Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Chronicles 35:24
His servants therefore took him out of that chariot, and put him in the second chariot that he had; and they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died, and was buried in [one of] the sepulchers of his fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.
24. His servants therefore took him out of that chariot ] R.V. So his servants took him out of the chariot.
the second chariot ] War chariots were small, with (apparently) only standing room for their occupants; see the illustrations of Egyptian and Assyrian chariots given in Smith’s Bib. Dict. s.v. This “second chariot” was probably of a larger kind, suitable for travelling.
in one of the sepulchres ] R.V. in the sepulchres.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The fate of Josiah was unprecedented. No king of Judah had, up to this time, fallen in battle. None had left his land at the mercy of a foreign conqueror. Hence, the extraordinary character of the mourning (compare Zec 12:11-14).
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
2Ch 35:24-25
His servants therefore took him out of that chariot.
The lamentation for Josiah
I. The nature and quality of the lamentation.
1. Extensively. All Judah and Jerusalem.
2. Intensively. Bitter lamentation.
3. Protensively. Of long duration, an ordinance in Israel.
II. The cause and ground of it. The loss of a good leader whose life had been useful.
III. Doctrine. That faithful, active, and public-spirited men in the Church of God should not be laid in their graves without great lamentations. In replication I will show–
1. Negatively. On what account the death of good men is not to be lamented.
2. Positively. The true grounds and causes of such lamentation.
(1) Because so much of the Spirit of God as dwelt in them, when amongst us, is now recalled and gathered up from this lower world. As it is a real loss to a company when any merchant withdraws a great stock he had running in trade, out of the bank; so certainly it is a great loss to the Church of God, when the precious gifts and graces of the Spirit, dwelling in the saints, are drawn out by death.
(2) Because thereby a breach is made to let in the judgments of God upon the remnant that is left.
(3) The beauty and ornaments of the places they lived in are defaced and removed by their death.
(4) Because the propagation of religion is obstructed in the places from whence they are removed.
(5) The consideration of the time in which good men die aggravates the loss, if it falls out,–
(a) In a declining state of religion.
(b) When the numbers of the godly are thinned and lessened.
(c) When the spring and succession of good men is obstructed.
(6) When we consider what influence our sins and provocations have had upon those judgments and calamities. I look upon every good man, as a good book, lent by its owners for another to read, and transcribe the excellent notions and golden passages that are in it for his own benefit, that they may return with him when the owner shall call for his book again. But in case this excellent book shall be thrown into a corner, and no use made of it, it justly provokes the owner to take it away in displeasure.
Application. This reproves–
1. The worst of men, such as secretly rejoice at the removal of such men.
2. The insensibleness of good men, who are apt too slightly to pass over such tremendous strokes of. God (Isa 57:1).
3. The very best of men, who though they do bewail and lament the loss of such men, yet they do not lament it in the due manner. (John Flavel.)
The death and burial of Josiah
1. That the best of men may err in judgment and in act.
2. The danger of undertaking any work without asking counsel of the Lord.
3. How universal is the reign of death.
4. That we should be cautious how we attribute sudden and violent death to the vengeance of the Most High.
5. That it is not wrong to mourn for the dead. (J. S. Wilkins, B.A.)
The death of Josiah
I. What the people of God did upon the death of Josiah.
1. There was a general mourning for him.
2. The prophet Jeremiah made a particular office for it.
3. This office was used among others upon the day of lamentation.
4. This use was established by a law upon Israel, which was observed till the end of the Babylonian Captivity.
II. The reasons of their doing it.
1. Because it was caused by their sins.
2. Because it was a punishment for their sins. (Bishop W. Lloyd.)
A nations tears
Why does the Jewish nation now weep over Josiah? The reasons are:
I. The great national loss which the event involved. Josiah was a prince–
1. Of a reflective nature. His mind was in the quest of the highest truth.
2. Of a tender spirit.
3. Of reformative disposition.
II. The sad memory of the moral cause of the calamity.
III. The terribly distressing mystery associated with the dispensation. Josiah was the most useful man of his age; yet he dies at thirty-nine. Mystery though it be, it teaches us–
1. That Heavens government is no respecter of persons.
2. The irresistibility of death.
3. That there is nothing on this fleeting earth on which we should set our hearts.
4. That there must be an after life. (Homilist.)
.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 24. The second chariot] Perhaps this means no more than that they took Josiah out of his own chariot and put him into another, either for secrecy, or because his own had been disabled. The chariot into which he was put might have been that of the officer or aid-de-camp who attended his master to the war. 2Kg 22:20.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
24. took him out of that chariot,and put him in the second chariotthe carriage he had forordinary use, and which would be more comfortable for the royalsufferer than the war chariot. The death of this good king was thesubject of universal and lasting regret.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And his servants therefore took him out of that chariot,…. Dead, and had him to Jerusalem, and buried him;
[See comments on 2Ki 23:30],
and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah; he having been so good a king, so tender of them, and such an happy instrument in restoring the true religion, and the service of God; this was the sense of the generality of them, who were sincere in their mourning; but it is not improbable that those who were inclined to idolatry were secretly glad, though they dissembled mourning with the rest.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(24) That chariot.The (war) chariot.
Put him.Made him ride.
Brought him to Jerusalem, and he died.2Ki. 23:30 says: And his servants made him ride dead (or dying) from Megiddo. Even if it be not permissible to render mth dying, we cannot agree with the suggestion of Thenius that the account of Chronicles is simply an arbitrary alteration of the older narrative for the sake of literary effect. The divergence proves that the chronicler had special sources of information at his command.
The second chariot was no doubt a more comfortable one, reserved in case of such an emergency.
In one of the sepulchres.Omit one of. Kings, in his own sepulchre, which would be a chamber among those of his immediate ancestors, Manasseh and Amon. (See 2Ki. 21:18.)
Mourned.Were mourning.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
2Ch 35:24. Put him in the second chariot It was the custom of war, in former times, for great officers to have their led horses, that if one failed they might mount another. The kings of Persia, Quintus Curtius informs us, had horses attending their chariots, to which, in case of any accident, they might fly; and, in like manner, we may presume, that when it became a fashion to fight in chariots, all great commanders had an empty one following them, to which they might betake themselves if any mischief befel the other. See Bochart Hieroz. Pars i. c. 2. Bishop Sherlock observes, that Josiah has so good a character in scripture, that both Jews and Christians have been at a loss to account for his unfortunate end. The learned Dr. Prideaux has justified his conduct in opposing the passage of the king of Egypt, because it was a service due to the king of Assyria, to whom Josiah was a vassal. Be it so; yet his duty to the king of Israel could not dissolve his dependance on a higher master. He went to war, as the vassal of the king of Assyria, but did he ask counsel of God as king of Judah? Or was he attended to the war by such forces only as the king of Judah might lawfully use? That he had chariots and horsemen appears plainly from this account of his death; for he was wounded in one chariot, and removed into another to be carried off; and it is very probable, that there were many chariots and horsemen in his army, since there appears no scruple in him upon this head. That this was the true or only cause of his misfortune, I dare not affirm, for I have no express authority to support me in affirming it; but this I see, that he was found in the day of battle, not with the equipage of a king of Judah, but surrounded with forces which the law of his God had forbidden him to trust to, and which had often proved a strength fatal to his ancestors.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
2Ch 35:24 His servants therefore took him out of that chariot, and put him in the second chariot that he had; and they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died, and was buried in [one of] the sepulchres of his fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.
Ver. 24. His servants therefore took him. ] They forsook him not in his extremity, and last agony; as our Edward III’s servants did him; all but one poor priest, who called upon him, now dying, to remember his Saviour and to ask mercy for his offences: whereupon he showed all signs of contrition, and at his last breath expressed the name of Jesus. a
And they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died.
And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.
a Dan. Hist., 260.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
sepulchres = graves. Hebrew. keber, as in 2Ch 34:4.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
the second: Gen 41:43
they: 2Ki 23:30
died: Psa 36:6, Ecc 8:14, Ecc 9:1, Ecc 9:2
in one of the: or, among the, 2Ch 34:28
Judah: Zec 12:11
Reciprocal: Gen 27:41 – The days Num 20:29 – General 2Ki 9:28 – General 2Ch 16:14 – his own sepulchres Isa 57:1 – righteous
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2Ch 35:24. And put him in the second chariot It was the custom of war, in former times, for great officers to have led horses with them in battle, that if one failed they might mount another. And, in like manner, we may presume, that when it became a fashion to fight in chariots, all great commanders had an empty one following them, to which they might betake themselves, if any mischief befell the other. They brought him to Jerusalem, and he died Bishop Sherlock observes, that Josiah had so good a character in Scripture, that both Jews and Christians have been at a loss to account for his unfortunate end. The learned Dr. Prideaux endeavours to justify his conduct in opposing the passage of the king of Egypt, because it was a service due to the king of Assyria, to whom Josiah was a vassal. Be it so, says Dr. Dodd, yet his duty to the king of Assyria could not dissolve his dependance on a higher Master. He went to war as vassal of the king of Assyria, but did he ask counsel of God as king of Judah? Or was he attended to the war with such forces only as the kings of Judah might lawfully use? That he had chariots and horsemen, appears plainly from this account of his death. That this was the true or only cause of his misfortune, I dare not affirm; for I have no express authority to support me in affirming it: but this I see, that he was found in the day of battle, not with the equipage of a king of Judah, but surrounded with forces which the law of his God had forbidden him to trust to, and which had often proved a strength fatal to his ancestors. See Bishop Sherlocks Dissertation on the Use and Intent of Prophecy, at the end.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
35:24 His servants therefore took him out of that chariot, and put him in the second chariot that he had; and they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died, and was buried in [one of] the sepulchres of his fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem {m} mourned for Josiah.
(m) The people so lamented the loss of this good king that after when there was any great lamentation this was spoken of as a proverb, Zec 12:11.