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2 Kings 23:1-25 (TNIV)

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1 Then the king called together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. 2 3 4 The king ordered Hilkiah the high priest, the priests next in rank and the doorkeepers to remove from the temple of the LORD all the articles made for Baal and Asherah and all the starry hosts. He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron Valley and took the ashes to Bethel. 5 6 He took the Asherah pole from the temple of the LORD to the Kidron Valley outside Jerusalem and burned it there. He ground it to powder and scattered the dust over the graves of the common people. 7 He also tore down the quarters of the male shrine prostitutes that were in the temple of the LORD, the quarters where women did weaving for Asherah. 8 Josiah brought all the priests from the towns of Judah and desecrated the high places, from Geba to Beersheba, where the priests had burned incense. He broke down the gateway at the entrance of the Gate of Joshua, the city governor, which was on the left of the city gate. 9 Although the priests of the high places did not serve at the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, they ate unleavened bread with their fellow priests. 10 He desecrated Topheth, which was in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, so no one could use it to sacrifice their son or daughter in the fire to Molek. 11 He removed from the entrance to the temple of the LORD the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun. They were in the court near the room of an official named Nathan-Melek. Josiah then burned the chariots dedicated to the sun. 12 He pulled down the altars the kings of Judah had erected on the roof near the upper room of Ahaz, and the altars Manasseh had built in the two courts of the temple of the LORD. He removed them from there, smashed them to pieces and threw the rubble into the Kidron Valley. 13 14 Josiah smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles and covered the sites with human bones. 15 16 Then Josiah looked around, and when he saw the tombs that were there on the hillside, he had the bones removed from them and burned on the altar to defile it, in accordance with the word of the LORD proclaimed by the man of God who foretold these things. 17 The king asked, "What is that tombstone I see?" The people of the city said, "It marks the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and pronounced against the altar of Bethel the very things you have done to it." 18 "Leave it alone," he said. "Don't let anyone disturb his bones." So they spared his bones and those of the prophet who had come from Samaria. 19 Just as he had done at Bethel, Josiah removed all the shrines at the high places that the kings of Israel had built in the towns of Samaria and that had aroused the LORD's anger. 20 Josiah slaughtered all the priests of those high places on the altars and burned human bones on them. Then he went back to Jerusalem. 21 The king gave this order to all the people: "Celebrate the Passover to the LORD your God, as it is written in this Book of the Covenant." 22 Neither in the days of the judges who led Israel nor in the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah had any such Passover been observed. 23 But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover was celebrated to the LORD in Jerusalem. 24 Furthermore, Josiah got rid of the mediums and spiritists, the household gods, the idols and all the other detestable things seen in Judah and Jerusalem. This he did to fulfill the requirements of the law written in the book that Hilkiah the priest had discovered in the temple of the LORD. 25


This passage relates to the following topic(s):
(v. 7) Purity / Sexual Immorality / Adultery - King ordered Hilkiah - to tear down the quarters of the male shrine prostitutes
(v. 19) Zeal / Boldness / Radicalness - Josiah - zeal to rid the place of shrines and idols
(v. 20) Zeal / Boldness / Radicalness - Josiah - zeal to rid the place of shrines and idols
(v. 21) Zeal / Boldness / Radicalness - Josiah - zeal to rid the place of shrines and idols
(v. 22) Zeal / Boldness / Radicalness - Josiah - zeal to rid the place of shrines and idols
(v. 23) Zeal / Boldness / Radicalness - Josiah - zeal to rid the place of shrines and idols
(v. 24) Zeal / Boldness / Radicalness - Josiah - zeal to rid the place of shrines and idols
(v. 25) Zeal / Boldness / Radicalness - Josiah - zeal to rid the place of shrines and idols

This passage is referenced in the following quiet time(s):
(v. 25) Influence from Within (2015-05-23)

Definition(s):
Baal (Ba-al): master; lord
Baal (Beh-al): master; lord
Chemosh (Kee-mosh): handling; stroking; taking away
Geba (Geeb-a): a hill; cup
Hilkiah (Hill-kye-a): God is my portion
Israel (Iz-rehl): who prevails with God
Israel (Is-ra-el): who prevails with God
Jeroboam (Jer-o-boh-am): he that opposes the people
Jerusalem (Je-roo-sa-lem): vision of peace
Josiah (Joh-sigh-a): the Lord burns; the fire of the Lord
Josiah (Je-sigh-ya): the Lord burns; the fire of the Lord
Judah (Joo-da): the praise of the Lord; confession
Kidron (Kid-ron): obscure; making black or sad
Manasseh (Man-ass-e): forgetfulness; he that is forgotten
Samaria (Sa-meh-ree-a): watch-mountain
Solomon (Sol-om-on): peaceable; perfect; one who recompenses
Asherah (Ash-er-a):
Ashtoreth (Ash-toh-reth):
Bethel (Beth-el):
Bethel (Beth-ehl):
So (Soh):