Bible Strands
2 Kings 23:12
He pulled down the altars that the kings of Judah had set up on the roof near the upper chamber of Ahaz, and the altars that Manasseh had set up in the two courtyards of the house of the LORD. The king pulverized them there and threw their dust into the Kidron Valley.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — King Josiah carries out a physical demolition of idolatrous altars during his centralized religious reform, acting immediately after burning sun-worship chariots and before defiling eastern high places.
The words — The text highlights `מִזְבְּחוֹת` (mizbeChot), meaning altars, and `גָּג` (gag), meaning roof. Josiah targets altars erected on the roof near Ahaz’s upper chamber and in the temple courtyards.
The thread — This demolition reverses Manasseh’s prior construction of identical altars in the temple courtyards (2 Kings 21:5). The defiled rooftops and courtyards parallel the judgment described in Jeremiah 19:13 and Zephaniah 1:5 regarding worship on roofs and in the houses of Judah.
Why it lands — The text demands the physical removal of compromised worship sites to restore the temple’s exclusive dedication to the LORD. It requires readers to recognize that idolatry contaminates sacred space and must be actively dismantled, not merely ignored.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- 2 Kings 21:5 In both courtyards of the house of the LORD, he built altars to all the host of heaven.
- Jeremiah 19:13 The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be defiled like that place, Topheth—all the houses on whose rooftops they burned incense to all the host of heaven and poured out drink offerings to other gods.”
- Zephaniah 1:5 those who bow on the rooftops to worship the host of heaven, those who bow down and swear by the LORD but also swear by Milcom,
- 2 Chronicles 33:5 In both courtyards of the house of the LORD, he built altars to all the host of heaven.
- Deuteronomy 22:8 If you build a new house, you are to construct a railing around your roof, so that you do not bring bloodguilt on your house if someone falls from it.
- 2 Kings 21:21 He walked in all the ways of his father, and he served and worshiped the idols his father had served.
- 2 Kings 23:4 Then the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, the priests second in rank, and the doorkeepers to remove from the temple of the LORD all the articles made for Baal, Asherah, and all the host of heaven. And he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron and carried their ashes to Bethel.
- 2 Kings 23:6 He brought the Asherah pole from the house of the LORD to the Kidron Valley outside Jerusalem, and there he burned it, ground it to powder, and threw its dust on the graves of the common people.
- 2 Chronicles 33:15 He removed the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the LORD, along with all the altars he had built on the temple mount and in Jerusalem, and he dumped them outside the city.