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<TITLE>Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on the Whole Bible [Second Kings, Chapter XXIII].</TITLE>
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Matthew Henry<BR><I>Commentary on the Whole Bible</I> (1708)
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<!-- (Begin Body) -->
<CENTER>
<BR><FONT SIZE=+3><B>S E C O N D &nbsp; K I N G S</B></FONT>
<BR>
<BR><FONT SIZE=+2>CHAP. XXIII.</FONT>
<HR SIZE=1 WIDTH=50>
</CENTER>
<FONT SIZE=-1>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
We have here,
I. The happy continuance of the goodness of Josiah's reign, and the
progress of the reformation he began, reading the law
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:1,2">ver. 1, 2</A>),
renewing the covenant
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:3">ver. 3</A>),
cleansing the temple
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:4">ver. 4</A>),
and rooting out idols and idolatry, with all the relics thereof, in all
places, as far as his power reached
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:5-20">ver. 5-20</A>),
keeping a solemn passover
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:21-23">ver. 21-23</A>),
and clearing the country of witches
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:24">ver. 24</A>);
and in all this acting with extraordinary vigour,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:25">ver. 25</A>
II. The unhappy conclusion of it in his untimely death, as a token of
the continuance of God's wrath against Jerusalem,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:26-30">ver. 26-30</A>
III. The more unhappy consequences of his death, in the bad reigns of
his two sons Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim, that came after him,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:31-37">ver. 31-37</A></P>
</FONT>
<A NAME="2Ki23_1"> </A>
<A NAME="2Ki23_2"> </A>
<A NAME="2Ki23_3"> </A>
<A NAME="Sec1"> </A>
<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>Josiah Destroys Idolatry.</I></FONT></TD>
<TD ALIGN=RIGHT><FONT SIZE=-1>B. C.</FONT> 623.</TD></TR>
<TR><TD COLSPAN=2><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
</TABLE>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
<FONT SIZE=+1>1 And the king sent, and they gathered unto him all the elders
of Judah and of Jerusalem.
&nbsp; 2 And the king went up into the house of the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT>, and all the
men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and
the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, both small and
great: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the
covenant which was found in the house of the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT>.
&nbsp; 3 And the king stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before
the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT>, to walk after the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT>, and to keep his commandments
and his testimonies and his statutes with all <I>their</I> heart and
all <I>their</I> soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were
written in this book. And all the people stood to the covenant.
</FONT></P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
Josiah had received a message from God that there was no preventing the
ruin of Jerusalem, but that he should deliver only his own soul; yet he
did not therefore sit down in despair, and resolve to do nothing for
his country because he could not do all he would. No, he would do his
duty, and then leave the event to God. A public reformation was the
thing resolved on; if any thing could prevent the threatened ruin it
must be that; and here we have the preparations for that reformation.
1. He summoned a general assembly of the states, the elders, the
magistrates or representatives of Judah and Jerusalem, to meet him
<I>in the house of the Lord,</I> with the priests and prophets, the
ordinary and extraordinary ministers, that, they all joining in it, it
might become a national act and so be the more likely to prevent
national judgments; they were all called to attend
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:1,2"><I>v.</I> 1, 2</A>),
that the business might be done with the more solemnity, that they
might all advise and assist in it, and that those who were against it
might be discouraged from making any opposition. Parliaments are no
diminution at all to the honour and power of good princes, but a great
support to them.
2. Instead of making a speech to this convention, he ordered the book
of the law to be read to them; nay, it should seem, he read it himself
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:2"><I>v.</I> 2</A>),
as one much affected with it and desirous that they should be so too.
Josiah thinks it not below him to be a reader, any more than Solomon
did to be a preacher, nay, and David himself to be a door-keeper in the
house of God. Besides the convention of the great men, he had a
congregation of the <I>men of Judah and the inhabitants of
Jerusalem</I> to hear the law read. It is really the interest of
princes to promote the knowledge of the scriptures in their dominions.
If the people be but as stedfastly resolved to obey by law as he is to
govern by law, the kingdom will be happy. All people are concerned to
know the scripture, and all in authority to spread the knowledge of it.
3. Instead of proposing laws for the confirming of them in their duty,
he proposed an association by which they should all jointly engage
themselves to God,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:3"><I>v.</I> 3</A>.
The book of the law was the book of the covenant, that, if they would
be to God a people, he would be to them a God; they here engage
themselves to do their part, not doubting but that then God would do
his.
(1.) The covenant was that they should walk after the Lord, in
compliance with his will, in his ordinances and his providences, should
answer all his calls and attend all his motions--that they should make
conscience of all his commandments, moral, ceremonial, and judicial,
and should carefully observe them <I>with all their heart and all their
soul,</I> with all possible care and caution, sincerity, vigour,
courage, and resolution, and so fulfil the conditions of this covenant,
in dependence upon the promises of it.
(2.) The covenanters were, in the first place, the king himself, who
stood by his pillar
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+11:14"><I>ch.</I> xi. 14</A>)
and publicly declared his consent to this covenant, to set them an
example, and to assure them not only of his protection but of his
presidency and all the furtherance his power could give them in their
obedience. It is no abridgment of the liberty even of princes
themselves to be in bonds to God. <I>All the people</I> likewise
<I>stood to the covenant,</I> that is, they signified their consent to
it and promised to abide by it. It is of good use to oblige ourselves
to our duty with all possible solemnity, and this is especially
seasonable after notorious backslidings to sin and decays in that which
is good. He that bears an honest mind does not shrink from positive
engagements: fast bind, fast find.</P>
<A NAME="2Ki23_4"> </A>
<A NAME="2Ki23_5"> </A>
<A NAME="2Ki23_6"> </A>
<A NAME="2Ki23_7"> </A>
<A NAME="2Ki23_8"> </A>
<A NAME="2Ki23_9"> </A>
<A NAME="2Ki23_10"> </A>
<A NAME="2Ki23_11"> </A>
<A NAME="2Ki23_12"> </A>
<A NAME="2Ki23_13"> </A>
<A NAME="2Ki23_14"> </A>
<A NAME="2Ki23_15"> </A>
<A NAME="2Ki23_16"> </A>
<A NAME="2Ki23_17"> </A>
<A NAME="2Ki23_18"> </A>
<A NAME="2Ki23_19"> </A>
<A NAME="2Ki23_20"> </A>
<A NAME="2Ki23_21"> </A>
<A NAME="2Ki23_22"> </A>
<A NAME="2Ki23_23"> </A>
<A NAME="2Ki23_24"> </A>
<A NAME="Sec2"> </A>
<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>Josiah Reforms Judah.</I></FONT></TD>
<TD ALIGN=RIGHT><FONT SIZE=-1>B. C.</FONT> 623.</TD></TR>
<TR><TD COLSPAN=2><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
</TABLE>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
<FONT SIZE=+1>4 And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the
priests of the second order, and the keepers of the door, to
bring forth out of the temple of the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT> all the vessels that
were made for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the host of
heaven: and he burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of
Kidron, and carried the ashes of them unto Beth-el.
&nbsp; 5 And he put down the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of
Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the
cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem; them
also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon,
and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven.
&nbsp; 6 And he brought out the grove from the house of the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT>,
without Jerusalem, unto the brook Kidron, and burned it at the
brook Kidron, and stamped <I>it</I> small to powder, and cast the
powder thereof upon the graves of the children of the people.
&nbsp; 7 And he brake down the houses of the sodomites, that <I>were</I> by
the house of the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT>, where the women wove hangings for the
grove.
&nbsp; 8 And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah,
and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense,
from Geba to Beer-sheba, and brake down the high places of the
gates that <I>were</I> in the entering in of the gate of Joshua the
governor of the city, which <I>were</I> on a man's left hand at the
gate of the city.
&nbsp; 9 Nevertheless the priests of the high places came not up to
the altar of the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT> in Jerusalem, but they did eat of the
unleavened bread among their brethren.
&nbsp; 10 And he defiled Topheth, which <I>is</I> in the valley of the
children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his
daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.
&nbsp; 11 And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had
given to the sun, at the entering in of the house of the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT>, by
the chamber of Nathan-melech the chamberlain, which <I>was</I> in the
suburbs, and burned the chariots of the sun with fire.
&nbsp; 12 And the altars that <I>were</I> on the top of the upper chamber
of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which
Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT>, did
the king beat down, and brake <I>them</I> down from thence, and cast
the dust of them into the brook Kidron.
&nbsp; 13 And the high places that <I>were</I> before Jerusalem, which
<I>were</I> on the right hand of the mount of corruption, which
Solomon the king of Israel had builded for Ashtoreth the
abomination of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of
the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the children of
Ammon, did the king defile.
&nbsp; 14 And he brake in pieces the images, and cut down the groves,
and filled their places with the bones of men.
&nbsp; 15 Moreover the altar that <I>was</I> at Beth-el, <I>and</I> the high
place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin,
had made, both that altar and the high place he brake down, and
burned the high place, <I>and</I> stamped <I>it</I> small to powder, and
burned the grove.
&nbsp; 16 And as Josiah turned himself, he spied the sepulchres that
<I>were</I> there in the mount, and sent, and took the bones out of
the sepulchres, and burned <I>them</I> upon the altar, and polluted
it, according to the word of the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT> which the man of God
proclaimed, who proclaimed these words.
&nbsp; 17 Then he said, What title <I>is</I> that that I see? And the men
of the city told him, <I>It is</I> the sepulchre of the man of God,
which came from Judah, and proclaimed these things that thou hast
done against the altar of Beth-el.
&nbsp; 18 And he said, Let him alone; let no man move his bones. So
they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet that came
out of Samaria.
&nbsp; 19 And all the houses also of the high places that <I>were</I> in
the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to
provoke <I>the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT></I> to anger, Josiah took away, and did to them
according to all the acts that he had done in Beth-el.
&nbsp; 20 And he slew all the priests of the high places that <I>were</I>
there upon the altars, and burned men's bones upon them, and
returned to Jerusalem.
&nbsp; 21 And the king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the
passover unto the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT> your God, as <I>it is</I> written in the book
of this covenant.
&nbsp; 22 Surely there was not holden such a passover from the days of
the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings
of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah;
&nbsp; 23 But in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, <I>wherein</I> this
passover was holden to the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT> in Jerusalem.
&nbsp; 24 Moreover the <I>workers with</I> familiar spirits, and the
wizards, and the images, and the idols, and all the abominations
that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah
put away, that he might perform the words of the law which were
written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of
the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT>.
</FONT></P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
We have here an account of such a reformation as we have not met with
in all the history of the kings of Judah, such thorough riddance made
of all the abominable things and such foundations laid of a glorious
good work; and here I cannot but wonder at two things:--
1. That so many wicked things should have got in, and kept standing so
long, as we find here removed.
2. That notwithstanding the removal of these wicked things, and the
hopeful prospects here given of a happy settlement, yet within a few
years Jerusalem was utterly destroyed, and even this did not save it;
for the generality of the people, after all, hated to be reformed.
<I>The founder melteth in vain,</I> and therefore <I>reprobate silver
shall men call them,</I>
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+6:29,30">Jer. vi. 29, 30</A>.
Let us here observe,</P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
I. What abundance of wickedness there was, and had been, in Judah and
Jerusalem. One would not have believed it possible that in Judah, where
God was known--in Israel, where his name was great--in Salem, in Sion,
where his dwelling place was, such abominations should be found as here
we have an account of. Josiah had now reigned eighteen years, and had
himself set the people a good example, and kept up religion according
to law; and yet, when he came to make inquisition for idolatry, the
depth and extent of the dunghill he had to carry away appeared almost
incredible.
1. Even in the house of the Lord, that sacred temple which Solomon
built, and dedicated to the honour and for the worship of the God of
Israel, there were found vessels, all manner of utensils, for the
worship of Baal, <I>and of the grove</I> (or <I>Ashtaroth</I>), and
<I>of all the host of heaven,</I>
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:4"><I>v.</I> 4</A>.
Though Josiah had suppressed the worship of idols, yet the utensils
made for that worship were all carefully preserved, even in the temple
itself, to be used again whenever the present restraint should be taken
off; nay, even the grove itself, the image of it, was yet standing in
the temple
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:6"><I>v.</I> 6</A>);
some make it the image of Venus, the same with Ashtaroth.
2. Just <I>at the entering in of the house of the Lord</I> was a stable
for horses kept (would you think it?) for a religious use; they were
holy horses, <I>given to the sun</I>
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:11"><I>v.</I> 11</A>),
as if he needed them who <I>rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race</I>
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+19:5">Ps. xix. 5</A>),
or rather they would thus represent to themselves the swiftness of his
motion, which they much admired, making their religion to conform to
the poetical fictions of the chariot of the sun, the follies of which
even a little philosophy, without any divinity, would have exposed and
made them ashamed of. Some say that those horses were to be led forth
in pomp every morning to meet the rising sun, others that the
worshippers of the sun rode out upon them to adore the rising sun; it
should seem that they drew the chariots of the sun, which the people
worshipped. Strange that ever men who had the written word of God among
them should be thus <I>vain in their imaginations!</I>
3. Hard <I>by the house of the Lord</I> there were <I>houses of the
Sodomites,</I> where all manner of lewdness and filthiness, even that
which was most unnatural, was practised, and under pretence of religion
too, in honour of their impure deities. Corporal and spiritual
whoredom went together, and the vile affections to which the people
were given up were the punishment of their vain imaginations. Those
that dishonoured their God were justly left thus to dishonour
themselves,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ro+1:24-32">Rom. i. 24</A>,
&c. There were women that <I>wove
hangings for the grove</I>
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:7"><I>v.</I> 7</A>),
tents which encompassed the image of Venus, where the worshippers
committed all manner of lewdness, and this <I>in the house of the
Lord.</I> Those did ill that made our Father's house a house of
merchandise; those did worse that made it a den of thieves; but those
did worst of all that made it (<I>Horrendum dictu!</I>--<I>Horrible to
relate!</I>) a brothel, in an impudent defiance of the holiness of God
and of his temple. Well might the apostle call them <I>abominable
idolatries.</I>
4. There were many idolatrous altars found
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:12"><I>v.</I> 12</A>),
some in the palace, <I>on the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz.</I> The
roofs of their houses being flat, they made them their high places, and
set up altars upon them
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+19:13,Zep+1:5">Jer. xix. 13; Zeph. i. 5</A>),
domestic altars. The kings of Judah did so: and, though Josiah never
used them, yet to this time they remained there. Manasseh had built
altars for his idols in the house of the Lord. When he repented he
removed them, and <I>cast them out of the city</I>
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ch+33:15">2 Chron. xxxiii. 15</A>),
but, not destroying them, his son Amon, it seems, had brought them
again into the courts of the temple; there Josiah found them, and
thence he <I>broke them down,</I>
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:12"><I>v.</I> 12</A>.
5. There was <I>Tophet, in the valley of the son of Hinnom,</I> very
near Jerusalem, where the image of Moloch (that god of unnatural
cruelty, as others were of unnatural uncleanness) was kept, to which
some sacrificed their children, burning them in the fire, others
dedicated them, making them to pass through the fire
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:10"><I>v.</I> 10</A>),
<I>labouring in the very fire,</I>
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Hab+2:13">Hab. ii. 13</A>.
It is supposed to have been called <I>Tophet</I> from <I>toph,</I> a
drum, because they beat drums at the burning of the children, that
their shrieks might not be heard.
6. There were <I>high places before Jerusalem,</I> which <I>Solomon had
built,</I>
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:13"><I>v.</I> 13</A>.
The altars and images on those high places, we may suppose, had been
taken away by some of the preceding godly kings, or perhaps Solomon
himself had removed them when he became a penitent; but the buildings,
or some parts of them, remained, with other high places, till Josiah's
time. Those that introduce corruptions into religion know not how far
they will reach nor how long they will last. Antiquity is no certain
proof of verity. There were also high places all the kingdom over, from
<I>Geba to Beer-sheba</I>
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:8"><I>v.</I> 8</A>),
and <I>high places of the gates, in the entering in of the gate of the
governor.</I> In these high places (bishop Patrick thinks) they burnt
incense to those tutelar gods to whom their idolatrous kings had
committed the protection of their city; and probably the governor of
the city had a private altar for his <I>penates</I>--<I>his
household-gods.</I>
7. There were idolatrous priests, that officiated at all those
idolatrous altars
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:5"><I>v.</I> 5</A>),
chemarim, black men, or that wore black. See
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Zep+1:4">Zeph. i. 4</A>.
Those that sacrificed to Osiris, or that wept for Tammuz
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+8:14">Ezek. viii. 14</A>),
or that worshipped the infernal deities, put on black garments as
mourners. These idolatrous priests the kings of <I>Judah had ordained
to burn incense in the high places;</I> they were, it should seem,
priests of the house of Aaron, who thus profaned their dignity, and
there were others also who had no right at all to the priesthood, who
burnt incense to Baal.
8. There were conjurers and wizards, and such as <I>dealt with familiar
spirits,</I>
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:24"><I>v.</I> 24</A>.
When they worshipped the devil as their god no marvel that they
consulted him as their oracle.</P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
II. What a full destruction good Josiah made of all those relics of
idolatry. Such is his zeal for the Lord of hosts, and his holy
indignation against all that is displeasing to him, that nothing shall
stand before him. The law was that the monuments of the Canaanites'
idolatry must be all destroyed
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+7:5">Deut. vii. 5</A>),
much more those of the idolatry of the Israelites, in whom it was much
more impious, profane, and perfidious.
1. He ordered Hilkiah, and the other priests, to clear the temple. This
was their province,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:4"><I>v.</I> 4</A>.
Away with all the vessels that were made for Baal. They must never be
employed in the service of God, no, nor reserved for any common use;
they must all be burnt, and the ashes of them carried to Bethel. That
place had been the common source of idolatry, for there was set up one
of the calves, and, that lying next to Judah, the infection had thence
spread into that kingdom, and therefore Josiah made it the lay-stall of
idolatry, the dunghill to which he carried the filth and offscouring of
all things, that, if possible, it might be made loathsome to those that
had been fond of it.
2. The idolatrous priests were all put down. Those of them that were
not of the house of Aaron, or had sacrificed to Baal or other false
gods, he put to death, according to the law,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:20"><I>v.</I> 20</A>.
He <I>slew them upon their own altars,</I> the most acceptable
sacrifice that ever had been offered upon them, a sacrifice to the
justice of God. Those that were descendants from Aaron, and yet had
burnt incense in the high places, but to the true God only, he forbade
ever to approach the altar of the Lord; they had forfeited that honour
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:9"><I>v.</I> 9</A>):
He <I>brought them out of the cities of Judah</I>
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:8"><I>v.</I> 8</A>),
that they might not do mischief in the country by secretly keeping up
their old idolatrous usages; but he allowed them to <I>eat of the
unleavened bread</I> (the bread of the meat-offering,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Le+2:4,5">Lev. ii. 4, 5</A>)
<I>among their brethren,</I> with whom they were to reside, that being
under their eye they might be kept from doing hurt and taught to do
well; that bread, that unleavened bread (heavy and unpleasant as it
was), was better than they deserved, and that would serve to keep them
alive. But whether they were permitted to eat of all the sacrifices, as
blemished priests were
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Le+21:22">Lev. xxi. 22</A>),
which is called, in general, <I>the bread of their God,</I> may be
justly questioned.
3. All the images were broken to pieces and burnt. The image of the
grove
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:6"><I>v.</I> 6</A>),
some goddess or other, was reduced to ashes, and the <I>ashes cast upon
the graves of the common people</I>
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:6"><I>v.</I> 6</A>),
the common burying-place of the city. By the law a ceremonial
uncleanness was contracted by the touch of a grave, so that in casting
them here he declared them most impure, and none could touch them
without thereby making themselves unclean. <I>He cast it into the
graves</I> (so the Chaldee), intimating that he would have all idolatry
buried out of his sight, as a loathsome thing, and forgotten, as dead
men are out of mind,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:14"><I>v.</I> 14</A>.
He <I>filled the places of the groves with the bones of men;</I> as he
carried the ashes of the images to the graves, to mingle them with dead
men's bones, so he carried dead men's bones to the places where the
images had been, and put them in the room of them, that, both ways,
idolatry might be rendered loathsome, and the people kept both from the
dust of the images and from the ruins of the places where they had been
worshipped. Dead men and dead gods were much alike and fittest to go
together.
4. All the wicked houses were suppressed, those nests of impiety that
harboured idolaters, the houses of the Sodomites,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:7"><I>v.</I> 7</A>.
"Down with them, down with them, rase them to the foundations." The
high places were in like manner broken down and levelled with the
ground
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:8"><I>v.</I> 8</A>),
even that which belonged to the governor of the city; for no man's
greatness or power may protect him in idolatry or profaneness. Let
governors be obliged, in the first place, to reform, and then the
governed will be the sooner influenced. He defiled the high places
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:8"><I>v.</I> 8</A>
and again
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:13"><I>v.</I> 13</A>),
did all he could to render them abominable, and put the people out of
conceit with them, as Jehu did when he made the house of Baal a
draught-house,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+10:27">2 Kings x. 27</A>.
Tophet, which, contrary to other places of idolatry, was in a valley,
whereas they were on hills or high places, was likewise defiled
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:10"><I>v.</I> 10</A>),
was made the burying-place of the city. Concerning this we have a whole
sermon,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+19:1-15">Jer. xix. 1, 2</A>,
&c., where it is said, <I>They shall bury
in Tophet,</I> and the whole city is threatened to be made like Tophet.
5. The horses that had been given to the sun were taken away and put to
common use, and so were delivered from the vanity to which they were
made subject; and the chariots of the sun (what a pity was it that
those horses and chariots should be kept as the chariots and horsemen
of Israel!) he burnt with fire; and, if the sun be a flame, they never
resembled him so much as they did when they were chariots of fire.
6. The workers with familiar spirits and the wizards were put away,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:24"><I>v.</I> 24</A>.
Those of them that were convicted of witchcraft, it is likely, he put
to death, and so deterred others from those diabolical practices. In
all this he had a sincere regard to <I>the words of the law which were
written in the book</I> lately found,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:24"><I>v.</I> 24</A>.
He made that law his rule and kept that in his eye throughout this
reformation.</P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
III. How his zeal extended itself to the cities of Israel that were
within his reach. The ten tribes were carried captive and the Assyrian
colonies did not fully people the country, so that, it is likely, many
cities had put themselves under the protection of the kings of Judah,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ch+30:1,34:6">2 Chron. xxx. 1; xxxiv. 6</A>.
These he here visits, to carry on his reformation. As far as our
influence goes our endeavours should go to do good and bring the
wickedness of the wicked to an end.</P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
1. He defiled and demolished Jeroboam's altar at Bethel, with the high
place and the grove that belonged to it,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:15,16"><I>v.</I> 15, 16</A>.
The golden calf, it should seem, was gone (<I>thy calf, O Samaria! has
cast thee off</I>), but the altar was there, which those that were
wedded to their old idolatries made use of still. This was,
(1.) Defiled,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:16"><I>v.</I> 16</A>.
Josiah, in his pious zeal, was ransacking the old seats of idolatry,
and spied the sepulchres in the mount, in which probably the idolatrous
priests were buried, not far from the altar at which they had
officiated, and which they were so fond of that they were desirous to
lay their bones by it; these he opened, took out the bones, and
<I>burnt them upon the altar,</I> to show that thus he would have done
by the priests themselves if they had been alive, as he did by those
whom he found alive,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:20"><I>v.</I> 20</A>.
Thus he polluted the altar, desecrated it, and made it odious. It is
threatened against idolaters
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+8:1,2">Jer. viii. 1, 2</A>)
that <I>their bones shall be spread before the sun;</I> that which is
there threatened and this which is here executed (bespeaking their
<I>iniquity to be upon their bones,</I>
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+32:27">Ezek. xxxii. 27</A>)
are an intimation of a punishment after death, reserved for those that
live and die impenitent in that or any other sin; the burning of the
bones, if that were all, is a small matter, but, if it signify the
torment of the soul in a worse flame
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Lu+16:24">Luke xvi. 24</A>),
it is very dreadful. This, as it was Josiah's act, seems to have been
the result of a very sudden resolve; he would not have done it but that
he happened to turn himself, and spy the sepulchres; and yet it was
foretold above 350 years before, when this altar was first built by
Jeroboam,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Ki+13:2">1 Kings xiii. 2</A>.
God always foresees, and has sometimes foretold as certain, that which
yet to us seems most contingent. <I>The king's heart is in the hand of
the Lord;</I> king Josiah's was so, and he turned it (or ever he
himself was aware,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=So+6:12">Cant. vi. 12</A>)
to do this. No work of God shall fall to the ground.
(2.) It was demolished. He broke down the altar and all its
appurtenances
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:15"><I>v.</I> 15</A>),
burnt what was combustible, and, since an idol is nothing in the world,
he went as far towards the annihilating of it as he could; for he
<I>stamped it small to powder</I> and made it <I>as dust before the
wind.</I></P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
2. He destroyed all the houses of the high places, all those synagogues
of Satan that were <I>in the cities of Samaria,</I>
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:19"><I>v.</I> 19</A>.
These the kings of Israel built, and God raised up this king of Judah
to pull them down, for the honour of the ancient house of David, from
which the ten tribes had revolted; the priests he justly made
sacrifices <I>upon their own altars,</I>
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:20"><I>v.</I> 20</A>.</P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
3. He carefully preserved the sepulchre of that man of God who came
from Judah to foretel this, which now a king who came from Judah
executed. This was that good prophet who <I>proclaimed these things
against the altar of Bethel,</I> and yet was himself slain by a lion
for disobeying the word of the Lord; but to show that God's displeasure
against him went no further than his death, but ended there, God so
ordered it that when all the graves about his were disturbed his was
safe
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:17,18"><I>v.</I> 17, 18</A>)
and no man moved his bones. He had entered into peace, and therefore
should rest in his bed,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+57:2">Isa. lvii. 2</A>.
The old lying prophet, who desired to be buried as near him as might
be, it should seem, knew what he did; for his dust also, being mingled
with that of the good prophet, was preserved for his sake; see
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Nu+23:10">Num. xxiii. 10</A>.</P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
IV. We are here told what a solemn passover Josiah and his people kept
after all this. When they had cleared the country of the old leaven
they then applied themselves to the keeping of the feast. When Jehu had
destroyed the worship of Baal, yet he took no heed to walk in the
commandments and ordinances of God; but Josiah considered that we must
learn to do well, and no <I>only</I> cease to do evil, and that the way
to keep out all abominable customs is to keep up all instituted
ordinances (see
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Le+18:30">Lev. xviii. 30</A>),
and therefore he commanded all the people to keep the passover, which
was not only a memorial of their deliverance out of Egypt, but a token
of their dedication to him that brought them out and their communion
with him. This he found written in the <I>book of the law,</I> here
called <I>the book of the covenant;</I> for, though the divine
authority may deal with us in a way of absolute command, divine grace
condescends to federal transactions, and therefore he observed it. We
have not such a particular account of this passover as of that in
Hezekiah's time,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ch+30:1-27">2 Chron. xxx.</A>
But, in general, we are told that <I>there was not holden such a
passover</I> in any of the foregoing reigns, no, not <I>from the days
of the judges</I>
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:22"><I>v.</I> 22</A>),
which, by the way, intimates that, though the account which the book of
Judges gives of the state of Israel under that dynasty looks but
melancholy, yet there were then some golden days. This passover, it
seems, was extraordinary for the number and devotion of the
communicants, their sacrifices and offerings, and their exact
observance of the laws of the feast; and it was not now as in
Hezekiah's passover, when many communicated that were not cleansed
according to the purification of the sanctuary, and the Levites were
permitted to do the priests' work. We have reason to think that during
all the remainder of Josiah's reign religion flourished and the feasts
of the Lord were very carefully observed; but in this passover the
satisfaction they took in the covenant lately renewed, the reformation
in pursuance of it, and the revival of an ordinance of which they had
lately found the divine original in the book of the law, and which had
long been neglected or carelessly kept, put them into great transports
of holy joy; and God was pleased to recompense their zeal in destroying
idolatry with uncommon tokens of his presence and favour. All this
concurred to make it a distinguished passover.</P>
<A NAME="2Ki23_25"> </A>
<A NAME="2Ki23_26"> </A>
<A NAME="2Ki23_27"> </A>
<A NAME="2Ki23_28"> </A>
<A NAME="2Ki23_29"> </A>
<A NAME="2Ki23_30"> </A>
<A NAME="Sec3"> </A>
<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>The Death of Josiah.</I></FONT></TD>
<TD ALIGN=RIGHT><FONT SIZE=-1>B. C.</FONT> 610.</TD></TR>
<TR><TD COLSPAN=2><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
</TABLE>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
<FONT SIZE=+1>25 And like unto him was there no king before him, that turned
to the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT> with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with
all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after
him arose there <I>any</I> like him.
&nbsp; 26 Notwithstanding the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT> turned not from the fierceness of
his great wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah,
because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him
withal.
&nbsp; 27 And the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT> said, I will remove Judah also out of my sight,
as I have removed Israel, and will cast off this city Jerusalem
which I have chosen, and the house of which I said, My name shall
be there.
&nbsp; 28 Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and all that he did,
<I>are</I> they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings
of Judah?
&nbsp; 29 In his days Pharaoh-nechoh king of Egypt went up against the
king of Assyria to the river Euphrates: and king Josiah went
against him; and he slew him at Megiddo, when he had seen him.
&nbsp; 30 And his servants carried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo,
and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own
sepulchre. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of
Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father's
stead.
</FONT></P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
Upon the reading of these verses we must say, Lord, though <I>thy
righteousness</I> be <I>as the great mountains</I>--evident,
conspicuous, and past dispute, yet <I>thy judgments are a great
deep,</I> unfathomable and past finding out,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+36:6">Ps. xxxvi. 6</A>.
What shall we say to this?</P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
I. It is here owned that Josiah was one of the best kings that ever sat
upon the throne of David,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:25"><I>v.</I> 25</A>.
As Hezekiah was a non-such for faith and dependence upon God in straits
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+18:5"><I>ch.</I> xviii. 5</A>),
so Josiah was a non-such for sincerity and zeal in carrying on a work
of reformation. For this there was none like him,
1. That he <I>turned to the Lord</I> from whom his fathers had
revolted. It is true religion to turn to God as one we have chosen and
love. He did what he could to turn his kingdom also to the Lord.
2. That he did this <I>with his heart and soul;</I> his affections and
aims were right in what he did. Those make nothing of their religion
that do not make heart-work of it.
3. That he did it with <I>all his heart,</I> and <I>all his soul,</I>
and <I>all his might</I>--with vigour, and courage, and resolution: he
could not otherwise have broken through the difficulties he had to
grapple with. What great things may we bring to pass in the service of
God if we be but lively and hearty in it!
4. That he did this <I>according to all the law of Moses,</I> in an
exact observance of that law and with an actual regard to it. His zeal
did not transport him into any irregularities, but, in all he did, he
walked by rule.</P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
II. Notwithstanding this he was cut off by a violent death in the midst
of his days, and his kingdom was ruined within a few years after.
Consequent upon such a reformation as this, one would have expected
nothing but the prosperity and glory both of king and kingdom; but,
quite contrary, we find both under a cloud.
1. Even the reformed kingdom continues marked for ruin. For all this
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:26"><I>v.</I> 26</A>)
<I>the Lord turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath.</I> That
is certainly true, which God spoke by the prophet
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+18:7,8">Jer. xviii. 7, 8</A>),
that if a nation, doomed to destruction, <I>turn from the evil</I> of
sin, God will <I>repent of the evil</I> of punishment; and therefore we
must conclude that Josiah's people, though they submitted to Josiah's
power, did not heartily imbibe Josiah's principles. They were turned by
force, and did not voluntarily <I>turn from their evil way,</I> but
still continued their affection for their idols; and therefore he that
knows men's hearts would not recall the sentence, which was, That Judah
should be removed, as Israel had been, and Jerusalem itself cast off,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:27"><I>v.</I> 27</A>.
Yet even this destruction was intended to be their effectual
reformation; so that we must say, not only that the criminals had
filled their measure and were ripe for ruin, but also that the disease
had come to a crisis, and was ready for a cure; and this shall be all
the fruit, even the taking away of sin.
2. As an evidence of this, even the reforming king is cut off in the
midst of his usefulness--in mercy to him, that he might not see the
evil which was coming upon his kingdom, but in wrath to his people, for
his death was an inlet to their desolations. The king of Egypt waged
war, it seems, with the king of Assyria: so the king of Babylon is now
called. Josiah's kingdom lay between them. He therefore thought himself
concerned to oppose the king of Egypt, and check the growing,
threatening, greatness of his power; for though, at this time, he
protested that he had no design against Josiah, yet, if he should
prevail to unite the river of Egypt and the river Euphrates, the land
of Judah would soon be overflowed between them. Therefore <I>Josiah
went against him,</I> and was killed in the first engagement,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:29,30"><I>v.</I> 29, 30</A>.
Here,
(1.) We cannot justify Josiah's conduct. He had no clear call to engage
in this war, nor do we find that he asked counsel of God by urim or
prophets concerning it. What had he to do to appear and act as a friend
and ally to the king of Assyria? <I>Should he help the ungodly and love
those that hate the Lord?</I> If the kings of Egypt and Assyria
quarrelled, he had reason to think God would bring good out of it to
him and his people, by making them instrumental to weaken one another.
Some understand the promise made to him that he should <I>come to his
grave in peace</I> in a sense in which it was not performed because, by
his miscarriage in this matter, he forfeited the benefit of it. God has
promised to keep us <I>in all our ways;</I> but, if we go out of our
way, we throw ourselves out of his protection. I understand the promise
so as that I believe it was fulfilled, for he <I>died in peace</I> with
God and his own conscience, and saw not, nor had any immediate prospect
of, the destruction of Judah and Jerusalem by the Chaldeans; yet I
understand the providence to be a rebuke to him for his rashness.
(2.) We must adore God's righteousness in taking away such a jewel from
an unthankful people that knew not how to value it. They greatly
lamented his death
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ch+35:25">2 Chron. xxxv. 25</A>),
urged to it by Jeremiah, who told them the meaning of it, and what a
threatening omen it was; but they had not made a due improvement of the
mercies they enjoyed by his life, of which God taught them the worth by
the want.</P>
<A NAME="2Ki23_31"> </A>
<A NAME="2Ki23_32"> </A>
<A NAME="2Ki23_33"> </A>
<A NAME="2Ki23_34"> </A>
<A NAME="2Ki23_35"> </A>
<A NAME="2Ki23_36"> </A>
<A NAME="2Ki23_37"> </A>
<A NAME="Sec4"> </A>
<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>Reigns of Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim.</I></FONT></TD>
<TD ALIGN=RIGHT><FONT SIZE=-1>B. C.</FONT> 610.</TD></TR>
<TR><TD COLSPAN=2><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
</TABLE>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
<FONT SIZE=+1>31 Jehoahaz <I>was</I> twenty and three years old when he began to
reign; and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. And his mother's
name <I>was</I> Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.
&nbsp; 32 And he did <I>that which was</I> evil in the sight of the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT>,
according to all that his fathers had done.
&nbsp; 33 And Pharaoh-nechoh put him in bands at Riblah in the land of
Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem; and put the land to
a tribute of a hundred talents of silver, and a talent of gold.
&nbsp; 34 And Pharaoh-nechoh made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the
room of Josiah his father, and turned his name to Jehoiakim, and
took Jehoahaz away: and he came to Egypt, and died there.
&nbsp; 35 And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh; but
he taxed the land to give the money according to the commandment
of Pharaoh: he exacted the silver and the gold of the people of
the land, of every one according to his taxation, to give <I>it</I>
unto Pharaoh-nechoh.
&nbsp; 36 Jehoiakim <I>was</I> twenty and five years old when he began to
reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother's
name <I>was</I> Zebudah, the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah.
&nbsp; 37 And he did <I>that which was</I> evil in the sight of the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT>,
according to all that his fathers had done.
</FONT></P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
Jerusalem saw not a good day after Josiah was laid in his grave, but
one trouble came after another, till within twenty-two years it was
quite destroyed. Of the reign of two of his sons here is a short
account; the former we find here a prisoner and the latter a tributary
to the king of Egypt, and both so in the very beginning of their reign.
This king of Egypt having slain Josiah, though he had not had any
design upon Judah, yet, being provoked by the opposition which Josiah
gave him, now, it should seem, he bent all his force against his family
and kingdom. If Josiah's sons had trodden in his steps, they would have
fared the better for his piety; but, deviating from them, they fared
the worse for his rashness.</P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
I. Jehoahaz, a younger son, was first made king by <I>the people of the
land,</I> probably because he was observed to be of a more active
warlike genius than his elder brother, and likely to make head against
the king of Egypt and to avenge his father's death, which perhaps the
people were more solicitous about, in point of honour, than the keeping
up and carrying on of his father's reformation; and the issue was
accordingly.
1. He did ill,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:32"><I>v.</I> 32</A>.
Though he had a good education and a good example given him, and many a
good prayer, we may suppose, put up for him, yet he <I>did that which
was evil in the sight of the Lord,</I> and, it is to be feared, began
to do so in his father's lifetime, for his reign was so short that he
could not, in that, show much of his character. He did <I>according to
all that his</I> wicked <I>fathers had done.</I> Though he had not time
to do much, yet he had chosen his patterns, and showed whom he intended
to follow and whose steps he resolved to tread in; and, having done
this, he is here reckoned to have done according to all the evil which
those did whom he proposed to imitate. It is of great consequence to
young people whom they choose to take for their patterns and whom they
emulate. An error in this choice is fatal.
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Php+3:17,18">Phil. iii. 17, 18</A>.
2. Doing ill, no wonder that he fared ill. He was but three months a
prince, and was then made a prisoner, and lived and died so. The king
of Egypt seized him, and put him in bands
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:33"><I>v.</I> 33</A>),
fearing lest he should give him disturbance, and carried him to Egypt,
where he died soon after,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:34"><I>v.</I> 34</A>.
This Jehoahaz is that young lion whom Ezekiel speaks of in his
<I>lamentation for the princes of Israel,</I> that learnt to <I>catch
the prey and devour men</I> (that was the evil which he did in the
sight of the Lord); but <I>the nations heard of him, he was taken in
their pit, and they brought him with chains into the land of Egypt,</I>
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eze+19:1-4">Ezek. xix. 1-4</A>.
See
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+22:10-12">Jer. xxii. 10-12</A>.</P>
<P> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
II. Eliakim, another son of Josiah, was made king by the king of Egypt,
it is not said <I>in the room of Jehoahaz</I> (his reign was so short
that it was scarcely worth taking notice of), but <I>in the room of
Josiah.</I> The crown of Judah had hitherto always descended from a
father to a son, and never, till now, from one brother to another; once
the succession had so happened in the house of Ahab, but never, till
now, in the house of David. The king of Egypt, having used his power in
making him king, further showed it in changing his name; he called him
<I>Jehoiakim,</I> a name that has reference to Jehovah, for he had no
design to make him renounce or forget the religion of his country. "All
people will walk in the name of their God, and let him do so." The king
of Babylon did not do so by those whose names he changed,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Da+1:7">Dan. i. 7</A>.
Of this Jehoiakim we are here told,
1. That the king of Egypt made him poor, exacted from him a vast
tribute of 100 <I>talents of silver and a talent of gold</I>
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:33"><I>v.</I> 33</A>),
which, with much difficulty, he squeezed out of his subjects and gave
to Pharaoh,
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:35"><I>v.</I> 35</A>.
Formerly the Israelites had spoiled the Egyptians; now the Egyptians
spoil Israel. See what woeful changes sin makes.
2. That which made him poor, yet did not make him good.
Notwithstanding the rebukes of Providence he was under, by which he
should have been convinced, humbled, and reformed, he <I>did that which
was evil in the sight of the Lord</I>
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Ki+23:37"><I>v.</I> 37</A>),
and so prepared against himself greater judgments; for such God will
send if less do not do the work for which they are sent.</P>
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