Useful Bible Studies > 2 Kings Commentary > chapter 23

The priests of false gods at the high places

2 Kings 23:5

God’s law directed that only men from the family of Aaron, Moses’ brother, should serve as Israel’s priests (Exodus 40:12-16). They must carry out the public acts of religion only at the temple, God’s house in Jerusalem (Deuteronomy 12:5-14).

However, in fact, Judah’s people had many different places that they used for religion. We call these ‘the high places’ because many of them were in the hills. In some of these high places, priests from Aaron’s family were serving the true God. We will read in 2 Kings 23:8-9 what Josiah did about those priests.

However, at many or most of the high places, the people served false gods and they followed wrong religions. They appointed their own priests to serve there, who were not from the family of Aaron. It is these priests that the author refers to in 2 Kings 23:5. In the Hebrew language, the author uses a different word for these wrong priests; it is not the same word that he uses elsewhere in his book.

The principal religion of these wrong priests seems to have been the religion of the false god Baal. However, at this time in history, it became popular in many nations to pray to the sun, moon and stars. These priests tried to combine these religions. Previously, the people considered Baal to be like a bull, the strong male farm animal. Now the priests declared him, as their principal god, to be the god of the sun. Similarly, they declared Baal’s wife, Asherah, to be the god of the moon. So, they changed their false gods, from agricultural gods, into gods of the heavens or skies.

Josiah acted against these false religions. He destroyed the high places that these wrong priests considered holy. He would not allow these priests to continue to lead the people away from the true God. Probably, the verse means that Josiah ordered their deaths.

Next part: Wrong religions at God's temple (2 Kings 23:6-7)

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