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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 Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition</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="../">NRSVCE</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 Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition</td><td width="1%" valign="top"></td></tr></table></div><div class="chap"><div class="text-html"> <h3><span id="en" class="text">Josiah’s Reformation</span></h3><p class="chapter-2"><span class="text"><span class="versenum">1</span>Then the king directed that all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem should be gathered to him. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">2</span>The king went up to the house of the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span>, and with him went all the people of Judah, all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests, the prophets, and all the people, both small and great; he read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant that had been found in the house of the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span>. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">3</span>The king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span>, to follow the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span>, keeping his commandments, his decrees, and his statutes, with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. All the people joined in the covenant.</span></p> <p><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">4</span>The king commanded the high priest Hilkiah, the priests of the second order, and the guardians of the threshold, to bring out of the temple of the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> all the vessels made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven; he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">5</span>He deposed the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to make offerings in the high places at the cities of Judah and around Jerusalem; those also who made offerings to Baal, to the sun, the moon, the constellations, and all the host of the heavens. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">6</span>He brought out the image of<span data-fn='#fen' class='footnote' data-link='[<a href="#fen-NRSVCE-10172a" title="See footnote a">a</a>]'>[<a href="#fen" xtitle="See footnote a">a</a>]</span> Asherah from the house of the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span>, outside Jerusalem, to the Wadi Kidron, burned it at the Wadi Kidron, beat it to dust and threw the dust of it upon the graves of the common people. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">7</span>He broke down the houses of the male temple prostitutes that were in the house of the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span>, where the women did weaving for Asherah. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">8</span>He brought all the priests out of the towns of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had made offerings, from Geba to Beer-sheba; he broke down the high places of the gates that were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on the left at the gate of the city. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">9</span>The priests of the high places, however, did not come up to the altar of the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> in Jerusalem, but ate unleavened bread among their kindred. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">10</span>He defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of Ben-hinnom, so that no one would make a son or a daughter pass through fire as an offering to Molech. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">11</span>He removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun, at the entrance to the house of the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span>, by the chamber of the eunuch Nathan-melech, which was in the precincts;<span data-fn='#fen' class='footnote' data-link='[<a href="#fen-NRSVCE-10177b" title="See footnote b">b</a>]'>[<a href="#fen" xtitle="See footnote b">b</a>]</span> then he burned the chariots of the sun with fire. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">12</span>The altars on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars that Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span>, he pulled down from there and broke in pieces, and threw the rubble into the Wadi Kidron. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">13</span>The king defiled the high places that were east of Jerusalem, to the south of the Mount of Destruction, which King Solomon of Israel had built for Astarte the abomination of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">14</span>He broke the pillars in pieces, cut down the sacred poles,<span data-fn='#fen' class='footnote' data-link='[<a href="#fen-NRSVCE-10180c" title="See footnote c">c</a>]'>[<a href="#fen" xtitle="See footnote c">c</a>]</span> and covered the sites with human bones.</span></p> <p><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">15</span>Moreover, the altar at Bethel, the high place erected by Jeroboam son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin—he pulled down that altar along with the high place. He burned the high place, crushing it to dust; he also burned the sacred pole.<span data-fn='#fen' class='footnote' data-link='[<a href="#fen-NRSVCE-10181d" title="See footnote d">d</a>]'>[<a href="#fen" xtitle="See footnote d">d</a>]</span> </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">16</span>As Josiah turned, he saw the tombs there on the mount; and he sent and took the bones out of the tombs, and burned them on the altar, and defiled it, according to the word of the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> that the man of God proclaimed,<span data-fn='#fen' class='footnote' data-link='[<a href="#fen-NRSVCE-10182e" title="See footnote e">e</a>]'>[<a href="#fen" xtitle="See footnote e">e</a>]</span> when Jeroboam stood by the altar at the festival; he turned and looked up at the tomb of the man of God who had predicted these things. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">17</span>Then he said, “What is that monument that I see?” The people of the city told him, “It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and predicted these things that you have done against the altar at Bethel.” </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">18</span>He said, “Let him rest; let no one move his bones.” So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet who came out of Samaria. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">19</span>Moreover, Josiah removed all the shrines of the high places that were in the towns of Samaria, which kings of Israel had made, provoking the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> to anger; he did to them just as he had done at Bethel. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">20</span>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.</span></p> <h3><span id="en" class="text">The Passover Celebrated</span></h3><p><span class="text"><span class="versenum">21</span>The king commanded all the people, “Keep the passover to the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> your God as prescribed in this book of the covenant.” </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">22</span>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; </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">23</span>but in the eighteenth year of King Josiah this passover was kept to the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> in Jerusalem.</span></p> <p><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">24</span>Moreover Josiah put away the mediums, wizards, teraphim,<span data-fn='#fen' class='footnote' data-link='[<a href="#fen-NRSVCE-10190f" title="See footnote f">f</a>]'>[<a href="#fen" xtitle="See footnote f">f</a>]</span> idols, and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, so that he established the words of the law that were written in the book that the priest Hilkiah had found in the house of the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span>. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">25</span>Before him there was no king like him, who turned to the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; nor did any like him arise after him.</span></p> <p><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">26</span>Still the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> did not turn from the fierceness of his great wrath, by which his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked him. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">27</span>The <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> said, “I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel; and I will reject this city that I have chosen, Jerusalem, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there.”</span></p> <h3><span id="en" class="text">Josiah Dies in Battle</span></h3><p><span class="text"><span class="versenum">28</span>Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah? </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">29</span>In his days Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt went up to the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates. King Josiah went to meet him; but when Pharaoh Neco met him at Megiddo, he killed him. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">30</span>His servants carried him dead in a chariot from Megiddo, brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own tomb. The people of the land took Jehoahaz son of Josiah, anointed him, and made him king in place of his father.</span></p> <h3><span id="en" class="text">Reign and Captivity of Jehoahaz</span></h3><p><span class="text"><span class="versenum">31</span>Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign; he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">32</span>He did what was evil in the sight of the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span>, just as his ancestors had done. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">33</span>Pharaoh Neco confined him at Riblah in the land of Hamath, so that he might not reign in Jerusalem, and imposed tribute on the land of one hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">34</span>Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim son of Josiah king in place of his father Josiah, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. But he took Jehoahaz away; he came to Egypt, and died there. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">35</span>Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh, but he taxed the land in order to meet Pharaoh’s demand for money. He exacted the silver and the gold from the people of the land, from all according to their assessment, to give it to Pharaoh Neco.</span></p> <h3><span id="en" class="text">Jehoiakim Reigns over Judah</span></h3><p><span class="text"><span class="versenum">36</span>Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign; he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zebidah daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">37</span>He did what was evil in the sight of the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span>, just as all his ancestors had done.</span></p> <A name="fen"></a><div class="footnotes"><h4>Footnotes</h4><ol><li id="fen"><a hlef="#en" xtitle="Go to 2 Kings 23:6">2 Kings 23:6</a> <span class='footnote-text'>Heb lacks <i>image of</i></span></li><li id="fen"><a hlef="#en" xtitle="Go to 2 Kings 23:11">2 Kings 23:11</a> <span class='footnote-text'>Meaning of Heb uncertain</span></li><li id="fen"><a hlef="#en" xtitle="Go to 2 Kings 23:14">2 Kings 23:14</a> <span class='footnote-text'>Heb <i>Asherim</i></span></li><li id="fen"><a hlef="#en" xtitle="Go to 2 Kings 23:15">2 Kings 23:15</a> <span class='footnote-text'>Heb <i>Asherah</i></span></li><li id="fen"><a hlef="#en" xtitle="Go to 2 Kings 23:16">2 Kings 23:16</a> <span class='footnote-text'>Gk: Heb <i>proclaimed, who had predicted these things</i></span></li><li id="fen"><a hlef="#en" xtitle="Go to 2 Kings 23:24">2 Kings 23:24</a> <span class='footnote-text'>Or <i>household gods</i></span></li></ol></div> </div></div></div></div></div> </div> </div><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. 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