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2 Kings 23:8-10
New English Translation
2 Kings 23:8-10
New English Translation
8 He brought all the priests from the cities of Judah and ruined[a] the high places where the priests had offered sacrifices, from Geba to Beer Sheba.[b] He tore down the high place of the goat idols[c] situated at the entrance of the gate of Joshua, the city official, on the left side of the city gate. 9 (Now the priests of the high places did not go up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, but they did eat unleavened cakes among their fellow priests.)[d] 10 The king[e] ruined Topheth in the Valley of Ben Hinnom so that no one could pass his son or his daughter through the fire to Molech.[f]
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- 2 Kings 23:8 tn Heb “defiled; desecrated,” that is, “made ritually unclean and unusable.”
- 2 Kings 23:8 sn These towns marked Judah’s northern and southern borders, respectively, at the time of Josiah.
- 2 Kings 23:8 tc The Hebrew text reads “the high places of the gates,” which is problematic in that the rest of the verse speaks of a specific gate. The translation assumes an emendation to בָּמוֹת הַשְּׁעָרִים (bamot hasheʿarim), “the high place of the goats” (that is, goat idols). Worship of such images is referred to in Lev 17:7 and 2 Chr 11:15. For a discussion of the textual issue, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 286-87.
- 2 Kings 23:9 tn Heb “their brothers.”
- 2 Kings 23:10 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
- 2 Kings 23:10 sn Attempts to identify this deity with a god known from the ancient Near East have not yet yielded a consensus. For brief discussions see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor II Kings (AB), 288 and HALOT 592 s.v. מֹלֶךְ. For more extensive studies see George C. Heider, The Cult of Molek, and John Day, Molech: A God of Human Sacrifice in the Old Testament.
New English Translation (NET)
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