Details of Josiah's Reforms Which Took Place Throughout His Reign Over Many Years (2 Kings 23:5-20).
What is now described would have commenced well before Josiah's eighteenth year as the Temple was purified preparatory to its being repaired and restored, and it would have continued on throughout his reign as he was able to establish his rule further and further afield because of the waning power of Assyria and his own growth in political power. It is thus a summary of the whole process of his reforms carried out throughout Judah and Samaria, not just a description of what he did in his eighteenth year. It will be noted that the author's sole concentration is on Josiah's reforming activity. The fact that Josiah had made Judah strong, independent, and prosperous, and had then extended his rule throughout Samaria with similar consequences, was seen as peripheral. What mattered to the author was the establishing of the Rule of YHWH, and the purifying of the means of worship throughout all areas under his control.
‘And he put down the idolatrous priests, 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, those also who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven.'
One of Josiah's first reforms had been to rid Judah of all the false priests (the chemarim) appointed by previous kings to serve at the idolatrous high places. These priests were not of the tribe of Levi (seen in the fact that they were not permitted to return to Jerusalem) and had burned incense in the false sanctuaries to Baal, and the sun, and the moon, and the planets, and all the host of heaven. Now they were being ‘put down' in order to prevent worship at these high places.
The distinction between the sun, moon and planets and the host of heaven suggests that the latter phrase signified the host of stars visible in the night sky apart from specifically identified ones. ‘The planets' probably refers to specifically identified stars (but probably not to the signs of the Zodiac which would be unknown at this time).
‘And he brought out the Asherah from the house of YHWH, outside Jerusalem, to the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and beat it to dust, and cast its dust on the graves of the common people.'
No doubt around the same time the Asherah image (or pole) that had been set up in the house of YHWH by previous kings (Manasseh and Amon), was brought out from the Temple and burned in the Brook Kidron, outside Jerusalem. Then it was beaten to dust (as with the golden calf in Exodus 32:20), and that dust was thrown onto the graveyard used for burying the common people (see Jeremiah 26:23), who did not have their own family sepulchres. This would be in order to defile it by contact with ground containing the dead, and in order to reveal that the Asherah herself was ‘dead'.
‘And he broke down the houses of the sodomites, which were in the house of YHWH, where the women wove hangings for the Asherah.'
He also broke down the houses of the cult prostitutes (both male and female) which had been set up in the house of YHWH, in order to support the degraded worship of Canaanite gods, and was where women had woven hangings for the Asherah. The hangings may have been paraphernalia hung from the Asherah images, or robes for the Asherah priests, or cords to be placed round the heads of cult prostitutes.
‘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,
These priests were genuinely of the tribe of Levi, but had engaged in false worship at syncretistic high places. Note that their major crime was of ‘burning incense' to false gods. This was a direct repudiation of YHWH to Whom alone incense of a special kind could be burned. Their high places where they had burned incense were defiled throughout the whole of Judah, from north (Geba) to south Beersheba). He seemingly at this stage had no authority over the priests outside Judah.
‘And he broke down the high places of the gates which were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on a man's left hand at the gate of the city.'
He also broke down the high places set up at the gates which were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city. We have no other information about these high places, but they were clearly either fully idolatrous or syncretistic. It has been suggested that this was at the gates of Beersheba as ‘the city' is not named, and the name Beersheba ended the previous verse. Remains of such a high place destroyed in the time of Josiah have been found at Beersheba.
‘Nevertheless the priests of the high places did not come up to the altar of YHWH in Jerusalem, but they did eat unleavened bread among their brothers.'
But the levitical priest of the high places themselves (in contrast to the chemarim - 2 Kings 23:5) were not left without sustenance, for although they were not allowed to officiate at the Temple in Jerusalem, presumably because of their previous heretical activity (for otherwise it is contrary to Deuteronomy 18:6-7), they were allowed to partake of the unleavened bread (or ‘priestly food') allocated to the priests (see Leviticus 6:16; compare and contrast Deuteronomy 18:6-8, and note 1 Samuel 2:36).
‘And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.'
Josiah also defiled ‘Topheth'. ‘Topheth' means ‘fireplace' or ‘hearth' (the vowels deliberately connect the name with the Hebrew word for ‘shame (bosheth)). This was seemingly a sophisticated and gruesome set-up, either erected or dug in the ground, which was established in the Valley of Hinnom (compare Joshua 18:16) for the purpose of sacrificing children to Molech. The valley of Hinnom would later become Jerusalem's rubbish dump (if it was not so already). That the actual sacrificing of children is in mind is confirmed in Jeremiah 19:5.
‘And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entrance of the house of YHWH, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the chamberlain, which was in the precincts, and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire.'
It is clear that model horses and chariots for the sun had been erected by the kings of Judah within the Temple area ‘by the chamber of Nathan-melech (‘gift of Molech', or ‘gift of the King') the chamberlain, which was in the precincts'. Models of such horses, some with solar discs on their foreheads, have been found east of Ophel, and at Hazor (9th century BC) and other sites, which all bear witness to the cult of the sun described here, whilst an Assyrian title for the sun god was ‘chariot rider' (rakib narkabti). Similar sun worship in the Temple is attested in Ezekiel 8:16. The horses were removed from the Temple and the chariots burned with fire. This would be a clear indication that Assyria had been once and for all repudiated, as Assur, the chief god of Assyria, was the sun god and had no doubt been associated with these chariots and horses.
‘The precincts.' This may refer to the precincts west of the Temple, or to colonnades within the Temple area, or to open pavilions. The word is found in the singular (compare 1 Chronicles 26:18) in a Lydian Aramaic inscription, and may be related to the Sumerian for ‘burning house' (indicating a place of sacrifice). A similar word in Persian means ‘pavilion'.
‘And the altars which were on the roof of the upper 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 YHWH, did the king break down, and beat them down from there, and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron.'
Altars, probably to the sun (compare 2 Kings 20:11), but no doubt also honouring other sky gods, had been erected ‘on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz', a sanctuary possibly built on the roof of the palace. Roof sanctuaries were especially suited for worshipping astral gods (compare Jeremiah 19:13; Jeremiah 32:29; Zephaniah 1:5). These altars were broken down, along with the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of YHWH for the worship of all the host of heaven (compare 2 Kings 21:5). These also were beaten down, and their dust cast into the Brook Kidron.
‘The two courts of the house of YHWH' suggests that the original Temple court had been divided into two, one section for the worship of Baal and Asherah and the other for the worship of YHWH. Alternately it could refer to the court of the Temple, and the court leading from there to the place complex.
‘And the high places which were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mount of the destroyer, which Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon, did the king defile.'
These idolatrous high places were built on the mountain to the east of Jerusalem (1 Kings 11:7) to the right of the Mount of the Destroyer (either a section of the Mount of Olives, or a play on words between mashchith (destroyer) and mashchah (oil)). They were built by Solomon for his wives, and may well have been maintained since then in order to service the foreign treaty wives of later kings. Now at last Josiah defiled them, rendering them unusable. There would be no more such worship within the vicinity of Jerusalem.
Ashtoreth was the Phoenician (Canaanite) mother goddess connected with fertility, love and war. Chemosh was the national god of Moab. The name Milcom (which appears in Ugaritic texts) is the same as Molech (Melech), the fierce national god of the equally fierce, half-wild Ammonites, but also worshipped throughout the area of Palestine, and even beyond.
‘And he broke in pieces the pillars, and cut down the Asherim, and filled their places with the bones of men.'
Having defiled the high places, he also broke in pieces the pillars which represented Baal, and cut down the Asherah images, defiling their sites with dead men's bones.
‘Moreover the altar which was at Beth-el, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, even that altar and the high place he broke down, and he burned the high place and beat it to dust, and burned the Asherah.'
By this time, probably some years after the eighteenth year of his reign, Josiah's reforms were reaching beyond Judah. This was because Assyrian control over the province of Samaria had become non-existent as a result of the fact that they were engaged in their death struggles elsewhere (Nineveh was finally destroyed in 612 BC by the triumphant Babylonians, Medes and Scythians). Meanwhile Josiah appears to have been extending his rule over large parts of Samaria, filling the vacuum left by the Assyrians. In consequence he was able to purify Bethel, by destroying and defiling the altar and high place which Jeroboam I had set up there (1 Kings 12:29-33). The altar and high place were broken down, burned and smashed to pieces. The accompanying Asherah image was also burned.
‘And as Josiah turned himself, he spied the sepulchres that were there in the mount, and he sent, and took the bones out of the sepulchres, and burned them on the altar, and defiled it, according to the word of YHWH which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these things.'
As Josiah turned about, having given instructions concerning the destruction of the altar and high place, he spotted the tombs in the mountain, and the result was that he ordered that the bones be brought from them and burned on the altar as part of the process of defilement and destruction. This, as the author points out, was in accordance with what YHWH had declared through the man of God who had proclaimed these things in the time of Jeroboam (see 1 Kings 13:2). What YHWH had said, He now performed.
‘Then he said, “What is that monument which I see?” And the men of the city told him, “It is the sepulchre of the man of God, who came from Judah, and proclaimed these things that you have done against the altar of Beth-el.” '
Then he spotted a gravestone and asked what it was. And he was told by the men of the city that it marked the sepulchre of the man of God (whose ministry is mentioned in the previous verse) who had come from Judah and prophesied what Josiah had now done, which is one reason why his sepulchre is given such prominence here. It was present proof of the faithfulness of YHWH to His promises.
“It is the sepulchre of the man of God, who came from Judah, and proclaimed these things that you have done against the altar of Beth-el.” The literal wording is more startling, ‘The grave! The man of God who came from Judah ---.'
‘And he said, “Let him be. Let no man move his bones.” So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet that came out of Samaria.'
So Josiah immediately declared that his bones must not be touched. They were not to be used like the other bones had been as a method for defiling the altar and high place in Bethel. Rather they were to be left in peace, along also with the bones of the old prophet of Samaria. Of course ‘Samaria' here is the equivalent of Israel (the ‘modern' term being used). Thus the bones of prophets from both Israel and Judah were preserved.
‘And all the houses also of the high places which were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke YHWH to anger, Josiah took away, and did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Beth-el.'
Josiah then went throughout all the cities of the region of Samaria, destroying all the sanctuaries with their accompanying ‘high places' (high altars reached by steps) which had so provoked YHWH to anger. He treated them in the same way as he had the altar and high place in Bethel. This was an indication of the extent to which his kingdom now reached.
‘And he slew all the priests of the high places who were there, on the altars, and burned men's bones on them, and he returned to Jerusalem.'
Furthermore he slew all the priests who had been involved with sacrificing and offering incense at the high places, and he did it on the altars of the high places, and also burned men's bones on them in order to defile them further. The ashes of the dead would prevent anyone in those days from ever seeing them as sacred again. They were to be seen as religiously defiled beyond repair. Then he returned to Jerusalem.
We naturally react against the idea of the slaughter of these men, but we must remember they were at the time seen as traitors to YHWH and his covenant, and therefore as worthy of death. No one in those days would have doubted that their crimes were deserving of the death penalty, for they were seen as in direct rebellion against YHWH. Furthermore it is probable that at the time they were not seeking to submit to the king and pleading for mercy, but were fiercely seeking to defend their high places, which they saw as sacred, against the assaults of Josiah's men.