2 Kings 23:19

_AND HE SAID, LET HIM ALONE; LET NO MAN MOVE HIS BONES. SO THEY LET HIS BONES ALONE, WITH THE BONES OF THE PROPHET THAT CAME OUT OF SAMARIA._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

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 23:19. _THAT WERE IN THE CITIES OF SAMARIA_] _Israel_ had now no king; and Josiah, of the blood royal of Judah, had certainly a direct right to the kingdom; he had, at this time, an especial commission from God, to reform every abuse through the whole land-all that ground that was given by the Lord as an inheritance to the _twelve sons_ of Jacob. Therefore he had every right to carry his plans of reformation into the Samaritan states....

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

AND ALL THE HOUSES ALSO OF THE HIGH PLACES,.... The temples of the idols there, and the houses for the priests to dwell in: THAT WERE IN THE CITIES OF SAMARIA, WHICH THE KINGS OF ISRAEL HAD MADE TO PROVOKE THE LORD TO ANGER, JOSIAH TOOK AWAY; particularly in the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, unto Naphtali, 2 Chronicles 34:6 the Israelites that remained there acknowledging Josiah as their king; and perhaps, after the defeat of Sennacherib, many of the cities of Israel might put themselves under the protection of Hezekiah, and especially upon the destruction of the Assyrian empire; and Manasseh, with his liberty, might have his kingdom enlarged by the king of Babylon; and which being continued and increased in the times of Josiah, might be the reason of his opposing the king of Egypt in favour of the king of Babylon: and did to them accor

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....

THE LORD. Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate read "Jehovah" in the text....

_high places that_were _in the cities of Samaria_ It would seem from this that when the ten tribes had been carried away the king of Judah exercised some sort of authority over the people in the northern kingdom. But the high places in Samaria were most likely the places in which purely heathen idolatry was practised. They therefore differed from the high places in Judah, and to their priests Josiah was more severe than to the Levitical priests who had conducted the worship of Jehovah on the high places in his own kingdom. The injunction to slay idolaters is found in Deuteronomy 17:2-5....