2 Reis 23
Nova Versão Internacional
Josias Renova a Aliança
23 Depois disso, o rei convocou todas as autoridades de Judá e de Jerusalém. 2 Em seguida o rei subiu ao templo do Senhor acompanhado por todos os homens de Judá, todo o povo de Jerusalém, os sacerdotes e os profetas; todo o povo, dos mais simples aos mais importantes[a]. Para todos o rei leu em alta voz todas as palavras do Livro da Aliança que havia sido encontrado no templo do Senhor. 3 O rei colocou-se junto à coluna real e, na presença do Senhor, fez uma aliança, comprometendo-se a seguir o Senhor e a obedecer de todo o coração e de toda a alma aos seus mandamentos, aos seus preceitos e aos seus decretos, confirmando assim as palavras da aliança escritas naquele livro. Então todo o povo se comprometeu com a aliança.
4 O rei deu ordens ao sumo sacerdote Hilquias, aos sacerdotes auxiliares e aos guardas das portas que retirassem do templo do Senhor todos os utensílios feitos para Baal e Aserá e para todos os exércitos celestes. Ele os queimou fora de Jerusalém, nos campos do vale de Cedrom e levou as cinzas para Betel. 5 E eliminou os sacerdotes pagãos nomeados pelos reis de Judá para queimarem incenso nos altares idólatras das cidades de Judá e dos arredores de Jerusalém, aqueles que queimavam incenso a Baal, ao sol e à lua, às constelações e a todos os exércitos celestes. 6 Também mandou levar o poste sagrado do templo do Senhor para o vale de Cedrom, fora de Jerusalém, para ser queimado e reduzido a cinzas, que foram espalhadas sobre os túmulos de um cemitério público. 7 Também derrubou as acomodações dos prostitutos cultuais, que ficavam no templo do Senhor, onde as mulheres teciam para Aserá.
8 Josias trouxe todos os sacerdotes das cidades de Judá e, desde Geba até Berseba, profanou os altares onde os sacerdotes haviam queimado incenso. Derrubou os altares idólatras junto às portas, inclusive o altar da entrada da porta de Josué, o governador da cidade, que fica à esquerda da porta da cidade. 9 Embora os sacerdotes dos altares não servissem no altar do Senhor em Jerusalém, comiam pães sem fermento junto com os sacerdotes, seus colegas.
10 Também profanou Tofete, que ficava no vale de Ben-Hinom, de modo que ninguém mais pudesse usá-lo para sacrificar seu filho ou sua filha a Moloque.[b] 11 Acabou com os cavalos, que os reis de Judá tinham consagrado ao sol, e que ficavam na entrada do templo do Senhor, perto da sala de um oficial chamado Natã-Meleque. Também queimou as carruagens consagradas ao sol.
12 Derrubou os altares que os seus antecessores haviam erguido no terraço, em cima do quarto superior de Acaz, e os altares que Manassés havia construído nos dois pátios do templo do Senhor. Retirou-os dali, despedaçou-os e atirou o entulho no vale de Cedrom. 13 O rei também profanou os altares que ficavam a leste de Jerusalém, ao sul do monte da Destruição[c], os quais Salomão, rei de Israel, havia construído para Astarote, a detestável deusa dos sidônios, para Camos, o detestável deus de Moabe, e para Moloque, o detestável deus do povo de Amom. 14 Josias despedaçou as colunas sagradas, derrubou os postes sagrados e cobriu os locais com ossos humanos.
15 Até o altar de Betel, o altar idólatra edificado por Jeroboão, filho de Nebate, que levou Israel a pecar; até aquele altar e o seu santuário ele os demoliu. Queimou o santuário e o reduziu a pó, queimando também o poste sagrado. 16 Quando Josias olhou em volta e viu os túmulos que havia na encosta da colina, mandou retirar os ossos dos túmulos e queimá-los no altar a fim de contaminá-lo, conforme a palavra do Senhor proclamada pelo homem de Deus que predisse essas coisas.
17 O rei perguntou: “Que monumento é este que estou vendo?”
Os homens da cidade disseram: “É o túmulo do homem de Deus que veio de Judá e proclamou estas coisas que tu fizeste ao altar de Betel”.
18 Então ele disse: “Deixem-no em paz. Ninguém toque nos seus ossos”. Assim pouparam seus ossos bem como os do profeta que tinha vindo de Samaria.
19 Como havia feito em Betel, Josias tirou e profanou todos os santuários idólatras que os reis de Israel haviam construído nas cidades de Samaria e que provocaram a ira do Senhor. 20 Josias também mandou sacrificar todos os sacerdotes daqueles altares idólatras e queimou ossos humanos sobre os altares. Depois voltou a Jerusalém.
21 Então o rei deu a seguinte ordem a todo o povo: “Celebrem a Páscoa ao Senhor, o seu Deus, conforme está escrito neste Livro da Aliança”. 22 Nem nos dias dos juízes que lideraram Israel, nem durante todos os dias dos reis de Israel e dos reis de Judá, foi celebrada uma Páscoa como esta. 23 Mas no décimo oitavo ano do reinado de Josias, esta Páscoa foi celebrada ao Senhor em Jerusalém.
24 Além disso, Josias eliminou os médiuns, os que consultavam espíritos, os ídolos da família, os outros ídolos e todas as outras coisas repugnantes que havia em Judá e em Jerusalém. Ele fez isto para cumprir as exigências da Lei escritas no livro que o sacerdote Hilquias havia descoberto no templo do Senhor. 25 Nem antes nem depois de Josias houve um rei como ele, que se voltasse para o Senhor de todo o coração, de toda a alma e de todas as suas forças, de acordo com toda a Lei de Moisés.
26 Entretanto, o Senhor manteve o furor de sua grande ira, que se acendeu contra Judá por causa de tudo o que Manassés fizera para provocar a sua ira. 27 Por isso o Senhor disse: “Também retirarei Judá da minha presença, tal como retirei Israel, e rejeitarei Jerusalém, a cidade que escolhi, e este templo, do qual eu disse: ‘Ali porei o meu nome’ ”.
28 Os demais acontecimentos do reinado de Josias e todas as suas realizações estão escritos no livro dos registros históricos dos reis de Judá.
29 Durante o seu reinado, o faraó Neco, rei do Egito, avançou até o rio Eufrates ao encontro do rei da Assíria. O rei Josias marchou para combatê-lo, mas o faraó Neco o enfrentou e o matou em Megido. 30 Os oficiais de Josias levaram o seu corpo de Megido para Jerusalém e o sepultaram em seu próprio túmulo. O povo tomou Jeoacaz, filho de Josias, ungiu-o e o proclamou rei no lugar de seu pai.
O Reinado de Jeoacaz, Rei de Judá
31 Jeoacaz tinha vinte e três anos de idade quando começou a reinar, e reinou três meses em Jerusalém. O nome de sua mãe era Hamutal, filha de Jeremias; ela era de Libna. 32 Ele fez o que o Senhor reprova, tal como os seus antepassados. 33 O faraó Neco o prendeu em Ribla, na terra de Hamate,[d] de modo que não mais reinou em Jerusalém. O faraó também impôs a Judá um tributo de três toneladas e meia[e] de prata e trinta e cinco quilos de ouro. 34 Colocou Eliaquim, filho de Josias, como rei no lugar do seu pai Josias, e mudou o nome de Eliaquim para Jeoaquim. Mas levou Jeoacaz consigo para o Egito, onde ele morreu. 35 Jeoaquim pagou ao faraó Neco a prata e o ouro. Mas, para cumprir as exigências do faraó, Jeoaquim impôs tributos ao povo, cobrando a prata e o ouro de cada um conforme suas posses.
O Reinado de Jeoaquim, Rei de Judá
36 Jeoaquim tinha vinte e cinco anos de idade quando começou a reinar, e reinou onze anos em Jerusalém. O nome de sua mãe era Zebida, filha de Pedaías; ela era de Ruma. 37 Ele fez o que o Senhor reprova, tal como os seus antepassados.
2 Kings 23
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Chapter 23
1 The king then had all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem summoned before him. 2 The king went up to the house of the Lord with all the people of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem: priests, prophets, and all the people, great and small. He read aloud to them all the words of the book of the covenant that had been found in the house of the Lord.(A) 3 The king stood by the column and made a covenant in the presence of the Lord to follow the Lord and to observe his commandments, statutes, and decrees with his whole heart and soul, and to re-establish the words of the covenant written in this book. And all the people stood by the covenant.
Josiah’s Religious Reform. 4 Then the king commanded the high priest Hilkiah, his assistant priests, and the doorkeepers to remove from the temple of the Lord all the objects that had been made for Baal, Asherah, and the whole host of heaven. These he burned outside Jerusalem on the slopes of the Kidron; their ashes were carried to Bethel.(B) 5 He also put an end to the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed to burn incense on the high places in the cities of Judah and in the vicinity of Jerusalem, as well as those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, moon, and signs of the zodiac, and to the whole host of heaven.(C) 6 From the house of the Lord he also removed the Asherah to the Wadi Kidron, outside Jerusalem; he burned it and beat it to dust, in the Wadi Kidron, and scattered its dust over the graveyard of the people of the land.[a](D) 7 He tore down the apartments of the cult prostitutes in the house of the Lord, where the women wove garments for the Asherah.(E) 8 He brought in all the priests from the cities of Judah, and then defiled, from Geba to Beer-sheba, the high places where they had offered incense. He also tore down the high places of the gates, which were at the entrance of the Gate of Joshua, governor of the city, north of the city gate. 9 (The priests of the high places could not function at the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem; but they, along with their relatives, ate the unleavened bread.)
10 The king also defiled Topheth in the Valley of Ben-hinnom, so that there would no longer be any immolation of sons or daughters by fire[b] in honor of Molech.(F) 11 He did away with the horses which the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun; these were at the entrance of the house of the Lord, near the chamber of Nathan-melech the official, which was in the large building. The chariots of the sun he destroyed by fire. 12 He also demolished the altars made by the kings of Judah on the roof (the roof terrace of Ahaz), and the altars made by Manasseh in the two courts of the Lord’s house. He pulverized them and threw the dust into the Wadi Kidron.(G) 13 The king defiled the high places east of Jerusalem, south of the Mount of the Destroyer,[c] which Solomon, king of Israel, had built in honor of Astarte, the Sidonian horror, of Chemosh, the Moabite horror, and of Milcom, the Ammonites’ abomination.(H) 14 He broke to pieces the pillars, cut down the asherahs, and filled the places where they had been with human bones.(I)
15 Likewise the altar which was at Bethel, the high place built by Jeroboam, son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin—this same altar and high place he tore down and burned, grinding the high place to powder and burning the asherah.(J) 16 When Josiah turned and saw the graves there on the mountainside, he ordered the bones taken from the graves and burned on the altar, and thus defiled it, according to the Lord’s word proclaimed by the man of God as Jeroboam stood by the altar on the feast day. When the king looked up and saw the grave of the man of God who had proclaimed these words, 17 he asked, “What is that marker I see?” The people of the city replied, “The grave of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed the very things you have done to the altar in Bethel.” 18 “Let him be,” he said, “let no one move his bones.” So they left his bones undisturbed together with the bones of the prophet who had come from Samaria.[d] 19 Josiah also removed all the temples on the high places in the cities of Samaria which the kings of Israel had built, provoking the Lord; he did the very same to them as he had done in Bethel. 20 He slaughtered upon the altars all the priests of the high places that were there, and burned human bones upon them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.
21 The king issued a command to all the people: “Observe the Passover of the Lord, your God, as it is written in this book of the covenant.”(K) 22 No Passover such as this had been observed during the period when the judges ruled Israel, or during the entire period of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah, 23 until the eighteenth year of King Josiah, when this Passover of the Lord was kept in Jerusalem.
24 Further, Josiah purged the consultation of ghosts and spirits, with the household gods, idols,[e] and all the other horrors to be seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, so that he might carry out the words of the law that were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest had found in the house of the Lord.(L)
25 Before him there had been no king who turned to the Lord as he did, with his whole heart, his whole being, and his whole strength, in accord with the entire law of Moses; nor did any king like him arise after him.(M) 26 Yet the Lord did not turn from his fiercely burning anger against Judah, because of all the provocations that Manasseh had given. 27 The Lord said: Even Judah will I put out of my sight as I did Israel. I will reject this city, Jerusalem, which I chose, and the house of which I said: There shall my name be.
28 The rest of the acts of Josiah, with all that he did, are recorded in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah. 29 In his time Pharaoh Neco, king of Egypt, went up toward the Euphrates River against the king of Assyria.[f] King Josiah set out to meet him, but was slain at Megiddo at the first encounter. 30 His servants brought his body on a chariot from Megiddo to Jerusalem, where they buried him in his own grave. Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz, son of Josiah, anointed him, and proclaimed him king to succeed his father.
Reign of Jehoahaz. 31 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal, daughter of Jeremiah, from Libnah.(N)
32 He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, just as his ancestors had done. 33 Pharaoh Neco took him prisoner at Riblah in the land of Hamath, thus ending his reign in Jerusalem. He imposed a fine upon the land of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.[g] 34 Pharaoh Neco then made Eliakim, son of Josiah, king in place of Josiah his father; he changed his name to Jehoiakim. Jehoahaz he took away with him to Egypt, where he died. 35 Jehoiakim gave the silver and gold to Pharaoh, but taxed the land to raise the amount Pharaoh demanded. He exacted the silver and gold from the people of the land, from each proportionately, to pay Pharaoh Neco.
Reign of Jehoiakim. 36 Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zebidah, daughter of Pedaiah, from Rumah.
37 He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, just as his ancestors had done.
Footnotes
- 23:6 People of the land: see note on 11:14.
- 23:10 Topheth…by fire: Topheth was a cultic site probably in the Hinnom Valley just west of Jerusalem where, apparently, children were immolated to the deity Molech (Hebrew melek, “king,” deformed in the biblical tradition to “Molech”). The practice was condemned by Deuteronomic law and denounced by Jeremiah (Dt 12:31; Jer 7:29–31). In Jer 19 the deity is identified as the Canaanite god Baal.
- 23:13 Mount of the Destroyer: the name of the mountain in Hebrew is a wordplay. “The Mount of the mashchit” means “the Mount of the Destroyer” or perhaps “the Mount of Destruction.” The word plays on mishchah, “anointment,” and on mashiach, “anointed one,” both of which are references to the ceremony that consecrated the king. The mountain in question was the Mount of Olives, whose trees produced oil for the royal anointing. In the present context, both sides of the wordplay allude to Solomon, the anointed king (mashiach), whose building of non-Yahwistic shrines on this very mountain resulted in the destruction (mashchit) of the Davidic realm (see 1 Kgs 11:4–13). Horror…abomination: all three idols are described with pejorative terms.
- 23:18 From Samaria: an anachronistic use of the name of the later capital city for the whole region. The prophet was from Bethel; cf. 1 Kgs 13:11.
- 23:24 Household gods, idols: teraphim. See note on Gn 31:19.
- 23:29 Against the king of Assyria: the narrator depicts Neco’s advance as an attack on Assyrian forces. The Babylonian record of the event, however, implies that Neco intended to support the remnant of Assyrian forces against a Babylonian onslaught in order to prop up a buffer state between Egypt and Babylon and assure Egyptian control of the Syro-Palestinian region.
- 23:33 A talent of gold: unless the fine imposed was a mere token, this figure seems too low; cf. 18:14. A number may have dropped from the Hebrew text; various ancient translations read “ten” or “one hundred” here.
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