2 Kings · chapter 23 of 25
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2 Kings 23 tells how Josiah reads the book of the covenant before all the people and renews the covenant with the Lord. He destroys the idols and high places of Judah and of Bethel, and keeps a Passover like none since the judges. Yet the Lord does not revoke the judgment for Manasseh's sins. Josiah dies at Megiddo before Pharaoh Neco, and Jehoahaz and then Jehoiakim reign.
After the discovery of the book of the law in chapter 22, 2 Kings 23 shows Josiah's reform, the widest in Judah's history. The king acts decisively, but the narrator makes clear that the judgment on Judah, announced because of Manasseh, will no longer be stopped. The chapter ends with Josiah's death and with the first kings who hasten the end of the kingdom.
Josiah gathers the elders of Judah and Jerusalem and goes up to the house of the Lord with the priests, the prophets and all the people, small and great. He reads aloud the book of the covenant. Standing by the pillar, he makes a covenant before the Lord to follow him and keep his commandments with all his heart, and all the people join in the covenant.
Then he orders all the vessels made for Baal, Asherah and the host of heaven brought out of the temple, and burns them outside Jerusalem. He does away with the idolatrous priests, takes the Asherah out of the temple, defiles the high places from Geba to Beersheba and destroys Topheth, in the Valley of Hinnom, so that no one will make his son pass through the fire. He destroys the altars Ahaz and Manasseh had made and the high places Solomon had built for foreign gods.
The reform reaches Bethel. Josiah tears down the altar and high place Jeroboam had made, and burns bones on the altar to defile it, according to the word of the man of God. He spares that man of God's tomb. He also removes the high places in the cities of Samaria. Afterward he commands the keeping of the Passover to the Lord, as written in the book of the covenant. No such Passover had been kept since the days of the judges. He also removes the mediums and necromancers. Before him there was no king who turned to the Lord with all his heart, soul and might, and none after him.
Still, the Lord does not turn from the fierceness of his wrath, because of all that Manasseh had provoked. When Pharaoh Neco goes up against Assyria, Josiah goes out to meet him and dies at Megiddo. The people make Jehoahaz king, who reigns three months and does evil. Neco deports him to Egypt and makes Eliakim king, who takes the name Jehoiakim, and imposes tribute on Judah. Jehoiakim reigns eleven years and does evil.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
Josiah makes a covenant before the Lord to follow him and keep his commandments with all his heart, and all the people join him. The renewed covenant is the heart of the reform, more than the destruction of idols.
Josiah defiles Topheth, in the Valley of Hinnom, so that no one will again make his son pass through the fire. He ends the place of child sacrifices, one of the darkest features of idolatrous worship.
There was no king like Josiah before or after, who turned to the Lord with all his heart, soul and might. His devotion fulfills what the law asked of the people of God.
The Lord does not turn from the fierceness of his great wrath because of all that Manasseh had provoked. Even the greatest reform does not immediately erase the consequences of decades of sin.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: The book of the covenant that had been found in the house of the Lord. — 2 Kings 23:2
Answer: Topheth. — 2 Kings 23:10
Answer: He tore it down and burned bones on it to defile it. — 2 Kings 23:15-16
Answer: The Passover to the Lord. — 2 Kings 23:21-22
Answer: Because of all that Manasseh had provoked. — 2 Kings 23:26
Answer: At Megiddo, when he went out to meet Pharaoh Neco. — 2 Kings 23:29
Josiah did not stop at repentance: he acted. He read the Word, renewed the covenant and removed everything that offended God, from the temple to the farthest altars. A living faith shows itself in concrete changes. In a small group you can ask which idols or habits we must remove from our home or our schedule.
The chapter also teaches us not to measure God's work only by the results we see. Josiah was faithful, though the judgment was not stopped. Doing right is worthwhile even when it does not immediately change a society's course. Faithfulness is obedience to God, not a guarantee of success.
2 Kings 23 ends with Judah under Egyptian control and Jehoiakim on the throne, a king who does evil. In chapter 24 the power of Babylon, under Nebuchadnezzar, will begin to shake the kingdom, and the exile will draw near.
The text explains that the Lord did not turn from his anger because of all that Manasseh had provoked. Although Josiah turned with all his heart, the people as a whole did not change deeply. The prophets of that time, such as Jeremiah, point out that the reform was largely outward.
It was the annual feast that remembered the deliverance from Egypt. The text says no such Passover had been kept since the days of the judges, which indicates greater participation and faithfulness than in other reigns.
He was an Egyptian pharaoh who marched toward the Euphrates to support Assyria against Babylon. Josiah went out to stop him at Megiddo, and died there. The text does not explain his reasons, though 2 Chronicles 35 says Neco warned him not to interfere.