2 Kings 23:9, commentary and pictures

The priests who had served at the high places were shut out from ministering at the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, yet they were still permitted to eat unleavened bread among their fellow priests and remain within the priestly fellowship. They were priests of Jehovah who had corrupted His worship by offering incense in the high places. The verse belongs to Josiah's reform after the book of the law was found, when the Bible was read to the people, the covenant was renewed, repentance and reformation followed, and the Passover was kept as written. It was the greatest reformation in Hebrew history, in which every relic of idolatry was destroyed and its altars and sites defiled to purge Baal and Astarte worship, Asherah abominations, sodomy, Tophet and Molech, Chemosh, Milcom, Bethel calf worship, spiritism, and high-place incense, showing that a heart that has found the Bible will make no compromise with pagan worship but will uproot it entirely.

Meaning and Historical Setting

The priests who had served at the high places were not permitted to come up to officiate or serve at the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, yet they were allowed to eat of the unleavened bread among their brethren and remained part of the priestly community. Those degraded were priests of Jehovah who had corrupted His worship by offering incense in the high places. Those high places were altars of Baal and Ashteroth set on hills and mountains, because men had come to look upon mountains as protectors and deliverers and places of refuge, and the heathen gave that idea religious significance by placing there the polluting symbols of idolatrous worship.

The verse belongs to the history of Judah after the ten tribes had been swept away, within the final section of the books of Kings covering 2 Kings 18-25. It stands in the one bright chapter among the closing wicked and weak reigns of the kings of Judah. It belongs to the account of Josiah's reforms and revival after the book of the law was found, when the Bible was read to the people and the nation was moved toward repentance and reformation. Then the people renewed their covenant with God, and the Passover was kept according to the book. That reformation was conducted under the good king Josiah, who feared and served the true God, supported by his godly priests and counselors.

Josiah's reign was the last reign in Jerusalem that obeyed God's commandments and statutes, and its end is placed in 607 B.C. as the point after which the Jews no longer kept, and could no longer keep, release years or Jubilees. At that time the worship of Baal and Ashtoreth and the honor given to the sun had displaced the worship and honor of Jehovah. Although Josiah's reforms are recorded, they could not stop Judah's people from turning to sensual worship. The detail about the priests of the high places is part of the setting for the broader contrast between the idolatry in Josiah's day and the displacement of the worship of Jehovah in the present.

Reform Actions and Lessons

This belongs to the greatest reformation recorded in Hebrew history, in which every existing relic of idolatry was destroyed and idol altars and sites were defiled to purge at least ten forms of idolatry and iniquity polluting the Temple and the people, including worship of Baal and Astarte, Asherah abominations, sodomites, Tophet or Moloch, Chemosh of Moab, Milcom of Ammon, Bethel calf worship, consulting familiar spirits, and high-place incense. In that reform the images and places of idolatrous worship in Judah were destroyed, exposing the priests and images associated with worship of the sun, moon, constellations, and the host of heaven. Josiah led the reform himself while the high priest, chief priests, and Levites only followed, sweeping the land when he was twenty and again at twenty-six with new strength from the found Bible to break every relic of Baal and Ashtoreth into deformity.

He deposed the priests and servants of temples, chapels, and shrines through the land and thrust them penniless from office into the cold, overturning family and social arrangements fixed by more than half a century of idolatry, despite curses, small support, and pleas for beauty, art, liberality, and sentiment. The same zeal destroyed Solomon's four-hundred-year-old galleries for Chemosh and Molech on Olivet and defiled luxurious Tophet with its gardens, walks, bowers, fountains, villas, and shrine, turning its pride to disgrace as a symbol for all that is abominable and a synonym for hell. Whenever Israel was ruled by wicked, sensual kings the heathen hill worship was carried out throughout the realm and the people went after Baal and Ashteroth, but when a God-fearing king hewed down the hill groves of idolatry and overthrew the mountain altars the people learned righteousness and sought the true place of refuge.

The account stands as a precedent for eliminating pagan elements from worship and restoring true worship, showing that a heart that has found the Bible will have no compromise, plucks up root and fibre, sees danger where the blind feel secure, guards incipient evils, and crushes the serpent's eggs in zeal for God. It connects with 1 Kings 13, where Josiah fulfilled the prophecy of the man of God to Jeroboam, and though hundreds of years passed waiting for the fulfillment of that prophecy, at last it came just as the Lord declared it would.