2 Kings 23:26

_NOTWITHSTANDING THE LORD TURNED NOT FROM THE FIERCENESS OF HIS GREAT WRATH, WHEREWITH HIS ANGER WAS KINDLED AGAINST JUDAH, BECAUSE OF ALL THE PROVOCATIONS THAT MANASSEH HAD PROVOKED HIM WITHAL._ Notwithstanding the Lord turned ... The national reformation which Josiah carried on was acquiesced in by the people from submission to the royal will; but they entertained a secret and strong hankering after the suppressed idolatries. Though outwardly purified, their hearts were not right toward God, as appears from many passages of the prophetic writings: their thorough reform was hopeless; and God, who saw no sign of genuine repentance, allowed His decree (2 Kings 21:12) for the subversion of the kingdom to take fatal effect....

25-30 Upon reading these verses, we must say, Lord, though thy righteousness be as the great mountains, evident, plainly to be seen, and past dispute; yet thy judgments are a great deep, unfathomable, and past finding out. The reforming king is cut off in the midst of his usefulness, in mercy to him, that he might not see the evil coming upon his kingdom: but in wrath to his people, for his death was an inlet to their desolations....

Verse 26. _THE LORD TURNED NOT_] It was of no use to try this fickle and radically depraved people any longer. They were respited merely during the life of Josiah....

See the marginal references. True repentance might have averted God’s anger. But the people had sunk into a condition in which a true repentance was no longer possible. Individuals, like Josiah, were sincere, but the mass of the nation, despite their formal renewal of the covenant 2 Kings 23:3, and their outward perseverance in Yahweh-worship 2 Chronicles 34:33, had feigned rather than felt repentance. The earlier chapters of Jeremiah are full at once of reproaches which he directs against the people for their insincerity, and of promises if they would repent in earnest....

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

NOTWITHSTANDING, THE LORD TURNED NOT FROM THE FIERCENESS OF HIS GREAT WRATH, WHEREWITH HIS ANGER WAS KINDLED AGAINST JUDAH,.... Notwithstanding the great reformation wrought among them; for though Josiah was a sincere reformer, and did what he did heartily, as to the Lord, according to his will, and for his glory; yet the people were not sincere in their compliance, they turned to the Lord not with their whole heart, but feignedly, Jeremiah 3:10 BECAUSE OF ALL THE PROVOCATIONS THAT MANASSEH HAD PROVOKED HIM WITHAL; by shedding innocent blood and committing idolatry, which the people consented to and approved of, and even now privately committed idolatry, as the prophecies of Jeremiah and Zephaniah show; and it may easily be concluded that their hearts were after their idols, by their openly returning to them in the days of the sons of Josiah....

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

Celebration of the Passover. The mention of the eighteenth year (2 Kings 23:23; cf. 2 Kings 22:3) shows that the reforms of Josiah occupied six months. The book was discovered in the first month of the civil year, in autumn. It was read (_cf._ Deuteronomy 31:10) at the Feast of Tabernacles. The Passover contemplated in Deuteronomy 16:6 was celebrated in the central sanctuary. It was not the domestic feast of the Priestly Code (Exodus 12), but a general assembly of the nation. In 2 Chronicles 30 Hezekiah is said to have kept a similar feast, but this is denied in...

G. AN APPRAISAL OF THE JOSIANIC REFORMATION 23:24-27 TRANSLATION (24) Moreover those with familiar spirits, the wizards, the teraphim, the idols, and all the abominations. which were found in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem Josiah removed in order to fulfill the words of the Law which was written in the book which Hilkiah the priest had found in the house of the LORD. (25) Like him there was not before him a king who turned unto the LORD with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might according to the Law of Moses; and after him one did not arise like him. (26) Nevertheless, the LORD did not turn from the fierceness of His great anger with which He was angry against Judah because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked Him. (27) And the LORD said, Also Judah I will remove from before My face like I removed Israel, and I will reject this city which I hav...

23:26 wrath, (a-11) See Jeremiah 15:1-4 ....