2 Chronicles 34

2Ch 34:1, 2.

JOSIAH'S

GOOD

REIGN.

1. Josiah was eight years

old--(See on

2Ki 22:1).

The testimony borne to the undeviating steadfastness of his adherence

to the cause of true religion places his character and reign in

honorable contrast with those of many of his royal predecessors.

2Ch 34:3-7.

HE

DESTROYS

IDOLATRY.

3. in the eighth year of his reign--This was the sixteenth year of his

age, and, as the kings of Judah were considered minors till they had

completed their thirteenth year, it was three years after he had

attained majority. He had very early manifested the piety and excellent

dispositions of his character. In the twelfth year of his reign, but the

twentieth of his age, he began to take a lively interest in the

purgation of his kingdom from all the monuments of idolatry which, in

his father's short reign, had been erected. At a later period, his

increasing zeal for securing the purity of divine worship led him to

superintend the work of demolition in various parts of his dominion. The

course of the narrative in this passage is somewhat different from that

followed in the Book of Kings. For the historian, having made allusion

to the early manifestation of Josiah's zeal, goes on with a full detail

of all the measures this good king adopted for the extirpation of

idolatry; whereas the author of the Book of Kings sets out with the

cleansing of the temple, immediately previous to the celebration of the

passover, and embraces that occasion to give a general description of

Josiah's policy for freeing the land from idolatrous pollution. The

exact chronological order is not followed either in Kings or Chronicles.

But it is clearly recorded in both that the abolition of idolatry began

in the twelfth and was completed in the eighteenth year of Josiah's

reign. Notwithstanding Josiah's undoubted sincerity and zeal and the

people's apparent compliance with the king's orders, he could not

extinguish a strongly rooted attachment to idolatries introduced in the

early part of Manasseh's reign. This latent predilection appears

unmistakably developed in the subsequent reigns, and the divine decree

for the removal of Judah, as well as Israel, into captivity was

irrevocably passed.

4. the graves of them that had sacrificed unto them--He treated the

graves themselves as guilty of the crimes of those who were lying in

them [BERTHEAU].

5. he burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars--A greater

brand of infamy could not have been put on idolatrous priests than the

disinterment of their bones, and a greater defilement could not have

been done to the altars of idolatry than the burning upon them the

bones of those who had there officiated in their lifetime.

6. with their mattocks--or, "in their deserts"--so that the verse

will stand thus: "And so did [namely, break the altars and burn the

bones of priests] he in the cities of Manasseh, and Ephraim, and

Simeon, even unto Naphtali, in their deserted suburbs." The reader is

apt to be surprised on finding that Josiah, whose hereditary

possessions were confined to the kingdom of Judah, exercised as much

authority among the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, Simeon, and others as

far as Naphtali, as he did within his own dominion. Therefore, it is

necessary to observe that, after the destruction of Samaria by

Shalmaneser, the remnant that continued on the mountains of Israel

maintained a close intercourse with Judah, and looked to the sovereigns

of that kingdom as their natural protectors. Those kings acquired great

influence over them, which Josiah exercised in removing every vestige

of idolatry from the land. He could not have done this without the

acquiescence of the people in the propriety of this proceeding,

conscious that this was conformable to their ancient laws and

institutions. The Assyrian kings, who were now masters of the country,

might have been displeased at the liberties Josiah took beyond his own

territories. But either they were not informed of his doings, or they

did not trouble themselves about his religious proceedings, relating,

as they would think, to the god of the land, especially as he did not

attempt to seize upon any place or to disturb the allegiance of the

people [CALMET].

2Ch 34:8-18.

HE

REPAIRS THE

TEMPLE.

8. in the eighteenth year of his reign . . . he sent

Shaphan--(See on

2Ki 22:3-9).

2Ch 34:19-33.

AND,

CAUSING THE

LAW TO

BE

READ,

RENEWS THE

COVENANT BETWEEN

GOD AND THE

PEOPLE.

19. when the king had heard the words of the law, &c.--(See on

2Ki 22:11-20;

23:1-3).