Question 1

When Josiah burned bones from the tombs on Bethel’s altar, whose earlier prophecy did this fulfill (2 Kings 23:15-16)?

Accepted Answer

Josiah tore down the altar and high place at Bethel that Jeroboam had set up, the king who led Israel into sin (23:15). Seeing tombs on the hillside, he had the bones removed and burned there to make the altar unclean, just as the LORD had foretold through His prophet (23:16). Long before, in Jeroboam’s day, an unnamed man of God from Judah had cried out against this altar that a son of David’s house named Josiah would burn human bones on it (1 Kings 13:2). Jeroboam had set up a golden calf at Bethel (1 Kings 12:28-30). The fulfillment shows that the LORD’s word always accomplishes what He purposes (Isaiah 55:11).

Question 2

Whose earlier prophetic word is fulfilled when Josiah burns human bones on the Bethel altar (2 Kings 23:15-16)?

Accepted Answer

Josiah demolishes Jeroboam’s altar and high place at Bethel (23:15) and burns bones from the nearby tombs upon it, defiling it in fulfillment of the LORD’s word through His prophet (23:16). That man of God from Judah had named Josiah, of David’s house, as the one who would burn human bones on this altar (1 Kings 13:2), at the very altar Jeroboam built for his calf worship (1 Kings 12:28-30). A prophecy given by name long before is fulfilled to the letter; the LORD’s word accomplishes what He purposes (Isaiah 55:11).

Question 3

Standing beside the pillar, what covenant did Josiah make before the LORD, and how did the people respond (2 Kings 23:3)?

Accepted Answer

By the pillar, Josiah made a covenant (a solemn binding promise) in the LORD’s presence to follow Him and keep His commands, laws and decrees with his whole heart and soul, doing all that the book required. Everyone present committed themselves to it (23:3). The pledge echoes the great command to love God with one’s whole heart and soul (Deuteronomy 6:5). Israel had made similar commitments before: at Sinai, after hearing the covenant book, the people promised to obey (Exodus 24:7), and under the priest Jehoiada a covenant had made them the LORD’s people again (11:17).

Question 4

What does Josiah pledge in the covenant made beside the pillar, and what is the people’s response (2 Kings 23:3)?

Accepted Answer

Josiah stands beside the pillar and binds himself by covenant in the LORD’s presence to walk after Him and keep His commands, decrees and statutes wholeheartedly, performing what the book required; the people all join in (23:3). The language is the Shema’s demand for wholehearted love (Deuteronomy 6:5), and the act recalls Israel’s response at Sinai to the reading of the covenant book (Exodus 24:7) and Jehoiada’s covenant renewal (11:17).

Question 5

After Josiah’s death, what did Pharaoh Neco do to Judah’s throne (2 Kings 23:31-35)?

Accepted Answer

Judah’s citizens anointed Josiah’s son Jehoahaz as king, but his conduct was evil in the LORD’s eyes, as his forefathers’ had been (23:30-32). After only three months, Pharaoh Neco imprisoned him at Riblah, placed a heavy payment on Judah, and set Eliakim, another son of Josiah, on the throne, renaming him Jehoiakim (23:33-34). Jehoahaz was taken to Egypt and died there (23:34). Jehoiakim paid Pharaoh by taxing the people, and he too did evil (23:35, 23:37). Jeremiah spoke of Josiah’s son who had succeeded his father and been taken away, saying he would die in exile and never come back (Jeremiah 22:11-12). Jeremiah later announced the LORD’s judgment on Josiah’s son Jehoiakim for his greed and violence (Jeremiah 22:17-18).

Question 6

How does Pharaoh Neco intervene in Judah’s succession after Josiah’s death (2 Kings 23:31-35)?

Accepted Answer

Jehoahaz, anointed by the people, does evil like his fathers (23:30-32); within three months Pharaoh Neco deposes and imprisons him at Riblah, imposes tribute, and installs Josiah’s son Eliakim, renaming him Jehoiakim (23:33-34). Jehoahaz dies in Egypt (23:34). Jehoiakim taxes the land to pay Pharaoh and likewise does evil (23:35, 23:37). Judah’s kings now rise and fall at a foreign ruler’s word. Jeremiah declares that the son who succeeded Josiah and was taken away will die in exile (Jeremiah 22:11-12), and he pronounces judgment on Jehoiakim, also Josiah’s son (Jeremiah 22:17-18).

Question 7

How did Josiah’s life end (2 Kings 23:29-30)?

Accepted Answer

While Josiah was king, Pharaoh Neco of Egypt went up toward the Euphrates River in support of Assyria’s king. Josiah marched out against him, and Neco struck him down at Megiddo (23:29). His servants brought his body back to Jerusalem in a chariot and laid him in his tomb there (23:30). Josiah died before the disaster Huldah had foretold fell on Jerusalem, so he did not see it (22:20), and that judgment came only in the reigns after him (24:2-3).

Question 8

What does the text record about the death of Josiah (2 Kings 23:29-30)?

Accepted Answer

Pharaoh Neco marches up to the Euphrates to aid Assyria’s king; Josiah goes out against him and is killed by Neco at Megiddo (23:29). His servants bring his body by chariot to Jerusalem for burial (23:30). Josiah dies before the announced calamity falls, so his eyes do not see it (22:20); the judgment comes in the reigns that follow (24:2-3).

Question 9

After gathering the elders, priests, prophets and people at the temple, what did Josiah do (2 Kings 23:1-2)?

Accepted Answer

Josiah summoned the leaders of Jerusalem and Judah and climbed to the temple with the whole population, priests and prophets, from the least to the greatest (23:1-2). There the king himself read to them everything written in the covenant book (the scroll of God’s law) that had been discovered in the temple (23:2). Moses had commanded that the law be read aloud to all Israel, including men, women and children, so that they would learn reverence for God (Deuteronomy 31:11-12). Centuries later Ezra did the same for the returned exiles, and the people listened carefully (Nehemiah 8:3).

Question 10

What does Josiah do before the assembly gathered at the temple (2 Kings 23:1-2)?

Accepted Answer

Josiah convenes the elders and leads the entire people, priests and prophets, small and great, to the temple (23:1-2), where he personally reads in their hearing the whole of the rediscovered covenant book (23:2). The king fulfills the Mosaic charge to read the law before all Israel so that they would learn reverence for God (Deuteronomy 31:11-12), a pattern Ezra later repeats for the restored community (Nehemiah 8:3).

Question 11

Why did Josiah remove the mediums, spiritists, household idols and other images from Judah (2 Kings 23:24)?

Accepted Answer

Josiah also cleared out mediums and spiritists (people who claimed to contact the dead), the household gods, the idols and every other detestable thing in Judah and Jerusalem (23:24). He did it to put into practice the law contained in the book Hilkiah had discovered in the temple. That law forbade consulting mediums and spiritists as something God detests (Deuteronomy 18:10-12). The discovered book was not just admired; it shaped what the king actually did, as God’s word is meant to (Psalm 119:59-60).

Question 12

What purpose does the narrator give for Josiah’s removal of the mediums, spiritists and household idols (2 Kings 23:24)?

Accepted Answer

Josiah removes the mediums, spiritists, household gods, idols and every abomination in Judah and Jerusalem (23:24), with a clear purpose: to put into practice the law contained in the book Hilkiah discovered. The specific prohibitions are those of Deuteronomy (Deuteronomy 18:10-12). The reform is driven by the recovered Scripture, an obedience that hastens to keep God’s commands once His word is known (Psalm 119:59-60).

Question 13

What does the narrator say made Josiah unlike any king before or after him (2 Kings 23:25)?

Accepted Answer

No king before or after Josiah was like him, because he turned back to God with his whole heart, soul and strength, in keeping with all of Moses’ law (23:25). This is the language of the great command in Deuteronomy, to love God with one’s whole heart, soul and strength (Deuteronomy 6:5), which Jesus named as the most important commandment (Mark 12:29-30). Josiah is praised not for military success or wealth but for wholehearted devotion to God according to His word.

Question 14

On what basis does the narrator declare Josiah incomparable among the kings (2 Kings 23:25)?

Accepted Answer

Josiah is declared incomparable among the kings, before and after, for turning back to God with his whole heart, soul and might, according to the whole Mosaic Law (23:25). The wording deliberately echoes the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:5), which Jesus named as the most important commandment (Mark 12:29-30). The book’s highest praise is reserved for covenant fidelity grounded in the Word, not for power or prosperity.

Question 15

What does the text say about the Passover Josiah commanded the people to keep (2 Kings 23:21-23)?

Accepted Answer

Josiah commanded the people to celebrate the Passover (the yearly feast remembering how God rescued Israel from Egypt) as the covenant book directed (23:21). No Passover like it had been held since the days when judges led Israel, through the whole period of Israel’s and Judah’s kings; it was kept in Jerusalem in Josiah’s eighteenth year (23:22-23). Moses had commanded Israel to keep this feast as a lasting statute (Exodus 12:14) and to celebrate it at the place God would choose for His Name (Deuteronomy 16:5-6). The New Testament teaches that Christ is the true Passover lamb, sacrificed for His people (1 Corinthians 5:7).

Question 16

How does the narrator characterize the Passover kept under Josiah (2 Kings 23:21-23)?

Accepted Answer

Josiah orders the Passover to be kept as prescribed in the covenant book (23:21), and it is ranked above every Passover since the era of the judges, through all the reigns of Israel’s and Judah’s kings; it was held in Jerusalem in his eighteenth year (23:22-23). The feast was a perpetual statute (Exodus 12:14) to be kept at the place of the LORD’s chosen Name (Deuteronomy 16:5-6), and it finds its fulfillment in Christ, the Passover lamb sacrificed for us (1 Corinthians 5:7).

Question 17

True or False: Josiah’s removal of hilltop shrines stopped at the border of Judah and did not reach the towns of Samaria (2 Kings 23:19-20).

Accepted Answer

This is false. As at Bethel, Josiah went on to clear away the hilltop shrines in the towns of Samaria, the former northern kingdom, which Israel’s kings had built and by which they had angered the LORD (23:19). He put the shrine priests to death on their own altars and burned human bones there, and then went back to Jerusalem (23:20). This, too, fulfilled the prophet’s word, which had been against the Bethel altar and every hilltop shrine in Samaria’s towns (1 Kings 13:32), and which had foretold that the shrine priests would be sacrificed on the altar (1 Kings 13:2).

Question 18

True or False: Josiah’s reform was confined to Judah and did not extend to Samaria’s towns (2 Kings 23:19-20).

Accepted Answer

This is false. Josiah extends the purge to Samaria’s towns, removing the shrines built by Israel’s kings that had angered the LORD (23:19), executing their priests on the altars and burning bones there, before returning to Jerusalem (23:20). The scope of the reform matches the scope of the earlier prophecy, which was against Bethel and every hilltop shrine in Samaria’s cities (1 Kings 13:32) and foretold the slaying of the high-place priests on the altar (1 Kings 13:2).

Question 19

Josiah defiled shrines on the hill east of the city built for Ashtoreth, Chemosh and Milcom. Which king had built them (2 Kings 23:13)?

Accepted Answer

These shrines on the hill east of the city had been built by Solomon for Ashtoreth, the Sidonian goddess, Chemosh, god of Moab, and Milcom, god of the Ammonites (23:13). Solomon had built them when he did evil by following these gods (1 Kings 11:5-7). They were still standing when Josiah defiled them, broke apart the sacred pillars (stone pillars used in pagan worship), chopped the Asherah poles to the ground, and scattered human bones over the ground, which made the places unclean for worship (23:14). Josiah’s reform reached back to the first great apostasy among David’s descendants.

Question 20

Which earlier king had built the high places for Ashtoreth, Chemosh and Milcom that Josiah defiled (2 Kings 23:13)?

Accepted Answer

Those hillside shrines east of the city, built by Solomon for Ashtoreth, Chemosh and Milcom (23:13), were the legacy of his own turning after these gods (1 Kings 11:5-7). Josiah defiles them, shatters the sacred pillars, fells the Asherah poles; he strews human bones over the ground to render them unclean (23:14). The reform reaches back to the first royal apostasy in David’s line.

Question 21

What did Josiah do with the objects devoted to Baal, to Asherah and to the stars that had been kept in the LORD’s temple (2 Kings 23:4-7)?

Accepted Answer

Josiah ordered Hilkiah and the priests to bring out of the temple everything made for Baal, for Asherah (a Canaanite goddess) and for the worship of the sun, moon and stars. He burned them in the Kidron fields outside Jerusalem and took the ashes to Bethel (23:4). He removed the pagan priests whom Judah’s kings had appointed (23:5), hauled the Asherah pole out of the temple, burned it in the Kidron Valley and crushed it to powder (23:6), and demolished the rooms used by the shrine prostitutes inside the temple area (23:7). He brought in the priests from Judah’s towns and defiled the hilltop shrines where they had burned incense, throughout Judah from north to south (23:8). He also smashed the altars Manasseh had placed in the temple courts (23:12). This was what the law had commanded Israel to do with idols (Deuteronomy 7:5, 7:25).

Question 22

How does Josiah deal with the cultic objects devoted to Baal, Asherah and the heavenly bodies in the temple (2 Kings 23:4-7)?

Accepted Answer

Josiah’s purge begins at the sanctuary: every vessel devoted to Baal, Asherah and the heavenly bodies is removed and burned in the Kidron fields, its ashes carried to Bethel (23:4); the idolatrous priests installed by Judah’s kings are deposed (23:5); the Asherah pole is burned and pulverized (23:6); the shrine prostitutes' quarters in the temple precincts are demolished (23:7); the priests serving the outlying shrines are brought in and their high places defiled across Judah (23:8); and Manasseh’s altars in the courts are smashed (23:12). Josiah carries out the Mosaic command to burn and destroy idols (Deuteronomy 7:5, 7:25).

Question 23

When Josiah learned that a grave marker at Bethel belonged to the prophet from Judah, what did he order (2 Kings 23:17-18)?

Accepted Answer

Josiah asked about a monument he saw, and the townsmen of Bethel told him it was the grave of the prophet from Judah who had foretold what Josiah had just carried out at that altar (23:17). Josiah ordered that his remains not be moved, so they were left untouched together with the remains of the Samarian prophet buried with him (23:18). This too matched the earlier story: the old prophet of Bethel had asked to be buried beside the Judean prophet, because he was sure the Judean prophet’s message against the altar and the high places would come true (1 Kings 13:31-32). God honored the messenger whose word He had fulfilled.

Question 24

What does Josiah command concerning the grave of the prophet from Judah (2 Kings 23:17-18)?

Accepted Answer

Told that the monument marks the grave of the Judean prophet who foretold these very acts (23:17), Josiah orders his bones left undisturbed; they are spared, as are the Samarian prophet’s (23:18). The old prophet had requested burial beside the Judean prophet precisely because he was sure the word against Bethel and the high places would come to pass (1 Kings 13:31-32). The fulfillment both vindicates the prophetic word and honors its messenger.

Question 25

True or False: Josiah defiled Topheth, in the Ben-hinnom Valley, to stop its use for sacrificing children to Molech (2 Kings 23:10).

Accepted Answer

This is true. Josiah made Topheth, a site in the Ben-hinnom Valley, ritually unclean to prevent anyone from offering a son or daughter there to Molech (a pagan god) (23:10). This put an end at that place to the very practice Manasseh had followed (21:6). The law had strictly forbidden giving any child to Molech, because it profaned God’s name (Leviticus 18:21), and Moses had warned that God detests such things (Deuteronomy 18:10-12). This was part of Josiah’s wider removal of every abomination from Judah to put into practice the law in the book Hilkiah had found (23:24).

Question 26

True or False: Josiah’s desecration of Topheth was meant to stop the sacrifice of children to Molech there (2 Kings 23:10).

Accepted Answer

This is true. Josiah defiles Topheth in the Ben-hinnom Valley to prevent anyone from offering a son or daughter to Molech there (23:10), reversing the practice Manasseh had adopted (21:6). Child sacrifice to Molech was a profanation of God’s name under the Law (Leviticus 18:21) and among the detestable practices for which the Canaanites were expelled (Deuteronomy 18:10-12). It belongs to the wider purge of every abomination in Judah undertaken to obey the recovered book (23:24).

Question 27

Despite Josiah’s reform, why did the LORD not relent from His fierce anger against Judah (2 Kings 23:26-27)?

Accepted Answer

Right after this praise of Josiah comes a sobering word: the LORD still did not relent from His fierce, burning anger toward Judah, on account of all the ways Manasseh had provoked Him (23:26). The LORD had declared that He would remove Judah from His presence as He had removed Israel, and would reject Jerusalem, the city He had chosen, and the temple where He had said His Name would be (23:27). This is what He had announced through the prophets in Manasseh’s day (21:12-13), and Huldah had confirmed it (22:16-17). Jeremiah too names what Manasseh did in Jerusalem as the cause (Jeremiah 15:4), and the same cause is given when judgment falls (24:3-4). Josiah’s humility was real and the LORD honored it (22:19-20), but it did not cancel the judgment already decreed.

Question 28

What reason does the narrator give that the LORD’s burning anger against Judah was not turned back, even after Josiah’s reform (2 Kings 23:26-27)?

Accepted Answer

Immediately after the incomparable-king verdict comes the sobering word that the fierce heat of the LORD’s anger toward Judah was not withdrawn, on account of all Manasseh’s provocations (23:26). He had declared He would remove Judah as He had removed Israel and reject Jerusalem and the house bearing His Name (23:27). The sentence pronounced through the prophets under Manasseh (21:12-13) and confirmed by Huldah (22:16-17) stands; Jeremiah gives the same cause (Jeremiah 15:4), and the same cause is repeated when the judgment falls (24:3-4). Josiah’s contrition was genuine and was honored (22:19-20), but it did not reverse the decree.

2 Kings 23 Study Notes: Josiah’s Covenant and Reform

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