He broke in pieces the pillars: If the pronoun reference here is unclear, he may be translated as “King Josiah” (Good News Translation).

The pillars refer to oblong objects made of stone which neighbors of the Israelites worshiped (Exo 23.23-24). See the comments at 1 Kgs 14.23. That these pillars were made of stone may be made explicit (so Good News Translation, Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje).

Cut down the Asherim: Asherim is the plural form of “Asherah” (1 Kgs 15.13). See the detailed comments at 1 Kgs 14.15. In this context the reference is to the carved wooden poles that were used to represent this Canaanite goddess. This goddess is not the same as “Ashtoreth” mentioned in the previous verse, but both Asherah and Ashtoreth are mentioned as partners of Baal in the Old Testament.

The worship of pillars and Asherim is forbidden in Deut 7.5 and 12.3. The rediscovery of the book of the Law made Josiah realize that this kind of worship was wrong and compelled him to destroy these objects of pagan worship. Similar action was also taken by Hezekiah in 2 Kgs 18.4.

Filled their places with the bones of men: Their places refers to the ground where the idols had stood before they were demolished.

Since the expression the bones of men refers not only to the bones of male human beings, this may be legitimately and more naturally rendered as “human bones” (Good News Translation, New Century Version) or “bones of human beings.” Since contact with a dead person was thought to make anything it touched impure (Num 19.11-13), this action was intended to make the places unfit for any religious purposes. Since this information may not be assumed in some cultures, it may be helpful to have a footnote, as in Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente, which states “with this action he wished to desecrate and profane the altars.” Contemporary English Version has a similar footnote: “This made the whole area unfit for the worship of any god.” Or, this information may be made explicit in the text itself, as in New Living Translation, which reads “Then he desecrated these places by scattering human bones over them.”

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Kings, Volume 2. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .