A Canonical Reinterpretation of 2 Kings 23:26

Abstract This article examines the interpretive possibilities associated with 2 Kgs 23:26, with special attention to the key adverb אך (“but/nevertheless” and/or “surely/indeed”). Frank Moore Cross’s well-known double-redaction theory suggests that Josiah’s reform, as described in 2 Kgs 23, constituted the rhetorical climax of the preexilic text, which was subsequently updated by an exilic author who had come to view that reform as a failure. As a result, the books of 1 and 2 Kings preserve an irresolvable tension best explained as a matter of the text’s compositional diachrony. By contrast, the present article argues that the text’s palimpsestuous canonical form permits the reader to view Josiah’s purge as a typological success—an important signpost en route to the exilic judgment through which YHWH brings about Israel’s transformation of heart. Specifically, the key adverb’s asseverative-emphatic dimension and the strong, lexical correspondences between 2 Kgs 23 and 25 open the door to this intriguing possibility. The article concludes by identifying two areas of theological interpretation—the homiletical value of Josiah in 2 Kgs 23 and the significance of Jehoiachin’s release in 2 Kgs 25—where scholarly conversation on this topic might continue to develop.