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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0; maximum-scale=1.0; user-scalable=0;"/><title>2 Kings 23 New American Bible</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/2_kings/23.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="/bmcc/2_kings/23-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="http://biblehub.com/catholic">Bible</a> > <a href="../">NABRE</a> > 2 Kings 23</div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../2_kings/22.htm" title="2 Kings 22">◄</a> 2 Kings 23 <a href="../2_kings/24.htm" title="2 Kings 24">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading"><table width="100%"><tr><td width="99%" valign="top">New American Bible Revised Edition</td><td width="1%" valign="top"></td></tr></table></div><div class="chap"><section id="ch12023" class="chapter"> <h1 id="cn12023" class="cn"></h1> <p class="pf"><span id="v12023001" class="ver">1</span>The king then had all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem summoned before him. <span id="v12023002" class="ver">2</span>The king went up to the house of the <span class="tetr">Lord</span> with all the people of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem: priests, prophets, and all the people, great and small. He read aloud to them all the words of the book of the covenant that had been found in the house of the <span class="tetr">Lord</span>.<a id="ren12023002-a" class="enref" href="footnotes.htm#en12023002-a">a</a> <span id="v12023003" class="ver">3</span>The king stood by the column and made a covenant in the presence of the <span class="tetr">Lord</span> to follow the <span class="tetr">Lord</span> and to observe his commandments, statutes, and decrees with his whole heart and soul, and to re-establish the words of the covenant written in this book. And all the people stood by the covenant.</p> <p class="psec"><span class="hemb">Josiah’s Religious Reform.</span> <span id="v12023004" class="ver">4</span>Then the king commanded the high priest Hilkiah, his assistant priests, and the doorkeepers to remove from the temple of the <span class="tetr">Lord</span> all the objects that had been made for Baal, Asherah, and the whole host of heaven. These he burned outside Jerusalem on the slopes of the Kidron; their ashes were carried to Bethel.<a id="ren12023004-b" class="enref" href="footnotes.htm#en12023004-b">b</a> <span id="v12023005" class="ver">5</span>He also put an end to the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed to burn incense on the high places in the cities of Judah and in the vicinity of Jerusalem, as well as those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, moon, and signs of the zodiac, and to the whole host of heaven.<a id="ren12023005-c" class="enref" href="footnotes.htm#en12023005-c">c</a> <span id="v12023006" class="ver">6</span>From the house of the <span class="tetr">Lord</span> he also removed the Asherah to the Wadi Kidron, outside Jerusalem; he burned it and beat it to dust, in the Wadi Kidron, and scattered its dust over the graveyard of the people of the land.<a id="rfn12023006-1" class="fnref" href="footnotes.htm#fn12023006-1">*</a> <a id="ren12023006-d" class="enref" href="footnotes.htm#en12023006-d">d</a> <span id="v12023007" class="ver">7</span>He tore down the apartments of the cult prostitutes in the house of the <span class="tetr">Lord</span>, where the women wove garments for the Asherah.<a id="ren12023007-e" class="enref" href="footnotes.htm#en12023007-e">e</a> <span id="v12023008" class="ver">8</span>He brought in all the priests from the cities of Judah, and then defiled, from Geba to Beer-sheba, the high places where they had offered incense. He also tore down the high places of the gates, which were at the entrance of the Gate of Joshua, governor of the city, north of the city gate. <span id="v12023009" class="ver">9</span>(The priests of the high places could not function at the altar of the <span class="tetr">Lord</span> in Jerusalem; but they, along with their relatives, ate the unleavened bread.)</p> <p><span id="v12023010" class="ver">10</span>The king also defiled Topheth in the Valley of Ben-hinnom, so that there would no longer be any immolation of sons or daughters by fire<a id="rfn12023010-1" class="fnref" href="footnotes.htm#fn12023010-1">*</a> in honor of Molech.<a id="ren12023010-f" class="enref" href="footnotes.htm#en12023010-f">f</a> <span id="v12023011" class="ver">11</span>He did away with the horses which the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun; these were at the entrance of the house of the <span class="tetr">Lord</span>, near the chamber of Nathan-melech the official, which was in the large building. The chariots of the sun he destroyed by fire. <span id="v12023012" class="ver">12</span>He also demolished the altars made by the kings of Judah on the roof (the roof terrace of Ahaz), and the altars made by Manasseh in the two courts of the <span class="tetr">Lord</span>’s house. He pulverized them and threw the dust into the Wadi Kidron.<a id="ren12023012-g" class="enref" href="footnotes.htm#en12023012-g">g</a> <span id="v12023013" class="ver">13</span>The king defiled the high places east of Jerusalem, south of the Mount of the Destroyer,<a id="rfn12023013-1" class="fnref" href="footnotes.htm#fn12023013-1">*</a> which Solomon, king of Israel, had built in honor of Astarte, the Sidonian horror, of Chemosh, the Moabite horror, and of Milcom, the Ammonites’ abomination.<a id="ren12023013-h" class="enref" href="footnotes.htm#en12023013-h">h</a> <span id="v12023014" class="ver">14</span>He broke to pieces the pillars, cut down the asherahs, and filled the places where they had been with human bones.<a id="ren12023014-i" class="enref" href="footnotes.htm#en12023014-i">i</a></p> <p><span id="v12023015" class="ver">15</span>Likewise the altar which was at Bethel, the high place built by Jeroboam, son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin—this same altar and high place he tore down and burned, grinding the high place to powder and burning the asherah.<a id="ren12023015-j" class="enref" href="footnotes.htm#en12023015-j">j</a> <span id="v12023016" class="ver">16</span>When Josiah turned and saw the graves there on the mountainside, he ordered the bones taken from the graves and burned on the altar, and thus defiled it, according to the <span class="tetr">Lord</span>’s word proclaimed by the man of God as Jeroboam stood by the altar on the feast day. When the king looked up and saw the grave of the man of God who had proclaimed these words, <span id="v12023017" class="ver">17</span>he asked, “What is that marker I see?” The people of the city replied, “The grave of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed the very things you have done to the altar in Bethel.” <span id="v12023018" class="ver">18</span>“Let him be,” he said, “let no one move his bones.” So they left his bones undisturbed together with the bones of the prophet who had come from Samaria.<a id="rfn12023018-1" class="fnref" href="footnotes.htm#fn12023018-1">*</a> <span id="v12023019" class="ver">19</span>Josiah also removed all the temples on the high places in the cities of Samaria which the kings of Israel had built, provoking the <span class="tetr">Lord</span>; he did the very same to them as he had done in Bethel. <span id="v12023020" class="ver">20</span>He slaughtered upon the altars all the priests of the high places that were there, and burned human bones upon them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.</p> <p><span id="v12023021" class="ver">21</span>The king issued a command to all the people: “Observe the Passover of the <span class="tetr">Lord</span>, your God, as it is written in this book of the covenant.”<a id="ren12023021-k" class="enref" href="footnotes.htm#en12023021-k">k</a> <span id="v12023022" class="ver">22</span>No Passover such as this had been observed during the period when the judges ruled Israel, or during the entire period of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah, <span id="v12023023" class="ver">23</span>until the eighteenth year of King Josiah, when this Passover of the <span class="tetr">Lord</span> was kept in Jerusalem.</p> <p><span id="v12023024" class="ver">24</span>Further, Josiah purged the consultation of ghosts and spirits, with the household gods, idols,<a id="rfn12023024-1" class="fnref" href="footnotes.htm#fn12023024-1">*</a> and all the other horrors to be seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, so that he might carry out the words of the law that were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest had found in the house of the <span class="tetr">Lord</span>.<a id="ren12023024-l" class="enref" href="footnotes.htm#en12023024-l">l</a></p> <p><span id="v12023025" class="ver">25</span>Before him there had been no king who turned to the <span class="tetr">Lord</span> as he did, with his whole heart, his whole being, and his whole strength, in accord with the entire law of Moses; nor did any king like him arise after him.<a id="ren12023025-m" class="enref" href="footnotes.htm#en12023025-m">m</a> <span id="v12023026" class="ver">26</span>Yet the <span class="tetr">Lord</span> did not turn from his fiercely burning anger against Judah, because of all the provocations that Manasseh had given. <span id="v12023027" class="ver">27</span>The <span class="tetr">Lord</span> said: Even Judah will I put out of my sight as I did Israel. I will reject this city, Jerusalem, which I chose, and the house of which I said: There shall my name be.</p> <p><span id="v12023028" class="ver">28</span>The rest of the acts of Josiah, with all that he did, are recorded in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah. <span id="v12023029" class="ver">29</span>In his time Pharaoh Neco, king of Egypt, went up toward the Euphrates River against the king of Assyria.<a id="rfn12023029-1" class="fnref" href="footnotes.htm#fn12023029-1">*</a> King Josiah set out to meet him, but was slain at Megiddo at the first encounter. <span id="v12023030" class="ver">30</span>His servants brought his body on a chariot from Megiddo to Jerusalem, where they buried him in his own grave. Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz, son of Josiah, anointed him, and proclaimed him king to succeed his father.</p> <p class="psec"><span class="hemb">Reign of Jehoahaz.</span> <span id="v12023031" class="ver">31</span>Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal, daughter of Jeremiah, from Libnah.<a id="ren12023031-n" class="enref" href="footnotes.htm#en12023031-n">n</a></p> <p><span id="v12023032" class="ver">32</span>He did what was evil in the <span class="tetr">Lord</span>’s sight, just as his ancestors had done. <span id="v12023033" class="ver">33</span>Pharaoh Neco took him prisoner at Riblah in the land of Hamath, thus ending his reign in Jerusalem. He imposed a fine upon the land of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.<a id="rfn12023033-1" class="fnref" href="footnotes.htm#fn12023033-1">*</a> <span id="v12023034" class="ver">34</span>Pharaoh Neco then made Eliakim, son of Josiah, king in place of Josiah his father; he changed his name to Jehoiakim. Jehoahaz he took away with him to Egypt, where he died. <span id="v12023035" class="ver">35</span>Jehoiakim gave the silver and gold to Pharaoh, but taxed the land to raise the amount Pharaoh demanded. He exacted the silver and gold from the people of the land, from each proportionately, to pay Pharaoh Neco.</p> <p class="psec"><span class="hemb">Reign of Jehoiakim.</span> <span id="v12023036" class="ver">36</span>Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zebidah, daughter of Pedaiah, from Rumah.</p> <p><span id="v12023037" class="ver">37</span>He did what was evil in the <span class="tetr">Lord</span>’s sight, just as his ancestors had done.</p> </section> <br /><h1 class="cn"><a class="xref" href="intro.htm"><span class="ac">Book Introduction</span></a></h1><h1 class="cn"><a class="xref" href="footnotes.htm"><span class="ac">Footnotes</span></a></h1></div></div><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the <i>New American Bible, revised edition</i> © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. 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