2 Kings 11:18

11:18 All the people of the land went and demolished ¹  the temple of Baal. They smashed its altars and idols ²  to bits. ³  They killed Mattan the priest of Baal in front of the altar. Jehoiada the priest ⁴  then placed guards at the Lord’s temple.

2 Kings 18:4

18:4 He eliminated the high places, smashed the sacred pillars to bits, and cut down the Asherah pole. ⁵  He also demolished the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for up to that time ⁶  the Israelites had been offering incense to it; it was called Nehushtan. ⁷ 

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¹ tn Or “tore down.”

² tn Or “images.”

³ tn The Hebrew construction translated “smashed…to bits” is emphatic. The adverbial infinitive absolute (הֵיטֵב [hetev], “well”) accompanying the Piel form of the verb שָׁבַר (shavar), “break,” suggests thorough demolition.

⁴ tn Heb “the priest.” Jehoiada’s name is added for clarification.

⁵ tn The term is singular in the MT but plural in the LXX and other ancient versions. It is also possible to regard the singular as a collective singular, especially in the context of other plural items.

sn Asherah was a leading deity of the Canaanite pantheon, wife/sister of El and goddess of fertility. She was commonly worshiped at shrines in or near groves of evergreen trees, or, failing that, at places marked by wooden poles. These were to be burned or cut down (Deut 12:3; 16:21; Judg 6:25, 28, 30; 2 Kgs 18:4).

⁶ tn Heb “until those days.”

⁷ tn In Hebrew the name sounds like the phrase נְחַשׁ הַנְּחֹשֶׁת (nÿkhash hannÿkhoshet), “bronze serpent.”