2 Kings 23:22

THE MESSAGE

This commanded Passover had not been celebrated since the days that the judges judged Israel—none of the kings of Israel and Judah had celebrated it. But in the eighteenth year of the rule of King Josiah this very Passover was celebrated to God in Jerusalem.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
No such Passover had ever been observed from the time of the judges who judged Israel through the entire time of the kings of Israel and Judah.

Hebrew Names Version
Surely there was not kept such a Pesach from the days of the judges who judged Yisra'el, nor in all the days of the kings of Yisra'el, nor of the kings of Yehudah;

King James Version
Surely there was not holden such a passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah;

English Standard Version
For no such Passover had been kept since the days of the judges who judged Israel, or during all the days of the kings of Israel or of the kings of Judah.

New Century Version
The Passover had not been celebrated like this since the judges led Israel. Nor had one like it happened while there were kings of Israel and kings of Judah.

New English Translation
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.

Amplified Bible
Indeed, such a Passover as this had not been held since the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah.

New American Standard Bible
Truly such a Passover had not been celebrated since the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah.

World English Bible
Surely there was not kept such a Passover from the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah;

Geneva Bible (1587)
And there was no Passeouer holden like that from the dayes of the Iudges that iudged Israel, nor in all the dayes of the Kinges of Israel, and of the Kings of Iudah.

Legacy Standard Bible
For such a Passover had not been celebrated from the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel and of the kings of Judah.

Berean Standard Bible
No such Passover had been observed from the days of the judges who had governed Israel through all the days of the kings of Israel and Judah.

Contemporary English Version
This festival had not been celebrated in this way since kings ruled Israel and Judah.

Complete Jewish Bible
For Pesach had not been so observed since the days when the judges ruled Isra'el — not during the times of any of the kings of Isra'el or of the kings of Y'hudah.

Darby Translation
For there was not holden such a passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah;

Easy-to-Read Version
The people had not celebrated a Passover like this since the days when the judges ruled Israel. None of the kings of Israel or the kings of Judah ever had such a big celebration for Passover.

George Lamsa Translation
Surely no such a passover had been kept from the days of the judges who judged Israel nor in all the days of the kings of Israel nor of the kings of Judah,

Good News Translation
No Passover like this one had ever been celebrated by any of the kings of Israel or of Judah, since the time when judges ruled the nation.

Lexham English Bible
For they had not kept this Passover from the days of the judges who had judged over Israel or during the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah.

Literal Translation
Surely none has been performed like this Passover from the days of the Judges who judged Israel even to all the days of the kings of Israel, and of the kings of Judah;

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
For there was no Easter so kepte as this, sence the tyme of the Iudges which iudged Israel, and in all the tymes of the kynges of Israel, and of the kynges of Iuda:

American Standard Version
Surely there was not kept such a passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah;

Bible in Basic English
Truly, such a Passover had not been kept in all the days of the judges of Israel or of the kings of Israel or the kings of Judah;

Bishop's Bible (1568)
There was no Passouer holden lyke that from the dayes of the iudges that iudged Israel, and in all the dayes of the kinges of Israel and of the kinges of Iuda.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
For there was not kept such a passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah;

King James Version (1611)
Surely there was not holden such a Passeouer, from the daies of the Iudges that iudged Israel, nor in all the dayes of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Iudah:

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
For a passover such as this had not been kept from the days of the judges who judged Israel, even all the days of the kings of Israel, and of the kings of Juda.

English Revised Version
Surely there was not kept such a passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah;

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Forsothe sich pask was not maad, fro the daies of iugis that demyden Israel, and of alle daies of the kyngis of Israel and of Juda,

Update Bible Version
Surely there was not kept such a passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah;

Webster's Bible Translation
Surely there was not held such a passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah.

New King James Version
Such a Passover surely had never been held since the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah.

New Living Translation
There had not been a Passover celebration like that since the time when the judges ruled in Israel, nor throughout all the years of the kings of Israel and Judah.

New Life Bible
For sure no such Passover had been kept since the days of the judges who ruled Israel. It had not been kept in all the days of the kings of Israel or Judah.

New Revised Standard
No such passover had been kept since the days of the judges who judged Israel, even during all the days of the kings of Israel and of the kings of Judah;

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Surely there had not been held such a passover as this, from the days of the Judges who judged Israel, - nor all the days of the kings of Israel, and the kings of Judah;

Douay-Rheims Bible
Now there was no such a Phase kept from the days of the judges, who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, and of the kings of Juda,

Revised Standard Version
For no such passover had been kept since the days of the judges who judged Israel, or during all the days of the kings of Israel or of the kings of Judah;

Young's Literal Translation
Surely there hath not been made like this passover from the days of the judges who judged Israel, even all the days of the kings of Israel, and of the kings of Judah;

New American Standard Bible (1995)
Surely such a Passover had not been celebrated from the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel and of the kings of Judah.

Contextual Overview

⁴Then the king ordered Hilkiah the high priest, his associate priest, and The Temple sentries to clean house—to get rid of everything in The Temple of God that had been made for worshiping Baal and Asherah and the cosmic powers. He had them burned outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron and then disposed of the ashes in Bethel. He fired the pagan priests whom the kings of Judah had hired to supervise the local sex-and-religion shrines in the towns of Judah and neighborhoods of Jerusalem. In a stroke he swept the country clean of the polluting stench of the round-the-clock worship of Baal, sun and moon, stars—all the so-called cosmic powers. He took the obscene phallic Asherah pole from The Temple of God to the Valley of Kidron outside Jerusalem, burned it up, then ground up the ashes and scattered them in the cemetery. He tore out the rooms of the male sacred prostitutes that had been set up in The Temple of God ; women also used these rooms for weavings for Asherah. He swept the outlying towns of Judah clean of priests and smashed the sex-and-religion shrines where they worked their trade from one end of the country to the other—all the way from Geba to Beersheba. He smashed the sex-and-religion shrine that had been set up just to the left of the city gate for the private use of Joshua, the city mayor. Even though these sex-and-religion priests did not defile the Altar in The Temple itself, they were part of the general priestly corruption and had to go. ¹⁰Then Josiah demolished the Topheth, the iron furnace griddle set up in the Valley of Ben Hinnom for sacrificing children in the fire. No longer could anyone burn son or daughter to the god Molech. He hauled off the horse statues honoring the sun god that the kings of Judah had set up near the entrance to The Temple. They were in the courtyard next to the office of Nathan-Melech, the warden. He burned up the sun-chariots as so much rubbish. ¹²The king smashed all the altars to smithereens—the altar on the roof shrine of Ahaz, the various altars the kings of Judah had made, the altars of Manasseh that littered the courtyard of The Temple—he smashed them all, pulverized the fragments, and scattered their dust in the Valley of Kidron. The king proceeded to make a clean sweep of all the sex-and-religion shrines that had proliferated east of Jerusalem on the south slope of Abomination Hill, the ones Solomon king of Israel had built to the obscene Sidonian sex goddess Ashtoreth, to Chemosh the dirty-old-god of the Moabites, and to Milcom the depraved god of the Ammonites. He tore apart the altars, chopped down the phallic Asherah-poles, and scattered old bones over the sites. Next, he took care of the altar at the shrine in Bethel that Jeroboam son of Nebat had built—the same Jeroboam who had led Israel into a life of sin. He tore apart the altar, burned down the shrine leaving it in ashes, and then lit fire to the phallic Asherah-pole. ¹⁶ As Josiah looked over the scene, he noticed the tombs on the hillside. He ordered the bones removed from the tombs and had them cremated on the ruined altars, desacralizing the evil altars. This was a fulfillment of the word of God spoken by the Holy Man years before when Jeroboam had stood by the altar at the sacred convocation. ¹⁷ Then the king said, "And that memorial stone—whose is that?" The men from the city said, "That's the grave of the Holy Man who spoke the message against the altar at Bethel that you have just fulfilled." ¹⁸ Josiah said, "Don't trouble his bones." So they left his bones undisturbed, along with the bones of the prophet from Samaria. ¹⁹But Josiah hadn't finished. He now moved through all the towns of Samaria where the kings of Israel had built neighborhood sex-and-religion shrines, shrines that had so angered God . He tore the shrines down and left them in ruins—just as at Bethel. He killed all the priests who had conducted the sacrifices and cremated them on their own altars, thus desacralizing the altars. Only then did Josiah return to Jerusalem. ²¹ The king now commanded the people, "Celebrate the Passover to God , your God, exactly as directed in this Book of the Covenant." ²²This commanded Passover had not been celebrated since the days that the judges judged Israel—none of the kings of Israel and Judah had celebrated it. But in the eighteenth year of the rule of King Josiah this very Passover was celebrated to God in Jerusalem. ²⁴ Josiah scrubbed the place clean and trashed spirit-mediums, sorcerers, domestic gods, and carved figures—all the vast accumulation of foul and obscene relics and images on display everywhere you looked in Judah and Jerusalem. Josiah did this in obedience to the words of God 's Revelation written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in The Temple of God .

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Surely: 2 Chronicles 35:18, 2 Chronicles 35:19

of the kings: 2 Chronicles 30:1-3, 2 Chronicles 30:13-20, 2 Chronicles 35:3-17

Reciprocal: Acts 13:20 - he gave

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Surely there was not holden such a passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel,.... As the king commanded; the people obeyed and kept the passover, according to the law of the Lord; the manner of its being kept is not here recorded, but is at large in

2 Chronicles 35:1 where it is observed there had not been such an one from the days of Samuel, the last of the judges; so that the days of the judges here mean the last days of them:

nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah; since the division of the kingdoms; for as for the kings of Israel, they kept it not; and though it was observed in the times of Hezekiah king of Judah, yet not universally, and by some in their uncleanness; for it is a mistake of Clemens of Alexandria w, that it was not kept in the times between Samuel and Josiah; in the days of David and Solomon it might be kept by greater numbers, but not with such purity, and with such cheerfulness and joy of heart, or with so many other sacrifices attending it, or so exactly agreeable to the law of God, and with such munificence and liberality; the king, and the chief of the priests and Levites, providing out of their own substance for the people and their brethren.

w Stromat. l. 1. p. 328.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The details of the Passover are given by the author of Chronicles (the marginal reference). Its superiority to other Passovers seems to have consisted:

(1) in the multitudes that attended it; and

(2) in the completeness with which all the directions of the Law were observed in the celebration. Compare Nehemiah 8:17.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 2 Kings 23:22. Surely there was not holden such a passover — Not one on purer principles, more heartily joined in by the people present, more literally consecrated, or more religiously observed. The words do not apply to the number present, but to the manner and spirit. See the particulars and mode of celebrating this passover in 2 Chronicles 35:1-18.