Bible Strands
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.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Josiah acts on the hillside near Bethel immediately after dismantling Jeroboam’s altar and high place. He orders the removal and burning of bones from nearby graves to ritually defile the site.
The words — The Hebrew verb וַיִּפֶן (va.yi.fen) means “and he turned,” marking Josiah’s physical shift toward the graves. The noun הַקְּבָרִים (ha.qe.va.rim) translates literally as “the graves,” identifying the specific location containing the remains he later burns.
The thread — This event fulfills the earlier prophecy recorded in 1 Kings 13:1-3, where a man of God from Judah declared that a king named Josiah would burn human bones on the Bethel altar. The narrative connection is confirmed in 2 Kings 23:17 when Josiah asks about the monument and is told it belongs to that same prophet.
Why it lands — The text records Josiah executing a specific ritual act to defile a pagan altar by burning human bones on it. It demands the reader acknowledge that the destruction of idolatry requires deliberate, concrete action aligned with prior divine warning.
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 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.
Cross-references
- 1 Kings 13:1 Suddenly, as Jeroboam was standing beside the altar to burn incense, there came a man of God from Judah to Bethel by the word of the LORD.
- 1 Kings 13:32 for the message that he cried out by the word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel and against all the shrines on the high places in the cities of Samaria will surely come to pass.”
- Matthew 24:35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.
- John 10:35 If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and the Scripture cannot be broken—