2 Chronicles 34:6

And so did he in the cities of Manasseh, and Ephraim, and Simeon, even unto Naphtali,.... Which though they belonged to the ten tribes, yet these being carried captive by the king of Assyria, they

And so did he in the cities of Manasseh, and Ephraim, and Simeon, even unto Naphtali, with their mattocks round about.

Even unto Naphtali; which was in the utmost and northern borders of the kingdom of Israel. For it must be remembered that the ten tribes were now gone into captivity; and those who were come in their stead were weak and few, and not able to withstand the power of Josiah.

2 Chronicles 34:6 And [so did he] in the cities of Manasseh, and Ephraim, and Simeon, even unto Naphtali, with their mattocks round about.Ver. 6. And so did he in the cities of Manasseh.] Wherever he had to do; and in all places else where he could come; so great was his zeal, so diffusive his charity.

(6) And so did he in the cities . . . unto Naphtali.—Sec 2 Kings 23:15; 2 Kings 23:19, according to which Josiah destroyed the sanctuary of Bethel, and the high places “in the cities of Samaria,” i.e., the northern kingdom. Simeon is again mentioned somewhat strangely, as in 2 Chronicles 15:9, no doubt because Beersheba, a famous sanctuary within its territory, was a place of pilgrimage for the northern tribes. Manasseh and Ephraim, i.e., the northern kingdom, as in 2 Chronicles 31:1; Isaiah 9:21. With their mattocks.—Rather, in their ruins; reading behorbuthκhem, instead of behorbτthκhem, which means “with their swords.” (Comp. Ezekiel 26:9.) The phrase qualifies the word “cities.” The cities of Israel had been ruined by the Assyrians, Sargon. and Shalmaneser, the latter of whom took Samaria, after a three years’ siege, and carried the people captive to Assyria, in 721 B.C., replacing them by foreign colonists. This explains how it was that Josiah was able to desecrate the northern sanctuaries, and slay their priests (2 Kings 23:20). The ordinary Hebrew text divides the word thus: behar bϋtthκhem, so as to suggest the reading behar bϋtthκhem, “in the hill of their houses.” The LXX. has “in their places round about”; the Vulg. omits the phrase; and the Syriac reads “in their streets around.” The whole verse should be connected with 2 Chronicles 34:7, thus: “And in the cities of Manasseh and Ephraim and Simeon, even unto Naphtali, to wit, in their ruins round about, he pulled down the altars and the Asherim; and the carven images he dashed into pieces unto pulverising.” Hedaq is an unusual form of the infinitive, not a perfect, as Bertheau supposes.

Verse 6. The cities of Manasseh] Even those who were under the government of the Israelitish king permitted their idols and places of idolatry to be hewn down and destroyed: after the truth was declared and acknowledged, the spade and the axe were employed to complete the reformation.

6. Simeon] Here as in 2 Chronicles 15:9 regarded as belonging to the Northern tribes, but their cities were in the south; cp. 1 Chronicles 4:28 ff. with their mattocks] R.V. in their ruins (with marginal note, “The text is probably corrupt”). LXX. ἐν … τοῖςτόποιςαὐτῶν i.e. “in their places.” Pesh. reads, in their broad places, and this is probably correct.

The power of Assyria being now (629-624 B.C.) greatly weakened, if not completely broken, Josiah aimed not merely at a religious reformation, but at a restoration of the kingdom to its ancient limits (see the 2 Kings 23:19 note).

6. Cities of Manasseh, and Ephraim, and Simeon, even unto Naphtali — The northern kingdom having been long since broken up, and the new colonists from the East having no power or special care to