The Bible Study Podcast, episode 587. Today, the Bible Study podcast continues the study of the

Kings of Judah with Second Kings 23.

Welcome to the Bible Study podcast. I'm your host, Chris Christensen. We are wrapping up the study of Second Kings. We have three chapters left counting this week. From here, I'm not sure where we'll go. One suggestion has been the gospel of Mark, which apparently we have never covered. And then one of the other thoughts would be to continue on with some of the histories and go to Nehemiah, for instance.

Will we shall see?

2 Kings chapter 23, Josiah renews the covenant.

Then the king called together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem.

He went up to the temple of the Lord with the people of

Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests and the prophets, all the people from the least to the

greatest. He read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant, which had been found

in the temple of the Lord. The king stood by the pillar and renewed the covenant in the presence of the Lord,

to follow the Lord and keep his commands, statutes, and decrees,

and with all his heart and all his soul,

thus confirming the words of the covenant written in this book.

Then all the people pledged themselves to the covenant. The king ordered

Hilkaya the high priest, the priest next in rank, and the doorkeepers to remove from the temple

all the articles made for Baal and Ashera and all the starry hosts. He burned them outside Jerusalem

in the fields of Kidron Valley and took the ashes to Bethel.

He did away with the idolatrous priests appointed by the kings of Judah to burn incense

on the high places of the towns of Judah and on those around Jerusalem, those who burned incense

to Baal, to the sun and moon, to the constellations, and to all the starry hosts.

He took the Asherah pole from the Temple of the Lord to the Kidron Valley outside Jerusalem

and burned it there. He grounded to powder and scattered the dust over the graves of the common

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