2 Kings 23:14
New International Version
Josiah smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles and covered the sites with human bones.

New Living Translation
He smashed the sacred pillars and cut down the Asherah poles. Then he desecrated these places by scattering human bones over them.

English Standard Version
And he broke in pieces the pillars and cut down the Asherim and filled their places with the bones of men.

Berean Standard Bible
He smashed the sacred pillars to pieces, cut down the Asherah poles, and covered the sites with human bones.

King James Bible
And he brake in pieces the images, and cut down the groves, and filled their places with the bones of men.

New King James Version
And he broke in pieces the sacred pillars and cut down the wooden images, and filled their places with the bones of men.

New American Standard Bible
He also smashed to pieces the memorial stones and cut down the Asherim, and filled their places with human bones.

NASB 1995
He broke in pieces the sacred pillars and cut down the Asherim and filled their places with human bones.

NASB 1977
And he broke in pieces the sacred pillars and cut down the Asherim and filled their places with human bones.

Legacy Standard Bible
And he broke in pieces the sacred pillars and cut down the Asherim and filled their places with human bones.

Amplified Bible
He broke in pieces the sacred pillars (cultic memorial stones, images) and cut down the Asherim and replaced them with human bones [to desecrate the places forever].

Christian Standard Bible
He broke the sacred pillars into pieces, cut down the Asherah poles, then filled their places with human bones.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
He broke the sacred pillars into pieces, cut down the Asherah poles, then filled their places with human bones.

American Standard Version
And he brake in pieces the pillars, and cut down the Asherim, and filled their places with the bones of men.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And he shattered the monuments and cut off the idols and filled their place with the bones of the sons of men.

Brenton Septuagint Translation
And he broke in pieces the pillars, and utterly destroyed the groves, and filled their places with the bones of men.

Contemporary English Version
He tore down the stone images of foreign gods and cut down the sacred pole used in the worship of Asherah. Then he had the whole area covered with human bones.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And he broke in pieces the statues, and cut down the groves: and he filled their places with the bones of dead men.

English Revised Version
And he brake in pieces the pillars, and cut down the Asherim, and filled their places with the bones of men.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Josiah crushed the sacred stones, cut down the poles dedicated to Asherah, and filled their places with human bones.

Good News Translation
King Josiah broke the stone pillars to pieces, cut down the symbols of the goddess Asherah, and the ground where they had stood he covered with human bones.

International Standard Version
He broke the pillars to pieces, cut down the Asherim, and filled their locations with human bones.

JPS Tanakh 1917
And he broke in pieces the pillars, and cut down the Asherim, and filled their places with the bones of men.

Literal Standard Version
And he has broken the standing-pillars in pieces, and cuts down the Asherim, and fills their place with bones of men;

Majority Standard Bible
He smashed the sacred pillars to pieces, cut down the Asherah poles, and covered the sites with human bones.

New American Bible
He broke to pieces the pillars, cut down the asherahs, and filled the places where they had been with human bones.

NET Bible
He smashed the sacred pillars to bits, cut down the Asherah pole, and filled those shrines with human bones.

New Revised Standard Version
He broke the pillars in pieces, cut down the sacred poles, and covered the sites with human bones.

New Heart English Bible
He broke in pieces the pillars, and cut down the Asherim, and filled their places with the bones of men.

Webster's Bible Translation
And he broke in pieces the images, and cut down the groves, and filled their places with the bones of men.

World English Bible
He broke in pieces the pillars, cut down the Asherah poles, and filled their places with men’s bones.

Young's Literal Translation
And he hath broken in pieces the standing-pillars, and cutteth down the shrines, and filleth their place with bones of men;

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Josiah Destroys Idolatry
13The king also desecrated the high places east of Jerusalem, to the south of the Mount of Corruption, which King Solomon of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. 14He smashed the sacred pillars to pieces, cut down the Asherah poles, and covered the sites with human bones. 15He even pulled down the altar at Bethel, the high place set up by Jeroboam son of Nebat, who had caused Israel to sin. Then he burned the high place, ground it to powder, and burned the Asherah pole.…

Cross References
Exodus 34:13
Rather, you must tear down their altars, smash their sacred stones, and chop down their Asherah poles.

Deuteronomy 7:5
Instead, this is what you are to do to them: tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn their idols in the fire.

Deuteronomy 7:25
You must burn up the images of their gods; do not covet the silver and gold that is on them or take it for yourselves, or you will be ensnared by it; for it is detestable to the LORD your God.

2 Kings 23:16
And as Josiah turned, he saw the tombs there on the hillside, and he sent someone to take the bones out of the tombs, and he burned them on the altar to defile it, according to the word of the LORD proclaimed by the man of God who had foretold these things.

Isaiah 44:19
And no one considers in his heart, no one has the knowledge or insight to say, "I burned half of it in the fire, and I baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat and I ate. Shall I make something detestable with the rest of it? Shall I bow down to a block of wood?"

Ezekiel 6:5
I will lay the corpses of the Israelites before their idols and scatter your bones around your altars.


Treasury of Scripture

And he broke in pieces the images, and cut down the groves, and filled their places with the bones of men.

he brake.

Exodus 23:24
Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images.

Numbers 33:52
Then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their pictures, and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high places:

Deuteronomy 7:5,25,26
But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire…

images.

2 Kings 23:16
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.

Numbers 19:16,18
And whosoever toucheth one that is slain with a sword in the open fields, or a dead body, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days…

Jeremiah 8:1,2
At that time, saith the LORD, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves: …

Jump to Previous
Asherah Asherahs Asherim Ashe'rim Bits Bones Brake Broke Broken Columns Covered Cut Cutteth Filled Filleth Groves Human Images Josiah Pieces Pillars Places Poles rs Sacred Shrines Smashed Standing-Pillars Stone Stones Wood
Jump to Next
Asherah Asherahs Asherim Ashe'rim Bits Bones Brake Broke Broken Columns Covered Cut Cutteth Filled Filleth Groves Human Images Josiah Pieces Pillars Places Poles rs Sacred Shrines Smashed Standing-Pillars Stone Stones Wood
2 Kings 23
1. Josiah causes the book to be read in a solemn assembly.
3. He renews the covenant of the Lord.
4. He destroys idolatry.
15. He burns dead men's bones upon the altar of Bethel, as was prophesied.
21. He keeps a most solemn Passover.
24. He puts away witches and all abomination.
26. God's final wrath against Judah.
29. Josiah, provoking Pharaoh Neco, is slain at Megiddo.
31. Jehoahaz, succeeding him,
33. is imprisoned by Pharaoh Neco, who makes Jehoiakim king.
36. Jehoiakim's wicked reign.














(14) The images . . . the groves.--The pillars . . . the ash?rahs. These pillars and sacred trees may have been set up at the high places mentioned in the last verse; but the Hebrew construction does not prove this, for comp. 2Kings 23:10. The reference is probably general.

Their places.--Their place or station; a technical term for the position of an idol (the Heb. m?qom, equivalent to Sabaean maqamum. and Arabic muqam, which is still the common designation of holy sites in Palestine.

Verse 14. - And he brake in pieces the images - or, pillars (see the comment on 1 Kings 14:23) - and out down the groves - i.e. the asherirn, or "sacred trees" - and filled their places with the bones of men. Whatever spoke of death and dissolution was a special defilement to shrines where the gods worshipped were deities of productivity and generation. Bones of men had also the actual taint of corruption about them. The "uncleanness" of dead bodies arose first out of man's natural shrinking from death, and was then further confirmed by the horrors accompanying decay. The notion was probably coeval with death itself. It received a sanction from the Law, which made it a legal defilement to touch a corpse (Numbers 19:11, 16), and placed under a sentence of uncleanness all that was in the tent where a man died (Numbers 19:14, 15).

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
He smashed the sacred pillars
הַמַּצֵּב֔וֹת (ham·maṣ·ṣê·ḇō·wṯ)
Article | Noun - feminine plural
Strong's 4676: Something stationed, a column, an idol

to pieces,
וְשִׁבַּר֙ (wə·šib·bar)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Piel - Conjunctive perfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 7665: To break, break in pieces

cut down
וַיִּכְרֹ֖ת (way·yiḵ·rōṯ)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 3772: To cut, to destroy, consume, to covenant

the Asherah poles,
הָאֲשֵׁרִ֑ים (hā·’ă·šê·rîm)
Article | Noun - feminine plural
Strong's 842: A Phoenician goddess, also an image of the same

and covered
וַיְמַלֵּ֥א (way·mal·lê)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Piel - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 4390: To fill, be full of

the sites
מְקוֹמָ֖ם (mə·qō·w·mām)
Noun - masculine singular construct | third person masculine plural
Strong's 4725: A standing, a spot, a condition

with human
אָדָֽם׃ (’ā·ḏām)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 120: Ruddy, a human being

bones.
עַצְמ֥וֹת (‘aṣ·mō·wṯ)
Noun - feminine plural construct
Strong's 6106: A bone, the body, the substance, selfsame


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OT History: 2 Kings 23:14 He broke in pieces the pillars (2Ki iiKi ii ki 2 kg 2kg)
2 Kings 23:13
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