Josiah's Reforms and the Discovery of the Law

2 CHRO ICLES 34 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
Josiah’s Reforms
1 Josiah was eight years old when he became king,
and he reigned in Jerusalem thirty-one years.
BAR ES, "Compare the parallel history of 2 Kings 22 notes; 23:1-30 notes; the
writer here being more full on the celebration of the Passover. The only approach to a
discrepancy between the two narratives is with respect to the time of the religions
reformation, which the writer of Chronicles distinctly places before, the author of Kings
after, the repair of the temple. The best explanation seems to be, that the author of Kings
has departed from the chronological order, to which he makes no profession of
adhering.
GILL 1-2, "Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign,.... Of these two
verses; see Gill on 2Ki_22:1; see Gill on 2Ki_22:2.
HE RY 1-7, "Concerning Josiah we are here told, 1. That he came to the crown when
he was very young, only eight years old (yet his infancy did not debar him from his
right), and he reigned thirty-one years (2Ch_34:1), a considerable time. I fear, however,
that in the beginning of his reign things went much as they had done in his father's time,
because, being a child, he must have left the management of them to others; so that it
was not till his twelfth year, which goes far in the number of his years, that the
reformation began, 2Ch_34:3. He could not, as Hezekiah did, fall about it immediately.
2. That he reigned very well (2Ch_34:2), approved himself to God, trod in the steps of
David, and did not decline either to the right hand of to the left: for there are errors on
both hands. 3. That while he was young, about sixteen years old, he began to seek after
God, 2Ch_34:3. We have reason to think he had not so good an education as Manasseh
had (it is well if those about him did not endeavour to corrupt and debauch him); yet he
thus sought God when he was young. It is the duty and interest of young people, and will
particularly be the honour of young gentlemen, as soon as they come to years of
understanding, to begin to seek God; for those that seek him early shall find him. 4. That
in the twelfth year of his reign, when it is probable he took the administration of the
government entirely into his own hands, he began to purge his kingdom from the
remains of idolatry; he destroyed the high places, groves, images, altars, all the utensils
of idolatry, v. 3, 4. He not only cast them out as Manasseh did, but broke them to pieces,
and made dust of them. This destruction of idolatry is here said to be in his twelfth year,
but it was said (2Ki_23:23) to be in his eighteenth year. Something was probably done

towards it in his twelfth year; then he began to purge out idolatry, but that good work
met with opposition, so that it was not thoroughly done till they had found the book of
the law six years afterwards. But here the whole work is laid together briefly which was
much more largely and particularly related in the Kings. His zeal carried him out to do
this, not only in Judah and Jerusalem, but in the cities of Israel too, as far as he had any
influence upon them.
JAMISO , "2Ch_34:1, 2Ch_34:2. Josiah’s good reign.
Josiah was eight years old — (See on 2Ki_22:1). The testimony borne to the
undeviating steadfastness of his adherence to the cause of true religion places his
character and reign in honorable contrast with those of many of his royal predecessors.
K&D, "Duration and spirit of Josiah's reign; agreeing with 2Ki_22:1, 2Ki_22:2, only
the note as to Josiah's mother being here omitted.
BE SO , ". Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign — The reader will
find the principal parts of this chapter explained at large in the notes on 2 Kings 22.
and 23., to which he is referred.
COFFMA , "THE DISCOVERY OF THE BOOK OF MOSES I THE TEMPLE
XV. JOSIAH (640-609 B.C.)
With the exception of 2Chr. 34:3-7,2 Chronicles 36:22,23, all of the events in these
three concluding chapters of Second Chronicles we have already discussed in the
parallel accounts in 2 Kings 22:1-25:12, where we have devoted pages 273 to 330 to
our comments. We shall be content here, in the principal part, to refer the reader to
our Commentary on Second Kings. There are variations, to be sure; but there are
no irreconcilable differences.
THE REFORMS OF JOSIAH
"Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign; and he reigned thirty one years
in Jerusalem. And he did that which was right in the eyes of Jehovah, and walked in
the ways of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left.
For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the
God of David his father; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and
Jerusalem of the high places, and the Asherim, and the graven images, and the
molten images. And they brake down the altars of the Baalim in his presence; and
the sun-images that were on high above them he hewed down; and the Asherim, and
the graven images, and the molten images, he brake in pieces, and made dust of
them, and strewed it upon the graves of them that had sacrificed unto them. And he

burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars, and purged Judah and Jerusalem.
And so did he in the cities of Manasseh and Ephraim and Simeon, even unto
aphtali, in their ruins round about. And he brake down the altars, and beat the
Asherim and the graven images into powder, and hewed down all the sun-images
throughout all the land of Israel, and returned to Jerusalem."
This paragraph, of course, contains material not mentioned in the parallel accounts;
but all that is stated here is fully in keeping with the character and purpose of this
zealous young king who was intent on turning Israel back to their true worship. All
of those images, pillars, high places, Asherim, etc., were specifically condemned, not
only in the Decalogue, but in the commandment of God through Moses that all such
things were to be destroyed by the Israelites when they came into the land of
Canaan. The shame of all Israel was that they not only disobeyed God's
commandments in these particulars, but they adopted the licentious pagan worship
of their predecessors in Canaan; and even sinned worse than the people whom God
had driven out before Israel (2 Chronicles 33:9).
ELLICOTT, "THE REIG OF JOSIAH (2 Chronicles 34-35).
The history of Josiah, as related here, is in substantial agreement with the narrative
of 2 Kings 22, 23 The main difference lies in the fact that the chronicler assigns the
various reforms of this king to his eighth, twelfth, and eighteenth years; whereas the
compiler of Kings groups them all together, in connection with the repair of the
Temple and finding of the Book of the Law, in the eighteenth year of the reign. Our
account, moreover, briefly describes the suppression of idolatry, and dwells at great
length on the celebration of the Passover; in Kings the contrary is the case.
Verse 1
(1) Josiah was eight years old.—So 2 Kings 22:1, which adds, “and his mother’s
name was Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah of Boscath.”
GUZIK, "A. The beginnings of Josiah’s reforms.
1. (2 Chronicles 34:1-2) A summary of the reign of Josiah, the son of Amon.
Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in
Jerusalem. And he did what was right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the
ways of his father David; he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.
a. Josiah was eight years old when he became king: Unusually, this young boy came
to the throne at eight years of age. This was because of the assassination of his
father.
i. “At last, after more than three hundred years, the prophecy of ‘the man of God
out of Judah’ is fulfilled (1 Kings 13:2).” (Knapp)

b. He did what was right in the sight of the LORD: This was true of Josiah at this
young age; but it is really more intended as a general description of his reign rather
than a description of him at eight years of age.
PULPIT, "This chapter, with the following, embraces the entire of the beneficent
reign of Josiah, son of Amon—the son an illustrious contrast to the father. The
parallel (2 Kings 22-23:30) is less full, and also, so far as chronology goes, less clear
in the earlier verses. For once the writer of Kings spends his strength more largely
than our compiler on the moral and religious aspects of Josiah's work, and is rather
scantier in the detail of his external works for his nation, city of Jerusalem, and
temple. He, however, gives very much less prominence to the matter of the
celebration of the Passover.
2 Chronicles 34:1
Again the name of the mother is omitted. From the parallel we learn she was
"Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah of Boscath."
EBC, "THE LAST KI GS OF JUDAH
2 Chronicles 34:1-33; 2 Chronicles 35:1-27; 2 Chronicles 36:1-23
WHATEVER influence Manasseh’s reformation exercised over his people
generally, the taint of idolatry was not removed from his own family. His son Amon
succeeded him at the age of two-and-twenty. Into his reign of two years he
compressed all the varieties of wickedness once practiced by his father, and undid
the good work of Manasseh’s later years. He recovered the graven images which
Manasseh had discarded, replaced them in their shrines, and worshipped them
instead of Jehovah. But in his case there was no repentance, and he was cut off in
his youth.
In the absence of any conclusive evidence as to the date of Manasseh’s reformation,
we cannot determine with certainty whether Amon received his early training
before or after his father returned to the worship of Jehovah. In either case
Manasseh’s earlier history would make it difficult for him to counteract any evil
influence that drew Amon towards idolatry. Amon could set the example and
perhaps the teaching of his father’s former days against any later exhortations to
righteousness. When a father has helped to lead his children astray, he cannot be
sure that he will carry them with him in his repentance.
After Amon’s assassination the people placed his son Josiah on the throne. Like
Joash and Manasseh, Josiah was a child, only eight years old. The chronicler follows
the general line of the history in the book of Kings, modifying, abridging, and
expanding, but introducing no new incidents; the reformation, the repairing of the

Temple, the discovery of the book of the Law, the Passover, Josiah’s defeat and
death at Megiddo, are narrated by both historians. We have only to notice
differences in a somewhat similar treatment of the same subject.
Beyond the general statement that Josiah "did that which was right in the eyes of
Jehovah" we hear nothing about him in the book of Kings till the eighteenth year of
his reign, and his reformation and putting away of idolatry are placed in that year.
The chronicler’s authorities corrected the statement that the pious king tolerated
idolatry for eighteen years. They record bow in the eighth year of his reign, when he
was sixteen, he began to seek after the God of David; and in his twelfth year he set
about the work of utterly destroying idols throughout the whole territory of Israel,
in the cities and ruins of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, even unto aphtali, as
well as in Judah and Benjamin. Seeing that the cities assigned to Simeon were in the
south of Judah, it is a little difficult to understand why they appear with the
northern tribes, unless they are reckoned with them technically to make up the
ancient number.
The consequence of this change of date is that in Chronicles the reformation
precedes the discovery of the book of the Law, whereas in the older history this
discovery is the cause of the reformation. The chronicler’s account of the idols and
other apparatus of false worship destroyed by Josiah is much less detailed than that
of the book of Kings. To have reproduced the earlier narrative in full would have
raised serious difficulties. According to the chronicler, Manasseh had purged
Jerusalem of idols and idol altars; and Amon alone was responsible for any that
existed there at the accession of Josiah: but in the book of Kings Josiah found in
Jerusalem the altars erected by the kings of Judah and the horses they had given to
the sun. Manasseh’s altars still stood in the courts of the Temple; and over against
Jerusalem there still-remained the high places that Solomon had built for Ashtoreth,
Chemosh, and Milcom. As the chronicler in describing Solomon’s reign carefully
omitted all mention of his sins, so he omits this reference to his idolatry. Moreover,
if he had inserted it, he would have had to explain how these high places escaped the
zeal of the many pious kings who did away with the high places. Similarly, having
omitted the account of the man of God who prophesied the ruin of Jeroboam’s
sanctuary at Bethel, he here omits the fulfillment of that prophecy.
The account of the repairing of the Temple is enlarged by the insertion of various
details as to the names, functions, and zeal of the Levites, amongst whom those who
had skill in instruments of music seem to have had the oversight of the workmen.
We are reminded of the walls of Thebes, which rose out of the ground while
Orpheus played upon his flute. Similarly in the account of the assembly called to
hear the contents of the book of the Law the Levites are substituted for the
prophets. This book of the Law is said in Chronicles to have been given by Moses,
but his name is not connected with the book in the parallel narrative in the book of
Kings.
The earlier authority simply states that Josiah held a great passover; Chronicles, as
usual, describes the festival in detail. First of all, the king commanded the priests

and Levites to purify themselves and take their places in due order, so that they
might be ready to perform their sacred duties. The narrative is very obscure, but it
seems that either during the apostasy of Amon or on account of the recent Temple
repairs the Ark had been removed from the Holy of holies. The Law had specially
assigned to the Levites the duty of carrying the Tabernacle and its furniture, and
they seem to have thought that they were only bound to exercise the function of
carrying the Ark; they perhaps proposed to bear it in solemn procession round the
city as part of the celebration of the Passover, forgetting the words of David that the
Levites should no more carry the Tabernacle and its vessels. They would have been
glad to substitute this conspicuous and honorable service for the laborious and
menial work of flaying the victims. Josiah, however, commanded them to put the
Ark into the Temple and attend to their other duties.
ext, the king and his nobles provided beasts of various kinds for the sacrifices and
the Passover meal. Josiah’s gifts were even more munificent than those of Hezekiah.
The latter had given a thousand bullocks and ten thousand sheep; Josiah gave just
three times as many. Moreover, at Hezekiah’s passover no offerings of the princes
are mentioned, but now they added their gifts to those of the king. The heads of the
priesthood provided three hundred Oxen and two thousand six hundred small cattle
for the priests, and the chiefs of the Levites five hundred oxen and five thousand
small cattle for the Levites. But numerous as were the victims at Josiah’s passover,
they still fell far short of the great sacrifice of twenty-two thousand oxen and a
hundred and twenty thousand sheep which Solomon offered at the dedication of the
Temple.
Then began the actual work of the sacrifices: the victims were killed and flayed, and
their blood was sprinkled on the altar; the burnt-offerings were distributed among
the people; the Passover lambs were roasted, and the other offerings boiled, and the
Levites "carried them quickly to all the children of the people." Apparently private
individuals could not find the means of cooking the bountiful provision made for
them; and, to meet the necessity of the case, the Temple courts were made kitchen as
well as slaughterhouse for the assembled worshippers. The other offerings would
not be eaten with the Passover lamb, but would serve for the remaining days of the
feast.
The Levites not only provided for the people, for themselves, and the priests, but the
Levites who ministered in the matter of the sacrifices also prepared for their
brethren who were singers and porters, so that the latter were enabled to attend
undisturbed to their own special duties; all the members of the guild of porters were
at the gates maintaining order among the crowd of worshippers; and the full
strength of the orchestra and choir contributed to the beauty and solemnity of the
services. It was the greatest Passover held by any Israelite king.
Josiah’s passover, like that of Hezekiah, was followed by a formidable foreign
invasion; but whereas Hezekiah was rewarded for renewed loyalty by a triumphant
deliverance, Josiah was defeated and slain. These facts subject the chronicler’s
theory of retribution to a severe strain. His perplexity finds pathetic expression in

the opening words of the new section, "After all this," after all the idols had been
put away, after the celebration of the most magnificent Passover the monarchy had
ever seen. After all this, when we looked for the promised rewards of piety-for
fertile seasons, peace and prosperity at home, victory and dominion abroad, tribute
from subject peoples, and wealth from successful commerce - after all this, the rout
of the armies of Jehovah at Megiddo, the flight and death of the wounded king, the
lamentation over Josiah, the exaltation of a nominee of Pharaoh to the throne, and
the payment of tribute to the Egyptian king. The chronicler has no complete
explanation of this painful mystery, but he does what he can to meet the difficulties
of the case. Like the great prophets in similar instances, he regards the heathen king
as charged with a Divine commission. Pharaoh’s appeal to Josiah to remain neutral
should have been received by the Jewish king as an authoritative message from
Jehovah. It was the failure to discern in a heathen king the mouthpiece and prophet
of Jehovah that cost Josiah his life and Judah its liberty.
The chronicler had no motive for lingering over the last sad days of the monarchy;
the rest of his narrative is almost entirely abridged from the book of Kings.
Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah pass over the scene in rapid and
melancholy succession. In the case of Jehoahaz, who only reigned three months, the
chronicler omits the unfavorable judgment recorded in the book of Kings; but he
repeats it for the other three, even for the poor lad of eight who was carried away
captive after a reign of three months and ten days. The chronicler had not learnt
that kings can do no wrong; on the other hand, the ungodly policy of Jehoiachin’s
ministers is labeled with the name of the boy-sovereign.
Each of these kings in turn was deposed and carried away into captivity, unless
indeed Jehoiakim is an exception. In the book of Kings we are told that he slept with
his fathers, i.e., that he died and was buried in the royal tombs at Jerusalem, a
statement which the LXX inserts here also, specifying, however, that he was buried
in the garden of Uzza. If the pious Josiah were punished for a single error by defeat
and death, why was the wicked Jehoiakim allowed to reign till the end of his life and
then die in his bed? The chronicler’s information differed from that of the earlier
narrative in a way that removed, or at any rate suppressed the difficulty. He omits
the statement that Jehoiakim slept with his fathers, and tells us that
ebuchadnezzar bound him in fetters to carry him to Babylon. Casual readers
would naturally suppose that this purpose was carried out, and that the Divine
justice was satisfied by Jehoiakim’s death in captivity; and yet if they compared this
passage with that in the book of Kings, it might occur to them that after the king
had been put in chains something might have led ebuchadnezzar to change his
mind, or, like Manasseh, Jehoiakim might have repented and been allowed to
return. But it is very doubtful whether the chronicler’s authorities contemplated the
possibility of such an interpretation; it is scarcely fair to credit them with all the
subtle devices of modern commentators.
The real conclusion of the chronicler’s history of the kings of the house of David is a
summary of the sins of the last days of the monarchy and of the history of its final
ruin in 2 Chronicles 36:14-20. All the chief of the priests and of the people were

given over to the abominations of idolatry; and in spite of constant and urgent
admonitions from the prophets of Jehovah, they hardened their hearts, and mocked
the messengers of God, and despised His words, and misused His prophets, until the
wrath of Jehovah arose against His people, and there was no healing.
However, to this peroration a note is added that the length of the Captivity was
fixed at seventy years, in order that the land might "enjoy her sabbaths." This note
rests upon Leviticus 25:1-7, according to which the land was to be left fallow every
seventh year. The seventy years’ captivity would compensate for seventy periods of
six years each during which no sabbatical years had been observed. Thus the
Captivity, with the four hundred and twenty previous years of neglect, would be
equivalent to seventy sabbatical periods. There is no economy in keeping back what
is due to God.
Moreover, the editor who separated Chronicles from the book of Ezra and
ehemiah was loath to allow the first part of the history to end in a gloomy record
of sin and ruin. Modern Jews, in reading the last chapter of Isaiah, rather than
conclude with the ill-omened words of the last two verses, repeat a previous portion
of the chapter. So here to the history of the ruin of Jerusalem the editor has
appended two verses from the opening of the book of Ezra, which contain the decree
of Cyrus authorizing the return from the Captivity. And thus Chronicles concludes
in the middle of a sentence which is completed in the book of Ezra: "Who is there
among you of all his people? Jehovah his God be with him, and let him go up." {2
Chronicles 36:23}
Such a conclusion suggests two considerations which will form a fitting close to our
exposition. Chronicles is not a finished work; it has no formal end; it rather breaks
off abruptly like an interrupted diary. In like manner the book of Kings concludes
with a note as to the treatment of the captive Jehoiachin at Babylon: the last verse
runs, "And for his allowance there was a continual allowance given him of the king,
every day a portion, all the days of his life." The book of ehemiah has a short final
prayer: "Remember me, O my God, for good"; but the preceding paragraph is
simply occupied, with the arrangements for the wood offering and the firstfruits. So
in the ew Testament the history of the Church breaks off with the statement that
St. Paul abode two whole years in his own hired house, preaching the kingdom of
God. The sacred writers recognize the continuity of God’s dealings with His people;
they do not suggest that one period can be marked off by a clear dividing line or
interval from another. Each historian leaves, as it were, the loose ends of his work
ready to be taken up and continued by his successors. The Holy Spirit seeks to
stimulate the Church to a forward outlook, that it may expect and work for a future
wherein the power and grace of God will be no less manifest than in the past.
Moreover, the final editor of Chronicles has shown himself unwilling that the book
should conclude with a gloomy record of sin and ruin, and has appended a few lines
to remind his readers of the new life of faith and hope that lay beyond the Captivity.
In so doing, he has echoed the key-note of prophecy: ever beyond man’s
transgression and punishment the prophets saw the vision of his forgiveness and
restoration to God.

PARKER, "King Josiah
2 Chronicles 34
WE have been accustomed to the play of light and shade in these historic studies; we
have had a good deal of shade in the last two reigns. ow comes light. Josiah was
next made king.
"And he reigned in Jerusalem one and thirty years" ( 2 Chronicles 34:1).
"And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the ways of
David his father, and declined neither to the right hand, nor to the left" ( 2
Chronicles 34:2).
Then he had more fathers than one. That is the explanation. You are not the son of
the man that went immediately before you; you are his son only in a very incidental
manner. Josiah was the son of "David his father,"—the larger father, the deeper
root, the elect of God; a sun fouled by many a black spot, but a shining orb
notwithstanding.
We must enlarge our view if we would come to right conclusions regarding many
mysteries. Amon was but a link in the chain. The bad man here, or the good man
there, taken in his solitariness, is but a comparatively trivial incident in life"s
tragedy. Heredity is not from one to two; it is from one to the last; from the
beginning to the ending. In every man there lives all the humanity that ever lived.
We are fearfully and wonderfully made—not physically only, but morally,
religiously, temperamentally. All the kings live in the last king or the reigning
monarch. We are one humanity. Solidarity has its lessons as well as individuality.
We know not which of our ancestors comes up in us at this moment or that—now
the tiger, now the eagle; now the praying mother, now the daring sire; now some
mean soul that got into the current by a mystery never to be explained; now the
cunning, watchful, patient deceiver, who can wait for nights at a time and never
complain of the dark or the cold; and now the hero that never had a fear; the
philanthropist that loved the world; the mother that never looked otherwise than
God himself would have her look. We can never tell which of our ancestors is really
thinking in us, speaking through us; we cannot tell the accent of the immediate
consciousness;—these are mysteries, and when the judgment comes it will be based
upon all the ground, and not upon incidental points here and there, which by their
very solitariness may be easily misjudged. Blessed be God for some men who take us
back into ancient history. Josiah, like some other of the kings of Judah, is traced
immediately, as it were, to David. There are men who seem to come up from
centuries: how quaint they are! what unique views they take of life, education,
discipline, and destiny! how curiously, with what a sub-consciousness, they think
and pray and work! They are mysteries, they are called eccentricities, they are never
denominated commonplaces; they speak in the nineteenth century the language of

four thousand years ago; and let the news of the day be what it may, when they
relate it it has about it all the flavour of an Old Testament story. We cannot tell, let
us repeat, who may be uppermost in us at any particular moment.
Beautiful is the picture of Josiah"s reign—
MACLARE , "JOSIAH
Another boy king, even younger than his grandfather Manasseh had been at
his accession, and another reversal of the father’s religion! These vibrations
from idolatry to Jehovah-worship, at the pleasure of the king, sadly tell how
little the people cared whom they worshipped, and how purely a matter of
ceremonies and names both their idolatry and their Jehovah-worship were.
The religion of the court was the religion of the nation, only idolatry was
more congenial than the service of God. How far the child monarch Josiah
had a deeper sense of what that service meant we cannot decide, but the
little outline sketch of him in 2Ch_34:2-3 is at least suggestive of his having
it, and may well stand as a fair portrait of early godliness.
A child eight years old, who had been lifted on to the throne of a murdered
father, must have had a strong will and a love of goodness to have resisted
the corrupting influences of royalty in a land full of idols. Here again we see
that, great as may be the power of circumstances, they do not determine
character; for it is always open to us either to determine whether we yield to
them or resist them. The prevailing idolatry influenced the boy, but it
influenced him to hate it with all his heart. So out of the nettle danger we
may pluck the flower safety. The men who have smitten down some evil
institution have generally been brought up so as to feel its full force.
‘He did that which was right in the eyes of Jehovah’-that may mean simply
that he worshipped Jehovah by outward ceremonies, but it probably means
more; namely, that his life was pure and God-pleasing, or, as we should say,
clean and moral, free from the foul vices which solicit a young prince. ‘He
walked in the ways of David his father’-not being one of the ‘emancipated’
youths who think it manly to throw off the restraints of their fathers’ faith
and morals. He ‘turned not aside to the right hand or to the left’-but
marched right onwards on the road that conscience traced out for him,
though tempting voices called to him from many a side-alley that seemed to
lead to pleasant places. ‘While he was yet young, he began to seek after the
God of David his father’-at the critical age of sixteen, when Easterns are
older than we, in the flush of early manhood, he awoke to deeper
experiences and felt the need for a closer touch of God. A career thus begun
will generally prelude a life pure, strenuous, and blessed with a clearer and
clearer vision of the God who is always found of them that seek Him. Such a
childhood, blossoming into such a boyhood, and flowering in such a
manhood, is possible to every child among us. It will ‘still bring forth fruit in
old age.’
The two incidents which the passage narrates, the purging of the land and
the repair of the Temple, are told in inverted order in 2 Kings, but the order
here is probably the more accurate, as dates are given, whereas in 2 Kings,

though the purging is related after the Temple restoration, it is not said to
have occurred after. But the order is of small consequence. What is
important is the fiery energy of Josiah in the work of destruction of the
idols. Here, there, everywhere, he flames and consumes. He darts a flash
even into the desolate ruins of the Israelitish kingdom, where the idols had
survived their devotees and still bewitched the scanty fragments of Israel
that remained. The altars of stone were thrown down, the wooden sun-
pillars were cut to pieces, the metal images were broken and ground to
powder. A clean sweep was made.
A dash of ferocity mingled with contempt appears in Josiah’s scattering the
‘dust’ of the images on the graves of their worshippers, as if he said: ‘There
you lie together, pounded idols and dead worshippers, neither able to help
the other!’ The same feelings prompted digging up the skeletons of priests
and burning the bones on the very altars that they had served, thus defiling
the altars and executing judgment on the priests. No doubt there were much
violence and a strong strain of the ‘wrath of man’ in all this. Iconoclasts are
wont to be ‘violent’; and men without convictions, or who are partisans of
what the iconoclasts are rooting out, are horrified at their want of
‘moderation.’ But though violence is always unchristian, indifference to
rampant evils is not conspicuously more Christian, and, on the whole, you
cannot throttle snakes in a graceful attitude or without using some force to
compress the sinuous neck.
The restoration of the Temple comes after the cleansing of the land, in
Chronicles, and naturally in the order of events, for the casting out of idols
must always precede the building or repairing of the Temple of God.
Destructive work is very poor unless it is for the purpose of clearing a space
to build the Temple on. Happy the man or the age which is able to do both!
Josiah and Joash worked at restoring the Temple in much the same fashion,
but Josiah had a priesthood more interested than Joash had.
But we may note one or two points in his restoration. He had put his
personal effort into the preparatory extirpation of idols, but he did not need
to do so now. He could work this time by deputy. And it is noteworthy that
he chose ‘laymen’ to carry out the restoration. Perhaps he knew how Joash
had been balked by the knavery of the priests who were diligent in collecting
money, but slow in spending it on the Temple. At all events, he delegated the
work to three highly-placed officials, the secretary of state, the governor of
Jerusalem, and the official historian.
It appears that for some time a collection had been going on for Temple
repairs; probably it had been begun six years before, when the ‘purging’ of
the land began. It had been carried on by the Levites, and had been
contributed to even by ‘the remnant of Israel’ in the northern kingdom,
who, in their forlorn weakness, had begun to feel the drawings of ancient
brotherhood and the tie of a common worship. This fund was in the keeping
of the high priest, and the three commissioners were instructed to require it
from him. Here 2 Kings is clearer than our passage, and shows that what the
three officials had mainly to do was to get the money from Hilkiah, and to
hand it over to the superintendents of the works.
There are two remarkable points in the narrative; one is the observation
that ‘the men did the work faithfully,’ which comes in rather enigmatically

here, but in 2 Kings is given as the reason why no accounts were kept. Not
an example to be imitated, and the sure way to lead subordinates sooner or
later to deal unfaithfully; but a pleasant indication of the spirit animating
all concerned.
Surely these men worked ‘as ever in the great Taskmaster’s eye.’ That is
what makes us work faithfully, whether we have any earthly overseer or
audit or no. Another noteworthy matter is that not only were the
superintendents of the work-the ‘contractors,’ as we might say-Levites, but
so were also the inferior superintendents, or, as we might say, ‘foremen.’
And not only so, but they were those that ‘were skilful with instruments of
music.’ What were musicians doing there? Did the building rise
‘with the sound
Of dulcet symphonies and voices sweet?’
May we not gather from this singular notice the great thought that for all
rearing of the true Temple, harps of praise are no less necessary than
swords or trowels, and that we shall do no right work for God or man unless
we do it as with melody in our hearts? Our lives must be full of music if we
are to lay even one stone in the Temple.
BI 1-8, "Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign.
Josiah’s early piety
I. The possibility of youthful responsibility. Other children besides Josiah
have been called to the cares of a kingdom. Manasseh commenced to reign
at twelve, Joash was seven, Uzziah sixteen; Henry III and Edward VI of
England were both nine; four of the Scottish kings, James II, III, IV, and V,
ascended the throne when children. Of the French kings, Louis I. began to
reign at sixteen, Louis IX at eleven, Louis XIII at nine, Charles VI at eleven,
Charles IX at ten; Louis XIV, inheriting the kingdom at five, assumed full
control by his own force of character at thirteen. Charles I of Spain, better
known as Charles V of Germany, became king at sixteen; Charles II at
fourteen, seizing the kingdom from an ill-governing regency which had
existed since his fourth year.
II. Early piety is possible and desirable. When does the period of moral
accountability begin? We cannot fix it definitely. But this much is certain:
whenever the child can intelligently choose this or that because it is right or
wrong, then has moral accountability commenced, and the child can be a
Christian.
III. The influence of good advisers. Josiah was but a boy, and yet around
him were spiritual Titans—Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Jeremiah.
IV. The energy of youthful piety.
V. The influence of the surrounding atmosphere on piety. We must be
watchful against irreligious influences. (Monday Club Sermons.)

Importance of early piety
Ancient nations would not receive old men into their armies, as being unfit
for service. Let us not wait until we can only offer unto “Him who hath loved
us” dry and worthless bones. (W. M. Taylor, D.D.)
The example of Joash
There is at the top of the Queen’s staircase in Windsor Castle a statue from
the studio of Baron Triqueti, of Edward VI., marking with his sceptre a
passage in the Bible, which he holds in his left hand, and upon which he
earnestly looks. The passage is this concerning Josiah: “Josiah was eight
years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty and one years in
Jerusalem. And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and
walked in all the way of David, his father, and turned not aside to the right
hand or to the left.” The statue was erected by the will of the late Prince
Consort, who intended it to convey to his son the Divine principles by which
the future governor of England should mould his life and reign on the
throne of Great Britain. (T. Hughes.)
Early piety
I was admitted into the Church at the early age of eight. I don’t remember
that I experienced at the time any extraordinary work of God on my soul. I
loved Christ, and felt a strong desire to be identified with His people. When
I mentioned the fact to some of the deacons some of them looked askance,
and expressed grave doubts as to the propriety of allowing one so young to
sit at the Lord’s table. Among them, however, there were wiser men. Their
counsels prevailed, and after some months of probation I was admitted.
From that day until now I have never ceased to thank God that I was
induced to take the important step at the time I did. Had I not done so I
doubt whether I should have been a missionary—if a member of the
Christian Church at all. (Griffith Johns.)
Josiah the old-fashioned young man
As the sensitive plate in the photographic camera, when the person who sits
for a likeness is placed in a powerful light, takes an impression of him in
which every line upon the countenance and every furrow upon the brow are
exaggerated, so that the artist has to touch the negative in order to do him
simple justice, so, when a man sits in the fierce glare of public light, his
failings are so prominently recorded, and his defects so clearly brought out,
that it is necessary for us in fairness to touch the negative with the pencil of
charity, and thus soften down the defects. Remembering this, this
description of Josiah fills us with wonder. Consider—
I. His disadvantages.

1. His extreme youth.
2. The degeneracy of the times. He ascended the throne in a dark age.
3. He was the son of a bad father.
II. What is the explanation of his piety? It may have been largely due to the
quiet but all-powerful influence of a good mother. But there are wonders of
grace often wrought in the lives of the children of wicked men which you
cannot explain.
III. The manifestation of his piety. He “walked in the ways of David his
father.” Four hundred years separated Josiah from David. Thank God, there
are seasons, even in degenerate times, when the old purity of things is
restored, when the grand old faith is received and lived over again, and
when the heroism of those who are gone comes back like a new inspiration
to young lives. “Ah! he is an old-fashioned young man: he lives behind the
age; he ought to have been living in the time of David, for he has quite
adopted his ancient ways,” exclaimed some young men of the period. All the
conceited striplings of the day would join in the chorus, “Poor Josiah, he
does not move with the age. He is an eccentric young fellow, very puritanic
in his notions, and sings psalms as if he lived in the days of old King David.”
My young friends, a true man likes to be old-fashioned sometimes. It is
noble to move with the age when the age is going forward; but it is grand to
remain with the past when the age in which we live retrogrades from
ancient purity and ancient faith. When there is no spiritual vigour or moral
fibre in our day, it is well to stick to the old days when there were strength
and fibre in religion and morals. Do not be afraid of the charge of being old-
fashioned. It is cheaply made, and is often meaningless, save as it is the
highest possible compliment. Be in the company of the world’s best and
noblest men: never mind whether they live to-day, or whether they lived
eighteen hundred years ago, or even more. (D. Davies.)
2 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord
and followed the ways of his father David, not
turning aside to the right or to the left.
CLARKE, "He declined neither to the right hand, nor to the left - He never

swerved from God and truth; he never omitted what he knew to be his duty to God and
his kingdom; he carried on his reformation with a steady hand; timidity did not prevent
him from going far enough; and zeal did not lead him beyond due bounds. He walked in
the golden mean, and his moderation was known unto all men. He went neither to the
right nor to the left, he looked inward, looked forward, and looked upward. Reader, let
the conduct of this pious youth be thy exemplar through life.
ELLICOTT, "(2) And declined . . . the left.—So Kings. Josiah is the only king upon
whom this encomium is pronounced. It is equivalent to saying that his observance of
the law was perfect. Comp. Deuteronomy 5:32; Deuteronomy 17:20 (the law of the
king), 28:14.
3 In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still
young, he began to seek the God of his father
David. In his twelfth year he began to purge
Judah and Jerusalem of high places, Asherah
poles and idols.
BAR ES, "He began to purge Judah - Jeremiah’s first prophecies Jer. 2–3
appear to have been coincident with Josiah’s earlier efforts to uproot idolatry, and must
have greatly strengthened his hands.
GILL, "For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young,.... Being in
the sixteenth year of his age; though Kimchi thinks it was the very year he began to
reign, which was the eighth of his age; and Jarchi observes, it may be interpreted,
"though he was young, he began to seek after the God of David his father"; to pray unto
him, to seek after the knowledge of him, and the true manner of worshipping him, what
were his will, commands, and ordinances; the Targum is,"to seek instruction or doctrine
of the Lord God of David his father,''to be taught his ways, such as David his great
ancestor walked in, and whom he chose to follow:
and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the
high places, and the groves and the carved images, and the molten images;
which were made in the times of Manasseh; and though removed by him when humbled,
were restored in the reign of Amon. Now Josiah purged the land from these, by putting
them down, and destroying them; and this he did when he was twenty years of age,

having now more authority, being out of his minority, and from under guardians, and
one year before Jeremiah began to prophesy, Jer_1:1.
JAMISO , "2Ch_34:3-7. He destroys idolatry.
in the eighth year of his reign — This was the sixteenth year of his age, and, as the
kings of Judah were considered minors till they had completed their thirteenth year, it
was three years after he had attained majority. He had very early manifested the piety
and excellent dispositions of his character. In the twelfth year of his reign, but the
twentieth of his age, he began to take a lively interest in the purgation of his kingdom
from all the monuments of idolatry which, in his father’s short reign, had been erected.
At a later period, his increasing zeal for securing the purity of divine worship led him to
superintend the work of demolition in various parts of his dominion. The course of the
narrative in this passage is somewhat different from that followed in the Book of Kings.
For the historian, having made allusion to the early manifestation of Josiah’s zeal, goes
on with a full detail of all the measures this good king adopted for the extirpation of
idolatry; whereas the author of the Book of Kings sets out with the cleansing of the
temple, immediately previous to the celebration of the Passover, and embraces that
occasion to give a general description of Josiah’s policy for freeing the land from
idolatrous pollution. The exact chronological order is not followed either in Kings or
Chronicles. But it is clearly recorded in both that the abolition of idolatry began in the
twelfth and was completed in the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign. Notwithstanding
Josiah’s undoubted sincerity and zeal and the people’s apparent compliance with the
king’s orders, he could not extinguish a strongly rooted attachment to idolatries
introduced in the early part of Manasseh’s reign. This latent predilection appears
unmistakably developed in the subsequent reigns, and the divine decree for the removal
of Judah, as well as Israel, into captivity was irrevocably passed.
K&D 3-4, "Extirpation of idolatry. In the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet a
youth, being then only sixteen years old, Josiah began to seek the God of his ancestor
David, and in the twelfth year of his reign he commenced to purify Judah and Jerusalem
from the high places, Asherim, etc. The cleansing of the land of Judah from the
numerous objects of idolatry is summarily described in 2Ch_34:4 and 2Ch_34:5; and
thereupon there follows (2Ch_34:6 and 2Ch_34:7) the destruction of the idolatrous
altars and images in the land of Israel, - all that it seemed necessary to say on that
subject being thus mentioned at once. For that all this was not accomplished in the
twelfth year is clear from the ‫ר‬ ֵ‫ה‬ ַ‫ט‬ ְ‫ל‬ ‫ל‬ ֵ‫ח‬ ֵ‫,ה‬ “he commenced to cleanse,” and is moreover
attested by 2Ch_34:33. The description of this destruction of the various objects of
idolatry is rhetorically expressed, only carved and cast images being mentioned, besides
the altars of the high places and the Asherim, without the enumeration of the different
kings of idolatry which we find in 2 Kings 23:4-20. - On 2Ch_34:4, cf. 2Ch_31:1. ‫צ‬ ְ ַ‫נ‬ְ‫,י‬
they pulled down before him, i.e., under his eye, or his oversight, the altars of the Baals
(these are the ‫ּות‬‫מ‬ ָ , 2Ch_34:3); and the sun-pillars (cf. 2Ch_14:4) which stood upwards,
i.e., above, upon the altars, he caused to be hewn away from them (‫ם‬ ֶ‫יה‬ ֵ‫ל‬ ֲ‫ע‬ ֵ‫;)מ‬ the Asherim
(pillars and trees of Asherah) and the carved and molten images to be broken and
ground (‫ק‬ ַ‫ד‬ ֵ‫,ה‬ cf. 2Ch_15:16), and (the dust of them) to be strewn upon the graves (of
those) who had sacrificed to them. ‫ים‬ ִ‫ח‬ ְ‫ּב‬ ַ‫ה‬ is connected directly with ‫ים‬ ִ‫ר‬ ָ‫ב‬ ְ ַ‫,ה‬ so that the
actions of those buried in them are poetically attributed to the graves. In 2Ki_23:6 this is

said only of the ashes of the Asherah statue which was burnt, while here it is rhetorically
generalized.
BE SO , "2 Chronicles 34:3. While he was yet young — In the sixteenth year of his
age; when he was entering into the age of temptation, and had the administration of
his kingdom wholly in his own power, and none to restrain him, even then he begins
to be religious in good earnest.
ELLICOTT, "(3) For.— ow.
In the eighth year.—The specifications of time in this verse are peculiar to the
chronicler.
While he was yet young.—Being about sixteen.
He began to seek.—2 Chronicles 17:3-4; 1 Chronicles 13:3.
And in the twelfth year.—When, perhaps, he began to govern alone.
He began to purge.—It is not said that the whole work was completed in the twelfth
year; indeed, 2 Chronicles 34:33 implies the contrary. But the writer having begun
the story of the destruction of idolatrous objects, naturally continues it to its close,
though that properly belongs to Josiah’s eighteenth year (2 Kings 22:3, compared
with 2 Kings 23:4 seq.). It is not, therefore, clear (as Thenius asserts) that the
chronicler has put the extirpation of idolatry first, simply to show that the pious
king needed no special prompting to such a course; or that, as oldeke supposes, the
writer meant to clear this highly-extolled king from the reproach of having quietly
put up with the abomination for full eighteen years.
The high places.—2 Kings 23:5; 2 Kings 23:8-9; 2 Kings 23:13.
The groves.—The Asherim (2 Kings 23:4; 2 Kings 6:7; 2 Kings 6:14). There was an
Asherah in the Temple, as well as in the high places which Solomon built for
Ashtoreth, Chemosh, and Milcom. The carved and molten images are not mentioned
in the parallel passage, which, however, gives a much clearer and more original
description of the different kinds of idolatry abolished by Josiah. (The Syriac has,
“he began to root out the altars, and idols, and leopards, and chapels, and collars,
and bells, and all the trees which they made for the idols.”)
(3-7) Idolatry extirpated. This brief account is parallel to 2 Kings 23:4-20.
GUZIK, "2. (2 Chronicles 34:3-7) Josiah against idolatry in Judah and the former
Kingdom of Israel.

For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the
God of his father David; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and
Jerusalem of the high places, the wooden images, the carved images, and the molded
images. They broke down the altars of the Baals in his presence, and the incense
altars which were above them he cut down; and the wooden images, the carved
images, and the molded images he broke in pieces, and made dust of them and
scattered it on the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. He also burned the
bones of the priests on their altars, and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem. And so he
did in the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, as far as aphtali and all
around, with axes. When he had broken down the altars and the wooden images,
had beaten the carved images into powder, and cut down all the incense altars
throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem.
a. He began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the wooden images,
the carved images, and the molded images: The worship of this great variety of idols
was entrenched after the reign of Amon. The late reforms of Manasseh helped
against this trend, but since the short but wicked reign of Amon there was much
idolatry in the land.
i. The variety of idols described This shows how deep idolatry was in Judah. There
were idols dedicated to Baal and to Asherah (2 Kings 23:4) and to all the host of
heaven (2 Kings 23:5) in the very temple itself (2 Kings 23:4). From the 2 Kings
account, it seems that Josiah began the cleansing reforms at the center and worked
outwards.
ii. “ ‘Seeking’ in Chronicles describes the habit of looking to God in every situation,
and also the attitude which God looks for in those who pray (2 Chronicles 7:14;
2Ch_30:19).” (Selman)
iii. In the twelfth year: Payne connects this with “a particular time of chaos that
occurred throughout the ancient ear East and that was precipitated by an invasion
from the north of barbaric, nomadic horsemen known as the Scythians (628-626
B.C.) . . . Their incursions wrought terror among complacent Jews (Jeremiah 6:22-
24; Zephaniah 1:12).”
iv. “Five or six several words are here used, to show how he mawled them, and made
mortar of them, as we say; such was his holy indignation, zeal, and revenge.”
(Trapp)
b. He also burned the bones of the priests on their altars: Josiah did this both to
carry out the prescribed punishment of idolatrous priests in Israel and to defile
these pagan altars.
i. Josiah’s reforms did not only remove sinful things, but also the sinful people that
promoted and permitted these sinful things. The idols that filled the temple did not
get there or stay there on their own - there were priests who were responsible for
these sinful practices.

ii. Any thorough reformation can not only deal with sinful things; it must also deal
with sinful people. If sinful people are not dealt with, they will quickly bring back
the sinful things that were righteously removed.
c. And so he did in the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon . . . throughout all
the land of Israel: Since the Kingdom of Israel had been conquered by the Assyrian
Empire and was in the process of being depopulated in exile, Josiah could extend his
reforms there also.
i. “Even unto aphtali; which was in the utmost and northern borders of the
kingdom of Israel. For it must be remembered that the ten tribes were now gone
into captivity; and those who were come in their stead were weak and few, and not
able to withstand the power of Josiah.” (Poole)
PULPIT, "This, with the following four verses, forms the commentary on the
statement of 2 Chronicles 34:2, that Josiah "declined neither to the right hand, nor
to the left." We cannot mistake the allusion in this verse to his personal religion at,
say, sixteen years of age, as the foundation of his religious reign and of the practical
devotion to reformation, instanced as commencing with his twentieth year. It may
be here noted that the Prophet Jeremiah was called to his work in the year following
thereupon, or, perhaps, the very same year (Jeremiah 1:1, Jeremiah 1:2). It is highly
likely that Josiah and Jeremiah were given to one another providentially, to
cooperate in all good works, now so needed for Church and state. The three dates of
the eighth, twelfth, and (verse 8) the eighteenth year of Josiah's reign wore dates
memorable in his life. For the two kinds of images of this verse, see succeeding note.
4 Under his direction the altars of the Baals were
torn down; he cut to pieces the incense altars that
were above them, and smashed the Asherah poles
and the idols. These he broke to pieces and
scattered over the graves of those who had
sacrificed to them.

BAR ES, "The images - Margin, sun-images. See Lev_26:30 note.
CLARKE, "The altars of Baalim - How often have these been broken down, and
how soon set up again! We see that the religion of a land is as the religion of its king. If
the king were idolatrous, up went the altars, on them were placed the statues, and the
smoke of incense ascended in ceaseless clouds to the honor of that which is vanity, and
nothing to the world; on the other hand, when the king was truly religious, down went
the idolatrous altars, broken in pieces were the images, and the sacrificial smoke
ascended only to the true God: in all these cases the people were as one man with the
king.
GILL, "And they broke down the altars of Baalim in his presence,.... He not
only ordered them to be broke down, but he went in person, and saw it done; these were
the altars Manasseh had reared up to the idols; and though upon his humiliation he cast
them out, they were rebuilt by Amon his son, see 2Ch_33:3,
and the images that were above them he cut down; sun images, as the word
signifies; these Chamanim might be representatives of Cham or Ham, the son of Noah,
the same with Jupiter Ammon; and there was another Heathen deity, Amanus, Strabo
(w) speaks of, supposed to be the sun; see Gill on Lev_26:30, these, as Jarchi says, were
in the form of the sun, and were set above the altars, over against the sun, to whom
worship was paid; though some think this respects not place, but time, and that these
were images in times past; in the preceding age, as the Tigurine version:
and the groves, and the carved images and the molten images, he brake in
pieces; ordered them to be broken; the groves were statues, or images in groves, and
thereby distinguished from those made of wood, and were carved, and from those that
were of molten metal, and were placed elsewhere:
and made dust of them, and strewed it upon the graves of them that had
sacrificed unto them, see 2Ki_23:6.
JAMISO , "the graves of them that had sacrificed unto them — He treated
the graves themselves as guilty of the crimes of those who were lying in them [Bertheau].
ELLICOTT, "(4) Of Baalim.—Of the Baals. 2 Kings 23:4-5, “the Baal.”
In his presence.—Comp. 2 Kings 23:16, from which it appears that Josiah
personally superintended the work of demolition.
The images.—Sun statues (2 Chronicles 14:4).
That were on high above them, he cut down.—Or, that were above, from off them
he hewed.

The molten images.—Rather, the maççebuth, or sacred pillars. (See 2 Kings 23:14.)
Made dust of them.—2 Kings 23:6 (of an Asherah).
And showed . . . unto them.—Literally, and sprinkled upon the face of the graves
that used to sacrifice unto them, as if the graves were guilty. 2 Kings 23:6 relates this
of the temple Asherah only.
PULPIT, " ote references in Le 2 Chronicles 26:1, 30. The images, that were on
high above them; i.e; as Revised Version, the sun-images ( ‫ִים‬‫נ‬ָ‫מּ‬ַ‫ח‬ַ‫ה‬ ). The word and
name occur only eight times—in Leviticus as just quoted; in our Second Book of
Chronicles three times; in Isaiah twice; and in Ezekiel twice. The groves; i.e. the
Asherim; again as last verse. The carved images; Revised Version, graven images;
Hebrew, ‫ִים‬‫ל‬ִ‫ס‬ְ‫פ‬ַ‫ה‬ . This word is found twenty-two times, occurring in Deuteronomy,
Judges, Kings, Chronicles, Psalms, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, and Micah. The molten
images; Hebrew, ‫ֵכוֹת‬‫סּ‬ַ‫מּ‬ַ‫ה‬ . This word also occurs just twenty-two times, from Exodus
downwards. Made dust of them and strewed it (so Exodus 32:20; 2 Kings 23:6).
5 He burned the bones of the priests on their
altars, and so he purged Judah and Jerusalem.
CLARKE, "He burnt the bones of the priests - ‫כומריא‬ kumeraiya, the kemarim,
says the Targum. See this word explained, 2Ki_23:5 (note).
GILL, "And he burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars,.... On which
they sacrificed, in detestation of their idolatry, and to deter from it; and this he did
according to the prophecy of him, above three hundred and fifty years before:
and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem; from idolatry, and all the monuments of it.
JAMISO , "he burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars — A greater
brand of infamy could not have been put on idolatrous priests than the disinterment of
their bones, and a greater defilement could not have been done to the altars of idolatry

than the burning upon them the bones of those who had there officiated in their lifetime.
K&D, "And he burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars, i.e., he caused the
bones of the idolatrous priests to be taken from their graves and burnt on the spot where
the destroyed altars had stood, that he might defile the place with the ashes of the dead.
In these words is summarized what is stated in 2Ki_23:13 and 2Ki_23:14 as to the
defilement of the places of sacrifice built upon the Mount of Olives by the bones of the
dead, and in 2Ki_23:16-20 as to the burning of the bones of the high priests of Bethel,
after they had been taken from their graves, upon their own altars. ‫מזבחותים‬ is an
orthographical error for ‫ם‬ ָ‫ּות‬‫ח‬ ְ ְ‫ז‬ ִ‫.מ‬
ELLICOTT, "(5) And he burnt . . . upon their altar.—See 2 Kings 23:13-14; 2 Kings
23:16; 2 Kings 23:20 for details. Literally, and bones of priests he burnt. They were
bones taken from the graves of the idolatrous priests, who were thus punished,
while their altars were irreparably defiled. (For the horror with which such a
violation of the dead was then regarded, see Amos 2:1.)
And cleansed (i.e., “purged,” 2 Chronicles 34:3) Judah and Jerusalem.—This
phrase does not occur at all in the parallel account.
PULPIT, " ote herein the striking fulfilment of 1 Kings 13:1-3, of which our
parallel (2 Kings 23:12-14, 2 Kings 23:16-20) gives a more detailed account,
especially as regards Israel, though not failing to recognize Judah and Jerusalem's
share in the need of purgation and punishment.
6 In the towns of Manasseh, Ephraim and Simeon,
as far as aphtali, and in the ruins around them,
BAR ES, "The power of Assyria being now (629-624 B.C.) greatly weakened, if not
completely broken, Josiah aimed not merely at a religious reformation, but at a
restoration of the kingdom to its ancient limits (see the 2Ki_23:19 note).
With their mattocks ... - Or “in their desolate places” (compare Psa_109:10).
Another reading gives the sense, “he proved their house round about.”

CLARKE, "The cities of Manasseh - Even those who were under the government
of the Israelitish king permitted their idols and places of idolatry to be hewn down and
destroyed: after the truth was declared and acknowledged, the spade and the axe were
employed to complete the reformation.
GILL, "And so did he in the cities of Manasseh, and Ephraim, and Simeon,
even unto Naphtali,.... Which though they belonged to the ten tribes, yet these being
carried captive by the king of Assyria, they that were left became subject to the kings of
Judah; see Gill on 2Ki_23:19,
with their mattocks round about; or hammers or mauls, as Kimchi, or pick axes,
such sort of instruments as were used in demolishing altars and images: the Targum
is,"in the house of their desolation;''
and so other versions, "in their desolate places" (x), which were become such, the
inhabitants being carried captive, and few left behind.
JAMISO , "with their mattocks — or, “in their deserts” - so that the verse will
stand thus: “And so did [namely, break the altars and burn the bones of priests] he in the
cities of Manasseh, and Ephraim, and Simeon, even unto Naphtali, in their deserted
suburbs.” The reader is apt to be surprised on finding that Josiah, whose hereditary
possessions were confined to the kingdom of Judah, exercised as much authority among
the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, Simeon, and others as far as Naphtali, as he did within
his own dominion. Therefore, it is necessary to observe that, after the destruction of
Samaria by Shalmaneser, the remnant that continued on the mountains of Israel
maintained a close intercourse with Judah, and looked to the sovereigns of that kingdom
as their natural protectors. Those kings acquired great influence over them, which
Josiah exercised in removing every vestige of idolatry from the land. He could not have
done this without the acquiescence of the people in the propriety of this proceeding,
conscious that this was conformable to their ancient laws and institutions. The Assyrian
kings, who were now masters of the country, might have been displeased at the liberties
Josiah took beyond his own territories. But either they were not informed of his doings,
or they did not trouble themselves about his religious proceedings, relating, as they
would think, to the god of the land, especially as he did not attempt to seize upon any
place or to disturb the allegiance of the people [Calmet].
K&D 6-7, "2Ch_34:6 and 2Ch_34:7 form a connected sentence: And in the cities of
Manasseh ..., in their ruins round about, there he pulled down the altars, etc. The tribe of
Simeon is here, as in 2Ch_15:9, reckoned among the tribes of the kingdom of Israel,
because the Simeonites, although they belonged geographically to the kingdom of Judah,
yet in religion remained attached to the worship on the high places practised by the ten
tribes; see on 2Ch_15:9. “And unto Naphtali” is added, to designate the kingdom of
Israel in its whole extent to the northern frontier of Canaan. The form ‫ם‬ ֶ‫יה‬ ֵ‫ּת‬‫ב‬ ‫ר‬ ַ‫ח‬ ְ (in the
Keth. divided into two words) gives no suitable sense. R. Sal. explains, timentes in
planitie habitare, sed fixerunt in monte domicilia, rendering it “in their mountain-
dwellings.” This the words cannot mean.

(Note: The lxx translate ᅚν τοሏς τόποις αᆒτራν, expressing merely the ‫.בתיהם‬ The Targ.
has ‫ּון‬‫ה‬ ְ‫יוּת‬ ְ‫ד‬ ַ‫צ‬ ‫ית‬ ֵ‫ב‬ ְ‫,ב‬ in domo (s. loco) desolationis eorum.)
The Keri ‫ם‬ ֶ‫יה‬ ֵ‫ּת‬‫ב‬ ְ‫ר‬ ַ‫ח‬ ְ , “with their swords,” is suggested by Eze_26:9, and is accepted by
D. Kimchi, Abu Melech, and others, and understood to denote instruments with which
the altars, groves, and images were cut down. But this interpretation also is certainly
incorrect. The word is rather to be pointed ‫ם‬ ֶ‫יה‬ ֵ‫ּת‬‫ב‬ ְ‫ר‬ ַ‫ח‬ ְ , in their wastes (ruins) (cf. Psa_
109:10), and to be taken as an explanatory apposition to ‫י‬ ֵ‫ר‬ ָ‫ע‬ ְ : in the cities of Manasseh
..., namely, in their ruins round about; for the land had been deserted since the times of
Shalmaneser, and its cities were in great part in ruins. The statement as to the locality
precedes in the form of an absolute sentence, and that which is predicated of it follows in
the form of an apodosis with ‫ו‬ consec. (‫ץ‬ ֵ ַ‫נ‬ְ‫י‬ַ‫.)ו‬ ‫ק‬ ַ‫ד‬ ֵ‫ה‬ ְ‫ל‬ ‫ת‬ ֵ ִⅴ, he dashed to pieces to crush; the
form ‫ק‬ ַ‫ד‬ ֵ‫ה‬ is not a perfect after ְ‫,ל‬ but an infinitive which has retained the vowel of the
perfect; cf. Ew. §238, d.
BE SO , "2 Chronicles 34:6. Even unto aphtali — Which was in the utmost
borders of the kingdom of Israel. For it must be remembered, that the ten tribes
were now gone into captivity; and those who were come in their stead were weak
and few, and not able to withstand the power of Josiah.
ELLICOTT, "(6) And so did he in the cities . . . unto aphtali.—Sec 2 Kings 23:15;
2 Kings 23:19, according to which Josiah destroyed the sanctuary of Bethel, and the
high places “in the cities of Samaria,” i.e., the northern kingdom.
Simeon is again mentioned somewhat strangely, as in 2 Chronicles 15:9, no doubt
because Beersheba, a famous sanctuary within its territory, was a place of
pilgrimage for the northern tribes.
Manasseh and Ephraim, i.e., the northern kingdom, as in 2 Chronicles 31:1; Isaiah
9:21.
With their mattocks.—Rather, in their ruins; reading behorbuthêhem, instead of
behorbôthêhem, which means “with their swords.” (Comp. Ezekiel 26:9.) The
phrase qualifies the word “cities.” The cities of Israel had been ruined by the
Assyrians, Sargon. and Shalmaneser, the latter of whom took Samaria, after a three
years’ siege, and carried the people captive to Assyria, in 721 B.C., replacing them
by foreign colonists. This explains how it was that Josiah was able to desecrate the
northern sanctuaries, and slay their priests (2 Kings 23:20). The ordinary Hebrew
text divides the word thus: behar bûtthêhem, so as to suggest the reading behar
bûtthêhem, “in the hill of their houses.” The LXX. has “in their places round
about”; the Vulg. omits the phrase; and the Syriac reads “in their streets around.”
The whole verse should be connected with 2 Chronicles 34:7, thus: “And in the cities
of Manasseh and Ephraim and Simeon, even unto aphtali, to wit, in their ruins
round about, he pulled down the altars and the Asherim; and the carven images he

dashed into pieces unto pulverising.” Hedaq is an unusual form of the infinitive, not
a perfect, as Bertheau supposes.
PULPIT, "In the cities of Manasseh,… Ephraim,… Simeon, even unto aphtali.
Manasseh and Ephraim lay very nearly in the centre of the whole land, while
Simeon and aphtali were respectively at the southern and northern extremities.
With their mattocks. This rendering may be correct, and cannot be said to be
foreign to the sense and connection of the passage, the Hebrew word in that ease
being the feminine plural of ‫ב‬ ֶ‫ֶר‬‫ח‬ Perhaps, however, the word is one with that found
in Psalms 109:10, and may be rendered "in their ruined," i.e. semi-ruined,
"condition." ote Keri also, which favours the latter reading; the Septuagint shows
simply words which may best translate, and in their neighbourhoods respectively.
7 he tore down the altars and the Asherah poles
and crushed the idols to powder and cut to pieces
all the incense altars throughout Israel. Then he
went back to Jerusalem.
GILL, "And when he had broken down the altars and the groves,.... The
statues or images in them:
and had beaten the graven images into powder; and strewed it on the graves of
the idolaters:
and cut down all the idols throughout all the land of Israel; the sun images as
in 2Ch_34:4,
he returned to Jerusalem; this tour of his throughout the whole land, and the things
done by him, which are represented as done before the repairs of the temple were made,
and the book of the law found and read, and the covenant he and his people made with
the Lord, are spoken of in 2Ki_23:4, as if done after.

ELLICOTT, "(7) The idols.—Sun-statues (2 Chronicles 34:4). The word does not
occur in the parallel account; but 2 Chronicles 34:5 mentions sun-worship.
8 In the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign, to
purify the land and the temple, he sent Shaphan
son of Azaliah and Maaseiah the ruler of the city,
with Joah son of Joahaz, the recorder, to repair
the temple of the Lord his God.
GILL, "Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the
land and the house,.... The temple; this was in the twenty sixth year of his age, six
years this work had been doing before it was finished:
he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah: who only is mentioned in 2Ki_22:3 two more
are added here, as follow:
and Maaseiah the governor of the city; the city of Jerusalem, a deputy governor
under the king, a sort of mayor or provost:
and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder; who was over the book of memorials, as
the Targum; the word may be rendered "the remembrances"; and, according to Jarchi,
as every king of Judah had a scribe to write down the memorable things that happened
in his reign, good or bad, so the scribe had one by him, to put him in mind of every
transaction, from whom he wrote it down:
to repair the house of the Lord his God; that is, to give orders for the doing of it, to
prepare for it, provide workmen, and appoint overseers of them: it had not been
repaired since the times of Joash, which, according to the Jewish chronology (y), was a
space of two hundred and eighteen years.
HE RY 8-13, "Here, 1. Orders are given by the king for the repair of the temple,
2Ch_34:8. When he had purged the house of the corruptions of it he began to fit it up

for the services that were to be performed in it. Thus we must do by the spiritual temple
of the heart, get it cleansed from the pollutions of sin, and then renewed, so as to be
transformed into the image of God. Josiah, in this order, calls God the Lord his God.
Those that truly love God will love the habitation of his house. 2. Care is taken about it,
effectual care. The Levites went about the country and gathered money towards it, which
was returned to the three trustees mentioned, 2Ch_34:8. They brought it to Hilkiah the
high priest (2Ch_34:9), and he and they put it into the hands of workmen, both
overseers and labourers, who undertook to do it by the great, as we say, or in the gross,
2Ch_34:10, 2Ch_34:11. It is observed that the workmen were industrious and honest:
They did the work faithfully (2Ch_34:12); and workmen are not completely faithful if
they are not both careful and diligent, for a confidence is reposed in them that they will
be so. It is also intimated that the overseers were ingenious; for it is said that all those
were employed to inspect this work who were skilful in instruments of music; not that
their skill in music could be of any use in architecture, but it was an evidence that they
were men of sense and ingenuity, and particularly that their genius lay towards the
mathematics, which qualified them very much for this trust. Witty men are then wise
men when they employ their wit in doing good, in helping their friends, and, as they
have opportunity, in serving the public. Observe, in this work, how God dispenses his
gifts variously; here were some that were bearers of burdens, cut out for bodily labour
and fit to work. Here were others (made meliori luto - of finer materials) that had skill
in music, and they were overseers of those that laboured, and scribes and officers. The
former were the hands: these were the heads. They had need of one another, and the
work needed both. Let not the overseers of the work despise the bearers of burdens, nor
let those that work in the service grudge at those whose office it is to direct; but let each
esteem and serve the other in love, and let God have the glory and the church the benefit
of the different gifts and dispositions of both.
JAMISO , "2Ch_34:8-18. He repairs the temple.
in the eighteenth year of his reign ... he sent Shaphan — (See on 2Ki_22:3-9).
K&D, "The cleansing and repairing of the temple, and the finding of the book of the
law. Cf. 2Ki_22:3-10. - In the eighteenth year of his reign, when he was purging the land
and the house (of God), he sent. ‫ר‬ ֵ‫ה‬ ַ‫ט‬ ְ‫ל‬ does not indeed signify “after the purging” (De
Wette, with the older expositors), but still less is it a statement of the object, “to purge”
(Berth.); for that is decisively disposed of both by its position at the beginning of the
sentence, where no statement of the object would stand, but still more by the fact that a
statement of the object follows, ‫וגו‬ ‫ק‬ֵ ַ‫ח‬ ְ‫.ל‬ ְ‫ל‬ used of time denotes “about,” and so with the
inf., e.g., Jer_46:13 : at (his) coming = when he came. Shaphan was ‫ר‬ ֵ‫ּופ‬‫ס‬, state secretary,
according to 2Ki_22:3. With him the king sent the governor of the city Maaseiah, and
the chancellor Joah. These two are not mentioned in 2Ki_22:3, but have not been
arbitrarily added by the chronicler, or invented by him, as Then. groundlessly supposes.
“To repair the house of Jahve.” What these high royal officials had to do with it we learn
from what follows.
BE SO 8-11, "2 Chronicles 34:8-11. When he had purged the land and the house

— The house of God, called the house, by way of eminence. And they returned to
Jerusalem — That is, the Levites, who had gone abroad through all Josiah’s
kingdom to gather money for this use, and now came with it to Jerusalem to lodge it
in the treasuries of the Lord’s house. To floor the houses which the kings of Judah
had destroyed — The chambers adjoining to the temple, or within the courts.
ELLICOTT, "(8-13) The cleansing and repair of the Temple. (Comp. 2 Kings 22:3-
7; and the similar account of the restoration by Joash in 2 Chronicles 24:11-13).
When he had purged.—Omit had. (Lĕtahçr is apparently co-ordinate with lĕmolkû,
“in the eighteenth year to his reigning, to purging the land “; as if the work of
purification had been co-extensive with the reign. The LXX., however, has, “in
order to purge the land,” which may be right.)
He sent Shaphan.—Who was secretary of state (2 Kings 22:3, “the scribe”).
Maaseiah . . . Joah.—Kings mentions Shaphan only.
The governor of the city.—Sar ha’îr; praefectus urois. (Conp. 1 Chronicles 11:6.)
GUZIK, "3. (2 Chronicles 34:8-13) The restoration of the temple.
In the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land and the temple, he
sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah the
son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair the house of the LORD his God. When they
came to Hilkiah the high priest, they delivered the money that was brought into the
house of God, which the Levites who kept the doors had gathered from the hand of
Manasseh and Ephraim, from all the remnant of Israel, from all Judah and
Benjamin, and which they had brought back to Jerusalem. Then they put it in the
hand of the foremen who had the oversight of the house of the LORD and they gave
it to the workmen who worked in the house of the LORD, to repair and restore the
house. They gave it to the craftsmen and builders to buy hewn stone and timber for
beams, and to floor the houses which the kings of Judah had destroyed. And the
men did the work faithfully. Their overseers were Jahath and Obadiah the Levites,
of the sons of Merari, and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the sons of the Kohathites,
to supervise. Others of the Levites, all of whom were skillful with instruments of
music, were over the burden bearers and were overseers of all who did work in any
kind of service. And some of the Levites were scribes, officers, and gatekeepers.
a. In the eighteenth year of his reign: After his energetic campaign to cleanse the
land of Judah and Israel of idolatry, then Josiah put his efforts towards restoring
the neglected temple, much as his predecessor Hezekiah had done (2 Chronicles 29).
i. “The Chronicler (2 Chronicles chapters 34-35) appears to present a two-stage
sequence of events: (i) the purification of religious practices in Judah, Jerusalem
and aphtali in Josiah’s twelfth year, and (ii) a continuing reformation stimulated

by the discovery of the Book of the Law in the eighteenth year. But this may be a
presentation to fit in with the Chronciler’s particular emphases.” (Wiseman)
ii. “If Josiah had not yet seen a copy of this book, (which is not impossible,) yet there
was so much of the law left in the minds and memories of the people, as might easily
persuade and direct him to all that he did till this time.” (Poole)
iii. It is possible that Josiah was motivated to rebuild the temple after hearing (or
remembering) that this was what King Jehoash did many years before (2 Kings 12).
b. Then they put it in the hand of the foremen who had oversight of the house of the
LORD: Josiah understood that the work of repair and rebuilding the temple needed
organization and funding. He paid attention to both of these needs when he gave
Hilkiah oversight over this restoration work of the temple. As a result, the men did
the work faithfully.
i. According to Jeremiah 1:1-2, the Prophet Jeremiah was the son of this particular
priest Hilkiah. Jeremiah began his ministry during the reign of King Josah.
PULPIT, "It is in some sense as though the work of purification, atoning, penitence,
must precede that of practical repentance, of repairing, restoring, rebuilding. The
original, however, does not warrant the laying of any stress on the when, found
again in the Authorized Version. Shaphau. In the parallel (2 Kings 22:3) Shaphan is
designated "the scribe." His descendants, to the second generation, at all events, did
him honor (Jeremiah 26:24; Jeremiah 29:3; Jeremiah 36:10, Jeremiah 36:12,
Jeremiah 36:25; Ezekiel 8:11; see also 2 Kings 25:22). The names of Masseiah
(Jeremiah 35:4) and Joah (2 Kings 18:18) are known, but not marking the present
persons.
9 They went to Hilkiah the high priest and gave
him the money that had been brought into the
temple of God, which the Levites who were the
gatekeepers had collected from the people of
Manasseh, Ephraim and the entire remnant of
Israel and from all the people of Judah and
Benjamin and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

CLARKE, "And they returned to Jerusalem - Instead of ‫וישבו‬ vaiyashubu, “they
returned,” we should read ‫יושבי‬ yoshebey, “the inhabitants;” a reading which is supported
by many MSS., printed editions, and all the versions, as well as by necessity and
common sense. See the note on 2Ch_19:8, where a similar mistake is rectified.
GILL, "And when they came to Hilkiah the high priest,.... To whom they were
sent to advise with about the repair of the temple:
they delivered the money that was brought into the house of God; that is, the
high priest, and the Levites the doorkeepers, gave it to the king's ministers; which
money was either brought to the temple voluntarily, as the free gifts of the people, for
the repairs; or rather what was collected by the Levites, sent throughout the land for that
purpose, or it may be both:
which the Levites that kept the doors; of the temple; and received the money as the
people brought it:
and also had gathered of the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim, and of all the
remnant of Israel, and of all Judah, and Benjamin; they went throughout all the
land of Israel and Judah, and collected money for the above purpose:
and they returned to Jerusalem; with it, which the high priest took the sum of, see
2Ki_22:4 of whom the king's ministers now received it.
K&D, "2Ch_34:9-12
They, together with the high priest, gave the money which had been received for the
repair of the temple to the overseers of the building, who then gave it to workmen to
procure building materials and for wages, just as was done when the temple was
repaired by Joash, 2Ch_24:11-13. The Keri ‫בוּ‬ ֻ‫שׁ‬ָ ַ‫ו‬ is a correction resulting from a
misinterpretation of the Keth. ‫י‬ ֵ‫ב‬ ְ‫ּשׁ‬‫י‬ְ‫,ו‬ “and of the dwellers in Jerusalem.” The
enumeration, “from the hand of Manasseh, Ephraim,” etc., is rhetorical. In ‫נוּ‬ ְ ִ ַ‫,ו‬ 2Ch_
34:10, the verb of 2Ch_34:9 is again taken up: they handed it to the overseers of the
building, and they to the workmen. ‫הם‬ ‫ה‬ ֵ‫ּשׂ‬‫ע‬ is a rare form of the plur. ‫י‬ ֵ‫ּשׁ‬‫ע‬; see on 1Ch_
23:24. The overseers of the building (‫המפקדים‬ - ‫י‬ ֵ‫ּשׁ‬‫ע‬) are the subject of the second ‫נוּ‬ ְ ִ ַ‫;ו‬
and before the following ‫י‬ ֵ‫ּשׂ‬‫ע‬ ְ‫,ל‬ which stands in 2 Kings, is to be supplied. ‫ּוק‬‫ד‬ ְ‫ב‬ is a
denom. from ‫ק‬ ֶ‫ד‬ ֶ , and signifies to repair what has been damaged. The statement of 2Ch_

34:10 is made more definite by 2Ch_34:11 : they gave it, namely, to the workers in stone
and wood, and to the builders to buy hewn stones and timber for couplings, and for the
beams of the houses (‫ּות‬‫ר‬ ָ‫ק‬ ְ‫,ל‬ to provide with beams; ‫ים‬ ִ‫ת‬ ָ ַ‫ה‬ are the various buildings of the
temple and its courts), which the kings of Judah had allowed to decay (‫ית‬ ִ‫ח‬ ְ‫שׁ‬ ִ‫,ה‬ not of
designed destroying, but of ruining by neglect). - In 2Ch_34:12 we have still the remark
that the people did the work with fidelity, and the money could consequently be given to
them without reckoning, cf. 2Ki_22:7; and then the names of the building inspectors
follow. Two Levites of the family of Merari, and two of the family of Kohath, were
overseers; ַ‫ח‬ ֵ ַ‫נ‬ ְ‫,ל‬ i.e., to lead in the building, to preside over it as upper overseers; and
besides them, the Levites, all who were skilled in instruments of song (cf. 1Ch_25:6.). As
men who by their office and their art occupied a conspicuous place among the Levites,
the oversight of the workmen in the temple was committed to them, not “that they might
incite and cheer the workmen by music and song” (Berth.).
ELLICOTT, "(9) And when they came . . . they delivered.—And they came . . . and
they gave. In 2 Kings 22:3-7, the contents of 2 Chronicles 34:9-12 a are given in the
form of the king’s instructions to Shaphan. Here we are told that those instructions
were carried out. “They delivered (wayyittĕnû) is substituted for the difficult
wĕyattçm of Kings (i.e., “and let him pay out”).
From the hand of Manasseh . . . Benjamin.—Kings, “from the people.” Reuss oddly
imagines that these words denote “a kind of organised collection throughout all
Palestine,” and then proceeds to draw an inference unfavourable to the chronicler.
And they returned to Jerusalem.—This is the meaning of the Qri or Hebrew
margin. The Hebrew text has, “and the inhabitants of Jerusalem,” which is correct.
PULPIT, "Hilkiah the high priest. Of Hilkiah's ancestors and descendants we learn
something in the following references: 1 Chronicles 6:13, 1 Chronicles 6:14; 1
Chronicles 9:11; 2 Kings 25:18; ehemiah 11:11; Ezra 7:1. They delivered. This
means that Hilkiah's people delivered of what they had collected to Shaphan and his
colleagues, who again in their turn (Ezra 7:10) "put it into the hand of the
workmen,' etc. This is certainly the meaning of 2 Kings 22:4-9. And they returned to
Jerusalem; translate, and of the dwellers in Jerusalem. ote Keri, and see 2
Chronicles 35:18; and Septuagint rendering here and there.
10 Then they entrusted it to the men appointed to
supervise the work on the Lord’s temple. These

men paid the workers who repaired and restored
the temple.
GILL, "And they put it,.... The king's ministers did:
in the hand of the workmen that had the oversight of the house of the Lord;
whose business it was to inspect the temple, and see what repairs were necessary, and to
overlook the workmen in making those repairs; the names of these overseers are in 2Ch_
34:12,
and they gave it to the workmen that wrought in the house of the Lord, to
repair and mend the house; that is, the overseers gave the money they received to
the labourers, as the hire of their labour, and the reward of their work, and to buy
materials with, as follows.
ELLICOTT, "(10) Put it in.—Gave it into.
The workmen.—The doers of the work, i.e., the overseers or contractors. See ote
on 2 Chronicles 24:12.
And they gave it to the workmen . . . the house.—So LXX. and Syriac. The Hebrew
text says, and the doers of the work who were working in thehouse of Jehovah gave
it for restoring and repairing the house. To whom the masters gave it is stated in
next verse.
To repair.—Libdôq, here only. The term is so used in Syriac. The original form of
the verse is 2 Kings 22:5, where “the doers of the work” are first the masters, and
then the men.
11 They also gave money to the carpenters and
builders to purchase dressed stone, and timber for
joists and beams for the buildings that the kings
of Judah had allowed to fall into ruin.

BAR ES, "The “houses” intended are either the “chambers” which surrounded the
temple on three sides 1Ki_6:5, or out-buildings attached to the courts. The “kings of
Judah” intended are, no doubt, Manasseh and Amon.
GILL, "Even to the artificers and builders gave they it,.... To the masons and
carpenters:
to buy hewn stone; to put in the room of that which was decayed or fallen down:
and timber for couplings; of boards, beams, and rafters:
and to floor the houses; the chambers, the apartments in the temple, which belonged
to the priests and Levites:
which the kings of Judah had destroyed; the idolatrous ones, who had let them go
to decay and ruin, taking no care of them.
ELLICOTT, "(11) Even to . . . builders.—And they gave it to the craftsmen and to
the builders.
For couplings.—For the couplings or girders; an explanation added by the
chronicler.
And to floor . . . destroyed.—Kings, “to repair the house.” The reference to the
defacement of the Temple buildings by idolatrous kings may be compared with the
similar notice concerning Athaliah’s sons, 2 Chronicles 24:7, and Ahaz, 2 Chronicles
28:24. Perhaps, however, the expression “destroyed” does not mean more than
“allowed to go to ruin.”
To floor.—To rafter, or joist. (See margin.)
The houses.—The chambers.
PULPIT, "The exact work done we are unable to follow with precision. The parallel
describes it, in more general terms, as "repairing the breaches." The repairs here
spoken of, however, betoken, to say the least the rough usage, as well as
"negligence," of kings like Manasseh and Amen, and suggest a further question as
to the nature of those heathen and idolatrous practices, which cost so much to the
very structure of temple and houses, i.e. probably the contiguous chambers of the
main building (1 Kings 6:5), the exact style of which, however, is very doubtful.

12 The workers labored faithfully. Over them to
direct them were Jahath and Obadiah, Levites
descended from Merari, and Zechariah and
Meshullam, descended from Kohath. The
Levites—all who were skilled in playing musical
instruments—
CLARKE, "All that could skill of instruments of music - Did the musicians
play on their several instruments to encourage and enliven the workmen? Is not this a
probable case from their mention here? If this were really the case, instrumental music
was never better applied in any thing that refers to the worship of God. It is fabled of
Orpheus, a most celebrated musician, that such was the enchanting harmony of his lyre,
that he built the city of Thebes by it: the stones and timbers danced to his melody; and
by the power of his harmony rose up, and took their respective places in the different
parts of the wall that was to defend the city! This is fable; but as all fable is a
representation of truth, where is the truth and fact to which this refers? How long has
this question lain unanswered! But have we not the answer now? It is known in general,
that the cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii were overwhelmed by an eruption of Mount
Vesuvius, about the seventy-ninth year of the Christian era. It is also known that, in
sinking for wells, the workmen of the king of Naples lighted on houses, etc., of those
overwhelmed cities; that excavations have been carried on, and are now in the act of
being carried on, which are bringing daily to view various utensils, pictures, and books,
which have escaped the influence of the burning lava; and that some of those parchment
volumes have been unrolled, and facsimiles of them engraved and published; and that
our late Prince Regent, afterwards George IV., king of Great Britain, expended
considerable sums of money annually in searching for, unrolling, and deciphering those
rolls. This I record to his great credit as the lover of science and literature. Now, among
the books that have been unrolled and published, is a Greek Treatise on Music, by
Philodemus; and here we have the truth represented which lay hidden under the fables
of Orpheus and Amphion. This latter was a skillful harper, who was frequently employed
by the Theban workmen to play to them while engaged in their labor, and for which they
rewarded him out of the proceeds of that labor. So powerful and pleasing was his music,
that they went lightly and comfortably through their work; and time and labor passed on
without tedium or fatigue; and the walls and towers were speedily raised. This, by a
metaphor, was attributed to the dulcet sounds of his harp; and poetry seized on and
embellished it, and mythology incorporated it with her fabulous system. Orpheus is the

same. By his skill in music he drew stones and trees after him, i.e., he presided over and
encouraged the workmen by his skill in music. Yet how simple and natural is the
representation given by this ancient Greek writer of such matters! See Philodemus, Col.
viii. and ix. Orpheus, and Amphion, by their music, moved the workmen to diligence and
activity, and lessened and alleviated their toil. May we not suppose, then, that skillful
musicians among the Levites did exercise their art among the workmen who were
employed in the repairs of the house of the Lord? May I be allowed a gentle transition?
Is it not the power and harmony of the grace of Jesus Christ in the Gospel, that convert,
change, and purify the souls of men, and prepare them for and place them in that part of
the house of God, the New Jerusalem? A most beautiful and chaste allusion to this fact
and fable is made by an eminent poet, while praying for his own success as a Christian
minister, who uses all his skill as a poet and musician for the glory of God: -
Thy own musician, Lord, inspire,
And may my consecrated lyre
Repeat the psalmist’s part!
His Son and thine reveal in me,
And fill with sacred melody
The fibres of my heart.
So shall I charm the listening throng,
And draw the Living Stones along
By Jesus’ tuneful name.
The living stones shall dance, shall rise,
And Form a City in the skies,
The New Jerusalem.
Charles Wesley.
GILL, "And the men did that work faithfully,.... The labouring men, as also their
inspectors, see 2Ki_22:7.
and the overseers of them were Jahath and Obadiah, the Levites, of the sons
of Merari; the third son of Levi:
and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the sons of the Kohathites; who had their
name from Kohath, the second son of Levi:
to set it forward; to urge and animate the men to their work, to keep them constant to
it, and see that they did it well:
and other of the Levites, all that could skill of instruments of music; these,
when they were not employed in singing in the temple, attended this service, to look
after the workmen at the repairs of it; and perhaps they might play, as some think, on
their instruments of music, while the men were at work, that they might go on in it the
more pleasantly and cheerfully.
BE SO , "2 Chronicles 34:12. All that could skill of instruments of music — All
these, here named, were skilful in instruments of music — Which may be here

mentioned, to intimate, that as they were skilful, so they were exercised in both
employments, and did successively oversee the work, and praise God with their
voices and instruments.
ELLICOTT, "(12) And the men did the work faithfully.—Literally, And the men
were working (or dealing) in good faith in the work. In 2 Kings 22:7 Josiah bids the
High Priest not to require any account of the money delivered to the master-
workmen, “because they work in good faith.”
And the overseers of them were.—And over them were set. The names of the
overseers, and the details added in next verse, are peculiar to and characteristic of
the chronicler.
To set it forward.—To lead, conduct, preside; usually a musical term. (Comp. 1
Chronicles 23:4.)
And other . . . music.—Literally, and the Levites, to wit, every one skilled in the
instruments of song. (Comp. 1 Chronicles 15:16; 1 Chronicles 25:7.)
PULPIT, "Faithfully, Refer back to note, 2 Chronicles 31:12. To set … forward;
Hebrew, ַ‫ה‬ֶּ‫ח‬ַ‫נ‬ְ‫ל‬ ; the idea, of course, not so much that of expediting, as of guiding and
instructing. The mention of those Levites whoso business was music is rather a
surprise, and is not found in the parallel.
13 had charge of the laborers and supervised all
the workers from job to job. Some of the Levites
were secretaries, scribes and gatekeepers.
BAR ES, "Of the Levites there were scribes - Hereto the word “scribe” has
never been used to designate a class (compare 1Ki_4:3). But here an order of scribes,
forming a distinct division of the Levitical body, has been instituted. The class itself
probably originated in the reign of Hezekiah (compare Pro_25:1); and it is probably to
the rise of this class that we are indebted for the preservation of so many prophecies

belonging to Hezekiah’s time, while the works of almost all previous prophets - Ahijah,
Iddo, Shemaiah, Jehu, the son of Hanani, and probably many others - have perished.
GILL, "Also they were over the bearers of burdens,.... Who carried the timber
and stones to the workmen, to look after them, that they were not dilatory, and that the
workmen might not stand still for want of materials being brought to them to work with:
and were overseers over all that wrought in any manner of service; whether
in the way of masonry, or in that of carpenters, or of such that served them, or in
whatsoever way:
and of the Levites there were scribes, and officers, and porters; some to take
the account of the money carried in and paid, who were the
scribes, according to Jarchi; and others who looked after the men, and kept them to
work, who were the
officers; and others that let them in and out, called
porters.
K&D, "2Ch_34:13
2Ch_34:13 is probably to be taken, along with 2Ch_34:12, in the signification, “All the
Levites who were skilled in music were over the bearers of burdens, and were overseers
of all the workmen in reference to every work.” The ‫ו‬ before ‫הס‬ ‫על‬ appears certainly to go
against this interpretation, and Berth. would consequently erase it to connect ‫ים‬ ִ‫ל‬ ָ ַ ַ‫ה‬ ‫ל‬ ַ‫ע‬
with the preceding verse, and begin a new sentence with ‫ים‬ ִ‫ח‬ ְ ַ‫נ‬ ְ‫:וּמ‬ “and they led all the
workmen.” But if we separate ‫ים‬ ִ‫ח‬ ְ ַ‫נ‬ ְ‫וּמ‬ from ‫ים‬ ִ‫ל‬ ָ ַ ַ‫ה‬ ‫ל‬ ַ‫,ע‬ this mention of the bearers of
burdens (‫)סבלים‬ comes awkwardly in between the subject and the predicate, or the
statement as to the subject. We hold the text to be correct, and make the w before ‫הס‬ ‫על‬
correspond to the ‫ו‬ before ‫,מנצחים‬ in the signification, et - et. The Levites, all who were
skilled in instruments of song, were both over the bearers of burdens, and overseeing the
workmen, or leading the workmen. Besides, of the Levites were, i.e., still other Levites
were, scribes and officers and porters, i.e., were busied about the temple in the discharge
of these functions.
ELLICOTT, "(13) Also.—And.
They.—The Levitical musicians-
Were over the bearers of burdens.—They probably cheered their labours with song
and music; as was the practice in ancient Egypt.

And were overseers.—Leaders, conductors; see ote on 2 Chronicles 34:12. otice
the honourable position here assigned to the musical guilds of Levites.
And of the Levites . . . porters.—In connection, that is, with the work of restoration.
But comp. 1 Chronicles 23:4-5. The writer may only intend to say that there were
Levitical guilds of “scribes, officers, and porters,” as well as of musicians.
Scribes.—1 Chronicles 2:55.
PULPIT, "Scribes. Considering the mention of "scribes" in the plural in 1 Kings
4:3, although it stands alone, till, at all events, the time of Hezekiah (as testified by
Proverbs 25:1), it is at any rate not improbable that an order of scribes was
instituted by Solomon; that it fell into desuetude immediately under the divided
kingdom, and, coming into vogue again under Hezekiah, is now mentioned in the
natural way we here find it. The mention of the "scribe" in the singular number is
of frequent occurrence in the historic books, and in Isaiah (Isaiah 33:18; Isaiah
36:22). The officers. This word reproduces, in the Hebrew, the familiar shoterim of
Exodus 5:10 (see also 1 Chronicles 23:3-6).
The Book of the Law Found
14 While they were bringing out the money that
had been taken into the temple of the Lord,
Hilkiah the priest found the Book of the Law of
the Lord that had been given through Moses.
CLARKE, "Found a book of the law - See on 2Ki_22:8 (note).
GIL 14-28, "And when they brought out the money that was brought into the
house of the Lord,.... The Levites, who brought it out of the country into the temple,
and from thence brought it to the high priest, who delivering it to the king's ministers,
and they to the overseers, the repairs were begun:

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