2 Kings 23:20

_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 23:20. _SLEW ALL THE PRIESTS_] The lives of these, as corrupters of the people, were forfeited to the law....

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 HE SLEW ALL THE PRIESTS OF THE HIGH PLACES THAT WERE THERE,.... The idolatrous priests who sacrificed to Baal, and other Heathen deities; for as for others that burnt incense in high places, yet to the true God, those he spared, though they were not suffered to officiate at the altar of God: the others he slew UPON THE ALTARS; where they sacrificed: AND BURNT MEN'S BONES UPON THEM: the bones of the priests, and worshippers of idols, as he had done at Bethel: AND RETURNED TO JERUSALEM; after he had gone through the land, both of Judah and Israel, and abolished idolatrous worship everywhere....

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....

SLEW. sacrificed. See App-43....

_and burnt men's bones upon them_ To the heathen, as well as to the Jew, this would be a pollution that would make the place for ever unfit for worship....