2 Chronicles 34:4

_AND THEY BRAKE DOWN THE ALTARS OF BAALIM IN HIS PRESENCE; AND THE IMAGES, THAT WERE ON HIGH ABOVE THEM, HE CUT DOWN; AND THE GROVES, AND THE CARVED IMAGES, AND THE MOLTEN IMAGES, HE BRAKE IN PIECES, AND MADE DUST OF THEM, AND STROWED IT UPON THE GRAVES OF THEM THAT HAD SACRIFICED UNTO THEM._ The graves of them that had sacrificed unto them. He treated the graves themselves as guilty of the crimes of those who were lying in them (Bertheau)....

Verse 2 Chronicles 34:4. _THE ALTARS OF BAALIM_] How often have these been broken down, and how soon set up again! We see that the religion of a land is as the religion of its king. If the _king_ were _idolatrous_, up went the altars, on them were placed the statues, and the smoke of incense ascended in ceaseless clouds to the honour of that which is _vanity_, and _nothing to the world_; on the other hand, when the king was _truly religious_, down went the idolatrous altars, broken in pieces were the images, and the sacrificial smoke ascended only to the true God: in all these cases the _people_ were as one man with the _king_....

THE IMAGES - Margin, sun-images. See Leviticus 26:30 note....

EXPOSITION This chapter, with the following, embraces the entire of the beneficent reign of Josiah, son of Amon—the son an illustrious contrast to the father. The parallel (2 Kings 22-23:30) is less full, and also, so far as chronology goes, less clear in the earlier verses. For once the writer of Kings spends his strength more largely than our compiler on the moral and religious aspects of Josiah's work, and is rather scantier in the detail of his external works for his nation, city of Jerusalem, and temple. He, however, gives very much less prominence to the matter of the celebration of the Passover. 2 CHRONICLES 34:1 Again the name of the mother is omitted. From the parallel we learn she was "Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah of Boscath....

AND THEY BROKE DOWN THE ALTARS OF BAALIM IN HIS PRESENCE,.... He not only ordered them to be broke down, but he went in person, and saw it done; these were the altars Manasseh had reared up to the idols; and though upon his humiliation he cast them out, they were rebuilt by Amon his son, see 2 Chronicles 33:3, AND THE IMAGES THAT WERE ABOVE THEM HE CUT DOWN; sun images, as the word signifies; these Chamanim might be representatives of Cham or Ham, the son of Noah, the same with Jupiter Ammon; and there was another Heathen deity, Amanus, Strabo w speaks of, supposed to be the sun, Leviticus 26:30, these, as Jarchi says, were in the form of the sun, and were set above the altars, over against the sun, to whom worship was paid; though some think this respects not

8. REFORMATION UNDER JOSIAH CHAPTER 34 The Reign of Josiah and the Reformation _ 1. The record of his reign (2 Chronicles 34:1)_ 2. The beginning of the reformation (2 Chronicles 34:3) 3. The house of the LORD repaired (2 Chronicles 34:8) 4. The law of Moses found and read (2 Chronicles 34:14) 5. Hulda, the prophetess (2 Chronicles 34:22) 6. The law read and the covenant ...

2 Chronicles 34:1 to 2 Chronicles 35:27. THE REIGN OF JOSIAH. See notes on 2 Kings 22, 2 Kings 23:1, which form the basis of the Chronicler's account; but he has made many alterations in accordance with his general tendencies. One important difference between the two accounts is that, according to the Chronicler, Josiah's Reformation takes place before the finding of the book of the Law, an obviously illogical sequence; but the Chronicler desires to emphasize Josiah's piety even in his tender years. The description of the celebration of the Passover (2 Chronicles 35:1) is far fuller than that given in...

BRAKE DOWN. Note the Figure of speech _Synonymia_ (App-6), by which the words are heaped together to impress us with the thoroughness of the work: e.g. "brake down", "cut down", "brake in pieces", "made dust of them", "strowed it", and "burnt". GRAVES. Hebrew. _keber_. a burial place, from _kabar,_ to bury (Genesis 23:4; Genesis 23:20, &c). Primary idea is heaping up. tumulus. _Keber_. a grave; _Sheol. the_ grave. See App-35....

_Baalim_ R.V. THE BAALIM; cp. 2 Chronicles 33:3 (note). _the images_ R.V. THE SUN-IMAGES (so 2 Chronicles 34:7 for "the idols"). See 2 Kings 23:11. _he cut down; and the groves, and the carved images_ R.V. HE HEWED DOWN; AND THE ASHERIM, AND THE GRAVEN IMAGES....

IMAGES THAT WERE ON HIGH— Or, _solar statues._ Or, _temples dedicated to the fire._...