2 Kings 23:22-24
New English Translation
22 He issued this edict because[a] a Passover like this had not been observed since the days of the judges who led Israel; it was neglected for the entire period of the kings of Israel and Judah.[b] 23 But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah’s reign, such a Passover of the Lord was observed in Jerusalem.
24 Josiah also got rid of[c] the ritual pits used to conjure up spirits,[d] the magicians, personal idols, disgusting images,[e] and all the detestable idols that had appeared in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem. In this way he carried out the terms of the law[f] recorded on the scroll that Hilkiah the priest had discovered in the Lord’s temple.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 2 Kings 23:22 tn The Hebrew text has simply “because.” The translation attempts to reflect more clearly the logical connection between the king’s order and the narrator’s observation. Another option is to interpret כִּי (ki) as asseverative and translate, “indeed.”
- 2 Kings 23:22 tn Heb “because there had not been observed [one] like this Passover from the days of the judges who judged Israel and all the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah.”
- 2 Kings 23:24 tn Here בִּעֵר (biʿer) is not the well attested verb “burn,” but the less common homonym meaning “devastate, sweep away, remove.” See HALOT 146 s.v. בער.
- 2 Kings 23:24 sn See the note at 2 Kgs 21:6.
- 2 Kings 23:24 sn See the note at 1 Kgs 15:12.
- 2 Kings 23:24 tn Heb “carrying out the words of the law.”
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