2 Kings 23

—the high places of the gates] The high places of the gates seem to have been erected there to offer incense to those tutelar gods, unto whom their idolatrous kings had committed the protection of the city; and there, it is thought, the governor of the city had his private idol, and a portable altar for its worship. This Josiah did not spare, but made the greatest men see the impartiality of his zeal against idolatry. Bp. Patrick.

2 Kings 23:2

2. — and sent them against Judah] God is said to Before CHRIST 610. a. Chap. 26. 17. & 22. 27. hand of.

2 Kings 23:9

9. Nevertheless the priests &c.] As to such of the priests as had been no further guilty than in worshipping the true God in the unlawful way of private altars, &c. he mixed some mercy with his severity; for though he would not admit them for the future to officiate in the temple service, yet he allowed them to be maintained, with the other priests, out of the offerings, and other revenues of the altar. Pyle.

2 Kings 23:10

10.—Topheth,—in the valley of the children of Hinnom.] The valley of the children of Hinnom was a pleasant place high unto Jerusalem, dedicated to the idol Molech, where they used to make their children pass through the fire. The spot where this was done was called Topheth, signifying Tympanum, a tabor, or kind of drum, because the priests of that idol played upon tabors at the time of sacrificing, that so the children’s cries and shrieks might not be heard. Wogan.

Gehinnom, or the valley of Hinnom, having formerly belonged to the sons of Hinnom, lay to the south, and perhaps to the east, of Jerusalem, and was part of the bounds between the tribes of Benjamin and Judah. This place became infamous on account of the people

made in the two courts of the house of the LORD, did the king beat down, and || brake them down from thence, and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron.

2 Kings 23:11

11.—took away the horses &c.] What these horses and chariots of the sun were, whether only statues or images of horses, or real living ones; or whether, if real ones, they were kept to be sacrificed to the sun, or for some other pompous purposes relating to the honour paid to the sun, is very much disputed amongst the learned; and there is very little certainty to be gathered respecting them from any ancient historians. Pyle. The Persians consecrated white horses and chariots to the sun: perhaps the Jews had now adopted this among other heathenish idolatries. Univ. Hist.

2 Kings 23:12

12.—on the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz.] It appears they were not satisfied with the publick altars they had made, in a vast number of high places; but, the roofs of the houses being flat, they made altars there; see Jerem. xix. 13; xxxi. 29; and particularly on the king’s palace, where they worshipped the sun, moon, and stars. But the altars were not spared by Josiah, even though they were on the king’s house. Bp. Patrick.

2 Kings 23:13

13.—the mount of corruption.] This is probably thought to mean (as the margin states) the mount of Olives, which, from the notorious instances of idolatrous worship practised upon it, went by the name of the mount of corruption. Some however understand it to mean a different mount, lying on the south or southwest of Jerusalem near mount Sion, and separated from it by the valley, called in Scripture the valley of Hinnom. Dr. Wells. The mount of Olives has three points or summits, the centre of which, being the highest, was

Before CHRIST 624. Or, ran from thence. That is, the mount of Olives. d 1 Kings 11. 7. states. Josiah keepeth a most solemn passover.

he spied the sepulchres that were there in the mount, and sent, and took the bones out of the sepulchres, and burned them upon the altar, and polluted it, according to the word of the LORD which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words.

2 Kings 23:18

18. — took the bones out of the sepulchres.] In order to make it sure that the place might not be afterwards used as a place of idolatrous worship, he caused the bones of all the men of note, whether priests, prophets, or others, who had been promoters of that idolatry, to be dug out of their graves and thrown together upon the place, to pollute it as much as possible, and render it odious and contemptible. And thus was that remarkable prophecy, pronounced about 350 years before, concerning this altar, (1 Kings xiii. 1, 2,) now exactly and literally fulfilled. Pyle.

— which the man of God proclaimed.] About 350 years before this happened, when Jeroboam first established his false worship in this place. Bp. Wilson. See note at 1 Kings xiii. 2.

2 Kings 23:19

19. — which the kings of Israel had made] This reformation Josiah extends to the kingdom of Israel as well as that of Judah. As the ten tribes had now gone into captivity, the ancient right which David and his posterity had to the whole kingdom of Israel (before it was divided by Jeroboam) devolved upon Josiah. The people who escaped the captivity were united with his subjects, and put themselves under his protection. It is true the kings of Assyria were the lords and conquerors of the country; but, from the time of Manasseh’s restoration, (2 Chron. xxxiii. 13,) they seem to have conferred on the kings of Judah a sovereignty in all the land of Canaan, as it was exercised in the days of David and Solomon. Stackhouse.

2 Kings 23:20

20. — burned men’s bones upon them.] Which according to the ideas then prevailing, was the highest pollution of their altars, ver. 13. 14. Bp. Patrick.

2 Kings 23:22

22. Surely there was not holden such a passover] These

2 Kings 23:25

25. — like unto him was there no king] Indeed no king God’s final wrath against Judah. Josiah is slain at Megiddo. Before CHRIST about 623. angers. 29. & 9. 3. chap. 21. 7.

2 Kings 23:26

26. Notwithstanding the Lord turned not.] The great misfortune was, that, as to the generality of the court and people, all this seeming reformation was nothing but shew and pretence, a mere compliance with the vigour and resolution of their prince; their hearts were never firmly in it; but, as plainly appears by the event, they were ready to revolt again into their old idolatry and vice, upon the first opportunity. They complied with Josiah’s religion, but their real inclinations were to the old corruptions of Manasseh: for which reason God still resolved to deliver up this part of His chosen people also to the power of a foreign monarch. Pyle.

2 Kings 23:29

29. In his days Pharaoh-nechoh—went up] It was in the thirty-first year of king Josiah, that Necho marched with a great army towards the Euphrates, to make war on the Medes and Babylonians, who had recently dissolved the Assyrian empire and destroyed Nineveh: his object appears to have been to put a stop to their growing greatness, which had become so formidable as to raise the jealousy of their neighbours. Dean Prideaux.

— king Josiah went against him;] It has been thought by some, that Josiah engaged rashly and unadvisedly in this enterprise, from an excessive confidence in the merit of his own righteousness; but this is a supposition unworthy of so religious a prince. It is more probable that the kings of Judah had, from the time of Manasseh’s restoration, bound themselves by oath to adhere to the kings of Babylon against all their enemies: and, in recompense for this, they seem to have

had conferred upon them by the Assyrians the parts of the land of Canaan which had been possessed by the ten tribes. It seems certain that Josiah possessed the whole land of Israel, as David and Solomon possessed it, before the separation of the ten tribes; for his reformation extended through every part of it, and seems to have been every where conducted with the same authority. It is remarkable too, that the battle with the king of Egypt was fought at Megiddo, a town of the tribe of Manasseh, lying in the middle of the kingdom of Israel, where Josiah would have had nothing to do, if he had not been king of that kingdom as well as of Judah. Allowing then this compact to have subsisted between Josiah and the king of Babylon, he would have been guilty of a breach of fidelity if he had not endeavoured to stop the progress of the king of Egypt. Dean Prideaux.

It may be a doubt whether king Josiah was not guilty of a want of trust in God, in his warlike preparations against the king of Egypt. Josiah has so good a character in Scripture, that both Jews and Christians have been at a loss to account for the unfortunate end he came to, being slain in battle against the king of Egypt. The learned Dr. Prideaux has justified his conduct in opposing the passage of the king of Egypt, because it was a service due to the king of Assyria, to whom Josiah was a vassal. Be it so; yet his duty to the king of Assyria could not dissolve his dependence on a higher Master: he went to war as vassal of the king of Assyria, but did he ask counsel of God as King of Judah? Or was he attended to the war with such forces only, as the king of Judah might lawfully use? See Deut. xvii. 16; xx. 1; and the notes there. That he had chariots and horsemen, appears plainly from the account of his death, 2 Chron. xxxv. 24; for he was wounded in one chariot, and removed into another to be carried off: and it is very probable that there were chariots and horsemen many in his army, since there appears no scruple in him upon this head. That this was the true, or the only cause of his misfortune, I dare not affirm; for I have no express authority to support me in affirming it: but this I see, that he was found in the day of battle, not with the equipage of a king of Judah, but surrounded with forces, which the law of God had forbidden him to trust to, and which had often proved a strength fatal to his ancestors. Bp. Sherlock. See the note on 1 Kings x. 28.

— slew him at Megiddo.] See the note at chap. xxii. 20. With Josiah perished all the glory, honour, and prosperity of the Jewish nation. For after that nothing else ensued but a diurnal scene of God’s judgments on the land, till at length all Judah and Jerusalem were swallowed up by them in a woful destruction. The death of so excellent a prince was deservedly lamented by all his people, and by none more than Jeremiah the Prophet, who had a thorough sense of the

Jehoahaz succeedeth Josiah. II. KINGS. Jehoiakim subdued by Nebuchadnezzar. Before CHRIST 610.

2 Kings 23:33

33. — put him in bands at Riblah] As Riblah is mentioned to be “in the land of Hamath,” it could not be in Canaan, as some have supposed. It may have been Antioch or Apamea, or some other place on the river Orontes. Dr. Wells. It appears from Josephus, that Pharaoh-nechoh had good success against the Ba-

and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Zebudah, the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah.

2 Kings 23:34

34. — turned his name to Jehoiakim,] It was no unusual thing for conquerors to change the names of persons whom they had vanquished in war, in order to shew their absolute power over them. But Archbishop Usher has remarked, that the king of Egypt gave to Eliakim the name of Jehoiakim, thereby to testify that he ascribed his victory over the Babylonians to Jehovah the God of Israel, by whose incitement (as he pretended, 2 Chron. xxxv. 21, 22,) he undertook the expedition. Stackhouse.

Chap. XXIV. This chapter is to be compared with 2 Chron. xxxvi. and with Jer. xxv—xxviii.

Ver. 1. — Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon] He was son of Nako-polassar king of Babylon, and was taken by his father into partnership of the empire, for the purpose of conducting an army into Syria and Palestine, which revolted against his authority. Stackhouse.

From this time, Before Christ 606, (see the margin,) is to be dated the commencement of the Babylonian captivity, which, according to the prediction of Jeremiah, was to last seventy years. This was about 115 years after the destruction of the kingdom of Israel. Bp. Tomline.