What does Josias do after renewing the covenant, and what warning and changes of kings close the chapter?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Josias removes the named vessels, places, practices and altars, preserves the named prophets’ bones and commands the Phase according to the covenant book. The Lord still announces Juda’s removal because of Manasses’s provocations. Josias is killed at Mageddo; the people make Joachaz king, but Pharao Nechao binds him, imposes a fine and installs Eliacim under the name Joakim.

Chapter breakdown

The men report to Josias what Holda said. He sends for all the ancients of Juda and Jerusalem, who assemble before him. He goes up to the Lord’s temple with all the men of Juda and inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests, prophets and all the people, little and great. In everyone’s hearing he reads all the words of the covenant book found in the Lord’s house.

The king stands on the step and makes a covenant with the Lord: to walk after him, keep his commandments, testimonies and ceremonies with all their heart and soul, and perform the covenant’s words written in the book. The people agree to the covenant.

Challoner explains the step as the king’s tribune or tribunal, a higher place from which the people could see and hear him.

Josias commands Helcias the high priest, the priests of the second order and the doorkeepers to cast out all the temple vessels made for Baal, the grove and all the host of heaven. He burns them outside Jerusalem in the valley of Cedron and carries their ashes to Bethel. He destroys the soothsayers appointed by Juda’s kings to sacrifice at the high places in Juda’s cities and around Jerusalem, and those who burn incense to Baal, the sun, the moon, the twelve signs and all the host of heaven.

He has the grove carried from the Lord’s house to the valley of Cedron outside Jerusalem, burns it there, reduces it to dust and scatters the dust on the common people’s graves. He also destroys the pavilions of the effeminate in the Lord’s house, for which women wove what the account calls little dwellings for the grove.

Josias gathers all the priests from Juda’s cities and defiles the high places where they sacrificed, from Gabaa to Bersabee. He breaks down the gate altars at the entrance of the gate of Josue, the city’s governor, on the left side of the city gate. However, the high-place priests do not go up to the Lord’s altar in Jerusalem; they only eat unleavened bread among their brethren.

He defiles Topheth in the valley of the son of Ennom so that no man should consecrate his son or daughter there through fire to Moloch. He removes the horses Juda’s kings had given to the sun at the temple entrance, near the chamber of Nathanmelech the eunuch, who was in Pharurim. He burns the sun’s chariots with fire.

The king breaks down the altars Juda’s kings made on top of Achaz’s upper chamber and those Manasses made in the temple’s two courts. He runs from there and casts their ashes into the torrent Cedron. He defiles the high places at Jerusalem on the right side of the Mount of Offence that Solomon, king of Israel, built for Astaroth, idol of the Sidonians; Chamos, scandal of Moab; and Melchom, abomination of the children of Ammon. He breaks the statues, cuts down the groves and fills their places with dead men’s bones.

At Bethel he breaks down, burns and reduces to powder both the altar and high place made by Jeroboam, son of Nabat, who made Israel sin. He burns the grove too. Turning, Josias sees the sepulchres in the mount and sends for their bones, which he burns on the altar to defile it according to the Lord’s word spoken by the man of God who foretold these things.

Josias asks what monument he sees. The city’s men identify it as the sepulchre of the man of God who came from Juda and foretold what Josias has done at Bethel’s altar. Josias orders that he be left alone and that no one move his bones. Those bones remain untouched, together with those of the prophet who came from Samaria.

Josias removes all the high-place temples in Samaria’s cities that Israel’s kings made to provoke the Lord, doing to them all he had done at Bethel. He kills all the high-place priests there on the altars, burns men’s bones on them and returns to Jerusalem. He commands all the people to keep the Phase to the Lord their God as written in the covenant book. No such Phase had been kept from the days of the judges who judged Israel, or in all the days of Israel’s and Juda’s kings, as this Phase kept to the Lord in Jerusalem in Josias’s eighteenth year.

Josias removes the diviners by spirits, soothsayers, idol figures, uncleannesses and abominations in Juda and Jerusalem so he can perform the law’s words in the book Helcias the priest found in the Lord’s temple. The account says no king before him was like him in returning to the Lord with all his heart, soul and strength according to all Moses’ law; none like him arose afterward either.

Yet the Lord does not turn from his great indignation against Juda because of Manasses’s provocations. He says he will remove Juda from before his face as he removed Israel, and cast off Jerusalem, the city he chose, and the house of which he said his name would be there. The account asks whether Josias’s remaining acts and all he did are written in the book of the words of the days of Juda’s kings.

In Josias’s days Pharao Nechao, king of Egypt, goes against Assyria’s king to the river Euphrates. Josias goes to meet him and is killed at Mageddo when he has seen him. His servants carry him dead from Mageddo to Jerusalem and bury him in his own sepulchre. The people take his son Joachaz, anoint him and make him king in his father’s place. Joachaz begins at twenty-three years old and reigns three months in Jerusalem. His mother is Amital, daughter of Jeremias of Lobna. He does evil before the Lord according to all his fathers had done.

Pharao Nechao binds Joachaz at Rebla in Emath so he will not reign in Jerusalem. He sets a fine on the land of one hundred talents of silver and one talent of gold. He makes Eliacim, Josias’s son, king in his father’s place and changes his name to Joakim. He carries Joachaz into Egypt, where Joachaz dies. Joakim gives the silver and gold to Pharao after taxing the land for every man to contribute according to Pharao’s command. He demands both silver and gold from every person according to that person’s ability, to give to Nechao. Joakim begins to reign at twenty-five and reigns eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother is Zebida, daughter of Phadaia of Ruma. He does evil before the Lord according to all his fathers did.

The story inside

The returned report leads Josias to gather the ancients and read the whole covenant book before the assembled people at the temple. His covenant names commandments, testimonies and ceremonies, whole heart and soul, and performance of the written words; the people agree. Challoner separately explains the step. The following actions name what is removed, who is commanded, where objects go and what happens to them. Temple vessels burn in Cedron and their ashes go to Bethel; the grove becomes dust on common graves. The gathering of priests and defilement of high places include a stated exception about the priests eating unleavened bread without going up to the Lord’s altar. Topheth’s defilement has the stated purpose of preventing sons or daughters being consecrated through fire to Moloch. Horses are removed and chariots burned, while altars made by several named kings are broken down. At Bethel Josias burns bones on Jeroboam’s altar according to the foretold word, but his question about a monument leads to a command that leaves two prophets’ bones untouched. Samaria’s temples and priests are dealt with as recorded, then Josias returns and commands the Phase according to the book. The observance’s comparison spans the judges and both lines of kings. More removals fulfill the book’s words, and Josias is praised for returning with all heart, soul and strength. Yet Manasses’s provocations remain the stated reason for the Lord’s indignation and announced removal of Juda and rejection of Jerusalem and the house. The account next records Josias’s death, carriage and burial, Joachaz’s anointing and short reign, and Nechao’s binding of Joachaz and installation of Eliacim as Joakim. The fine is paid through Joakim’s taxation of every person according to ability. Joakim’s age, reign, mother and evil conduct close the chapter. No extra causal explanation for Josias’s death or universal point-of-no-return doctrine is supplied.

Lessons worth keeping

1
The chapter keeps exceptions within the removals. The high-place priests do not go up to the Lord’s altar but eat unleavened bread among their brethren. At Bethel, bones are burned on the altar, yet Josias orders the man of God’s bones left alone, and they remain untouched with the Samarian prophet’s bones. Those exceptions prevent a broad description of the removals from losing the chapter’s specific limits.
2
Josias’s praise and the continuing warning both remain. He returns with all heart, soul and strength according to all Moses’ law, with no king like him before or afterward. Yet the Lord does not turn from indignation because of Manasses’s provocations and announces Juda’s removal. The source states that contrast and reason; it does not add a universal threshold of unpardonable guilt or make the warning the stated cause of Josias’s death.
3
The closing kings and money have distinct routes. The people anoint Joachaz, but Nechao binds him at Rebla to prevent his reign and carries him to Egypt, where he dies. Nechao installs Josias’s son Eliacim and renames him Joakim. The land’s fine is one hundred silver talents and one gold talent; Joakim collects both metals from every person according to ability to pay Nechao. Keeping those actors, quantities and qualifications explains the succession and payment without invented legal arrangements.

Test your recall

How does the returned report lead to the covenant reading and agreement, what exceptions concern priests and prophets’ bones during the removals, why does indignation against Juda remain, and how do Nechao’s actions change the kings and route of the fine?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 40758–40773
4 Kings Chapter 23 Josias readeth the law before all the people. They promise to observe it. He abolisheth all idolatry, celebrateth the phase: is slain in battle by the king of Egypt. The short reign of Joachaz, in whose place Joakim is made king. 23:1. And they brought the king word again what she had said. And he sent: and all the ancients of Juda and Jerusalem were assembled to him. 23:2. And the king went up to the temple of the Lord, and all the men of Juda, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, both little and great: and in the hearing of them all he read all the words of the book of the covenant, which was found in the house of the Lord.
Lines 40774–40779
23:3. And the king stood upon the step: and he made a covenant with the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies, and his ceremonies, with all their heart, and with all their soul, and to perform the words of this covenant, which were written in that book: and the people agreed to the covenant.
Lines 40780–40783
The king stood upon the step.... That is, his tribune, or tribunal, a more eminent place, from whence he might be seen and heard by the people.
Lines 40784–40796
23:4. And the king commanded Helcias, the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the doorkeepers, to cast out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels that had been made for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the host of heaven: and he burnt them without Jerusalem, in the valley of Cedron, and he carried the ashes of them to Bethel. 23:5. And he destroyed the soothsayers, whom the kings of Juda had appointed to sacrifice in the high places in the cities of Juda, and round about Jerusalem: them also that burnt incense to Baal, and to the sun, and to the moon, and to the twelve signs, and to all the host of heaven.
Lines 40797–40805
23:6. And he caused the grove to be carried out from the house of the Lord, without Jerusalem, to the valley of Cedron, and he burnt it there, and reduced it to dust, and cast the dust upon the graves of the common people. 23:7. He destroyed also the pavilions of the effeminate, which were in the house of the Lord, for which the women wove as it were little dwellings for the grove.
Lines 40806–40815
23:8. And he gathered together all the priests out of the cities of Juda: and he defiled the high places, where the priests offered sacrifice, from Gabaa to Bersabee: and he broke down the altars of the gates that were in the entering in of the gate of Josue, governor of the city, which was on the left hand of the gate of the city. 23:9. However, the priests of the high places came not up to the altar of the Lord, in Jerusalem: but only ate of the unleavened bread among their brethren.
Lines 40816–40824
23:10. And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Ennom: that no man should consecrate there his son, or his daughter, through fire, to Moloch. 23:11. And he took away the horses which the kings of Juda had given to the sun, at the entering in of the temple of the Lord, near the chamber of Nathanmelech the eunuch, who was in Pharurim: and he burnt the chariots of the sun with fire.
Lines 40825–40839
23:12. And the altars that were upon the top of the upper chamber of Achaz, which the kings of Juda had made, and the altars which Manasses had made in the two courts of the temple of the Lord, the king broke down: and he ran from thence, and cast the ashes of them into the torrent Cedron. 23:13. The high places also that were at Jerusalem, on the right side of the Mount of Offence, which Solomon, king of Israel, had built to Astaroth, the idol of the Sidonians, and to Chamos, the scandal of Moab, and to Melchom, the abomination of the children of Ammon, the king defiled. 23:14. And he broke in pieces the statues, and cut down the groves: and he filled their places with the bones of dead men.
Lines 40840–40850
23:15. Moreover, the altar also that was at Bethel, and the high place, which Jeroboam, the son of Nabat, who made Israel to sin, had made: both the altar, and the high place, he broke down and burnt, and reduced to powder, and burnt the grove. 23:16. And as Josias turned himself, he saw there the sepulchres that were in the mount: and he sent and took the bones out of the sepulchres, and burnt them upon the altar, and defiled it according to the word of the Lord, which the man of God spoke, who had foretold these things.
Lines 40851–40859
23:17. And he said: What is that monument which I see? And the men of that city answered: It is the sepulchre of the man of God, who came from Juda, and foretold these things which thou hast done upon the altar of Bethel. 23:18. And he said: Let him alone, let no man move his bones. So his bones were left untouched with the bones of the prophet, that came out of Samaria.
Lines 40860–40878
23:19. Moreover all the temples of the high places which were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke the Lord, Josias took away: and he did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Bethel. 23:20. And he slew all the priests of the high places, that were there, upon the altars; and he burnt men’s bones upon them: and returned to Jerusalem. 23:21. And he commanded all the people, saying: Keep the Phase to the Lord your God, according as it is written in the book of this covenant. 23:22. Now there was no such a Phase kept from the days of the judges, who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, and of the kings of Juda, 23:23. As was this Phase, that was kept to the Lord in Jerusalem, in the eighteenth year of king Josias.
Lines 40879–40889
23:24. Moreover the diviners by spirits, and soothsayers, and the figures of idols, and the uncleannesses, and the abominations, that had been in the land of Juda and Jerusalem, Josias took away: that he might perform the words of the law, that were written in the book, which Helcias the priest had found in the temple of the Lord. 23:25. There was no king before him like unto him, that returned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his strength, according to all the law of Moses: neither after him did there arise any like unto him.
Lines 40890–40901
23:26. But yet the Lord turned not away from the wrath of his great indignation, wherewith his anger was kindled against Juda: because of the provocations, wherewith Manasses had provoked him. 23:27. And the Lord said: I will remove Juda also from before my face, as I have removed Israel: and I will cast off this city Jerusalem, which I chose, and the house, of which I said: My name shall be there. 23:28. Now the rest of the acts of Josias, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the words of the days of the kings of Juda?
Lines 40902–40917
23:29. In his days Pharao Nechao, king of Egypt, went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates: and king Josias went to meet him: and was slain at Mageddo, when he had seen him. 23:30. And his servants carried him dead from Mageddo: and they brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own sepulchre. And the people of the land took Joachaz, the son of Josias: and they anointed him, and made him king in his father’s stead. 23:31. Joachaz was three and twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem: the name of his mother was Amital, the daughter of Jeremias, of Lobna. 23:32. And he did evil before the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done.
Lines 40918–40939
23:33. And Pharao Nechao bound him at Rebla, which is in the land of Emath, that he should not reign in Jerusalem: and he set a fine upon the land, of a hundred talents of silver, and a talent of gold. 23:34. And Pharao Nechao made Eliacim, the son of Josias, king in the room of Josias his father: and turned his name to Joakim. And he took Joachaz away and carried him into Egypt, and he died there. 23:35. And Joakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharao, after he had taxed the land for every man, to contribute according to the commandment of Pharao: and he exacted both the silver and the gold of the people of the land, of every man according to his ability: to give to Pharao Nechao. 23:36. Joakim was five and twenty years old when he began to reign: and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: the name of his mother was Zebida, the daughter of Phadaia, of Ruma. 23:37. And he did evil before the Lord according to all that his fathers had done.