23:16a And as Josiah turned,

Then Josiah turned

-or-

After that ⌊King⌋ Josiah turned and looked around.

23:16b he saw the tombs there on the hillside,

and saw the graves that were in the side of the hill.

-or-

He saw the caves/places on the hill where they had buried people/bodies.

23:16c and he sent someone to take the bones out of the tombs,

He sent ⌊his men⌋ to remove the bones.

-or-

Josiah ordered ⌊his servants⌋ to take the bones out.

23:16d and he burned them on the altar to defile it,

He told them to burn the bones on the altar ⌊there⌋ to make it unworthy for use.

-or-

Then he had them burn the bones on the place/table of sacrifice ⌊at Bethel⌋ so as to make it unholy/impure.

23:16e according to the word of the LORD

This happened according to the word of Yahweh

-or-

This was what Yahweh had said would happen.

23:16f proclaimed by the man of God who had foretold these things.

See 1 Kings 13:1-2, 32. Refer back to this prophecy using the same vocabulary used there.

that was spoken by the man of God who had predicted these things.

-or-

Long ago he had said this through his prophet/spokesman who had prophesied⌊ ⌋ that these things would happen.

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