Bible Strands
2 Kings 23:14
He smashed the sacred pillars to pieces, cut down the Asherah poles, and covered the sites with human bones.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Josiah acts as king of Judah to desecrate the high places and foreign shrines built by Solomon and Jeroboam.
The words — וְשִׁבֵּר (ve.shiBer) means "and he broke" or "smashed," and הַמַּצֵּבוֹת (ha.maTzeVot) denotes the "sacred pillars" targeted for destruction.
The thread — This action directly enacts the demolition commands of Exodus 23:24 and Deuteronomy 7:5, while 2 Kings 23:16 shows the immediate continuation of disturbing tombs to complete the ritual defilement.
Why it lands — The text requires the physical destruction of idolatrous objects and the ritual contamination of their locations to eliminate syncretistic worship.
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 he brake in pieces the images, and cut down the groves, and filled their places with the bones of men.
Cross-references
- Exodus 23:24 You must not bow down to their gods or serve them or follow their practices. Instead, you are to demolish them and smash their sacred stones to pieces.
- 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.
- 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.
- Numbers 19:16 Anyone in the open field who touches someone who has been killed by the sword or has died of natural causes, or anyone who touches a human bone or a grave, will be unclean for seven days.
- Numbers 19:18 Then a man who is ceremonially clean is to take some hyssop, dip it in the water, and sprinkle the tent, all the furnishings, and the people who were there. He is also to sprinkle the one who touched a bone, a grave, or a person who has died or been slain.
- Numbers 33:52 you must drive out before you all the inhabitants of the land, destroy all their carved images and cast idols, and demolish all their high places.
- 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 Chronicles 34:3 In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, Josiah began to seek the God of his father David, and in the twelfth year he began to cleanse Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the Asherah poles, the carved idols, and the cast images.
- Jeremiah 8:1 “At that time,” declares the LORD, “the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of the officials, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the people of Jerusalem will be removed from their graves.
- Ezekiel 39:12 For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them in order to cleanse the land.