2 Raja-raja 23:4-7

23:4 The king ordered Hilkiah the high priest, the high-ranking priests, ¹  and the guards ²  to bring out of the Lord’s temple all the items that were used in the worship of ³  Baal, Asherah, and all the stars of the sky. ⁴  The king ⁵  burned them outside of Jerusalem in the terraces ⁶  of Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel. ⁷  23:5 He eliminated ⁸  the pagan priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed to offer sacrifices ⁹  on the high places in the cities of Judah and in the area right around Jerusalem. (They offered sacrifices ¹⁰  to Baal, the sun god, the moon god, the constellations, and all the stars in the sky.) 23:6 He removed the Asherah pole from the Lord’s temple and took it outside Jerusalem to the Kidron Valley, where he burned it. ¹¹  He smashed it to dust and then threw the dust in the public graveyard. ¹²  23:7 He tore down the quarters ¹³  of the male cultic prostitutes in the Lord’s temple, where women were weaving shrines ¹⁴  for Asherah.

2 Raja-raja 23:11-12

23:11 He removed from the entrance to the Lord’s temple the statues of horses ¹⁵  that the kings of Judah had placed there in honor of the sun god. (They were kept near the room of Nathan Melech the eunuch, which was situated among the courtyards.) ¹⁶  He burned up the chariots devoted to the sun god. ¹⁷  23:12 The king tore down the altars the kings of Judah had set up on the roof of Ahaz’s upper room, as well as the altars Manasseh had set up in the two courtyards of the Lord’s temple. He crushed them up ¹⁸  and threw the dust in the Kidron Valley.

[23:4]  ¹ tn Heb “the priests of the second [rank],” that is, those ranked just beneath Hilkiah.

[23:4]  ² tn Or “doorkeepers.”

[23:4]  ³ tn Heb “for.”

[23:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “all the host of heaven” (also in v. 5).

[23:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[23:4]  ⁶ tn Or “fields.” For a defense of the translation “terraces,” see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 285.

[23:4]  ⁷ map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

[23:5]  ⁸ tn Perhaps, “destroyed.”

[23:5]  ⁹ tn Or “burn incense.”

[23:5]  ¹⁰ tn Or “burned incense.”

[23:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and he burned it in the Kidron Valley.”

[23:6]  ¹² tc Heb “on the grave of the sons of the people.” Some Hebrew, Greek, Syriac, Aramaic, and Latin witnesses read the plural “graves.”

[23:6]  tn The phrase “sons of the people” refers here to the common people (see BDB 766 s.v. עַם), as opposed to the upper classes who would have private tombs.

[23:7]  ¹³ tn Or “cubicles.” Heb “houses.”

[23:7]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “houses.” Perhaps tent-shrines made from cloth are in view (see BDB 109 s.v. בַּיִת). M. Cogan and H. Tadmor (II Kings [AB], 286) understand this as referring to clothes made for images of the goddess.

[23:11]  ¹⁵ tn The MT simply reads “the horses.” The words “statues of” have been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[23:11]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “who/which was in the […?].” The meaning of the Hebrew term פַּרְוָרִים (parvarim), translated here “courtyards,” is uncertain. The relative clause may indicate where the room was located or explain who Nathan Melech was, “the eunuch who was in the courtyards.” See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 288-89, who translate “the officer of the precincts.”

[23:11]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and the chariots of the sun he burned with fire.”

[23:12]  ¹⁸ tc The MT reads, “he ran from there,” which makes little if any sense in this context. Some prefer to emend the verbal form (Qal of רוּץ [ruts], “run”) to a Hiphil of רוּץ with third plural suffix and translate, “he quickly removed them” (see BDB 930 s.v. רוּץ, and M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings [AB], 289). The suffix could have been lost in MT by haplography (note the mem [מ] that immediately follows the verb on the form מִשֳׁם, misham, “from there”). Another option, the one reflected in the translation, is to emend the verb to a Piel of רָצַץ (ratsats), “crush,” with third plural suffix.