2 Kings 23
A Passover Kept as It Had Not Been Since the Judges
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The Covenant Renewed
23:1The king sent and gathered to himself all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem.
23:2The king went up to the Lord’s house, with every man of Judah and all who inhabited Jerusalem, the priests, the prophets, and all the people, from small to great. He read in their hearing all the words of the covenant book found in the Lord’s house.
23:3The king stood beside the pillar and made a covenant before the Lord: to follow the Lord and keep His commandments, testimonies, and ordinances with the whole heart and whole soul, upholding the words of this covenant, the things written in this book. All the people stood in the covenant.
The Cleansing of the House and the Land
23:4The king commanded Chelkias the high priest, the priests of the second rank, and the doorpost guards to bring out of the Lord’s sanctuary all the vessels made for Baal, for the grove, and for all heaven’s host. He burned them outside Jerusalem in the sademoth of Kidron and took their dust to Bethel.
23:5He put an end to the chomarim whom Judah’s kings had appointed, who burned incense at the high places and in Judah’s cities and the places around Jerusalem, and to those burning incense to Baal, the sun, the moon, the mazouroth, and all heaven’s host.
23:6He brought the grove out of the Lord’s house, outside Jerusalem to the Kidron torrent. He burned it in the Kidron torrent, reduced it to dust, and threw its dust into the grave of the sons of the people.
23:7He pulled down the house of the kadesim in the Lord’s house, where the women were weaving chettiin for the grove.
23:8He brought up all the priests from Judah’s cities and defiled the high places where the priests burned incense, from Gabaa to Beersheba. He pulled down the house of the gates beside the doorway of the gate of Joshua, the city’s ruler, on a man’s left at the city gate.
23:9Nevertheless, the priests of the high places did not go up to the Lord’s altar in Jerusalem; they only ate unleavened bread among their brothers.
23:10He defiled Tapheth in the valley of the son of Ennom, for a man to lead his son, and a man his daughter, through fire to Moloch.
23:11He removed the horses which Judah’s kings had given to the sun, at the entrance of the Lord’s house, toward the treasury of Nathan the king, the eunuch, in the pharourim. He burned the sun’s chariot with fire.
23:12The king pulled down the altars on the roof of Ahaz’s upper chamber which Judah’s kings had made, and the altars Manasseh had made in the two courts of the Lord’s house. He tore them down from there and threw their dust into the Kidron torrent.
23:13The king defiled the house facing Jerusalem, to the right of Mount Mosoath, which Solomon king of Israel had built for Astarte, the Sidonians’ offensive thing, for Chamos, Moab’s offensive thing, and for Molchol, the Ammonites’ abomination.
23:14He shattered the pillars, destroyed the groves, and filled their sites with human bones.
The Altar at Bethel Torn Down
23:15Moreover, he tore down the altar at Bethel, the high place Jeroboam son of Nabat had made, who caused Israel to sin—both that altar and the high place. He shattered its stones, reduced it to dust, and burned the grove.
23:16Josiah turned aside and saw the tombs there in the city. He sent and took the bones from the tombs, burned them on the altar, and defiled it, according to the Lord’s word which the man of God spoke while Jeroboam stood at the festival beside the altar. Turning, he lifted his eyes toward the tomb of the man of God who had spoken these words.
23:17He said, ‘What is that rocky marker I see?’ The city’s men told him, ‘It is the man of God who came out of Judah and proclaimed these words which he proclaimed against Bethel’s altar.’
23:18He said, ‘Leave it alone. Let no one move his bones.’ His bones were spared together with the bones of the prophet who came from Samaria.
23:19Josiah also removed all the high-place houses in Samaria’s cities which Israel’s kings had made to provoke the Lord. He carried out in them all the works he had carried out at Bethel.
23:20He sacrificed all the priests of the high places who were there upon the altars, and burned human bones upon them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.
The Passover Kept
23:21The king commanded all the people, ‘Keep Passover to the Lord our God, as written in this covenant book.’
23:22For this Passover had not occurred since the days of the judges who judged Israel, throughout all the days of Israel’s kings and Judah’s kings.
23:23Only in King Josiah’s eighteenth year did this Passover to the Lord take place in Jerusalem.
23:24King Josiah also removed the charmers, the knowing ones, the theraphin, the idols, and all the offensive things present in Judah’s land and Jerusalem, to uphold the law’s words written in the book Chelkias the priest found in the Lord’s house.
23:25Before him there was no king like him who returned to the Lord with his whole heart, his whole soul, and all his strength, according to all Moses’ law; and after him none like him arose.
The Lord Does Not Turn from His Anger
23:26Nevertheless, the Lord did not turn from His great burning wrath which burned against Judah because of the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked Him.
23:27The Lord said, ‘I shall also remove Judah from My presence, as I removed Israel. I shall reject this city which I chose, Jerusalem, and the house of which I said, “My name shall be there.”’
23:28The rest of Josiah’s acts and everything he did—are these not written in the book of the chronicles of Judah’s kings?
The Death of Josiah at Mageddo
23:29In his days Pharaoh Nechao king of Egypt went up against the king of the Assyrians to the River Euphrates. Josiah went to meet him, and Nechao killed him at Mageddo when he saw him.
23:30His servants transported him dead from Mageddo, brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his grave in David’s city. The people of the land took Joachas son of Josiah, anointed him, and made him king in his father’s place.
Joachas King of Judah
23:31Joachas was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Amital daughter of Jeremiah, from Lemna.
23:32He did what was evil in the Lord’s eyes, according to everything his fathers had done.
23:33Pharaoh Nechao removed him at Deblatha in Emath’s land so that he would not reign in Jerusalem. He imposed a penalty on the land of one hundred talents of silver and one hundred talents of gold.
Joakim King of Judah
23:34Pharaoh Nechao made Eliakim son of Josiah king of Judah king over them in place of his father Josiah and changed his name to Joakim. He took Joachas and brought him into Egypt, and he died there.
23:35Joakim gave the silver and gold to Pharaoh, but assessed the land to provide the silver at Pharaoh’s command. Each according to his assessment, they gave the silver and gold with the people of the land, to give to Pharaoh Nechao.
23:36Joakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jeldaph daughter of Phedeia, from Rouma.
23:37He did what was evil in the Lord’s eyes, according to everything his fathers had done.
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Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.