2 Kings 23:13

He also commanded that the altars that King Solomon had built east of Jerusalem, south of Olive Tree Hill, be desecrated. Solomon had built them for the worship of the disgusting idols—the statue of the goddess Astarte worshiped by the people in Sidon city, Chemosh the god of the Moab people-group, and Molech the god of the Ammon people-group.

Translation for Translators

In The King James Version

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.

In Context

12Josiah also commanded his servants to tear down the altars that the previous kings of Judah had built on the roof of the palace, above the room where King Ahaz had stayed. They also tore down the altars that had been built by King Manasseh in the two courtyards outside the temple. He commanded that they be smashed to pieces and thrown down into the Kidron Valley.

14They also broke into pieces the stone pillars that the Israeli people worshiped, and cut down the pillars that honored the goddess Asherah, and they scattered the ground there with human bones to desecrate it.

Read all of 2 Kings 23

Cross References

Numbers 21:29You people of Moab, terrible things have happened to you! You people who worship your god Chemosh have been ◄annihilated/wiped out►! The men who worshiped [MET] Chemosh have run away and are now refugees, and the women who worshiped him have been captured by the army of Sihon, the king of the Amor people-group.

Judges 10:6Again the Israelis did things that Yahweh said were wrong/evil. They worshiped the idols of their god Baal and their goddess Astarte. They also worshiped the gods of the Aram, Sidon, Moab, and Ammon people-groups, and the gods of the Philistia people-group. They abandoned Yahweh and stopped worshiping him.

1 Samuel 7:4So the Israelis got rid of all their statues of the gods Baal and Astarte, and they worshiped only Yahweh.

1 Kings 11:5Solomon worshiped Astarte, the goddess that the people of Sidon worshiped, and he worshiped Molech, the disgusting god that the Ammon people-group worshiped.

1 Kings 11:33I am going to do this because Solomon has rejected me and has been worshiping Astarte, the goddess that the people of Sidon worship, Chemosh, the god that the Moab people-group worship, and Milcom, the god that the Ammon people-group worship. He has not conducted his life as I wanted him to. He has not obeyed my statutes and laws, like his father David did.

Jeremiah 48:7But you trusted that because you were rich and powerful, you would be safe; so you will be captured. The statue of your god Chemosh and all his priests and officials will be taken away to distant lands.

Matthew Henry on 2 Kings 23:5-25

Josiah Reforms Judah. ( b. c. 623.) 4 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 Beth-el. 5 And he put down the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

Study 2 Kings 23:13