2 Kings 23:20

New Life Version

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.

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.

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.

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 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 spoke to Hilkiah the head religious leader, and the religious leaders who were next in power, and the door-keepers. He told them to bring out of the Lord's house all the objects made for the false gods Baal and Asherah and for all the stars of heaven. He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron. And he carried their ashes to Bethel. ⁵ He got rid of the religious leaders who worshiped false gods, whom the kings of Judah had chosen. They had been chosen to burn special perfume in the high places in the cities of Judah and in the land around Jerusalem. Josiah got rid of those who burned special perfume to Baal, to the sun and the moon, to groups of stars, and to all the stars of heaven. ⁶ He brought out the object of the false goddess Asherah from the Lord's house to the river Kidron outside Jerusalem. There he burned it and ground it to dust, and threw its dust on the people's graves. ⁷ He broke down the small rooms in the Lord's house that were used by the men who sold the use of their bodies for their false gods. The women were making special curtains for the false goddess Asherah in these rooms. ⁸ Then King Josiah brought all the religious leaders from the cities of Judah. And he showed how sinful the high places were where the religious leaders had burned special perfume, from Geba to Beersheba. He broke down the high places at the gate of Joshua the leader of the city, which were to the left of the city gate. ⁹ The religious leaders of the high places did not go up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem. But they ate bread without yeast among their brothers. ¹⁰ The king made Topheth unclean, which is in the valley of the sons of Hinnom. He did this so no one might give his son or daughter there as a burnt gift to the false god Molech. ¹¹ Josiah got rid of the horses which the kings of Judah had given to the sun. They had given them at the door of the Lord's house, by the room of Nathan-melech the leader. And the king burned the war-wagons of the sun with fire. ¹² King Josiah broke down the altars which were on the roof of Ahaz's room on the second floor. They had been made by the kings of Judah. And he broke down the altars which Manasseh had made in the two open spaces of the Lord's house. He broke them there and threw their dust into the river Kidron. ¹³ The king made the high places sinful which were east of Jerusalem and south of the Mount of Destruction. King Solomon of Israel had built them for Ashtoreth the sinful goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the hated false god of Moab, and Milcom the hated god of the sons of Ammon.

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
So Abraham stood up and bowed to the people of the land, the sons of Heth.

Genesis 23:10
Ephron was sitting among the sons of Heth. So Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham so what he said could be heard by the sons of Heth and all who came in through the gate of his city.

Genesis 23:14
Ephron answered Abraham,

Genesis 25:9
His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the grave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, east of Mamre.

Genesis 50:5
‘My father had me make a promise to him. He said, "See, I am about to die. Bury me in my grave which I dug for myself in the land of Canaan." So let me go and bury my father. Then I will return.'"

Genesis 50:13
They carried him to the land of Canaan. They buried him in the grave of the field of Machpelah, east of Mamre, which Abraham had bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite for a burying place.

2 Samuel 24:24
But the king said to Araunah, "No, I will buy it from you for a price. I will not give burnt gifts to the Lord my God which I do not pay for." So David bought the grain-floor and the bulls for fifty pieces of silver.

2 Kings 21:18
Manasseh died and was buried in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzza. And his son Amon became king in his place.

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.