2 Kings 23:12
“The king broke down the altars that were on the roof of the upper room of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of Yahweh’s house, and beat them down from there, and cast their dust into the brook Kidron.”
What does 2 Kings 23:12 mean?
King Josiah of Judah is clearing out religious practices that his ancestors had introduced—altars built on rooftops and in the temple courts that were used to worship foreign gods and heavenly bodies. By physically destroying these altars, breaking them into dust, and scattering that dust into the Kidron Brook, he's making a dramatic statement that these false worship practices are being completely rejected and removed from the land. This happened during Josiah's religious reforms, when he was trying to return Judah to the worship of God alone. The thorough destruction shows how seriously he took cleaning house—there's no keeping these altars around "just in case" or as historical artifacts.