2 Kings 23:1

_AND THE KING SENT, AND THEY GATHERED UNTO HIM ALL THE ELDERS OF JUDAH AND OF JERUSALEM._ The king sent, and ... gathered ... 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 precession to temple, where he ordered the book of the law to be read the assembled audience, and covenanted, with the unanimous concurrence of his subjects, to adhere stedfastly 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 hig...

1-3 Josiah had received a message from God, that there was no preventing the ruin of Jerusalem, but that he should only deliver his own soul; yet he does his duty, and leaves the event to God. He engaged the people in the most solemn manner to abolish idolatry, and to serve God in righteousness and true holiness. Though most were formal or hypocritical herein, yet much outward wickedness would be prevented, and they were accountable to God for their own conduct....

CHAPTER XXIII _Josiah reads in the temple to the elders of Judah, the priests,_ _the prophets, and the people, the book of the covenant which_ _had been found_, 1, 2. _He makes a covenant, and the people stand to it_, 3. _He destroys the vessels of Baal and Asherah, and puts down the_ _idolatrous priests; breaks down the houses of the sodomites,_ _and the high places; defiles Topheth; takes away the horses of_ _the sun; destroys the altars of Ahaz; breaks in pieces the_ _images; and breaks down and burns Jeroboam's altar at Beth-el,_...

EXPOSITION 2 KINGS 23:1 JOSIAH'S RENEWAL OF THE COVENANT. HIS REFORMS AND DEATH. REIGN OF JEHOAHAZ. ACCESSION OF JEHOIAKIM. 2 KINGS 23:1 _Josiah_'_s renewal of the covenant_._ _The first care of Josiah, on receiving Huldah's message, which stamped the book found as the true "book of the covenant," was to call together a great assembly of the nation, which should be sufficiently representative of it, and renew the covenant between God and his people made originally a

AND THE KING SENT, AND THEY GATHERED UNTO HIM ALL THE ELDERS OF JUDAH AND OF JERUSALEM. Josiah sent messengers throughout the land, and convened all the principal men in it at Jerusalem....

2. THE RESULTS OF THE REVIVAL AND THE DEATH OF JOSIAH CHAPTER 23:1-30 _ 1. The People hear the law (2 Kings 23:1; 2 Chronicles 34)_ 2. Josiah makes a covenant (2 Kings 23:3) 3. The great reformations (2 Kings 23:4) 4. The Passover celebrated (2 Kings 23:21; 2 Chronicles 35) 5. Further statements concerning Josiah (2 Kings 23:24

2 KINGS 23:3. BY THE PILLAR. COVENANT: for the word pillar see 2 Kings 11:14 and 1 Kings 7:21. In the latter passage it is used for the two great brazen pillars set up by Solomon before the porch of the Temple. In making the covenant the king takes the lead. The ceremony was accompanied by a sacrifice; hence the phrase in Heb. is to _cut_ a covenant (Genesis 15:17 *, Jeremiah 34:18) or divide the victims. The newly discovered volume is called (2 Kings 23:2) the

E. THE COVENANT RENEWED 23:1-3 TRANSLATION (1) And he sent and gathered unto him all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. (2) And the king went up to the house of the LORD 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 presence all the words of the book of the covenant which had been found in the house of the LORD. (3) And the king stood upon the platform, and made the covenant before the LORD to walk after the LORD, and to keep His commandments, His testimonies, and His statutes with all their heart and with all their soul, to perform the words of this covenant which was written in this book. And all the people stood in the covenant. COMMENTS After receiving the word from Huldah that the threats in the recently discovered law-book would shortly be fulfilled, the first...

RELIGIOUS REFORM. JOSIAH'S DEATH 2. The prophets] Jeremiah, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah lived about this time. READ IN THEIR EARS] cp. the similar proceeding related in Nehemiah 8:4.;...

THE LAST KINGS OF *ISRAEL AND *JUDAH BOOK OF 2 KINGS _PHILIP SMITH_ CHAPTER 23 THE *COVENANT WITH THE *LORD V1 The king called together all the leaders of *Judah and Jerusalem. V2 He went to the *Lord’s *temple with the priests and the *prophets. All the people in *Judah and Jerusalem also came. Both the rich people and the poor people came. In front of them all, the king read the entire book that contained the *covenant. That was the book that the chief priest had found in the *Lord’s *temple. V3 The king stood by the royal column and he made a *covenant with the *Lord. He promised to serve the *Lord. He promised to obey all the *Lord’s commands, rules, and laws. He promised to obey them with all his heart and *soul. He promised to obey the orders that the *covenant in the boo