The King's Response To Huldah's Words In The Making Of A Covenant With The People Followed By A Detailed Descriptions Of Josiah's Reforms (2 Kings 23:1-23).
On receiving Huldah's response Josiah called together the elders of the people, and then as a consequence summoned to the house of YHWH the whole assembly of Judah from greatest to least, including priests and prophets. It was specifically a ‘gathering of the congregation of Israel', that is of all men who were submissive to his rule. And there ‘he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of YHWH'. The emphasis is on the fact that the whole stratum of people were represented, rather than on suggesting that all the people would be literally present and able to hear the words that would be read out. The point that is being stressed was that the covenant was being made by the whole people.
It is open to question whether it was the king himself who actually read the words aloud, or whether, as is more likely, he made use of experienced readers of the Law to do it for him once he had opened up the proceedings. The latter must surely be seen as more likely unless the king was so moved that he saw it as his responsibility to be directly involved throughout. The purpose of this was in order to ‘make a covenant before YHWH', in a similar way to Moses in Exodus 20-24, and Joshua in Joshua 8:30-35; Joshua 24; and so on. Indeed such a reading of the whole Law regularly took place at crucial times in Israel's history as the responsibility of the people was brought home to them. See for example Exodus 24:3; Deuteronomy 31:10-13; Deuteronomy 31:28; Joshua 8:33-35; 1 Samuel 10:25. The author, of course, wrote in full awareness of what would follow the death of Josiah when these same people and their descendants would again turn away from this Law, as Huldah had also warned, for the author lived at the other side of the investments of Jerusalem and the accompanying transportations.
The king then solemnly committed himself by covenant to observe, in its entirety from the heart, ‘all that is written in this book', and this is later described in 2 Kings 23:25 as ‘all the Law of Moses'. 2 Kings 23:25 then goes on to explain that Josiah not only promised it but did in fact fulfil his covenant. He was not to be seen as being of those who said and did not do. Thus 2 Kings 23:3; 2 Kings 23:25 can be seen as a kind of inclusio for this whole passage, revealing how he performed what he had promised. All the people then ‘stood to the covenant', in other words made their own solemn commitment on their own behalf to do themselves what the king had covenanted. This solemn commitment is then followed by a description of the ritual destruction of all the last traces of false worship which still remained in the Temple, namely the vessels that had been used in the worship of Baal and the Asherah.
This description of the ritual destruction of these vessels then became a signal for the prophetic author, (out of chronological order), to describe the whole of Josiah's reforms from beginning to end, so as to demonstrate that he was faithful to his covenant. But many of these reforms would have occurred prior to this time, and others would take place some time in the future (it could hardly all have been done within a short period, but the intent had become focused as a result of finding the Book of the Law). So, as so often in Kings, his arrangement is to be seen as topical rather than chronological.
The long list of Josiah's reforms emphasises how far Judah had sunk into ‘abominations' of many kinds and does serve to demonstrate that, apart from a small remnant, it had outwardly become almost as pagan as the nations round about. Church history reveals how the same thing happened to the church. In both cases it was only due to the grace of God and the faithful remnant of His people who remained true that the truth was preserved. The list makes crystal clear that the palace, the Temple and the worship of the ordinary people had all been deeply affected. On the other hand the fact that the reforms were at least successful for the remainder of his reign indicates how much support they had among many of the common people. In their hearts many had still yearned after YHWH.
These reforms having been described we are then brought back to the covenant ceremony when the king called for a solemn observance of the Passover in accordance with ‘this book of the covenant', something which duly occurred within the year in a way that exceeded all previous Passover celebrations, and was accompanied by the ridding of the land of all who practised the occult and idolatry. The genuineness with which Josiah had committed himself to ‘all the Law of Moses' is then emphasised (2 Kings 23:25), and by this it is made clear that whatever we see ‘the book of the Law' as consisting of, to the author was representing it as ‘all the Law of Moses'.
Analysis.
a And the king sent, and they gathered to him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem (2 Kings 23:1).
b And the king went up to the house of YHWH, 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 read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of YHWH. And the king stood by the pillar, and made a covenant before YHWH, to walk after YHWH, and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies, and his statutes, with all his heart, and all his soul, to confirm the words of this covenant that were written in this book, and all the people stood to the covenant (2 Kings 23:2-3).
c And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the threshold, to bring forth out of the temple of YHWH all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the Asherah, and for all the host of heaven, and he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and carried the ashes of them to Beth-el (2 Kings 23:4).
d 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 (2 Kings 23:5).
e 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 (2 Kings 23:6).
f And he broke down the houses of the sodomites, which were in the house of YHWH, where the women wove hangings for the Asherah (2 Kings 23:7).
g 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 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. 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 (2 Kings 23:8-9).
h 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 (2 Kings 23:10).
i 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 (2 Kings 23:11).
h 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 (2 Kings 23:10).
g And the high places which were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mount of corruption, 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 (2 Kings 23:13).
f And he broke in pieces the pillars, and cut down the Asherim, and filled their places with the bones of men (2 Kings 23:14).
e 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 (2 Kings 23:15).
d 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. 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. 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 (2 Kings 23:16-18).
c 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, 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 (2 Kings 23:19-20).
b And the king commanded all the people, saying, “Keep the passover to YHWH your God, as it is written in this book of the covenant.” Surely there was not kept such a passover from the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah (2 Kings 23:21-22).
a But in the eighteenth year of king Josiah was this passover kept to YHWH in Jerusalem (2 Kings 23:23).
Note that in ‘a' all the elders of Jerusalem and Judah were gathered together in Jerusalem, and in the parallel the Passover to YHWH was kept to YHWH in Jerusalem. In ‘b' all gathered to hear the words of the book of the covenant, and the covenant was made and confirmed by the people, and in the parallel all the people are called on to keep the Passover as it was written in ‘this book of the covenant'. In ‘c' all the vessels of Baal, and the Asherah and the host of heaven were burned outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and their ashes carried to Bethel, and in the parallel all the houses of the high places in Samaria were destroyed and their priests were slain on the altars at Bethel, and men's bones were burned on the altars. In ‘d' all the idolatrous priests were slaughtered, and in the parallel the bones of the righteous prophets were preserved. In ‘e' the Asherah was brought out, burned and beaten to dust, and in the parallel the high place at Bethel was burned and beaten to dust, and the Asherah was burned. In ‘f' the houses of the sodomites where the women wove hangings for the Asherah were burned, and in the parallel the Asherim were cut down and their places filled with the bones of men. In ‘g' the high places where the priests had burned incense were defiled, and the high places of the gates were broken down, and in the parallel the high places were defiled. In ‘h' Topheth was defiled in order to prevent the possibility of child sacrifices to Molech, and in the parallel the special altars in the Temple/palace complex were destroyed. Centrally in ‘i' the chariots of the sun representing the sun god were burned with fire. This was a final renunciation of Assyrian sovereignty.