Worthy.Bible » YLT » 2 Kings » Chapter 23 » Verse 19

2 Kings 23:19 Young's Literal Translation (YLT)

19 And also all the houses of the high places that `are' in the cities of Samaria, that the kings of Israel made to provoke to anger, hath Josiah turned aside, and doth to them according to all the deeds that he did in Beth-El.

Cross Reference

2 Chronicles 34:6-7 YLT

and in the cities of Manasseh, and Ephraim, and Simeon, even unto Naphtali, with their tools, round about. And he breaketh down the altars and the shrines, and the graven images he hath beaten down very small, and all the images he hath cut down in all the land of Israel, and turneth back to Jerusalem.

1 Kings 12:31 YLT

And he maketh the house of high places, and maketh priests of the extremities of the people, who were not of the sons of Levi;

1 Kings 13:32 YLT

for the word certainly cometh to pass that he called by the word of Jehovah concerning the altar which `is' Beth-El, and concerning all the houses of the high places that `are' in cities of Samaria.'

1 Kings 16:33 YLT

and Ahab maketh the shrine, and Ahab addeth to do so as to provoke Jehovah, God of Israel, above all the kings of Israel who have been before him.

2 Kings 8:18 YLT

And he walketh in the way of the kings of Israel, as did the house of Ahab, for a daughter of Ahab was to him for a wife, and he doth the evil thing in the eyes of Jehovah,

2 Kings 17:9 YLT

and the sons of Israel do covertly things that `are' not right against Jehovah their God, and build for them high places in all their cities, from a tower of the watchers unto the fenced city,

2 Kings 17:16-18 YLT

And they forsake all the commands of Jehovah their God, and make to them a molten image -- two calves, and make a shrine, and bow themselves to all the host of the heavens, and serve Baal, and cause their sons and their daughters to pass over through fire, and divine divinations, and use enchantments, and sell themselves to do the evil thing in the eyes of Jehovah, to provoke Him; That Jehovah sheweth himself very angry against Israel, and turneth them aside from His presence; none hath been left, only the tribe of Judah by itself.

2 Kings 21:6 YLT

and he hath caused his son to pass through fire, and observed clouds, and used enchantment, and dealt with a familiar spirit and wizards; he hath multiplied to do the evil thing in the eyes of Jehovah -- to provoke to anger.

2 Chronicles 30:6-11 YLT

And the runners go with letters from the hand of the king and his heads, into all Israel and Judah, even according to the command of the king, saying, `O sons of Israel, turn back unto Jehovah, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and He doth turn back unto the escaped part that is left of you from the hand of the kings of Asshur; and do not be like your fathers, and like your brethren, who trespassed against Jehovah, God of their fathers, and He giveth them to desolation, as ye do see. `Now, harden not your neck like your fathers, give a hand to Jehovah, and come in to His sanctuary, that He hath sanctified to the age, and serve Jehovah your God, and the fierceness of His anger doth turn back from you; for in your turning back unto Jehovah, your brethren and your sons have mercies before their captors, even to return to this land, for gracious and merciful `is' Jehovah your God, and He doth not turn aside the face from you, if ye turn back unto Him.' And the runners are passing over from city to city, in the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, even unto Zebulun: and they are laughing at them, and mocking at them, only, certain from Asher, and Manasseh, and from Zebulun, have been humbled, and come in to Jerusalem.

2 Chronicles 31:1 YLT

And at the completion of all this, gone out have all Israel who are found present to the cities of Judah, and break the standing-pillars, and cut down the shrines, and break down the high places and the altars, out of all Judah and Benjamin, and in Ephraim and Manasseh, even to completion, and all the sons of Israel turn back, each to his Possession, to their cities.

Psalms 78:58 YLT

And make Him angry with their high places, And with their graven images make Him zealous,

Jeremiah 7:18-19 YLT

The sons are gathering wood, And the fathers are causing the fire to burn, And the women are kneading dough, To make cakes to the queen of the heavens, And to pour out libations to other gods, So as to provoke Me to anger. Me are they provoking to anger? an affirmation of Jehovah, Is it not themselves, For the shame of their own faces?

Ezekiel 8:17-18 YLT

And He saith unto me, `Hast thou seen, son of man? hath it been a light thing to the house of Judah to do the abomination that they have done here, that they have filled the land with violence, and turn back to provoke Me to anger? and lo, they are putting forth the branch unto their nose! And I also deal in fury, Mine eye doth not pity, nor do I spare, and they have cried in Mine ears -- a loud voice -- and I do not hear them.'

Micah 6:16 YLT

And kept habitually are the statutes of Omri, And all the work of the house of Ahab, And ye do walk in their counsels, For My giving thee for a desolation, And its inhabitants for a hissing, And the reproach of My people ye do bear!

Commentary on 2 Kings 23 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible


CHAPTER 23

2Ki 23:1-3. Josiah Causes the Law to Be Read.

1-3. the king sent, and they gathered unto him all the elders—This pious and patriotic king, not content with the promise of his own security, felt, after Huldah's response, an increased desire to avert the threatened calamities from his kingdom and people. Knowing the richness of the divine clemency and grace to the penitent, he convened the elders of the people, and placing himself at their head, accompanied by the collective body of the inhabitants, went in solemn procession to the temple, where he ordered the book of the law to be read to the assembled audience, and covenanted, with the unanimous concurrence of his subjects, to adhere steadfastly to all the commandments of the Lord. It was an occasion of solemn interest, closely connected with a great national crisis, and the beautiful example of piety in the highest quarter would exert a salutary influence over all classes of the people in animating their devotions and encouraging their return to the faith of their fathers.

2. he read in their ears—that is, "caused to be read."

3. all the people stood to the covenant—that is, they agreed to the proposals made; they assented to what was required of them.

2Ki 23:4-28. He Destroys Idolatry.

4. the king commanded Hilkiah, &c.—that is, the high priest and other priests, for there was not a variety of official gradations in the temple.

all the vessels, &c.—the whole apparatus of idol-worship.

burned them without Jerusalem—The law required them to be consigned to the flames (De 7:25).

in the fields of Kidron—most probably that part of the valley of Kidron, where lies Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives. It is a level, spacious basin, abounding at present with plantations [Robinson]. The brook winds along the east and south of the city, the channel of which is throughout a large portion of the year almost or wholly dry, except after heavy rains, when it suddenly swells and overflows. There were emptied all the impurities of the temple (2Ch 29:15, 16) and the city. His reforming predecessors had ordered the mutilated relics of idolatry to be thrown into that receptacle of filth (1Ki 15:13; 2Ch 15:16; 30:14); but Josiah, while he imitated their piety, far outstripped them in zeal; for he caused the ashes of the burnt wood and the fragments of the broken metal to be collected and conveyed to Beth-el, in order thenceforth to associate ideas of horror and aversion with that place, as odious for the worst pollutions.

5. put down the idolatrous priests—Hebrew, chemarim, "scorched," that is, Guebres, or fire-worshippers, distinguished by a girdle (Eze 23:14-17) or belt of wool and camel's hair, twisted round the body twice and tied with four knots, which had a symbolic meaning, and made it a supposed defense against evil.

them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, &c.—or Baal-shemesh, for Baal was sometimes considered the sun. This form of false worship was not by images, but pure star-worship, borrowed from the old Assyrians.

and—rather, "even to all the host of heaven."

6. brought out the grove—that is, Asherah, the mystic tree, placed by Manasseh in the temple [2Ki 21:5; 2Ch 33:5], removed by him after his conversion [2Ch 33:15], but replaced in the sanctuary by his wicked son Amon [2Ki 21:20, 21]. Josiah had it taken to Kidron, burnt the wood, ground the metal about it to powder, and strewed the ashes "on the graves of the children of the people." The poor were buried in a common on part of the valley of Kidron. But reference is here made to the graves "of those that had sacrificed" (2Ch 34:4).

7. brake down the houses of the sodomites—not solid houses, but tents, called elsewhere [2Ki 17:30] Succoth-benoth, "the booths of the young women," who were devoted to the service of Asherah, for which they made embroidered hangings, and in which they gave themselves to unbridled revelry and lust. Or the hangings might be for Asherah itself, as it is a popular superstition in the East to hang pieces of cloth on trees.

8, 9. he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places, &c.—Many of the Levitical order, finding in the reigns of Manasseh and Amon the temple-worship abolished and the tithes and other offerings alienated, had been betrayed into the folly of officiating on high places, and presenting such sacrifices as were brought to them. These irregularities, even though the object of that worship was the true God, were prohibited in the law (De 12:11). Those who had been guilty of this sin, Josiah brought to Jerusalem. Regarding them as defiled, he debarred them from the service of the temple, but gave them an allowance out of the temple revenues, like the lame and disabled members of the priesthood (Le 21:21, 22).

from Geba to to Beer-sheba—the most northern and the most southern places in Judah—meaning all parts of the kingdom.

the high places … which were in the entering in of the gate of Joshua—The governor's house and gate were on the left of the city gate, and close by the entrance of that civic mansion house were public altars, dedicated, it might be, to the true God, but contrary to His own ordinance of worship (Isa 57:8).

10. Topheth—so called from Toph—a "drum." It is the prevailing opinion among Jewish writers that the cries of the terrified children made to pass through the fire in that place of idolatrous horror were drowned by the sound of that instrument.

11. took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun—Among the people who anciently worshipped the sun, horses were usually dedicated to that divinity, from the supposed idea that the sun himself was drawn in a chariot by horses. In some cases these horses were sacrificed; but more commonly they were employed either in the sacred processions to carry the images of the sun, or for the worshippers to ride in every morning to welcome his rise. It seems that the idolatrous kings, Ahaz, Manasseh, and Amon, or their great officers, proceeded on these horses early on each day from the east gate of the temple to salute and worship the sun at his appearing above the horizon.

12. the altars that were on the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz—Altars were reared on the flat roofs of houses, where the worshippers of "the host of heaven" burnt incense (Zep 1:5; Jer 19:13). Ahaz had reared altars for this purpose on the oleah, or upper chamber of his palace, and Manasseh on some portion of the roof of the temple. Josiah demolished both of these structures.

13, 14. the high places … which Solomon … had builded—(See on 1Ki 11:5).

the right hand of the mount of corruption—The Mount of Olives is a hilly range on the east of Jerusalem. This range has three summits, of which the central one is the Mount of Corruption, so called from the idol temples built there, and of course the hill on the right hand denotes the southernmost peak. Josiah is said not to have destroyed, but only defiled, "the high places on the hill of corruption." It is most probable that Hezekiah had long before demolished the idolatrous temples erected there by Solomon but, as the superstitious people continued to regard the spot as consecrated ground, Josiah defiled it.

14. filled their places with the bones of men—Every monument of idolatry in his dominion he in like manner destroyed, and the places where they stood he defiled by strewing them with dead men's bones. The presence of a dead carcass rendered both persons and places unclean in the eyes both of Jews and heathens.

15-20. Moreover the altar that was at Beth-el, &c.—Not satisfied with the removal of every vestige of idolatry from his own dominion, this zealous iconoclast made a tour of inspection through the cities of Samaria and all the territory formerly occupied by the ten tribes, destroying the altars and temples of the high places, consigning the Asherim to the flames, putting to death the priests of the high places, and showing his horror at idolatry by ransacking the sepulchers of idolatrous priests, and strewing the burnt ashes of their bones upon the altars before he demolished them.

16. according to the word of the Lord which the man of God proclaimed, &c.—In carrying on these proceedings, Josiah was prompted by his own intense hatred of idolatry. But it is remarkable that this act was predicted three hundred twenty-six years before his birth, and his name also was expressly mentioned, as well as the very place where it should be done (1Ki 13:2). This is one of the most most remarkable prophecies in the Bible.

17. What title is that that I see?—The king's attention probably, had been arrested by a tombstone more conspicuous than the rest around it, bearing on an inscription the name of him that lay beneath; and this prompted his curiosity to make the inquiry.

the men of the city—not the Assyrian colonists—for they could know nothing about the ancient transactions of the place—but some of the old people who had been allowed to remain, and perhaps the tomb itself might not then have been discoverable, through the effects of time and neglect, had not some "Old Mortality" garnished the sepulcher of the righteous.

21-23. the king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the passover unto the Lord your God, &c.—It was observed with great solemnity and was attended not only by his own subjects, but by the remnant people from Israel (see on 2Ch 35:1-19). Many of the Israelites who were at Jerusalem might have heard of, if they did not hear, the law read by Josiah. It is probable that they might even have procured a copy of the law, stimulated as they were to the better observance of Jehovah's worship by the unusual and solemn transactions at Jerusalem.

26. Notwithstanding, the Lord turned not from the fierceness of his wrath,—&c. The national reformation which Josiah carried on was acquiesced in by the people from submission to the royal will; but they entertained a secret and strong hankering after the suppressed idolatries. Though outwardly purified, their hearts were not right towards God, as appears from many passages of the prophetic writings; their thorough reform was hopeless; and God, who saw no sign of genuine repentance, allowed His decree (2Ki 21:12-15) for the subversion of the kingdom to take fatal effect.

29. In his days Pharaoh-nechoh—(See 2Ch 35:20-27).