And he tore down the cubicles of the male cult prostitutes which were in the house of the Lord, where the women were weaving hangings for the Asherah.
Parallel translations
- WEB He broke down the houses of the male shrine prostitutes that were in Yahweh’s house, where the women wove hangings for the Asherah.
- KJV And he brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were by the house of the LORD, where the women wove hangings for the grove.
- BSB He also tore down the quarters of the male shrine prostitutes that were in the house of the LORD, where the women had woven tapestries for Asherah.
- NKJV Then he tore down the ritual booths of the perverted persons that were in the house of the Lord, where the women wove hangings for the wooden image.
- NLT He also tore down the living quarters of the male and female shrine prostitutes that were inside the Temple of the Lord, where the women wove coverings for the Asherah pole.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Josiah tears down the houses of the cult prostitutes within the temple precincts. He uproots even the most degrading corruptions of true worship.
Overview
Ritual prostitution, tied to fertility cults, had defiled the very house of God, showing how deep Judah's apostasy ran. Josiah's removal of these practices restores the moral as well as ceremonial purity of worship. Scripture's call to flee sexual immorality and worship God in holiness finds its fulfillment in the gospel, which cleanses and sanctifies God's temple, the church (1 Cor. 6).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Ezek 16:16You took some of your garments, and made for yourselves high places decked with various colors, and played the prostitute on them. This shall not come, neither shall it be.
- 1 Kgs 15:12He put away the sodomites out of the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made.
- 1 Kgs 14:24There were also sodomites in the land. They did according to all the abominations of the nations which Yahweh drove out before the children of Israel.
- Exod 35:25–26All the women who were wise-hearted spun with their hands, and brought that which they had spun, the blue, the purple, the scarlet, and the fine linen.
- Hos 2:13I will visit on her the days of the Baals, to which she burned incense, when she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and went after her lovers, and forgot me,” says Yahweh.
- 2 Chr 34:33Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries that belonged to the children of Israel, and made all who were found in Israel to serve, even to serve Yahweh their God. All his days they didn’t depart from following Yahweh, the God of their fathers.
- Ezek 8:14Then he brought me to the door of the gate of Yahweh’s house which was toward the north; and I saw the women sit there weeping for Tammuz.
- Rom 1:26–27For this reason, God gave them up to vile passions. For their women changed the natural function into that which is against nature.
- Gen 19:4–5But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter.
- 1 Kgs 22:46The remnant of the sodomites, that remained in the days of his father Asa, he put away out of the land.
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Christ at the center
Amid the long decline toward exile, the promise to David's house refuses to die; the flickering lamp kept burning anticipates the coming King who will not fail or be cut off.
How 2 Kings 23:7 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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