Jerusalem.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And he slew all the priests of the high places, that were there, upon the altars; and he burnt men’s bones upon them: and returned to Jerusalem.

Revised Standard Version
And he slew all the priests of the high places who were there, upon the altars, and burned the bones of men upon them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

Young's Literal Translation
And he slayeth all the priests of the high places who [are] there by the altars, and burneth the bones of man upon them, and turneth back to Jerusalem.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
All the priests of the high places who were there he slaughtered on the altars and burned human bones on them; then he returned to Jerusalem.

Contextual Overview

⁴ Then the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, the other priests, and the gatekeepers to bring out of the Lord 's Temple all the dishes and things that were made to honor Baal, Asherah, and the stars of heaven. Then Josiah burned those things outside Jerusalem in the fields in Kidron Valley. Then they carried the ashes to Bethel. ⁵ The kings of Judah had chosen some ordinary men to serve as priests. These false priests were burning incense at the high places in every city of Judah and all the towns around Jerusalem. They burned incense to honor Baal, the sun, the moon, the constellations, and all the stars in the sky. But Josiah stopped those false priests. ⁶ Josiah removed the Asherah pole from the Lord 's Temple. He took the Asherah pole outside the city to the Kidron Valley and burned it there. Then he beat the burned pieces into dust and scattered the dust over the graves of the common people. ⁷ Then King Josiah broke down the houses of the male prostitutes who were in the Lord 's Temple. Women also used these houses and made little tent covers to honor the false goddess Asherah. ⁸At that time the priests did not bring the sacrifices to Jerusalem and offer them on the Lord 's altar in the Temple. The priests lived in cities all over Judah. They burned incense and offered sacrifices at the high places in those cities. The high places were everywhere, from Geba to Beersheba. And the priests ate their unleavened bread in those towns with the ordinary people— not at the special place for priests in the Temple in Jerusalem . But King Josiah ruined the high places and brought the priests to Jerusalem. Josiah also destroyed the high places that were on the left side of the city gate, by the Gate of Joshua. (Joshua was the ruler of the city.) ¹⁰ Topheth was a place in the Valley of Hinnom's Son where people killed their children and burned them on an altar to honor the false god Molech. Josiah ruined that place so that no one could use it again. ¹¹ In the past the kings of Judah had put some horses and a chariot near the entrance to the Lord 's Temple. This was near the room of an important official named Nathan Melech. The horses and chariot were to honor the sun god. Josiah removed the horses and burned the chariot. ¹² In the past the kings of Judah had built altars on the roof of Ahab's building. King Manasseh had also built altars in the two courtyards of the Lord 's Temple. Josiah destroyed all the altars and threw the broken pieces into the Kidron Valley. ¹³ In the past King Solomon built some high places on Destroyer Hill near Jerusalem. The high places were on the south side of that hill. King Solomon built one of these places of worship to honor Ashtoreth, that horrible thing the people of Sidon worship. He also built one to honor Chemosh, that horrible thing the Moabites worship. And King Solomon built one high place to honor Milcom, that horrible thing the Ammonites worship. But King Josiah ruined all these places of worship. ¹⁴ He broke all the memorial stones and Asherah poles. Then he scattered dead men's bones over that place.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

he slew: or, he sacrificed, 2 Kings 10:25, 2 Kings 11:18, Exodus 22:20, Deuteronomy 13:5, 1 Kings 13:2, 1 Kings 18:40, Isaiah 34:6, Zechariah 13:2, Zechariah 13:3

burned: 2 Chronicles 34:5

Reciprocal: Leviticus 26:30 - I will destroy 2 Kings 9:28 - General 2 Kings 10:11 - his priests Jeremiah 7:31 - the high Jeremiah 8:1 - General

Cross-References

Genesis 23:7
Abraham got up and bowed to the people.

Genesis 23:10
Ephron was sitting there among the people. He answered Abraham,

Genesis 23:14
Ephron answered Abraham,

Genesis 25:9
His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah. This cave is in the field of Ephron, the son of Zohar. It was east of Mamre.

Genesis 50:5
‘When my father was near death, I made a promise to him. I promised that I would bury him in a cave in the land of Canaan. This is the cave that he prepared for himself. So please let me go and bury my father. Then I will come back here to you.'"

Genesis 50:13
They carried his body to Canaan and buried it in the cave at Machpelah. This was the cave near Mamre in the field that Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite. Abraham bought that cave to use as a burial place.

2 Samuel 24:24
But the king said to Araunah, "No! I must pay you for everything. I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing." So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for 50 shekels of silver.

2 Kings 21:18
Manasseh died and was buried with his ancestors. He was buried in the garden at his house. It was called the "Garden of Uzza." His son Amon became the new king after him.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And he slew all the priests of the high places that were there,.... The idolatrous priests who sacrificed to Baal, and other Heathen deities; for as for others that burnt incense in high places, yet to the true God, those he spared, though they were not suffered to officiate at the altar of God: the others he slew

upon the altars; where they sacrificed:

and burnt men's bones upon them: the bones of the priests, and worshippers of idols, as he had done at Bethel:

and returned to Jerusalem; after he had gone through the land, both of Judah and Israel, and abolished idolatrous worship everywhere.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

A parenthesis giving the earlier reforms of Josiah.

2 Kings 23:4

The priests of the second order - This is a new expression; and probably refers to the ordinary priests, called here “priests of the second order,” in contrast with the high priest, whose dignity was reviving (2 Kings 12:2 note).

The vessels - This would include the whole apparatus of worship, altars, images, dresses, utensils, etc., for Baal, etc. (2 Kings 21:3-5 notes).

The ashes of the idolatrous objects burned in the first instance in the “fields of Kidron” (i. e., in the part of the valley which lies northeast of the city, a part much broader than that between the Temple Hill and the Mount of Olives) were actually taken to Bethel, as to an accursed place, and one just beyond the borders of Judah; while those of other objects burned afterward were not carried so far, the trouble being great and the need not absolute, but were thrown into the Kidron 2 Kings 23:12, when there happened to be water to carry them away, or scattered on graves which were already unclean 2 Kings 23:6. Compare 1 Kings 15:13.

2 Kings 23:5

He put down ... - or, “He caused to cease the idolatrous priests” (margin); i. e., he stopped them. The word translated “idolatrous priests” (see the margin) is a rare one, occurring only here and in marginal references. Here and in Zephaniah it is contrasted with כהן kôhên, another class of high-place priests. The כהן kôhên were probably “Levitical,” the כהן kâhêm “non-Levitical priests of the highplaces.” כהן kâhêm appears to have been a foreign term, perhaps derived from the Syriac cumro, which means a priest of any kind.

Whom the kings of Judah had ordained - The consecration of non-Levitical priests by the kings of Judah (compare 1 Kings 12:31) had not been previously mentioned; but it is quite in accordance with the other proceedings of Manasseh and Amon.

The planets - See the marginal note, i. e., the “signs of the Zodiac.” Compare Job 38:32 margin. The word in the original probably means primarily “houses” or “stations,” which was the name applied by the Babylonians to their divisions of the Zodiac.

2 Kings 23:6

The ashes, being polluted and polluting, were thrown upon graves, because there no one could come into contact with them, since graves were avoided as unclean places.

2 Kings 23:7

By the house of the Lord - This did not arise from intentional desecration, but from the fact that the practices in question were a part of the idolatrous ceremonial, being regarded as pleasing to the gods, and, indeed, as positive acts of worship (compare the marginal reference).

The “women” were probably the priestesses attached to the worship of Astarte, which was intimately connected with that of the Asherah or “grove.” Among their occupations one was the weaving of coverings (literally “houses” margin) for the Asherah, which seem to have been of various colors (marginal reference).

2 Kings 23:8

Josiah removed the Levitical priests, who had officiated at the various high-places, from the scenes of their idolatries, and brought them to Jerusalem, where their conduct might be watched.

From Geba to Beer-sheba - i. e., from the extreme north to the extreme south of the kingdom of Judah. On Geba see the marginal reference note. The high-place of Beer-sheba had obtained an evil celebrity Amos 5:5; Amos 8:14.

The high places of the gates ... - Render, “He brake down the high-places of the gates, both that which was at the entering in of the gate of Joshua, the governor of the city (1 Kings 22:26 note), and also that which was on a man’s left hand at the gate of the city.” According to this, there were only two “high-places of the gates” (or idolatrous shrines erected in the city at gate-towers) at Jerusalem. The “gate of Joshua is conjectured to have been a gate in the inner wall; and the “gate of the city,” the Valley-gate (modern “Jaffa-gate”).

2 Kings 23:9

Nevertheless - Connect this verse with the first clause of 2 Kings 23:8. The priests were treated as if they had been disqualified from serving at the altar by a bodily blemish Leviticus 21:21-23. They were not secularised, but remained in the priestly order and received a maintenance from the ecclesiastical revenues. Contrast with this treatment Josiah’s severity toward the priests of the high-places in Samaria, who were sacrificed upon their own altars 2 Kings 23:20. Probably the high-place worship in Judaea had continued in the main a worship of Yahweh with idolatrous rites, while in Samaria it had degenerated into an actual worship of other gods.

2 Kings 23:10

The word Topheth, or Topher - variously derived from toph, “a drum” or “tabour,” because the cries of the sacrificed children were drowned by the noise of such instruments; or, from a root taph or toph, meaning “to burn” - was a spot in the valley of Hinnom (marginal reference note). The later Jewish kings, Manasseh and Amon (or, perhaps, Ahaz, 2 Chronicles 28:3), had given it over to the Moloch priests for their worship; and here, ever since, the Moloch service had maintained its ground and flourished (marginal references).

2 Kings 23:11

The custom of dedicating a chariot and horses to the Sun is a Persian practice. There are no traces of it in Assyria; and it is extremely curious to find that it was known to the Jews as early as the reign of Manasseh. The idea of regarding the Sun as a charioteer who drove his horses daily across the sky, so familiar to the Greeks and Romans, may not improbably have been imported from Asia, and may have been at the root of the custom in question. The chariot, or chariots, of the Sun appear to have been used, chiefly if not solely, for sacred processions. They were white, and were drawn probably by white horses. The kings of Judah who gave them were Manasseh and Amon certainly; perhaps Ahaz; perhaps even earlier monarchs, as Joash and Amaziah.

In the suburbs - The expression used here פרברים parbārı̂ym is of unknown derivation and occurs nowhere else. A somewhat similar word occurs in 1 Chronicles 26:18, namely, פרבר parbār, which seems to have been a place just outside the western wall of the temple, and therefore a sort of “purlieu” or “suburb.” The פרברים parbārı̂ym of this passage may mean the same place or it may signify some other “suburb” of the temple.

2 Kings 23:12

The upper chamber of Ahaz - Conjectured to be a chamber erected on the flat roof of one of the gateways which led into the temple court. It was probably built in order that its roof might be used for the worship of the host of heaven, for which house-tops were considered especially appropriate (compare the marginal references).

Brake them down from thence - Rather as in the margin, i. e., he “hasted and cast the dust into Kidron.”

2 Kings 23:13

On the position of these high-places see 1 Kings 11:7 note. As they were allowed to remain under such kings as Asa, Jehoshaphat, and Hezekiah, they were probably among the old high-places where Yahweh had been worshipped blamelessly, or at least without any consciousness of guilt (see 1 Kings 3:2 note). Manasseh or Amon had however restored them to the condition which they had held in the reign of Solomon, and therefore Josiah would condemn them to a special defilement.

The mount of corruption - See the margin. It is suspected that the original name was Har ham-mishcah, “mount of anointing,” and that this was changed afterward, by way of contempt, into Har ham-mashchith, “mount of corruption.”

2 Kings 23:14

The Law attached uncleanness to the “bones of men,” no less than to actual corpses Numbers 19:16. We may gather from this and other passages 2 Kings 23:20; 1 Kings 13:2, that the Jews who rejected the Law were as firm believers in the defilement as those who adhered to the Law.

2 Kings 23:15

And burned the high place - This “high place” is to be distinguished from the altar and the grove (אשׁרה 'ăshêrâh). It may have been a shrine or tabernacle, either standing by itself or else covering the “grove” (2 Kings 23:7 note; 1 Kings 14:23 note). As it was “stamped small to powder,” it must have been made either of metal or stone.

2 Kings 23:16

To burn human bones was contrary to all the ordinary Jewish feelings with respect to the sanctity of the sepulchre, and had even been denounced as a sin of a heinous character when committed by a king of Moab Amos 2:1. Joshua did it, because justified by the divine command (marginal reference).

2 Kings 23:17

What title is that? - Rather, “What pillar is that?” The word in the original indicates a short stone pillar, which was set up either as a way-mark Jeremiah 31:21, or as a sepulchral monument Genesis 35:20; Ezekiel 39:15.

2 Kings 23:19

The cities of Samaria - The reformation which Josiah effected in Samaria, is narrated in Chronicles. It implies sovereignty to the furthest northern limits of Galilee, and is explained by the general political history of the East during his reign. Between 632-626 B.C. the Scythians ravaged the more northern countries of Armenia, Media, and Cappadocia, and found their way across Mesopotamia to Syria, and thence, made an attempt to invade Egypt. As they were neither the fated enemy of Judah, nor had any hand in bringing that enemy into the country, no mention is made of them in the Historical Books of Scripture. It is only in the prophets that we catch glimpses of the fearful sufferings of the time Zephaniah 2:4-6; Jeremiah 1:13-15; Jeremiah 6:2-5; Ezekiel 38:0; Ezekiel 39:0. The invasion had scarcely gone by, and matters settled into their former position, when the astounding intelligence must have reached Jerusalem that the Assyrian monarchy had fallen; that Nineveh was destroyed, and that her place was to be taken, so far as Syria and Palestine were concerned, by Babylon. This event is fixed about 625 B.C., which seems to be exactly the time during which Josiah was occupied in carrying out his reformation in Samaria. The confusion arising in these provinces from the Scythian invasion and the troubles in Assyria was taken advantage of by Josiah to enlarge his own sovereignty. There is every indication that Josiah did, in fact, unite under his rule all the old “land of Israel” except the trans-Jordanic region, and regarded himself as subject to Nabopolassar of Babylon.

2 Kings 23:20

Here, as in 2 Kings 23:16, Josiah may have regarded himself as bound to act as he did (marginal reference “b”). Excepting on account of the prophecy, he would scarcely have slain the priests upon the altars.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 2 Kings 23:20. Slew all the priests — The lives of these, as corrupters of the people, were forfeited to the law.