2 Kings 15:35

Howbeit the high places were not removed,.... As they were not by his father, and the same is observed of the best of kings before: the people sacrificed and burnt incense still in the high places;

Howbeit the high places were not removed: the people sacrificed and burned incense still in the high places. He built the higher gate of the house of the LORD.

Not of the temple, properly so called; but of one of the courts of the temple, probably that which led to the king’ s palace, ; called also the new gate, 36:10.

2 Kings 15:35 Howbeit the high places were not removed: the people sacrificed and burned incense still in the high places. He built the higher gate of the house of the LORD.Ver. 35. He built the higher gate.] Then, when the people doted upon high places; though he disliked their practice.

(32-38) THE REIGN OF JOTHAM IN .(Comp. 2 Chronicles 27) (32) In the second year of Pekah.—Who came to the throne in the last year of Uzziah (Azariah, 2 Kings 15:27). (34) According to all that his father Uzziah had done.—The chronicler qualifies this general statement by adding that Jotham did not, like his father, invade the Holy Place. (Comp. 2 Chronicles 27:2, with 2 Chronicles 26:16.) (35) Howbeit the high places.—The chronicler generalises this statement: “And the people did yet corruptly.” He built.—Rather, He it was who built For “the higher gate,” see Note on 2 Chronicles 27:3. Thenius considers that the term higher denotes rank rather than local position. (See Jeremiah 20:2; Ezekiel 8:3; Ezekiel 8:5; Ezekiel 8:14; Ezekiel 8:16; Ezekiel 9:2; Ezekiel 40:38-43; and comp. 2 Kings 12:9.) (36) Now the rest of the acts of Jotham.—Some of these are related in 2 Chronicles 27:4-6. We read there how Jotham built towns and castles, and towers of refuge, and how he fought victoriously against Ammon, and exacted from that nation a heavy tribute three years running. Ewald and Thenius admit the historical value of this brief narrative, which is indeed evident on the face of it. (37) In those days—i.e., in the last year of Jotham. The attacks of the allies at first took the form of isolated raids. In the next reign the country was invaded by them in full force. (See 2 Kings 16:5, seq., and the Notes there.) Rezin.—Comp. Rezon, Heb., Rĕ ?zôn (1 Kings 11:23), the founder of the dynasty. The present name is spelt in the Hebrew of Kings and Isaiah (Isaiah 7:1) Rĕ ?çín. The Assyrian spelling in the records of Tiglath Pileser, who conquered and slew Rezin, suggests that the right spelling was Raçôn (Assyrian, Bagunnu). The first and last kings of the Syrian monarchy thus bore similar names, both, perhaps, meaning “prince.”

35. Howbeit the high places] In 2 Chronicles it is merely said ‘the people did yet corruptly’. He built the higher [R.V. upper] gate of the house of the Lord] By ‘build’ is only meant ‘restore’ or ‘beautify’. The gate existed before. The temple stood on a slope, of which the northern side was the highest and the gate on that side was the one of which Jotham made some restoration. The account of his buildings is somewhat fuller in 2 Chronicles. ‘On the wall of Ophel he built much. Moreover he built cities in the hill-country of Judah, and in the forests he built castles and towers’. His success in war, also unnoticed by the compiler of Kings, is dwelt on by the Chronicler. He fought with the Ammonites and conquered them, and the children of Ammon paid him in that year a hundred talents of silver, ten thousand measures of wheat, and the same quantity of barley, and they continued the payment for a second and a third year. ‘So Jotham became mighty because he prepared his ways before the Lord his God’.

He built the higher gate - Jotham followed the example of his father in military, no less than in religious, matters (compare the marginal reference with 2 Chronicles 26:9).