Josiah removes cult objects, personnel, and sites

Vessels, priests, and the grove leave the house of the LORD

Josiah commands Hilkiah, the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the door to bring forth out of the temple all the vessels made for Baal, for the grove, and for all the host of heaven. He burns them in the fields of Kidron and carries the ashes to Bethel. He puts down the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places of Judah and around Jerusalem, and those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, moon, planets, and host of heaven.

He brings out the grove from the house of the LORD to the brook Kidron, burns it, stamps it to powder, and casts the powder upon the graves of the children of the people. He breaks down the houses of the qedeshim that were by the house of the LORD, where the women wove hangings for the grove. The KJV word 'sodomites' renders that disputed cultic-personnel term. It must not be used as a slur, and this scene must not be used to harm LGBTQ people or to police gender minorities.

High places, Topheth, sun horses, and older royal altars are defiled

He brings priests from the cities of Judah and defiles the high places from Geba to Beersheba. Those priests do not come up to the LORD's altar in Jerusalem; they eat unleavened bread among their brethren. He defiles Topheth in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no one might make a son or daughter pass through the fire to Molech. He takes away the horses given to the sun and burns the chariots of the sun. He beats down altars on Ahaz's upper chamber and altars Manasseh had made in the courts, and casts the dust into Kidron.

The high places before Jerusalem which Solomon had built for Ashtoreth, Chemosh, and Milcom he defiles. Images are broken, groves cut down, and their places filled with the bones of men. Ancient covenant reform here includes coercion, grave dust, and the treatment of sites and bodies. Many offices and KJV terms remain textually and archaeologically difficult. The account evaluates Judah's worship in its own history. It does not authorize attacks on living religious communities, houses of worship, graves, or people associated with condemned practices, and it is not a theocratic demolition program for a modern state.