2 Kings 23:17

_THEN HE SAID, WHAT TITLE IS THAT THAT I SEE? AND THE MEN OF THE CITY TOLD HIM, IT IS THE SEPULCHRE OF THE MAN OF GOD, WHICH CAME FROM JUDAH, AND PROCLAIMED THESE THINGS THAT THOU HAST DONE AGAINST THE ALTAR OF BETHEL._ What title is that that I see? The king's attention, it is probable, 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. It seems probable from this instance that epitaphs were inscribed on the tombs of the ancient Jews, especially those which were placed in proper cemeteries. The title or inscription which caught the eye of the king was, there is reason to believe, on an excavated grave; but from the way in which the circumstance is recorded, it may be inferred that the practice of surmounting a tomb with an epitaph was common and famil...

15-24 Josiah's zeal extended to the cities of Israel within his reach. He carefully preserved the sepulchre of that man of God, who came from Judah to foretell the throwing down of Jeroboam's altar. When they had cleared the country of the old leaven of idolatry, then they applied themselves to the keeping of the feast. There was not holden such a passover in any of the foregoing reigns. The revival of a long-neglected ordinance, filled them with holy joy; and God recompensed their zeal in destroying idolatry with uncommon tokens of his presence and favour. We have reason to think that during the remainder of Josiah's reign, religion flourished....

Verse 2 Kings 23:17. _WHAT TITLE_ IS _THAT_] There was either a _stone_, an _image_, or an _inscription_ here: the old prophet no doubt took care to have the place made sufficiently remarkable....

A parenthesis giving the earlier reforms of Josiah. 2 Kings 23:4 THE PRIESTS OF THE SECOND ORDER - This is a new expression; and probably refers to the ordinary priests, called here “priests of the second order,” in contrast with the high priest, whose dignity was reviving (2 Kings 12:2 note). THE VESSELS - This would include the whole apparatus of worship, altars, images, dresses, utensils, etc., for Baal, etc. (2 Kings 21:3 notes). The ashes of the idolatrous objects burned in the first instance in the “fields of Kidron” (i. e., in the part of the valley which lies nort

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

THEN HE SAID, WHAT TITLE IS THAT THAT I SEE?.... A high and large monument over a grave, with an inscription on it, more remarkable than any of the rest, which made Josiah take notice of it; and the Jews have a tradition, as Kimchi observes, that on one side of the grave grew nettles and thistles, and on the other side odoriferous herbs; which is not to be depended on; but what he further observes may be right, that the old prophet, as he gave orders to his sons to lay his body in the same grave with the man of God, believing his words would be fulfilled, so he likewise gave orders to have a distinguished monument or pillar erected over the grave; and which people in later times took care to support, in memory of the man of God, that thereby it might be known; by which means not only the bones of the man of God were preserved from being burnt, but those of the old prophet also, buried wi...

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

The grave of the prophet. This is evidently an addition to the original story. The altar, which in 2 Kings 23:15 had been destroyed, is supposed to be still standing. The man of God is, of course, the disobedient prophet of 1 Kings 13. Samaria (2 Kings 23:18 f.) is evidently the province and not the city. Josiah is represented as purifying the whole district from the high-place worship. From Jeremiah 41:9 we learn that even after the destruction of the Temple the ruins were visited by devout Israelites from that district....

TITLE. monument....

_What title_[R.V. MONUMENT] is _that that_[R.V. WHICH] _I see?_ The word is used in Jeremiah 31:21 for -way marks" to guide along a road, and in Ezekiel 39:15 for a -sign" to mark a spot where lay some object needing notice. So that -monument" appears the better rendering, especially as in the reply the people do not speak to Josiah of a -title" but of a -sepulchre". _the sepulchre of the man of God_ The prophet of Bethel who had deceived him, brought the carcase of the dead man back to Bethel and buried it (1 Kings 13:29-31) in what must at that time have been a general burial-ground, and on which Jeroboam would never have built his altar....