5 He burnt the bones of the priests on their altars, and purged Judah and Jerusalem.
He cried against the altar by the word of Yahweh, and said, altar, altar, thus says Yahweh: Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name; and on you shall he sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and men's bones shall they burn on you.
So you shall not pollute the land in which you are: for blood, it pollutes the land; and no expiation can be made for the land for the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him who shed it.
As Josiah turned himself, he spied the tombs that were there in the mountain; and he sent, and took the bones out of the tombs, and burned them on the altar, and defiled it, according to the word of Yahweh which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these things.
He killed all the priests of the high places that were there, on the altars, and burned men's bones on them; and he returned to Jerusalem.
He broke down the altars, and beat the Asherim and the engraved images into powder, and hewed down all the sun-images throughout all the land of Israel, and returned to Jerusalem.
Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be saved. How long shall your evil thoughts lodge within you?
At that time, says Yahweh, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves; and they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of the sky, which they have loved, and which they have served, and after which they have walked, and which they have sought, and which they have worshiped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried, they shall be for dung on the surface of the earth.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on 2 Chronicles 34
Commentary on 2 Chronicles 34 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 34
Before we see Judah and Jerusalem ruined we shall yet see some glorious years, while good Josiah sits at the helm. By his pious endeavours for reformation God tried them yet once more; if they had known in this their day, the day of their visitation, the things that belonged to their peace and improved them, their ruin might have been prevented. But after this reign they were hidden from their eyes, and the next reigns brought an utter desolation upon them. In this chapter we have,
2Ch 34:1-7
Concerning Josiah we are here told,
2Ch 34:8-13
Here,
2Ch 34:14-28
This whole paragraph we had, just as it is here related, 2 Ki. 22:8-20, and have nothing to add here to what was there observed. But,
2Ch 34:29-33
We have here an account of the further advances which Josiah made towards the reformation of his kingdom upon the hearing of the law read and the receipt of the message God sent him by the prophetess. Happy the people that had such a king; for here we find that,