2 Chronicles 34:33

And Josiah took away all the abominations. — Of idolatry.

Out of all the countries... Israel. — Out of the territories of the Ten Tribes. The statement glances back to 2 Chronicles 34:6, and summarises the account of the abolition of heathenish worships, which follows here in 2 Kings 23:4.

And made... to serve, even to serve. — And made to serve... so as to serve; a unique phrase. The style of the verse is the chronicler’s.

All his days they departed not. — The king’s will secured an outward conformity to the legitimate cultus, and open idolatry was for the time being a peril too serious to be thought of. But the unreality of these reformations by royal mandate is proved by the relapse which immediately followed upon the death of Josiah. The moral corruption which at this epoch was preying upon the vitals of the nation, and hurrying it swiftly to destruction, is revealed in the pathetic pages of the prophet Jeremiah. (See Jeremiah 11:1; Jeremiah 13:27; Jeremiah 16:20; Jeremiah 17:1, &c.)