7:17 Now the king had placed the officer who was his right-hand man 1 at the city gate. When the people rushed out, they trampled him to death in the gate. 2 This fulfilled the prophet’s word which he had spoken when the king tried to arrest him. 3
23:8 He brought all the priests from the cities of Judah and ruined 7 the high places where the priests had offered sacrifices, from Geba to Beer Sheba. 8 He tore down the high place of the goat idols 9 situated at the entrance of the gate of Joshua, the city official, on the left side of the city gate.
1 tn Heb “the officer on whose hand he leans.”
2 tn Heb “and the people trampled him in the gate and he died.”
3 tn Heb “just as the man of God had spoken, [the word] which he spoke when the king came down to him.”
4 tc The MT has the plural form of the verb, but the final vav (ו) is virtually dittographic. The word that immediately follows in the Hebrew text begins with a yod (י). The form should be emended to the singular, which is consistent in number with the verb (“he broke down”) that follows.
5 tn Heb “came to.”
6 tn Heb “four hundred cubits.” The standard cubit in the OT is assumed by most authorities to be about eighteen inches (45 cm) long.
7 tn Heb “defiled; desecrated,” that is, “made ritually unclean and unusable.”
8 sn These towns marked Judah’s northern and southern borders, respectively, at the time of Josiah.
9 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 hashÿ’arim), “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.