Verse-by-Verse Commentary
The Book of 2 Kings
Chapter 23: He Turned to the LORD With All His Heart
Having heard God's word, Josiah acts. He gathers the nation, renews the covenant, and launches the most thorough reformation in Judah's history, purging every idol from Dan to Beersheba and keeping a Passover unmatched since the days of the judges. Of him it is said, no king turned to the LORD with all his heart as he did. Yet even his goodness cannot turn away the judgment Manasseh's sins had earned, and Josiah falls at Megiddo.
About This Commentary
This is a verse-by-verse study of 2 Kings chapter 23. For each section you will find the KJV text, the Hebrew words that sharpen the meaning, plain explanation, and a Gospel Focus. Every Scripture quotation is from the King James Version.
Josiah Reads the Book (2 Kings 23:1-3)
Josiah gathers the nation, reads the covenant, and leads them to pledge themselves to the LORD.
To Walk After the LORD With All Their Heart
"And the king sent, and they gathered unto him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem. And the king went up into the house of the LORD, 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 the LORD. And the king stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD, and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all their heart and all their soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people stood to the covenant."
Word Study
"made a covenant before the LORD," Hebrew karat berit (כָּרַת בְּרִית), to cut a covenant. Josiah's response to the recovered word is not merely private grief but public, national action. He gathers everyone, "both small and great", and himself reads "all the words of the book of the covenant." Note that the king, though he had priests and prophets present, reads the word to the people himself; the leader who has been gripped by Scripture makes it central. Then he "made a covenant (karat berit) before the LORD, to walk after the LORD, and to keep his commandments... with all their heart and all their soul." The language is straight from Deuteronomy 6:5, the great command to love God with all the heart and soul; Josiah leads the nation to renew exactly that wholehearted devotion. Standing "by a pillar" (the customary royal station, as at Joash's coronation, chapter 11:14), he pledges himself first, and "all the people stood to the covenant." True reformation begins with the word of God heard, then received into covenant commitment, then lived out. Josiah models godly leadership: he does not merely admire the word or mourn over it, he binds himself and leads his people to bind themselves to obey it. This is the pattern of every genuine revival, a return to the Scriptures and a fresh, whole-hearted covenant with God. The word that had been lost and found now becomes the word obeyed.
Explanation
Josiah assembled all the leaders and people of Judah and Jerusalem at the temple, and personally read aloud to them the entire book of the covenant that had been found. Then, standing in the king's place by the pillar, he made a solemn covenant before the LORD to follow Him and keep His commandments wholeheartedly, and to obey all that was written in the book. The people joined him, standing to affirm the covenant. Having heard God's word, Josiah led the nation in a public, wholehearted recommitment to the LORD, the foundation for the sweeping reforms that followed.
Gospel Focus
Josiah shows what to do with the word of God once we have heard it: not merely feel it, but obey it, and lead others to do the same. He read it publicly, made a covenant to keep it "with all their heart and all their soul," and the people joined him. This is the pattern of true revival, a return to the Scriptures and a wholehearted recommitment to God. It is not enough to rediscover the Bible or to be moved by it; we must bind ourselves to obey it. And note the standard of the covenant: not partial or convenient obedience, but "all their heart and all their soul," the very devotion Jesus named the first and great commandment (Matthew 22:37). God calls for the whole heart, not a fraction. Godly leaders, like Josiah, do not merely admire truth privately but bring it to the people and lead them to commit to it; the greatest gift a leader gives is to put the word of God at the center. If God has awakened your heart to His word, do as Josiah did: covenant to walk after the LORD with all your heart, and help others to do the same. Revival is always a return to the Book and a renewed surrender to the God who wrote it.
The Great Reformation (2 Kings 23:4-20)
Josiah tears down every idol and defiles every high place, fulfilling prophecy spoken centuries before.
According to the Word of the LORD
"And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the door, to bring forth out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the host of heaven: and he burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of them unto Bethel. 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; them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven. And he brought out the grove from the house of the LORD, without Jerusalem, unto the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and stamped it small to powder, and cast the powder thereof upon the graves of the children of the people. And he brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were by the house of the LORD, where the women wove hangings for the grove. 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 Beersheba, and brake down the high places of the gates that were in the entering in 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 came not up to the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, but they did eat of the unleavened bread among their brethren. 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. And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entering in of the house of the LORD, by the chamber of Nathanmelech the chamberlain, which was in the suburbs, and burned the chariots of the sun with fire. And the altars that were on the top 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 the LORD, did the king beat down, and brake them down from thence, and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron. And the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had builded for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon, did the king defile. And he brake in pieces the images, and cut down the groves, and filled their places with the bones of men. Moreover the altar that was at Bethel, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he brake down, and burned the high place, and stamped it small to powder, and burned the grove. And as Josiah turned himself, he spied the sepulchres that were there in the mount, and sent, and took the bones out of the sepulchres, and burned them upon the altar, and polluted it, according to the word of the LORD which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words. Then he said, What title is that that I see? And the men of the city told him, It is the sepulchre of the man of God, which came from Judah, and proclaimed these things that thou hast done against the altar of Bethel. And he said, Let him alone; let no man move his bones. So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet that came out of Samaria. And all the houses also of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke the LORD to anger, Josiah took away, and did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Bethel. And he slew all the priests of the high places that were there upon the altars, and burned men's bones upon them, and returned to Jerusalem."
Word Study
"according to the word of the LORD which the man of God proclaimed," prophecy fulfilled after three centuries. This is the most thorough reformation in the Bible. Josiah's purge is exhaustive: he removes the vessels of Baal, the grove (Asherah), and the star-worship from the very temple; deposes the idolatrous priests; destroys the shrine-prostitution; defiles the high places "from Geba to Beersheba" (the whole length of Judah); desecrates Topheth in the valley of Hinnom to end child sacrifice; removes the horses and chariots dedicated to the sun; tears down the altars of Ahaz and Manasseh; and even defiles the high places Solomon himself had built for his foreign wives' gods (chapter 11:7), sin four centuries old. He carries the reform north into Bethel and Samaria, breaking down the altar Jeroboam had made. Repeatedly the reform is measured "according to the word of the LORD." Most striking, at Bethel Josiah burns human bones on the altar to defile it, "according to the word of the LORD which the man of God proclaimed", the exact fulfillment of the prophecy in 1 Kings 13:2, spoken over three hundred years earlier, which had named "Josiah" by name and foretold this very act. And with tender respect Josiah spares the tomb of that ancient man of God (and of the old prophet buried with him). Here is the great theme of Kings sealed: God's word, spoken centuries before and naming an unborn king, comes to pass to the letter. What God says, He does, though generations pass. Josiah's reformation was both his own wholehearted zeal and the fulfillment of God's long-standing word, faith and prophecy meeting in one obedient king.
Explanation
Josiah carried out the most sweeping purge of idolatry in Judah's history. He cleansed the temple of all objects of Baal, Asherah, and astral worship; removed the idolatrous priests; destroyed the Asherah pole, the cult prostitutes' quarters, and the high places throughout Judah; desecrated Topheth to stop child sacrifice; removed the sun-horses and chariots; and demolished the altars of Ahaz and Manasseh, and even the ancient high places Solomon had built for pagan gods. He extended the reform into the former northern kingdom, destroying the altar at Bethel and burning bones on it to defile it, exactly fulfilling the prophecy spoken there three centuries earlier (1 Kings 13), while sparing the tomb of the man of God who had prophesied it. He removed the high places of Samaria and executed their idolatrous priests, then returned to Jerusalem. The purge was total.
Gospel Focus
Josiah's reformation models the thoroughness true repentance requires. He did not remove some idols and spare others, as so many kings before him had done; he tore down every high place, every altar, every abomination, from Beersheba to Bethel, even sins four centuries old that everyone had learned to tolerate. Genuine turning to God is like that: it does not negotiate with sin or keep a few convenient idols, but roots them all out. "Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth" (Colossians 3:5); "let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit" (2 Corinthians 7:1). Half-measures leave the seeds of relapse; Josiah stamped the idols "small to powder." Ask God to show you every idol, even the respectable, long-tolerated ones, and deal with them completely. And marvel at the fulfilled word: at Bethel Josiah did exactly what a prophet had foretold, by name, three hundred years before (1 Kings 13:2). God's word is that certain; He names an unborn king and brings it to pass. This should anchor our confidence in every promise and warning of Scripture, "for ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven" (Psalm 119:89). The God whose word ruled three centuries of history rules yours; trust His word, and, like Josiah, purge every idol without compromise.
The Great Passover (2 Kings 23:21-27)
Josiah keeps an unequalled Passover, yet even his goodness cannot avert the judgment Manasseh earned.
Like Unto Him Was There No King
"And the king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the passover unto the LORD your God, as it is written in the book of this covenant. Surely there was not holden such a passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah; But in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, wherein this passover was holden to the LORD in Jerusalem. Moreover the workers with familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the images, and the idols, and all the abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he might perform the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the LORD. And like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the LORD with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him. Notwithstanding the LORD turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him withal. And the LORD said, I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and will cast off this city Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there."
Word Study
"turned to the LORD with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might," the fullest devotion, echoing Deuteronomy 6:5. Josiah crowns his reforms by keeping a Passover unequalled "from the days of the judges", a great national celebration of redemption, fittingly restored once the word was recovered and the idols removed. And he completes the purge, putting away even the mediums, wizards, and every remaining abomination, "that he might perform the words of the law." Then comes the highest tribute given to any king in all of Kings: "like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the LORD with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him." Where Hezekiah was praised above all for trust (18:5), Josiah is praised above all for wholehearted turning to God, the very words of the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:5) fulfilled in a king. Yet the chapter's most sobering word follows: "Notwithstanding the LORD turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath... because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him." Even this best of kings, even this genuine national revival, could not reverse the judgment Manasseh's long, bloody apostasy had earned; "I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel." Here is a solemn mystery: personal and even national repentance is precious and real, yet the consequences of deep, prolonged sin may still work themselves out. Josiah's revival delayed the exile and saved a generation, but the accumulated guilt of Judah would still bring the fall of Jerusalem. God's mercy to the penitent and His justice against persistent sin both stand. The best human reformer cannot finally save; only a greater King can turn away wrath, the true and greater Josiah, who by His own blood removes the guilt no reformation could.
Explanation
Josiah commanded a great Passover to be kept according to the book of the covenant, a celebration unmatched since the days of the judges. He also removed the mediums, wizards, household idols, and every remaining abomination, fully obeying the recovered law. Scripture gives him its highest praise: no king before or after turned to the LORD so wholeheartedly, with all his heart, soul, and might, according to the law of Moses. Yet, the narrator adds, God did not turn from His fierce wrath against Judah because of Manasseh's provocations; He had determined to remove Judah from His presence as He had removed Israel, and to cast off Jerusalem and the temple. Even Josiah's unequalled revival could not cancel the judgment earned by generations of sin.
Gospel Focus
Josiah receives the highest praise of any king, "he turned to the LORD with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might," the very devotion the great commandment requires. Here is the pattern of a life fully surrendered to God, and it is beautiful. Yet the chapter delivers a solemn truth: even the best human king and the greatest revival could not turn away the wrath that Judah's long sin had earned; "notwithstanding the LORD turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath." This teaches us the limits of reformation. Repentance is real and precious, and Josiah's revival was a genuine mercy that delayed judgment and blessed a generation, but no amount of human goodness can finally undo the guilt of sin or satisfy divine justice. The best reformer cannot save; the holiest king still dies, and the judgment still comes. This is exactly why we need more than a Josiah, we need the greater King who does what no reformation can: who by His own blood turns away the wrath of God and removes the guilt of His people. "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us" (Galatians 3:13); He is "the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 2:2). Reform your life wholeheartedly, yes, but rest your salvation not on your reforms but on the true Josiah, whose sacrifice alone turns away the wrath that our best efforts never could.
The Death of Josiah (2 Kings 23:28-37)
Josiah dies at Megiddo, and Judah's last decline begins under Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim.
The Beginning of the End
"Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? In his days Pharaohnechoh king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates: and king Josiah went against him; and he slew him at Megiddo, when he had seen him. And his servants carried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own sepulchre. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father's stead. Jehoahaz was twenty and three years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done. And Pharaohnechoh put him in bands at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem; and put the land to a tribute of an hundred talents of silver, and a talent of gold. And Pharaohnechoh made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the room of Josiah his father, and turned his name to Jehoiakim, and took Jehoahaz away: and he came to Egypt, and died there. And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh; but he taxed the land to give the money according to the commandment of Pharaoh: he exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, of every one according to his taxation, to give it unto Pharaohnechoh. Jehoiakim was twenty and five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Zebudah, the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done."
Word Study
"he slew him at Megiddo," the fall of the good king and the beginning of the end. The good and godly Josiah dies unexpectedly and tragically: intercepting Pharaoh Necho of Egypt at Megiddo, he is killed in battle (2 Chronicles 35 records that he went against a warning from God through Necho). His death, mourned deeply (Jeremiah lamented for him, 2 Chronicles 35:25), marks the end of Judah's last good era. With Josiah gone, the kingdom slides rapidly toward its doom: in the remaining chapters four kings will reign in about twenty-two years, all doing "evil in the sight of the LORD," and the exile Huldah foretold will come. His son Jehoahaz reigns a mere three months before Pharaoh Necho deposes and deports him to Egypt (where he dies) and sets up his brother Eliakim, renaming him Jehoiakim, a puppet king who taxes the people to pay Egyptian tribute. Judah, once delivered from Assyria by the angel of the LORD, is now a vassal of Egypt, soon to be a vassal of Babylon. The rapid change of overlords, Assyria, then Egypt, then Babylon, shows a kingdom in free fall, its independence gone, its kings mere pawns. The reign of Jehoiakim (evil, eleven years) sets the stage for Nebuchadnezzar. Josiah's death is a poignant reminder that the removal of a godly leader often opens the door to swift decline, and that the goodness of one generation does not guarantee the next. The lamp of David still burns, but faintly now, flickering toward the long night of exile, out of which, in God's covenant faithfulness, the true Light would one day come.
Explanation
Josiah's reign ended when he confronted Pharaoh Necho of Egypt, who was marching to the Euphrates, and was killed at Megiddo. His body was brought to Jerusalem and buried, and the people made his son Jehoahaz king. But Jehoahaz, who did evil, reigned only three months before Necho imprisoned him and deported him to Egypt, where he died, imposing heavy tribute on Judah. Necho installed another son of Josiah, Eliakim, renaming him Jehoiakim, who also did evil and taxed the people to pay Egypt. With the death of the good king Josiah, Judah lost its independence and began its rapid final decline toward the Babylonian exile.
Gospel Focus
The sudden death of good King Josiah is a sobering reminder that even the most godly leaders are mortal, and their passing can open the door to swift decline. With Josiah gone, Judah unraveled quickly, its kings becoming pawns of Egypt and then Babylon, its independence lost, its doom approaching. The goodness of one generation does not secure the next; each must choose the LORD for itself, and the loss of a faithful leader tests whether a people's devotion was their own or merely borrowed. It also reminds us not to put our ultimate hope in any human leader, however godly; "put not your trust in princes... in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth... in that very day his thoughts perish" (Psalm 146:3-4). Josiah, the best of kings, died at Megiddo, and his good reforms could not save Judah from the coming judgment. Our hope must rest not in any earthly Josiah but in the King who does not die and leave us, the risen Christ, who "ever liveth to make intercession" (Hebrews 7:25). Yet even as Judah plunges toward exile, the covenant line of David is preserved, flickering but not extinguished, for out of that line, and beyond the coming darkness, God would bring the true and eternal King. Do not despair when good leaders fall and darkness gathers; the lamp of David God keeps burning is Christ, the Light no night can put out.
Chapter in Review
Second Kings 23 is the high-water mark of Judah's faithfulness and the beginning of its final fall. Having heard the recovered word, Josiah gathers the nation, reads the covenant, and leads all the people to pledge themselves to walk after the LORD with all their heart. He then carries out the most thorough reformation in the Bible, purging every idol, altar, and high place from Beersheba to Bethel, even sins centuries old, exactly fulfilling the prophecy spoken at Bethel three hundred years before. He keeps a Passover unequalled since the days of the judges, and earns the highest praise of any king: none turned to the LORD so wholeheartedly. Yet even his revival cannot turn away the wrath earned by Manasseh's sins, and Josiah falls at Megiddo, after which Judah slides swiftly into vassalage and decline under Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim. The chapter exalts wholehearted devotion and thorough repentance, proclaims the certainty of God's word, and shows the limits of even the best reformer, pointing us to the greater King who alone can turn away wrath.
Key Takeaways
- Hear the word, then obey it and lead others to. Josiah covenanted to keep God's word with all his heart; revival is a return to Scripture and surrender.
- True repentance is thorough. Josiah purged every idol, even long-tolerated ones; do not negotiate with sin or keep convenient idols.
- God's word is certain across centuries. The Bethel prophecy, naming Josiah, was fulfilled to the letter after three hundred years.
- Even the best reformer cannot turn away wrath. Josiah's revival could not cancel the guilt of sin; only the greater King, by His blood, can.
- Put no ultimate trust in human leaders. The good king died and decline followed; our hope is the King who ever lives.
Questions for Reflection
- Have you moved from merely hearing God's word to covenanting to obey it with all your heart?
- Is your repentance thorough, or are you keeping a few tolerated idols?
- How does the fulfilled Bethel prophecy strengthen your confidence in all of Scripture?
- Do you rest your salvation on your own reforms, or on the greater King who turns away wrath?
- Is your hope anchored in Christ who ever lives, rather than in any human leader who will pass away?
References
- Scripture: 2 Kings 23:1-37, King James Version.
- Cross-references: Deuteronomy 6:5; 1 Kings 11:7; 13:2; 2 Chronicles 34-35; Psalm 119:89; 146:3-4; Matthew 22:37; 2 Corinthians 7:1; Galatians 3:13; Colossians 3:5; Hebrews 7:25; 1 John 2:2.
- Hebrew word meanings: standard lexical sources (Strong's, BDB) for karat berit and the Shema formula "with all thy heart"; historical background of Topheth, Bethel, Megiddo, and Pharaoh Necho.