2 Kings 23:3

_AND THE KING STOOD BY A PILLAR, AND MADE A COVENANT BEFORE THE LORD, TO WALK AFTER THE LORD, AND TO KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS AND HIS TESTIMONIES AND HIS STATUTES WITH ALL THEIR HEART AND ALL THEIR SOUL, TO PERFORM THE WORDS OF THIS COVENANT THAT WERE WRITTEN IN THIS BOOK. AND ALL THE PEOPLE STOOD TO THE COVENANT._ All the people stood to the covenant - i:e., they agreed to the proposals made; they assented to what was ALL THE PEOPLE STOOD TO THE COVENANT - i:e., they agreed to the proposals made; they assented to what was required of them....

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....

Verse 2 Kings 23:3. _STOOD BY A PILLAR_] _He stood_, על העמוד al haammud, "_upon the stairs or pulpit_." This is what is called the _brazen_ _scaffold_ or _pulpit_ which Solomon made, and on which the kings were accustomed to stand when they addressed the people. See 2 Chronicles 6:13, and the parallel places. _MADE A COVENANT_] This was expressed, 1. In _general_. To walk after Jehovah; to have no gods besides him. 2. To take his law for the regulation of their _conduct_. 3. In _particular_. To bend their whole heart and soul to the observance of it, so that, they might not only have _religion_ without, but, _piety_ within. To this _all the_ _people stood up_, thus giving t

BY A PILLAR - Rather, “upon the pillar” (see 2 Kings 11:14, note). MADE A COVENANT - “The covenant.” Josiah renewed the old covenant made between God and His people in Horeb Deuteronomy 5:2, so far at least as such renewal was possible by the mere act of an individual. He bound himself by a solemn promise to the faithful performance of the entire Law. WITH ALL THEIR HEART - “Their” rather than “his,” because the king was considered as pledging the whole nation to obedience with himself. He and they “stood to it,” i. e., “accepted it, came into the covenant.”...

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 STOOD BY A PILLAR,.... As the manner of kings was, 2 Kings 11:14 and is thought to be the brasen scaffold erected by Solomon, on which he stood at the dedication of the temple, and now Josiah at the reading of the law, 2 Chronicles 6:13, it is said to be his place, 2 Chronicles 34:31, 2 Kings 11:14 AND MADE A COVENANT BEFORE THE LORD: agreed and promised in the presence of God, both he and his people: TO WALK AFTER THE LORD: the worship of the Lord, as the Targum; closely to attend to that: and to keep his commandments, and his testi

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

BY. PILLAR: or, on the pillar, or, platform. Compare 2 Kings 11:14. SOUL. Hebrew. _nephesh._ App-13. WRITTEN. See App-47. STOOD. But not for long. See Jeremiah 11:2....

DISCOURSE: 381 COVENANTING WITH GOD 2 Kings 23:3. _And the king stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all their heart and all their soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people stood to the covenant._ LITTLE do men in general consider the benefit they receive from the sacred oracles, and the stated ordinances of divine worship. Without these, the remembrance of God would soon vanish: whereas by these we are constantly reminded of the obligations we are under to love and serve him. In the days of King Josiah the inspired volume was altogether lost, and the Temple of Jehovah had been suffered to fall into decay. The pious monarch having ordered the temple to be repaired, the book of God was found. Immediately the c