2 Kings 23

2Ki 23:1-3.

JOSIAH

CAUSES THE

LAW TO

BE

READ.

1-3. the king sent, and they gathered unto him all the

elders--This pious and patriotic king, not content with the promise

of his own security, felt, after Huldah's response, an increased desire

to avert the threatened calamities from his kingdom and people. Knowing

the richness of the divine clemency and grace to the penitent, he

convened the elders of the people, and placing himself at their head,

accompanied by the collective body of the inhabitants, went in solemn

procession to the temple, where he ordered the book of the law to be

read to the assembled audience, and covenanted, with the unanimous

concurrence of his subjects, to adhere steadfastly to all the

commandments of the Lord. It was an occasion of solemn interest,

closely connected with a great national crisis, and the beautiful

example of piety in the highest quarter would exert a salutary

influence over all classes of the people in animating their devotions

and encouraging their return to the faith of their fathers.

2. he read in their ears--that is, "caused to be read."

3. all the people stood to the covenant--that is, they agreed to

the proposals made; they assented to what was required of them.

2Ki 23:4-28.

HE

DESTROYS

IDOLATRY.

4. the king commanded Hilkiah, &c.--that is, the high priest and

other priests, for there was not a variety of official gradations in

the temple.

all the vessels, &c.--the whole apparatus of idol-worship.

burned them without Jerusalem--The law required them to be consigned

to the flames

(De 7:25).

in the fields of Kidron--most probably that part of the valley of

Kidron, where lies Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives. It is a level,

spacious basin, abounding at present with plantations

[ROBINSON]. The

brook winds along the east and south of the city, the channel of which

is throughout a large portion of the year almost or wholly dry, except

after heavy rains, when it suddenly swells and overflows. There were

emptied all the impurities of the temple

(2Ch 29:15, 16)

and the city. His reforming predecessors had ordered the mutilated

relics of idolatry to be thrown into that receptacle of filth

(1Ki 15:13;

2Ch 15:16; 30:14);

but Josiah, while he imitated their piety, far outstripped them in

zeal; for he caused the ashes of the burnt wood and the fragments of

the broken metal to be collected and conveyed to Beth-el, in order

thenceforth to associate ideas of horror and aversion with that place,

as odious for the worst pollutions.

5. put down the idolatrous priests--Hebrew, chemarim, "scorched,"

that is, Guebres, or fire-worshippers, distinguished by a girdle

(Eze 23:14-17)

or belt of wool and camel's hair, twisted round the body twice and tied

with four knots, which had a symbolic meaning, and made it a supposed

defense against evil.

them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the

moon, &c.--or Baal-shemesh, for Baal was sometimes considered the sun.

This form of false worship was not by images, but pure star-worship,

borrowed from the old Assyrians.

and--rather, "even to all the host of heaven."

6. brought out the grove--that is, Asherah, the mystic tree, placed

[2Ki 21:5;

2Ch 33:5],

removed by him after his conversion

[2Ch 33:15],

but replaced in the sanctuary by his wicked son Amon

[2Ki 21:20, 21].

Josiah had it taken to Kidron, burnt the wood, ground the metal about

it to powder, and strewed the ashes "on the graves of the children of

the people." The poor were buried in a common on part of the valley of

Kidron. But reference is here made to the graves "of those that had

sacrificed"

(2Ch 34:4).

7. brake down the houses of the sodomites--not solid houses, but

tents, called elsewhere

[2Ki 17:30]

Succoth-benoth, "the booths of the young women," who were

devoted to the service of Asherah, for which they made embroidered

hangings, and in which they gave themselves to unbridled revelry and

lust. Or the hangings might be for Asherah itself, as it is a popular

superstition in the East to hang pieces of cloth on trees.

8, 9. he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and

defiled the high places, &c.--Many of the Levitical order, finding

in the reigns of Manasseh and Amon the temple-worship abolished and the

tithes and other offerings alienated, had been betrayed into the folly

of officiating on high places, and presenting such sacrifices as were

brought to them. These irregularities, even though the object of that

worship was the true God, were prohibited in the law

(De 12:11).

Those who had been guilty of this sin, Josiah brought to Jerusalem.

Regarding them as defiled, he debarred them from the service of the

temple, but gave them an allowance out of the temple revenues, like the

lame and disabled members of the priesthood

(Le 21:21, 22).

from Geba to to Beer-sheba--the most northern and the most southern

places in Judah--meaning all parts of the kingdom.

the high places . . . which were in the entering in of the gate of

Joshua--The governor's house and gate were on the left of the city

gate, and close by the entrance of that civic mansion house were public

altars, dedicated, it might be, to the true God, but contrary to His

own ordinance of worship

(Isa 57:8).

10. Topheth--so called from Toph--a "drum." It is the prevailing

opinion among Jewish writers that the cries of the terrified children

made to pass through the fire in that place of idolatrous horror were

drowned by the sound of that instrument.

11. took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the

sun--Among the people who anciently worshipped the sun, horses

were usually dedicated to that divinity, from the supposed idea that

the sun himself was drawn in a chariot by horses. In some cases these

horses were sacrificed; but more commonly they were employed either in

the sacred processions to carry the images of the sun, or for the

worshippers to ride in every morning to welcome his rise. It seems that

the idolatrous kings, Ahaz, Manasseh, and Amon, or their great

officers, proceeded on these horses early on each day from the east

gate of the temple to salute and worship the sun at his appearing above

the horizon.

12. the altars that were on the top of the upper chamber of

Ahaz--Altars were reared on the flat roofs of houses, where the

worshippers of "the host of heaven" burnt incense

(Zep 1:5;

Jer 19:13).

Ahaz had reared altars for this purpose on the oleah, or upper

chamber of his palace, and Manasseh on some portion of the roof of the

temple. Josiah demolished both of these structures.

13, 14. the high places . . . which Solomon . . . had

builded--(See on

1Ki 11:5).

the right hand of the mount of corruption--The Mount of Olives is a

hilly range on the east of Jerusalem. This range has three summits, of

which the central one is the Mount of Corruption, so called from the

idol temples built there, and of course the hill on the right hand

denotes the southernmost peak. Josiah is said not to have destroyed, but

only defiled, "the high places on the hill of corruption." It is most

probable that Hezekiah had long before demolished the idolatrous

temples erected there by Solomon but, as the superstitious people

continued to regard the spot as consecrated ground, Josiah defiled it.

14. filled their places with the bones of men--Every monument of

idolatry in his dominion he in like manner destroyed, and the places

where they stood he defiled by strewing them with dead men's bones. The

presence of a dead carcass rendered both persons and places unclean in

the eyes both of Jews and heathens.

15-20. Moreover the altar that was at Beth-el, &c.--Not satisfied with

the removal of every vestige of idolatry from his own dominion, this

zealous iconoclast made a tour of inspection through the cities of

Samaria and all the territory formerly occupied by the ten tribes,

destroying the altars and temples of the high places, consigning the

Asherim to the flames, putting to death the priests of the high places,

and showing his horror at idolatry by ransacking the sepulchers of

idolatrous priests, and strewing the burnt ashes of their bones upon

the altars before he demolished them.

16. according to the word of the Lord which the man of God

proclaimed, &c.--In carrying on these proceedings, Josiah was

prompted by his own intense hatred of idolatry. But it is remarkable

that this act was predicted three hundred twenty-six years before his

birth, and his name also was expressly mentioned, as well as the very

place where it should be done

(1Ki 13:2).

This is one of the most most remarkable prophecies in the Bible.

17. What title is that that I see?--The king's attention probably,

had been arrested by a tombstone more conspicuous than the rest around

it, bearing on an inscription the name of him that lay beneath; and

this prompted his curiosity to make the inquiry.

the men of the city--not the Assyrian colonists--for they could

know nothing about the ancient transactions of the place--but some of

the old people who had been allowed to remain, and perhaps the tomb

itself might not then have been discoverable, through the effects of

time and neglect, had not some "Old Mortality" garnished the sepulcher

of the righteous.

21-23. the king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the passover

unto the Lord your God, &c.--It was observed with great solemnity and

was attended not only by his own subjects, but by the remnant people

from Israel

(see on

2Ch 35:1-19).

Many of the Israelites who were at Jerusalem might have heard

of, if they did not hear, the law read by Josiah. It is

probable that they might even have procured a copy of the law,

stimulated as they were to the better observance of Jehovah's worship

26. Notwithstanding, the Lord turned not from the fierceness of his

wrath,--&c. The national reformation which Josiah carried on was

acquiesced in by the people from submission to the royal will; but they

entertained a secret and strong hankering after the suppressed

idolatries. Though outwardly purified, their hearts were not right

towards God, as appears from many passages of the prophetic writings;

their thorough reform was hopeless; and God, who saw no sign of genuine

repentance, allowed His decree

(2Ki 21:12-15)

for the subversion of the kingdom to take fatal effect.

29. In his days Pharaoh-nechoh--(See

2Ch 35:20-27).