2 Kings 23 - NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible
23:4 Kidron Valley. Lay to the east of the Old City of David, separating it from the Mount of Olives. It ran from north to south to join first the Tyropoeon Valley at the southern end of the city and then, farther on, the Hinnom Valley. The stream that ran through the valley, then, progressed southeast and emptied into the Dead Sea. Associated with idolatry since the time of Solomon (1Ki 11:7), the Kidron Valley became during Josiah’s reformation a convenient place to destroy cult objects, thus not only removing them from Jerusalem but also desecrating the valley itself as a religious site. Bethel. Jeroboam I had focused his new cult on Bethel and Dan (1Ki 12–13; see note on 1Ki 12:29), and this cult lived on in the activities of the new settlers in the land of Israel (cf. 2Ki 17:24–41). Most scholars identify Bethel with Tell Beitin. Josiah is here envisaged as seeking to reform worship both in Judah and in territory that had belonged to the northern kingdom of Israel (cf. 2Ch 34:3–7), which he now implicitly claims back as his own. It is certainly clear from a consideration of the political circumstances of the period that the opportunity existed from early in Josiah’s reign for increasing activity to the north of his capital. Ashurbanipal died around 630 BC, plunging the Assyrian Empire into an extended period of civil war and general strife, out of which the city of Babylon eventually emerged as the new imperial power in the east. Palestine was far from the center of events throughout the period, and after 630 BC Assyria was little interested in or capable of exercising effective control there. The major power in Syria and Palestine was increasingly Egypt, but there is no reason to think that in the midst of the many larger matters that concerned them, the Egyptians would have cared much about Josiah’s interest in the territory to his north that did not directly affect their interests. The evidence suggests, in fact, that Egyptian interest in Palestine in this period was limited to commerce and trade, and it did not extend to possession of territory as such—albeit they expected to be able to move troops through Palestine when they wished to do so (see note on v. 29).
23:7 male shrine prostitutes. See note on Dt 23:17–18. weaving for Asherah. This probably refers to the manufacture of ritual garments for worship of the goddess Asherah (cf. 10:22).
23:10 Topheth . . . the Valley of Ben Hinnom . . . Molek. The Hinnom Valley ran along the western and southern sides of ancient Jerusalem until it met the Kidron Valley, running from north to south. Like the Kidron Valley, it was associated with idolatry—in particular with the worship of Molek (see note on 1Ki 11:5). Topheth was apparently the cultic site where this worship was practiced, lying at the juncture of the Kidron and Hinnom Valleys near En Rogel.
23:11 horses . . . dedicated to the sun. On the worship of the starry host, including the sun, see note on 21:3. The practice of dedicating horses to the sun appears to have been distinctively Assyrian (by way of the Hurrian peoples of Mitanni in northern Mesopotamia and Syria in the second half of the second millennium BC), but is also known in Ugarit. The sun-god was thought to ride across the sky in a chariot drawn by horses. These horses may be dedicated to a foreign solar deity, or perhaps to a syncretistic version of Yahweh as a sun-god.
23:12 altars . . . on the roof. A text from Ugarit that describes the ritual for the annual celebration of the grape harvest at the temple of Baal in that city also mentions a king sacrificing at an altar on a roof (on this occasion, the roof of the Baal temple), in the context of the worship of Shapash, the female sun-god at Ugarit. The roof is a natural location for worshiping the starry host.
23:13 Hill of Corruption. Because it hosted the idolatrous altars here mentioned, the Mount of Olives is named the “Hill of Corruption.” The mountain was the central summit on a ridge of three running to the east of Jerusalem and the Kidron Valley. Ashtoreth. See note on 1Ki 11:5. Chemosh. The chief god of the Moabites, although he was already known in ancient Ebla in Syria (Tell Mardikh) as Kamish and is probably to be identified with the Mesopotamian deity Nergal, an underworld god associated with famine, drought, plague and death. Molek. See note on 1Ki 11:5.
23:14 human bones. It is possible that these were added to the refuse so that no one would disturb it, because of the taboo of coming into contact with dead bodies.
23:24 mediums and spiritists. See note on 2Ki 21:6. household gods. See the article “Household Gods.”
23:29 Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt went . . . to help the king of Assyria. After the death of Ashurbanipal of Assyria around 630 BC, Egypt gradually emerged as the major power in Syria-Palestine and indeed as the ally of Assyria in its struggle with Babylon, sending troops northward at least from 616 BC on to join with the Assyrians in battle. The campaign mentioned here took place in 609 BC, as Pharaoh Necho II marched north for what was apparently the last joint Assyrian-Egyptian engagement with the Babylonians (and their allies, the Medes). After this we no longer hear of the last Assyrian ruler, Ashur-Uballit II, who had set himself up as king in Harran after the fall of Nineveh in 612 BC and was now trying to retake Harran (with Necho’s help) from the Babylonians, who had captured it the previous year.
To accomplish the movement of troops to the north, the Egyptians needed effective control of the Coastal Highway, the international highway that ran from Egypt along the western coast of Palestine and then northeast via Megiddo and Damascus. The city of Megiddo controlled this highway as it entered the Jezreel Valley. Josiah’s decision to confront the Egyptian army there implies that he had captured Megiddo from either the Egyptians or the Assyrians prior to the battle.
The motives for Josiah’s intervention are not clear; perhaps he is attempting early in the reign of the new pharaoh (who had succeeded his father, Psammetichus, in 610 BC) to establish his independence from an increasingly powerful Egypt, hoping to benefit from being seen as taking the Babylonians’ side. If so, the attempt ends in disaster. Josiah is killed, and any limited independence that Judah may have had during the period of Assyrian decline in Syria-Palestine is now lost.
23:33 Riblah. Located in a wide plain about seven miles (11 kilometers) south of Kadesh on the eastern bank of the Orontes River. It was an ideal place for Necho and his army to encamp on their journey back from the unsuccessful siege of Harran in 609 BC. Shortly after Josiah’s death, the new king of Judah, Jehoahaz (also known as Shallum, 1Ch 3:15; Jer 22:11), was summoned to Necho’s headquarters at Riblah, removed from power, and subsequently imprisoned in Egypt.
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