2 Kings 23:35

31-37 After Josiah was laid in his grave, one trouble came on another, till, in twenty-two years, Jerusalem was destroyed. The wicked perished in great numbers, the remnant were purified, and Josiah's reformation had raised up some to join the few who were the precious seed of their future church and nation. A little time, and slender abilities, often suffice to undo the good which pious men have, for a course of years, been labouring to effect. But, blessed be God, the good work which he begins by his regenerating Spirit, cannot be done away, but withstands all changes and temptations....

Verse 35. _JEHOIAKIM GAVE THE SILVER AND THE GOLD_] Nechoh had placed him there as viceroy, simply to _raise_ and _collect his_ _taxes_. _EVERY ONE ACCORDING TO HIS TAXATION_] That is, each was assessed in proportion to his property: that was the principle avowed: but there is reason to fear that this bad king was not governed by it....

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 JEHOIAKIM GAVE THE SILVER AND GOLD TO PHARAOH,.... The one hundred talents of silver and the talent of gold, which he imposed as a tribute upon the land: BUT HE TAXED THE LAND TO GIVE THE MONEY ACCORDING TO THE COMMANDMENT OF PHARAOH; he did not take it out of his own treasures nor the treasures of the house of the Lord, which perhaps might be exhausted, but levied it of the people of the land: HE EXACTED THE SILVER AND GOLD OF THE PEOPLE OF THE LAND, required them to pay it in: OF EVERYONE ACCORDING TO HIS TAXATION, TO GIVE IT UNTO PHARAOHNECHOH: everyone was taxed according to his abilities, in proportion to what he was worth, or to the estate he was possessed of....

VI. FINAL APOSTASY OF JUDAH AND THE CAPTIVITY 1. Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim CHAPTER 23:31-37 _ 1. The three months' reign of Jehoahaz (2 Kings 23:31; 2 Chronicles 36:1)_ 2. Jehoiakim made king (2 Kings 23:34; 2 Chronicles 36:4) Chronicles tells us that immediately after the death of Josiah, the people of the land took Jehoahaz (which means “Jehovah holds up”) and made him king. He was not the LORD's choice, but the people's choice. He was not the eldest son and therefore the action of the people was an unlawful and a lawless one. He was an evil-doer; Josephus speaks of him as

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...

TAXED. assessed....

_he exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land_ The king did not undertake to pay, as had been done aforetime (cf. 2 Kings 16:8; 2 Kings 18:15) this tax out of any treasures in the house of the Lord, or of the king's house. In those troublous days there was likely to be but little in store, so a tax was laid on the whole people. 2 Kings 23:36 TO 2 KINGS 24:7. Jehoiakim king of Judah. Nebuchadnezzar makes him tributary. His many adversaries. Jehoiachin, his son, succeeds him (2 Chronicles 36:5-8)...

II. THE REIGN AND REMOVAL OF JEHOAHAZ 23:31-35 TRANSLATION (31) Jehoahaz was twenty-three yean old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem; and the name of his mother was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. (32) And he did evil in the eyes of the LORD according to all which his fathers had done. (33) And Pharaoh Necho restrained him in Riblah in the land of Hamath from reigning over Jerusalem, and appointed a tribute upon the land, a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. (34) And Pharaoh Necho made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in place of Josiah his father, and he changed his name to Jehoiakim. And he took Jehoahaz away; and he came to Egypt and he died there. (35) And the silver and the gold Jehoiakim gave to Pharaoh; but he taxed the land to give the silver according to the word of Pharaoh. Each man according to his assessment, he exacted t...

23:35 estimation, (c-49) Or 'assessment.'...