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Scriptural Text [& Editorial]
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Commentary & Explanation
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Footnotes ~ References ~ JST
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CHAPTER 23
Josiah reads the book of the covenant to the people—They covenant to
keep the commandments—Josiah overturns the worship of false gods,
removes the sodomites, and puts down idolatry—Idolatrous priests
slain—Judah holds a solemn passover—Egypt subjects the land of
Judah.
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1 AND the king sent, and they gathered unto him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem.
2 And the king went up into the house of the LORD,
and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and
the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, both small and great: and
he aread in their ears all the words of the book of the
covenant which was found in the house of the LORD.
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3 ¶ And the king stood by a
apillar, and made a bcovenant before the
LORD, to cwalk after the LORD, and to keep his commandments
and his testimonies and his statutes with all their heart and all
their soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in
this book. And all the people stood to the covenant.
4 And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and
the apriests of the second order, and the
bkeepers of the door, to bring forth out of the temple of
the LORD all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the grove, and for
all the host of heaven: and he burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of
Kidron, and carried the ashes of them unto Beth-el.
5 And he put down the idolatrous
apriests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn
incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round
about Jerusalem; them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to
the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven.
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6 And he brought out the agrove
from the house of the LORD, without Jerusalem, unto the brook Kidron, and
burned it at the brook Kidron, and stamped it small to powder, and
cast the powder thereof upon the graves of the children of the people.
7 And he brake down the houses of the
asodomites, that were by the house of the LORD,
where the women wove hangings for the grove.
8 And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beer-sheba, and brake down the high places of the gates that were in the entering in of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on a man's left hand at the gate of the city.
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9 Nevertheless the priests of the high places
acame not up to the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, but
they did eat of the bunleavened bread among their
brethren.
10 And he defiled aTopheth, which
is in the valley of the children of bHinnom, that no
man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to
cMolech.
11 And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entering in of the house of the LORD, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the chamberlain, which was in the suburbs, and burned the chariots of the sun with fire.
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12 And the altars that were on the top of the
aupper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made,
and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the
LORD, did the king beat down, and brake them down from thence, and
cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron.
13 And the ahigh places that
were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the
mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had builded for
Ashtoreth the abomination of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination
of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon, did
the king defile.
14 And he brake in pieces the images, and
acut down the groves, and filled their places with the
bones of men.
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15 ¶ Moreover the altar that was at
Beth-el, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who
amade Israel to sin, had made, both that
baaltar and the high place he brake down,
and burned the high place, and stamped it small to powder, and
burned the grove.
16 And as Josiah turned himself, he spied the sepulchres that were there in the mount, and sent, and took the bones out of the sepulchres, and burned them upon the altar, and polluted it, according to the word of the LORD which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words.
17 Then he said, What title is that that I
see? And the men of the city told him, It is the
asepulchre of the man of God, which came from Judah, and
proclaimed these things that thou hast
donea against the altar of
Beth-el.
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17a proclaimed these things that thou hast
done This prophet is named Jadon by Josephus and that which he did
proclaim concerning Josiah is that in 1 Kings 13:1-3, etc. And this prophet
Jadon did prophesy of Josiah by name unto Jeroboam, king of Israel.
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18 And he said, Let him alone; let no man move his bones. So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet that came out of Samaria.
19 And all the houses also of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke the LORD to anger, Josiah took away, and did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Beth-el.
20 And he slew all the priests of the
ahigh places that were there upon the altars, and
bburned men's bones upon them, and returned to Jerusalem.
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21 ¶ And the king commanded all the people,
saying, Keep the apassover unto the LORD your God, as it
is written in the book of this covenant.
22 Surely there was not holden such a
apassover from the days of the judges that judged Israel,
nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah;
23 But in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, wherein this passover was holden to the LORD in Jerusalem.
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24 ¶ Moreover the aworkers
with bfamiliar spirits, and the wizards, and the
images, and the idols, and all the abominations that were spied in the land
of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he might perform the
words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found
in the house of the LORD.
25 And like unto him was there no
aking before him, that bturned to the
LORD with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might,
according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any
like him.
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26 ¶ Notwithstanding the LORD turned not from
the fierceness of his great wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against
Judah, because of all the provocations that Manasseh had
aprovoked him withal.
27 And the LORD said, I will
aremove Judah also out of my sight, as I have
bremoved Israel, and will cast off this city
cJerusalem which I have chosen, and the house of which I
said, My name shall be there.
28 Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
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29 ¶ In his days
aPharaoh-nechoh king of Egypt went up against the king of
Assyria to the river Euphrates: and king bJosiah went
against him; and he slew him at Megiddo, when he had seen him.
30 And his servants carried him in a chariot dead
from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own
sepulchre. And the people of the land took aJehoahaz the
son of Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father's stead.
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31 ¶ Jehoahaz was twenty and three years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.
32 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done.
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33 And Pharaoh-nechoh put him in
abands at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not
reign in Jerusalem; and put the land to a tribute of an hundred talents of
silver, and a talent of gold.
34 And Pharaoh-nechoh made Eliakim the son of Josiah
king in the room of Josiah his father, and turned his name to
aJehoiakim, and took Jehoahaz away: and he came to Egypt,
and died there.
35 And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh; but he taxed the land to give the money according to the commandment of Pharaoh: he exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, of every one according to his taxation, to give it unto Pharaoh-nechoh.
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36 ¶ Jehoiakim was twenty and five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Zebudah, the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah.
37 And he did that which was
aevil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his
fathers had done.
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