The priests of the family of Zadok alone shall be priests in the new Temple. These continued faithful to Jehovah when the provincial priests went far from him. The judgment of the prophet may be to some extent a comparative one. The worship at Jerusalem never sank to the level of the licentiousness and corruption prevailing at the rural sanctuaries, though undoubtedly the record of the reform of Josiah reveals great corruptions at Jerusalem also (2 Kings 23). How far these were introduced by the kings, such as Manasseh, despite the opposition of the priests, cannot be ascertained. The reforms of Hezekiah most probably, and certainly those of Josiah, were promoted by the priests (2 Kings 22). The family of Zadok dates from Solomon, who deposed Abiathar on account of his favouring the pretensions of Adonijah and installed Zadok in his place. Since those remote times the Zadokites had served in the temple, and upon the whole the prophet's favourable judgment of them is no doubt justified (cf. 2 Kings 11; Isaiah 8:2).

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