1 Moreover Josiah kept a passover unto the LORD in Jerusalem: and they killed the passover on the fourteenth day of the first month.   2 And he set the priests in their charges, and encouraged them to the service of the house of the LORD,   3 And said unto the Levites that taught all Israel, which were holy unto the LORD, Put the holy ark in the house which Solomon the son of David king of Israel did build; it shall not be a burden upon your shoulders: serve now the LORD your God, and his people Israel,   4 And prepare yourselves by the houses of your fathers, after your courses, according to the writing of David king of Israel, and according to the writing of Solomon his son.   5 And stand in the holy place according to the divisions of the families of the fathers of your brethren the people, and after the division of the families of the Levites.   6 So kill the passover, and sanctify yourselves, and prepare your brethren, that they may do according to the word of the LORD by the hand of Moses.   7 And Josiah gave to the people, of the flock, lambs and kids, all for the passover offerings, for all that were present, to the number of thirty thousand, and three thousand bullocks: these were of the king’s substance.   8 And his princes gave willingly unto the people, to the priests, and to the Levites: Hilkiah and Zechariah and Jehiel, rulers of the house of God, gave unto the priests for the passover offerings two thousand and six hundred small cattle, and three hundred oxen.   9 Conaniah also, and Shemaiah and Nethaneel, his brethren, and Hashabiah and Jeiel and Jozabad, chief of the Levites, gave unto the Levites for passover offerings five thousand small cattle, and five hundred oxen.   10 So the service was prepared, and the priests stood in their place, and the Levites in their courses, according to the king’s commandment.   11 And they killed the passover, and the priests sprinkled the blood from their hands, and the Levites flayed them.   12 And they removed the burnt offerings, that they might give according to the divisions of the families of the people, to offer unto the LORD, as it is written in the book of Moses. And so did they with the oxen.   13 And they roasted the passover with fire according to the ordinance: but the other holy offerings sod they in pots, and in caldrons, and in pans, and divided them speedily among all the people.   14 And afterward they made ready for themselves, and for the priests: because the priests the sons of Aaron were busied in offering of burnt offerings and the fat until night; therefore the Levites prepared for themselves, and for the priests the sons of Aaron.   15 And the singers the sons of Asaph were in their place, according to the commandment of David, and Asaph, and Heman, and Jeduthun the king’s seer; and the porters waited at every gate; they might not depart from their service; for their brethren the Levites prepared for them.   16 So all the service of the LORD was prepared the same day, to keep the passover, and to offer burnt offerings upon the altar of the LORD, according to the commandment of king Josiah.   17 And the children of Israel that were present kept the passover at that time, and the feast of unleavened bread seven days.   18 And there was no passover like to that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet; neither did all the kings of Israel keep such a passover as Josiah kept, and the priests, and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel that were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.   19 In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah was this passover kept.

      The destruction which Josiah made of idols and idolatry was more largely related in the Kings, but just mentioned here in the foregoing chapter (v. 33); but his solemnizing the passover, which was touched upon there (2 Kings xxiii. 21), is very particularly related here. Many were the feasts of the Lord, appointed by the ceremonial law, but the passover was the chief. It began them all in the night wherein Israel came out of Egypt; it concluded them all in the night wherein Christ was betrayed; and in the celebration of it Hezekiah and Josiah, those two great reformers, revived religion in their day. The ordinance of the Lord’s supper resembles the passover more than it does any of the Jewish festivals; and the due observance of that ordinance, according to the rule, is an instance and means both of the growing purity and beauty of churches and of the growing piety and devotion of particular Christians. Religion cannot flourish where that passover is either wholly neglected or not duly observed; return to that, revive that, make a solemn business of that affecting binding ordinance, and then, it is to be hoped, there will be a reformation in other instances also.

      In the account we had of Hezekiah’s passover the great zeal of the people was observable, and the transport of devout affection that they were in; but little of the same spirit appears here. It was more in compliance with the king that they all kept the passover (2Ch 35:17; 2Ch 35:18) than from any great inclination they had to it themselves. Some pride they took in this form of godliness, but little pleasure in the power of it. But, whatever defect there was among the people in the spirit of the duty, both the magistrates and the ministers did their part and took care that the external part of the service should be performed with due solemnity.

      I. The king exhorted and directed, quickened and encouraged, the priests and Levites to do their office in this solemnity. Perhaps he saw them remiss and indifferent, unwilling to go out of their road or mend their pace. If ministers are so, it is not amiss for any, but most proper for magistrates, to stir them up to their business. Say to Archippus, Take heed to thy ministry, Col. iv. 17. Let us see how this good king managed his clergy upon this occasion. 1. He reduced them to the office they were appointed to by the law of Moses (v. 6) and the order they were put into by David and Solomon, v. 4. He set them in their charge, v. 2. He did not cut them out new work, nor put them into any new method, but called them back to their institution. Their courses were settled in writing; let them have recourse to that writing, and marshal themselves according to the divisions of their families, v. 5. Our rule is settled in the written word; let magistrates take care that ministers walk according to that rule and they do their duty. 2. He ordered the ark to be put in its place. It should seem, it had of late been displaced, either by the wicked kings, to make room for their idols in the most holy place, or by Hezekiah, to make room for the workmen that repaired the temple. However it was, Josiah bids the Levites put the ark in the house (v. 3), and not carry it about from place to place, as perhaps of late they had done, justifying themselves therein by the practice before the temple was built. Now that the priests were discharged from this burden of the ark they must be careful in other services about it. 3. He charged them to serve God and his people Israel, v. 3. Ministers must look upon themselves as servants both to Christ and to his church for his sake, 2 Cor. iv. 5. They must take care, and take pains, and lay out themselves to the utmost, (1.) For the glory and honour of God, and to advance the interests of his kingdom among men. Paul, a servant of God, Tit. i. 1. (2.) For the welfare and benefit of his people, not as having dominion over their faith, but as helpers of their holiness and joy; and there will be no difficulty, in the strength of God, in honestly serving these two masters. 4. He charged them to sanctify themselves, and prepare their brethren, v. 6. Ministers’ work must begin at home, and they must sanctify themselves in the first place, purify themselves from sin, sequester themselves from the world, and devote themselves to God. But it must not end there; they must do what they can to prepare their brethren by admonishing, instructing, exhorting, quickening, and comforting, them. The preparation of the heart is indeed from the Lord; but ministers must be instruments in his hand. 5. He encouraged them to the service, v. 2. He spoke comfortably to them, as Hezekiah did, ch. xxx. 22. He promised them his countenance. Note, Those whom we charge we should encourage. Most people love to be commended, and will be wrought upon by encouragements more than by threats.

      II. The king and the princes, influenced by his example, gave liberally for the bearing of the charges of this passover. The ceremonial services were expensive, which perhaps was one reason why they had been neglected. People had not zeal enough to be at the charge of them; nor were they now very fond of them, for that reason, and therefore, 1. Josiah, at his own proper cost, furnished the congregation with paschal lambs, and other sacrifices, to be offered during the seven days of the feast. He allowed out of his own estate 30,000 lambs for passover offerings, which the offerers were to feast upon, and 3000 bullocks (v. 7) to be offered during the following seven days. Note, Those who are serious in religion should, when they persuade others to do that which is good, make it as cheap and easy to them as may be. And where God sows plentifully he expects to reap accordingly. It is to be feared that the congregation generally had not come provided; so that, if Josiah had not furnished them, the work of God must have stood still. 2. The chief of the priests, who were men of great estates, contributed towards the priests’ charges, as Josiah did towards the people’s. The princes (v. 8), that is, the chief of the priests, the princes of the holy tribe, rulers of the house of God, bore the priests’ charges. And some of the rich and great men of the Levites furnished them also with cattle, both great and small, for offerings, v. 9. For, as to those that sincerely desire to be found in the way of their duty, Providence sometimes raises up friends to bear them out in it, beyond what they could have expected.

      III. The priests and Levites performed their office very readily, v. 10. They killed the paschal lambs in the court of the temple, the priests sprinkled the blood upon the altar, the Levites flayed them, and then gave the flesh to the people according to their families (2Ch 35:11; 2Ch 35:12), not fewer than ten, nor more than twenty, to a lamb. They took it to their several apartments, roasted it, and ate it according to the ordinance, v. 13. As for the other sacrifices that were eucharistical, the flesh of them was boiled according to the law of the peace-offerings and was divided speedily among the people, that they might feast upon it as a token of their joy in the atonement made and their reconciliation to God thereby. And, lastly, The priests and Levites took care to honour God by eating of the passover themselves, v. 14. Let not ministers think that the care they take for the souls of others will excuse their neglect of their own, or that being employed so much in public worship will supersede the religious exercises of their closets and families. The Levites here mace ready for themselves and for the priests, because the priests were wholly taken up all day in the service of the altar; therefore, that they might not have their lamb to dress when they should eat it, the Levites got it ready for them against supper time. Let ministers learn hence to help one another, and to forward one another’s work, as brethren, and fellow-servants of the same Master.

      IV. The singers and porters attended in their places, and did their office, v. 15. The singers with their sacred songs and music expressed and excited the joy of the congregation, and made the service very pleasant to them; and the porters at the gates took care that there should be no breaking in of any thing to defile or disquiet the assembly, nor going out of any from it, that none should steal away till the service was done. While they were thus employed their brethren the Levites prepared paschal lambs for them.

      V. The whole solemnity was performed with great exactness, according to the law (2Ch 35:16; 2Ch 35:17), and, upon that account, there was none like it since Samuel’s time (v. 18), for in Hezekiah’s passover there were several irregularities. And bishop Patrick observes that in this also it exceeded the other passovers which the preceding kings had kept, that though Josiah was by no means so rich as David, and Solomon, and Jehoshaphat, yet he furnished the whole congregation with beasts for sacrifice, both paschal and eucharistical, at his own proper cost and charge, which was more than any king ever did before him.

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary

Second Kings – Chapter 23 (cont’d.) AND Second Chronicles – Chapters 35,36

Josiah Sponsors Passover , 2Ch 35:1-19

Josiah’s revival and attempted reformation went all the way. He prepared to keep the Passover as it had never been kept before, since the times of the judges. He was a stickler for doing all according to the law which had been forgotten so long. He planned the celebration of the Passover at the proper time in the fourteenth day of the first month. He began with the command to the priests to re-arrange the furniture of the temple as Moses had designated by command of the Lord. So the ark, which seems to have been removed from the holy of holies and possibly conveyed around the country, was taken back to its rightful place, and was not to be carried about anymore. They were to regroup themselves according to their Levitical orders and duties appointed them in the time of David and Solomon.

When these had prepared themselves they were to proceed with the observance of the Passover. They were to prepare themselves and their own houses and then to officiate for the people. For the Passover Josiah himself contributed thirty thousand lambs and kids and three thousand young bulls. A Iamb or a kid was to be offered for the Passover feast, while the bullock served as a sin offering for the priests and others of Israel’s leaders. The princes of Judah also made contribution of twenty-six hundred lambs and kids and three hundred oxen. The Levites contributed through their chieftains five thousand small cattle (sheep and goats) and five hundred oxen. So when the Passover date arrived these all stood in their places prepared to begin killing and preparing the Passover.

The priests took the blood and sprinkled it at the altar as the law required. The Levites took the carcasses and flayed (or skinned) them. It seems that the Passover lamb was roasted at the temple, taking precedence over the burnt offering. The other offerings were sod (or boiled) in pots, caldrons, and pans, and divided to the people. When the people had all been attended they turned to their own houses. The priests were occupied with the offerings of the people until late that night, burning the fat of their offerings on the altar in accord with the law’s requirement. Therefore the Levites prepared the lamb for themselves and for their brethren, the priests. Thus they did also for the singers and the porters who could not leave their positions in the choir and at the gates where they served in the office for which the Lord intended they should.

Thus the Passover was kept on its official day in strict aocord with the law they had neglected so long. All this was according to the commandment of the king. Once again it is notable that there is not the spontaneous enthusiasm among the people as had appeared in the time of Hezekiah. It seems obvious that people conformed because it was the command of the king. They did keep the Passover and feast of unleavened bread, which followed for seven days, in unprecedented manner since the times of Samuel the prophet, more than four hundred years before. Josiah’s observance outstripped those of David and Solomon, and that of Hezekiah, in magnitude, but evidently not in genuine spirituality.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

THE SECOND BOOK OF CHRONICLES

IN discussing the First Book of Chronicles we called attention to the fact that according to Usshers chronology, the two Books, not reckoning the table of genealogy, covered a space of 468 years of history; the First Book only 41 of these, and this second, 427. As to the authorship of these Books, Ezra is commonly accepted.

The analysis of any book is largely the presentation of a personal view. One man divides this Second Book of Chronicles into two portions: The Reign of Solomon, chapters 1 to 9, and The Kings of Judah, chapters 10 to 36.

Scofield in his reference Bible, says of this Book: It falls into eighteen divisions, by reigns, from Solomon to the captivities; records the division of the kingdom of David under Jeroboam and Rehoboam, and is marked by an ever growing apostasy, broken temporarily by reformations under Asa, Jehoshaphat, Joash, Hezekiah, and Josiah.

It is our purpose to follow neither of these divisions, however natural they may be, but to discuss the volume under three heads: Solomon and the Temple; Rehoboam and the Division, and the History of Judah.

SOLOMON AND THE TEMPLE

The Book opens with a declaration concerning the new king, And Solomon the son of David was strengthened in his kingdom, and the Lord his God was with him, and magnified him exceedingly (2Ch 1:1).

The history that follows gives occasion to say several things concerning this marvelous man of immortal reputation:

First, Solomons kingship enjoyed an auspicious beginning. The man who ascends the throne under the favor of the Lord necessarily begins a reign of promise. If, as in Solomons case, he sensibly recognizes his responsibility and seeks wisdom from the only sufficient source, he adds greater certainty to his success. When, in addition to this, his objectives are high and God-honoring, the glory of his kingdom advances accordingly. Certainly, Solomons preparation to build the temple was not only a noble objective, but one in line with his kingly fathers purpose and prayers, and the great Heavenly Fathers will for him.

The interesting history here of gathering materials and appointing men for this marvelous construction is made more interesting still by the kings personal supervision and spiritual interest. It takes some courage to conduct war, and we believe it takes almost more courage and even a clearer sense of God, to build sanctuaries, make their appointments according to the Divine pleasure, and call the people to worship within the spacious rooms of the same. Yet, when you have read but five chapters of this Book, you find such a work complete, and are not in the least amazed or even surprised to read, The glory of the Lord had filled the house of God (2Ch 5:14).

It is doubtful whether any company of men have done more for the establishment of spirituality in the earth and for the strengthening of the souls of their fellows, than have those who brought sanctuaries into existence and led congregations of people to a genuine worship of the most high God.

The on-going of this Book reveals Solomons conscious dependence. When the altar was erected he stood by it with outstretched hands (2Ch 6:12). That is the attitude of prayer and possibly of adoration. When his lips parted to speak, he says,

O Lord God of Israel, there is no God tike Thee in the heaven, nor in the earth; which keepest covenant, and shewest mercy unto Thy servants that walk before Thee with all their hearts:

Thou which hast kept with Thy servant David my father that which Thou hast promised him; and spakest with Thy mouth, and hast fulfilled it with Thine hand, as it is this day.

Now therefore, O Lord God of Israel, keep with Thy servant David my father that which Thou hast promised him, saying, There shall not fail thee a man in My sight to sit upon the throne of Israel; yet so that thy children take heed to their way to walk in My Law, as Thou hast walked before Me (2Ch 6:14-16).

Now then, O Lord God of Israel, let Thy Word be verified, which Thou hast spoken unto Thy servant David (2Ch 6:17).

Then follows an appeal that Gods eyes should be open upon their house day and night; that His ears should hearken to the prayers made in that place, and if sin were committed, that forgiveness should be granted, and if the people fail before the face of the enemy because of sin that they also should be pardoned; that if heaven be shut up on the same ground, upon repentance the dearth should end.

Then he concludes in a more personal petition to Him:

Then what prayer or what supplication soever shall be made of any man, or of all Thy people Israel, when every one shall know his own sore and his own grief, and shall spread forth his hands in this house:

Then hear Thou from Heaven Thy dwelling place, and forgive (2Ch 6:29-30).

These are only samples of the long petition that followed the dedicatory sermon. They wind up with a sentence like this: O Lord God, turn not away the face of Thine anointed: remember the mercies of David Thy servant (2Ch 6:42). It is a model prayer; it is the petition of a sincere soul; it is the cry of one who knows that the mercy and love of God are the only grounds of hope.

The further text records Solomons fame and death. That fame was based upon Solomons wisdom, accentuated doubtless by the magnificence of the temple, but made more honorable still in the extent of his organization, the luxury of his court and the wealth of his treasury.

Evidently, among the rulers of the earth, the queen of Sheba held conspicuous place, and when the fame of Solomon reached her, she came to prove him with her questions, and impress him with her own riches and glory. The difficult questions were satisfactorily answered, the temple was adequately shown, the table of the king groaned with its good meats, the apparel of the servants was profoundly impressive, and the queen said to the king,

It was a true report which I heard in mine own land of thine acts, and of thy wisdom:

Howbeit I believed not their words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen it: and, behold, the one half of the greatness of thy wisdom was not told me: for thou exceedest the fame that I heard.

Happy are thy men, and happy are these thy servants, winch stand continually before thee, and hear thy wisdom.

Blessed be the Lord thy God, which delighted in thee to set thee on his throne, to be king for the Lord thy God (2Ch 9:5-8).

The compliment to the king is followed with a statement of Solomons annual income, the magnificence of his throne, the rich appointments of the palace, the extensive commercial importance of his kingdom, and the willing tributes of the earths lesser lords.

Then, as if the task of telling all was too great, we have this record,

Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, first and last, are they not written in the book of Nathan the Prophet, and in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and in the visions of Iddo the seer against Jeroboam the son of Nebat?

And Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel forty years.

And Solomon slept with his fathers, and he was buried in the city of David his father: and Rehoboam his son reigned in his stead (2Ch 9:29-31).

It is a surprising end, and yet strangely true to human history. How many men spend all their days in preparing to live, and when the preparation seems almost complete, proceed to die? The last enemy is no respecter of persons. His bow is drawn against the great as well as the humble, the rich as well as the poor, the wise as well as the ignorant. Death respects neither thrones nor kings; he holds the key to the palace room, and even to the throne room. Kings may command their humbler fellows, and even counsel their equals; but where death calls, they also obey.

REHOBOAM AND THE DIVISION

The emptying of a throne is forever fraught with perils. The eternal and pertinent question is this, Who shall come after the king? The tenth chapter answered that concerning the throne of Israel. The answer was an ill omen! Rehoboams tyrannical spirit split the kingdom. When Jeroboam and all Israel came to him, saying, Thy father made our yoke grievous: now therefore ease thou somewhat the grievous servitude of thy father, and his heavy yoke that he put upon us, and we will serve thee (2Ch 10:4), they delicately referred to the increased taxation to which the luxurious court and the personal orgies of Solomon had given rise. They thought, as people commonly do, that the new rule would prove the peoples friend. Their hope was in vain.

The old men, former counselors of Solomon, advised kindness and compassion; but the young bloods, spoiled by their fellowship with royalty, counseled increased oppression; and under their influence he said,

My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add thereto: my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions (2Ch 10:14).

It was enough. The war was on; and that war has never ended until this day, for Israel and Judah are not yet one. A man who divides brethren and sets them to battle, little understands the infinite reach of his mischief. The father of Modernism in America, when he fell asleep at a comparatively early age, little dreamed that he had set influences to work that would divide every denomination on the continent, destroy the fellowship of men who loved one another as twins are commonly supposed to love, wreck schools and churches by the thousand, and start a war that may easily exceed the famous Hundred Year War of history.

Israel and Judahblood brothersbecame the bitterest of enemies. For some reason Second Chronicles pays little attention to Israel, but proceeds to trace Judahs history to the year of Cyrus, king of Persia, or through a period of almost a half millennium. The family feud occasionally projects itself into the record, but for the most part, Israel is forgotten, and the doings of Judah are recorded in detail.

The explanation of this is found in the circumstance that Jeroboam rejected the worship of Jehovah (2Ch 11:14-15). When God is once put away, when Gods priest is disposed of, and His minister is heard no more, then degeneracy compels a declining record.

Unitarianism three quarters of a century ago denied the Lord. Its history has amounted to little; and if it were recorded, it would simply prove, as the Jeroboam movement, a breeding place of apostasy; and yet this record regards not one apostasy only, but two.

The man of many favors may forget God.

When Rehoboam had established the kingdom, and had strengthened himself, he forsook the Law of the Lord, and all Israel with him (2Ch 12:1).

What a sad commentary on the uncertainty and unstability of human nature! The explanation of Rehoboams failure has fitted thousands, yea millions of cases. He did evil, because he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord (2Ch 12:14). Of all disappointments, none exceed thisto begin well and end badly; to give promise and create disappointment; to be the subject of Divine favor, and become the slave of Gods adversary.

THE HISTORY OF JUDAH

Chapters 11 to 36 contain the roster of kings. The fortunes of the country answer accurately and inevitably to the characters of their rulers. On the whole, the history is a down-grade. In that respect, it runs true to form. The doctrine of evolution may find an illustration in national life if it goes from the simple to the complex, but in so far as it contends for improvement, history fails to illustrate it. Degeneracy of nations has more often taken place than has social and moral progress.

The foundations of Judah were laid under David; the kingdoms glory appeared under Solomon. From that moment until this, one word expresses Judahs coursedecline.

Africa was once an advanced nation, now a heathen one; Italy once ruled the world, now she holds an inconspicuous place; Greece once represented the climax of physical and mental accomplishment, now she boasts neither. The reasons for decline are varied, but in Judah they were one the God who had made her great was too often forgotten, too willingly offended. When the nations neglect the source of their strength, weakness naturally ensues. Judahs strength was in the Lord, and when her kings forgot Him, despised His Word, entered into unholy alliances that were followed by the people, her fame declined, and her land fainted.

The mixed social condition manifested her sinfulness. We have a phrase, Like people, like priest. We can paraphrase that, Like princes, like people. The study of these kings results in no compliment to human nature. Some of them were utterly evil; most of them were a mixture of the good and bad; two or three of them were sound. Among the utterly evil ones, Jehoram, Ahaziah, Athaliah, Manasseh, Amon and Jehoiakin held first place. The ones that represent a mixture of good and bad were Jeroboam, Jehoshaphat, Joash, Amaziah, Uzziah, Jehoiakim; while the truly good consisted of Jotham, Hezekiah and Josiah. In all probability the reign of each of these good kings was profoundly affected and made spiritually fruitful by the ministry of Isaiah, the greatest preacher among Old Testament Prophets. It is perhaps a fact of history that no rulers have ever proven faithful to God without the stimulating and salutary influence of the Gospel ministry.

The judgments and mercies of Second Chronicles alike vindicate Jehovah. In this record wickedness does not go unpunished; and yet it is a marvelous revelation of Divine mercy.

There is never the least sign of penitence on the part of the ruler and the people without an immediate and generous response from Jehovah.

When Jehoshaphat declined in his loyalty and effected a sinful coalition with Ahab, judgment fell; but instantly upon his repentance, mercy was shown. Judgment is always and everywhere Gods strange work, the work in which He takes no pleasure. As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Eze 33:11).

Mercy is His nature, His essential character, for to the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper; but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy (Pro 28:13).

Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley

CRITICAL NOTES.] The preparations for the Passover (2Ch. 35:1-9); the actual celebration (2Ch. 35:10-19); Josiahs defeat by Necho (2Ch. 35:20-27). 2Ki. 23:21-30 corresponds to this chap.

2Ch. 35:1-9.The preparation. Day not irregular, but time appointed (Exo. 12:6). Priests re-established in their courses and duties, as prescribed (cf. ch. 2Ch. 29:5; 2Ch. 30:16). 2Ch. 35:3. Taught, instructed people in matters pertaining to worship. Put, for some reason removed during repairs. Burden, ark once in its place, to remain; not to be carried about, as customary before Temple built. 2Ch. 35:4. Prepare, other duties devolved upon them; they must attend with diligence to regulations of public service (cf. 1 Chronicles 23-26). 2Ch. 35:5. A section of Levites to attend to every division of families of people. 2Ch. 35:6. So, particular direction required. Personal purity required that brethren may be prepared. 2Ch. 35:7-9. King and princes give animals. J. gave (ch. 2Ch. 30:24) lambs and kids for the meal; bullocks for burnt-offerings (Num. 28:19) and thank-offerings. 2Ch. 35:8. Willingly, number not given, unless included in next verses. Unto priests, for poor families of their own order; leading priests furnished offerings; chief Levites also gave to poor Levitical families.

2Ch. 35:10-19.The celebration of Passover. So, everything ready, according to law. 2Ch. 35:11. Sprinkled (cf. 2Ch. 30:16). Flayed, removed skins. Priests and Levites performed their parts. 2Ch. 35:12. Removed, parts to be consumed on the altar, viz., fat, kidneys, &c.; parts cut off by Levites and given to offerers for burnt-offerings. 2Ch. 35:13. Roasted (Exo. 12:8-9, peace-offerings boiled and eaten on days of unleavened bread. 2Ch. 35:14. Therefore, because priests too much engaged to prepare food for themselves. 2Ch. 35:15. Singers divided like other Levites, divided into courses, took service in turn; the order determined by lot, first lot to sons of Asaph (1Ch. 25:8-31). Probably this course retained its presidency over the rest, and now commenced in the Temple the restored choral service [Speak. Com.]. 2Ch. 35:16. Same day, at that time. 2Ch. 35:17. Seven days, Israel, i.e., the whole people (cf. 2Ch. 35:3 and 2Ch. 35:18). Hezekiahs kept fourteen days (2Ch. 30:26). 2Ch. 35:18. Like, for exact conformity to Mosaic law and legal purity. 2Ch. 35:19. Year, culminating point in reforms (2Ki. 22:3).

2Ch. 35:20-27.The defeat of Josiah. After, thirteen years after, B.C. 608. A blank in Jewish history. Necho, son of Psammetichus, king of Egypt, against Babylonian forces which he expected to find near Charchemish, chief city of Northern Syria. N. did not wish to embarrass Josiah. 2Ch. 35:21. House, with which at war and against which he was commissioned by God. 2Ch. 35:22. J. disguised; some, equipped himself; others, was eager; Sept., strengthened himself to fight. Meg., between Magdol and Hadadrimmon. 2Ch. 35:23. Shot by an arrow, J. ordered his servants to carry him away; put in a second chariot, reserved for flight probably, lighter than a war-chariot, and taken to Jer. 2Ch. 35:25 His death lamented by Jeremiah in words no longer extant, but preserved and chanted by professional singers long after the event. Some find the prophets elegy in the entire Book of Lamentations; others in a part of it (ch. 4); most critics of opinion that the lament is lost [Speak. Com.]. 2Ch. 35:25. Ordinance, not minstrels, but those in authority. A certain day set apart, a standing custom to lament. 2Ch. 35:26. Goodness, good deeds, religious faithfulness, acts of kindness or goodwill, according to that law which he found, read, and remembered.

HOMILETICS

A CELEBRATED PASSOVER.2Ch. 35:1-19

Great events and remarkable daysred letter daysrelieve monotony of life; stand out prominently in history and create epochs in memory. Such times afford comfort, inspiration, and never forgotten. No such passover as this. Notice

I. The devout preparation for its celebration. So the service was prepared. King exhorted and stimulated the indifferent and unwilling.

1. By rightly fixing the ark. Put away by idolatrous Manasseh, who set a carved image in its place; or temporarily removed by Josiah during repairs; it was replaced in temple, not carried about any longer. Now the priests were discharged from this burden, they must be careful for other duties.

2. By personal sanctification. Sanctify yourselves by separation from uncleanness and consecration to God. But not to end here, prepare their brethren, by instruction, exhortation, and example. Self first, others after.

3. By orderly arrrangement of classes. He set them in their charge. Not any new work nor novel method; just a return to written divine order. The written word the rule to which magistrates and ministers should appeal. Walk by the same rule.

II. The unlimited numbers which attended. Neither did all the kings of Israel keep such a passover as Josiah kept, and the priests, and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel that were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. If we allow thirteen persons for each lamb or kid, there were upwards of 500,000 communicants, while so far as we know, there were only 17,000 sheep presented by Hezekiah and his princes (2Ch. 30:24), which would not supply more than half the number of partakers [Murphy].

III. The earnest spirit by which it was characterised. Remarkable for enthusiasm, holy excitement, and unity of heart.

1. A spirit of unbounded liberality. Multitudes reduced to poverty, especially from Israel by Assyrian devastations; unprovided with means of commemorations. The king gave to the people lambs, kids, and bullocks (2Ch. 35:7). Princes gave to priests and Levites; and chiefs of these officers remembered poor families of their order. Hearts touched, a spirit of brotherhood prevailed and all gave willingly.

2. A spirit of thorough consecration. The priests stood waiting in their place, the singers in their station, all busied in offering that they might not leave their place (2Ch. 35:15). None left their posts unless relieved by brethren, and then return to duty with delight.

3. A spirit of hearty co-operation. They urged and helped one another, did their work speedily. Places not long empty, viands lost not heat nor flavour through delay. The service of the Lord was prepared the same day (2Ch. 35:16).

IV. The loyal obedience by which it was observed. In accordance with law in time, method, and spirit.

1. Right time observed. Day appointed by law (cf. ch. 2Ch. 30:2; 2Ch. 30:13), fourteenth day of the month (Exo. 12:6). Nothing must be done untimely.

2. Personal purity observed. Priests and people sanctified. So the service was prepared. Need for cleansing with more than sprinkling of blood and water with hyssopwithdrawal from more than earthly pollution. Gods service pure and loving, sincerity and truth (1Co. 5:7), like God who is holy (1Pe. 1:13) and light and love.

3. Legal authority observed. Not according to the will of the king, the conjecture of the court, but according to the word of the Lord by the hand of Moses (2Ch. 35:6), the writing of David and the writing of Solomon (2Ch. 35:5). As many as walk according to this rule (lit. straight line, e.g. of a masons rule or a surveyors chain), peace be on them and mercy upon the Israel of God (Gal. 6:16).

THE DISTURBED REIGN.2Ch. 35:20-25

If Josiah thought that after restoration of divine worship and revival of religion he would have a period of settled peace and national prosperity, he was disappointed. The bright interval brief. Too late is written on the pages even which describe this momentary revival, says Stanley (Jew. Ch., vol. ii.), from whom we condense this outline. It did not reach the deeply-seated, widespread corruption which tainted rich and poor alike. Large as is the space occupied by it in the historical books, by the contemporary prophets it is never mentioned at all. The kingdom doomed, though day delayed; two calamities the immediate precursors.

I. The invasion of the Scythians (B.C. 634639). The earliest recorded movement of Northern populations, hid behind the long mountain barrier, reared by nature between civilised and uncivilised races of old world. Suddenly appeared those strange, uncouth, fur-clad forms, hardly to be distinguished from their horses and waggons, fierce as their own wolves or bears, sweeping towards the southern regions which seemed to them their natural prey. No wonder that now all the ancient monarchies of the southAssyria, Babylon, Media, Egypt, even Greece and Asia Minorstood aghast at the spectacle of savage hordes rushing down on seats of luxury and power. About the middle of Josiahs reign one division broke into Syria, penetrated on their way to Egypt, to the southern frontier of Palestine, were bought off by Psammetichus and retired, after sacking the temple of Astarte at Ascalon. They left one permanent trace as they scoured through the plain of Esdrlon. The old Canaanitish city of Bethshan, at eastern extremity of that plain, from them received the name, which it bore throughout the Roman Empire, in the mouths of Greeks, Scythopolis, the city of the Scythians.

II. The invasion of Necho. Strengthened by influx of Northern nations, Babylon now rising into overwhelming predominance. Necho, the vigorous King of Egypt, wished to anticipate that growth by securing himself on east and north. Kingdom of Judah between these contending powers. Necho advanced through Palestine towards passes of Lebanon on his way to the great battlefield of Carchemish. In the plain of Esdrlon, the scene of so many combats in earlier history of Israel, Josiah determined, with a rashness which appeared to be against the counsels of Providence (2Ch. 35:21; 1Es. 1:27-28), to stay the progress of the Egyptian army. No details given of the battle. Everything absorbed in one tragical event which closed it [Stanley]. What stability is there in earthly things? How seldom is excellency of any kind long-lived? In the very strength of his age, in the height of his strength, is Josiah withdrawn from the earth: as not without a merciful intention of His glory on Gods behalf; so not without some weakness on his own Sometimes both grace and wit are asleep in the wariest and holiest breasts. The best of Gods saints may be sometimes miscarried by their passions to their cost [Bp. Hall].

GODS COMMAND TO MAKE HASTE.2Ch. 35:21

Applying this to Christians, observe on what command founded. A distinction between moral and positive duties. Positive right because commanded; moral commanded because right, founded on the very nature of things. We may be satisfied, therefore, with Gods revealed will, because sure that it is founded on rectitude. Here command to make haste founded on three principlesFirst, because of the importance of the thing itself. Not a trifle, but our life, cannot neglect without infinite loss, and plunging into lamentation and woe. If religion be anything, it is everything; the one thing needful. Secondly, because of the limitation of our opportunities. We have only one season to regard these things, the world over. No work, nor device, nor knowledge in the grave, &c. Several circumstances to be mentioned in regard to this season of attention. It is short. What is thy life? &c. It is uncertain. Boast not thyself of to-morrow, &c. It has also much in it not applicable to any serious and important service. The whole of infancy, much of childhood and youth; lawful business, allowed recreation and necessary sleep. Observe also that of this only season for action, many favourable periods may fail before the end of it. The harvest may be passed and the summer ended, &c. Then of this season much is already gone. Only a day and sun risen very high with some. It is high time to awake, &c. And if this applies to all, with what force to those of sixty or seventy or more? Thirdly, because of the advantages to be derived from ardour. Often said, and is literally true, that the lazy take the most pains. They make no progress, because everything a diversion or hindrance; have to begin again and again. How often have we succeeded beyond expectation when we have applied ourselves with decision and vigour! A pleasure in acting with vigour which listless, inert, lounging and yawning never know. Never so happy as in application. Slothful say, See a lion in the way, &c. But zeal clears the way of the lion, removes impediments, or turns them into auxiliaries [Jay, Evenings with Jesus].

RASHNESS AND RISKS.2Ch. 35:20-24

From the time of Manasseh, Judah had been a vassal of Assyria, the rival of Egypt. In this war Josiah might feel bound as a matter of honour to support the interests of his northern liege-lord and oppose Necho. Might think it perfectly legitimate to prevent the march of the enemy through his own territoriesmight doubt Nechos faith in Elohim, whom, he said, gave him commission. Warnings unheeded, attack made, and results sad!

I. Josiah rash in his conduct. May be excused in some things, but erred in others. All not good that good men do. Great men are not always wise.

1. Josiahs action was unwise. Intermeddled with strife not belonging to him. His best apology, says one, perhaps would be that Necho was marching through a part of Judea. But then, first, this part did not belong to him; and, secondly, if Necho had passed through, he might have done so, as Israel formerly desired to pass through the borders of Moab, engaging to commit no injury, and to pay for all they used.

2. Josiah acted from impulse and not conviction. Passion worse than conviction, and never a wise counsellor. Make no friendship with an angry man, and with a furious man thou shalt not go, lest thou learn his ways, and get a snare to thy soul.

3. Josiah sought not divine counsel. Jeremiah, Zephaniah, Urijah, and a college of seers with him, but did not ask counsel of the Lord. Shall I go up, or shall I forbear? If we reject divine counsel, it betrays consciousness of wrong, and leads to risks in any enterprise.

4. Josiah rejected urgent warnings. Necho, calm and conciliatory, sent ambassadors. What have I to do with thee? &c. But J. despised

(1) Appeals to reason. I come not against thee.

(2) Appeals to religion. For God commanded me to make haste.

(3) Appeals to self-interest. Forbear thee from meddling with God, who is with me, that He destroy thee not.

II. Josiahs rash conduct brought fearful results. J. would not turn his face from him, &c.

1. Upon himself. In his chariot, but disguised, according to the practice of the royal families of Israel (2Ch. 35:22; 1Ki. 22:30) in moments of extreme emergency. The Egyptian archers, such as we see on their monuments, discharged a volley of arrows against him. He fell, was placed in his second chariot of reserve, and carried to Jerusalem to die [Stanley]. A death untimely, which might have been avoided, but permitted by God, a mystery and a correction.

2. Upon the nation. Unworthy of such a prince, he was taken away from impending calamities. A striking illustration how the righteous is taken away from the evil to come. Gods decree took fatal effect, after delay, in Josiahs life. Jerusalem taken, and inhabitants carried to Babylon.

THE DEATH OF KING JOSIAH.2Ch. 35:23-25

I. The mystery of the event. A good mans end often strange. Steps taken which result in failure and death. One event, specially stamped with uncertainty, but linked with Gods purpose. A time to die. Who can tell a man when it shall be? In the day of death, the king impotent to resist as the beggar; depends upon Gods will, not mans effort. Drawn by policy, alhance, or apparent duty; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them.

II. The memorial of the event. A mournful death, without precedent in annals of Judah. Commemorated

1. In prophetic dirge. Jeremiah lamented, and minstrels, male and female, sang dirges of the event.

2. In national mourning. All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. A contrast to the unwept fates of those who depart without being desired (ch. 2Ch. 21:20).

3. In appointed ordinance. Made them an ordinance in Israel. The elegy of prophet, chanted at stated public occasions, long perpetuated, and the lamentation became proverbial for any great and extraordinary sorrow (Zec. 12:11). Good men valued by their loss, honoured by those who live contrary to their teaching, and survive after death. In long continuance, in holy influence, the memory of the just is blessed.

Unblemishd let me live, or die unknown:
O grant an honest fame, or grant me none [Pope].

I. The striking feature of the story is the picture it gives of the quiet manner in which Gods servants are sometimes allowed to pass away when they have finished their work. The history of Josiahs death compared with his life puts things in right order; his life active, hard-working, and zealous; death quiet, unexciting, what we call inglorious. The history fitted to check tendency to lay too much stress upon circumstances of a mans death; to be fond of exciting death-bed scenes, to delight in religious books which vividly describe last moments of departing friends. He who will stand least reprovable at last day, will be he who has worked most earnestly and vigorously in cause of holiness and of Christ when all temptations of the world and the strength of Satan have been opposed to him. II. The moral we draw from the text is that he who does his work in the proper time, who does not put off till old age the work of youth, nor the hour of death the labour of life, may be quiet and unconcerned for the way in which God may please to call him. If called by sudden providence when engaged in work, or summoned by speedy sickness, he may be of good cheer and of quiet mind, knowing that God will do all things well [Bp. Harvey Goodwin].

HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS

2Ch. 35:3. Ark replaced. Change of circumstances, relief of burden, and opportunity for more vigorous service in known duty. Pray not for a larger sphere, for more work. Do what is appointed, and fill well present sphere. Stand in your place.

2Ch. 35:4. Prepare. Heathens saw that God was not to be served but by those who were prepared aforehand. Solon willed in his laws that the sacrifices should be chosen and selected, and the sacrifices should purify themselves some days before [Trapp]. Should not people long before prepare, when they come to the Lords table? [Ibid.].

2Ch. 35:15. Singers in their place. Song in Gods house.

1. Its nature. Spiritual, appropriate, and spirited. Certain Psalms 113-118 inclusive. Resolve, I will praise the Lord with my whole heart, in the assembly of the upright and in the congregation.

2. Its leaders. Numbered, stationed, and qualified. This needful and helpful. Organist, clerk, and choir should be early in place, devout in spirit, and orderly in all things.

3. Its design. Not a musical performance for gratification of the people; not to display ability, culture, and efficiency in singers: but to please God (Php. 2:8-10), and praise Christ. Pliny found in worship of Bithynians a hymn to Christ as God. Sentimental twaddle, sung by a congregation, is essentially carnalising and paganising. What sort of a nation will our Songs of Zion make? Are they of Zion? Some of them have a look of Rome, and some of Racow [Prof. J. Macgregor, D.D.].

2Ch. 35:21. Haste. Three things concerning which God commands to make baste1st, To secure the salvation of the soul; 2nd, To a course of godliness; 3rd, To efforts in seeking the welfare of others [Jay].

2Ch. 35:22. Hearkened not.

1. Providence asserted in Necho. Individual and supremeCommanded me.

2. Providence contravened in Josiah. Ignorantly in some degree, yet really opposed to divine plan. Woe then to such as hearken not to the undoubted words of God, in the mouths of his faithful ministers.

ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 35

2Ch. 35:7-9. Gave willingly. If a wealthy man promise much and perform nothing, a poor man who is unable to undertake or perform is better than he [Bp. Hall]. Rich mens presents are gold and silver or other costly things. Mine must be recommended by the affectionate pleasure with which I give them [Ver. Bede when dying].

2Ch. 35:16. Prepared the same day. Life is a short day, but it is a working day. Oh I my Father, help me to finish my work in Thine honour [Livingstones Journal, Jan. 1st, 1871].

2Ch. 35:21. Haste. These are remarkable words in the mouth of a heathen; but they are not without a parallel in the remains of ancient Egypt that have come down to us. Piankhi, for instance, King of Egypt, about B.C. 750, says in an inscription which has been translated by the Rev. Canon Cook, Didst thou not know that the Divine shade was over me? I have not acted without his knowledge; He commanded my acts [Speak. Com.].

2Ch. 35:23-25. Lamented. While the living minister is neglected, the dying one may be lamented, and lamented the more when dead because he was neglected while living. The children of Israel were always complaining of Moses, and frequently threatening him, yet they wept for him on the Plains of Moab thirty days, and we are persuaded sincerely. Want endears and increases worth [Jay].

How mercies brighten as they take their flight! [Young].

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

LESSON TWENTY-FOUR 3436

JOSIAHS REFORMATION THE LAST DAYS OF THE SOUTHERN KINGDOM BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY. THE DECREE OF CYRUS
17. THE REIGN OF JOSIAH (Chapter 3435)

INTRODUCTION

Josiah and Hilkiah led Judah in a wonderful revival of faith in God. The passover was a time of great rejoicing. Josiahs untimely death shortened Judahs time as a kingdom. Babylon came. Jerusalem was ruined. Captivity followed. At the end of the captivity Cyrus released the Jews for their return to Jerusalem.

TEXT

2Ch. 34:1. Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign; and he reigned thirty and one years in Jerusalem. 2. 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. 3. 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 from the high places, and the Asherim, and the graven images, and the molten images. 4. 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. 5. And he burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars, and purged Judah and Jerusalem. 6. And so did he in the cities of Manasseh and Ephraim and Simeon, even unto Naphtali, in their ruins round about. 7. 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.

8. Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair the house of Jehovah his God. 9. And they came to Hilkiah the high priest, and delivered the money that was brought into the house of God, which the Levites, the keepers of the threshold, had gathered of the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim, and of all the remnant of Israel, and of all Judah and Benjamin, and of the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 10. And they delivered it into the hand of the workmen that had the oversight of the house of Jehovah; and the workmen that wrought in the house of Jehovah gave it to mend and repair the house: 11. even to the carpenters and to the builders gave they it, to buy hewn stone, and timber for couplings, and to make beams for the houses which the kings of Judah had destroyed. 12. And the men did the work faithfully: and the overseers of them were Jahath and Obadiah, the Levites, of the sons of Merari; and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the sons of the Kohathites, to set it forward; and others of the Levites, all that were skilful with instruments of music. 13. Also they were over the bearers of burdens, and set forward all that did the work in every manner of service: and of the Levites there were scribes, and officers, and porters.
14. And when they brought out the money that was brought into the house of Jehovah, Hilkiah the priest found the book of the law of Jehovah given by Moses. 15. And Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of Jehovah. And Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan. 16. And Shaphan carried the book to the king, and moreover brought back word to the king, saying, All that was committed to thy servants, they are doing. 17. And they have emptied out the money that was found in the house of Jehovah, and have delivered it into the hand of the overseers, and into the hand of the workmen. 18. And Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest hath delivered me a book. And Shaphan read therein before the king. 19. And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the law, that he rent his clothes. 20. And the king commanded Hilkiah, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Abdon the son of Micah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah the kings servant, saying, 21. Go ye, inquire of Jehovah for me, and for them that are left in Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book that is found; for great is the wrath of Jehovah that is poured out upon us, because our fathers have not kept the word of Jehovah, to do according unto all that is written in this book.
22. So Hilkiah, and they whom the king had commanded, went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tokhath, the son of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe (now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the second quarter); and they spake to her to that effect. 23. And she said unto them, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel: Tell ye the man that sent you unto me, 24. Thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the curses that are written in the book which they have read before the king of Judah. 25. Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore is my wrath poured out upon this place, and it shall not be quenched. 26. But unto the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of Jehovah, thus shall ye say to him Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel: As touching the words which thou hast heard, 27. because thy heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God, when thou heardest his words against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, and hast humbled thyself before me, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard thee, saith Jehovah. 28. Behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace, neither shall thine eyes see all the evil that I will bring upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof. And they brought back word to the king.
29. Then the king sent and gathered together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. 30. And the king went up to the house of Jehovah, and all the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests, and the Levites, and all the people, both great and small: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant that was found in the house of Jehovah. 31. And the king stood in his place, and made a covenant before Jehovah, to walk after Jehovah, and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies, and his statues, with all his heart, and with all his soul, to perform the words of covenant that were written in this book. 32. And he caused all that were found in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand to it. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers. 33. And Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries that pertained to the children of Israel, and made all that were found in Israel to serve, even to serve Jehovah their God. All his days they departed not from following Jehovah, the God of their fathers.

2Ch. 35:1. And Josiah kept a passover unto Jehovah in Jerusalem: and they killed the passover on the fourteenth day of the first month. 2. And he set the priests in their offices, and encouraged them to the service of the house of Jehovah. 3. And he said unto the Levites that taught all Israel, that were holy unto Jehovah, Put the holy ark in the house which Solomon the son of David king of Israel did build; there shall no more be a burden upon your shoulders. Now serve Jehovah your God, and his people Israel; 4. and prepare yourselves after your fathers houses by your courses, according to the writing of David king of Israel, and according to the writing of Solomon his Song of Solomon 5. And stand in the holy place according to the divisions of the fathers houses of your brethren the children of the people, and let there be for each a portion of a fathers house of the Levites. 6. And kill the passover, and sanctify yourselves, and prepare for your brethren, to do according to the word of Jehovah by Moses.

7. And Josiah gave to the children of the people, of the flock, lambs and kids, all of them for the passover-offerings, unto all that were present, to the number of thirty thousand, and three thousand bullocks; these were of the kings substance. 8. And his princes gave for a freewill-offering unto the people, to the priests, and to the Levites. Hilkiah and Zechariah and Jehiel, the rulers of the house of God, gave unto the priests for the passover-offerings two thousand and six hundred small cattle, and three hundred oxen. 9. Conaniah also, and Shemaiah and Nethanel, his brethren, and Hashabiah and Jeiel and Jozabad, the chiefs of the Levites, gave unto the Levites, for the passover-offerings five thousand small cattle, and five hundred oxen.
So the service was prepared, and the priests stood in their place, and the Levites by their courses, according to the kings commandment. 11. And they killed the passover, and the priests sprinkled the blood which they received of their hand, and the Levites flayed them. 12. And they removed the burnt-offerings, that they might give them according to the divisions of the fathers houses of the children of the people, to offer unto Jehovah, as it is written in the book of Moses. And so did they with the oxen. 13. And they roasted the passover with fire according to the ordinance: and the holy offerings boiled they in pots, and in caldrons, and in pans, and carried them quickly to all the children of the people. 14. And afterward they prepared for themselves, and for the priests, because the priests the sons of Aaron were busied in offering the burnt-offerings and the fat until night: therefore the Levites prepared for themselves, and for the priests the sons of Aaron. 15. And the singers the sons of Asaph were in their place, according to the commandment of David, and Asaph, and Heman, and Jeduthun the kings seer; and the porters were at every gate: they needed not to depart from their service; for their brethren the Levites prepared for them.
16. So all the service of Jehovah was prepared the same day, to keep the passover, and to offer burnt-offerings upon the altar of Jehovah, according to the commandment of king Josiah. 17. And the children of Israel that were present kept the passover at that time, and the feast of unleavened bread seven days. 18. And there was no passover like to that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet; neither did any of the kings of Israel keep such a passover as Josiah kept, and the priests, and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel that were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 19. In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah was this passover kept.
20. After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Neco king of Egypt went up to fight against Carchemish by the Euphrates: and Josiah went out against him. 21. But he sent ambassadors to him, saying, What have I to do with thee, thou king of Judah? I come not against thee this day, but against the house wherewith I have war; and God hath commanded me to make haste: forbear thee from meddling with God, who is with me, that he destroy thee not. 22. Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself, that he might fight with him, and hearkened not unto the words of Neco from the mouth of God, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo. 23. And the archers shot at king Josiah; and the king said to his servants, Have me away; for I am sore wounded. 24. So his servants took him out of the chariot, and put him in the second chariot that he had, and brought him to Jerusalem; and he died, and was buried in the sepulchres of his fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. 25. And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah: and all the singing men and singing women spake of Josiah in their lamentations unto this day; and they made them an ordinance in Israel: and, behold, they are written in the lamentations. 26. Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and his good deeds, according to that which is written in the law of Jehovah, 27. and his acts, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.

PARAPHRASE

2Ch. 34:1. Josiah was only eight years old when he became king. He reigned thirty-one years, in Jerusalem. 2. His was a good reign, as he carefully followed the good example of his ancestor King David. 3. For when he was sixteen years old, in the eighth year of his reign, he began to search for the God of his ancestor David; and four years later he began to clean up Judah and Jerusalem, destroying the heathen altars and the shame-idols on the hills. 4. He went out personally to watch as the altars of Baal were knocked apart, the obelisks above the altars chopped down, and the shame-idols ground into dust and scattered over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. 5. Then he burned the bones of the heathen priests upon their own altars, feeling that this action would clear the people of Judah and Jerusalem from the guilt of their sin of idol-worship. 6. Then he went to the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, even to distant Naphtali, and did the same thing there. 7. He broke down the heathen altars, ground to powder the shame-idols, and chopped down the obelisks. He did this everywhere throughout the whole land of Israel before returning to Jerusalem.

8. During the eighteenth year of his reign, after he had purged the land and cleaned up the situation at the Temple, he appointed Shaphan (son of Azaliah) and Ma-aseiah, governor of Jerusalem, and Joah (son of Joahaz), the city treasurer, to repair the Temple. 9. They set up a collection system for gifts for the Temple. The money was collected at the Temple gates by the Levites on guard duty there. Gifts were brought by the people coming from Manasseh, Ephraim, and other parts of the remnant of Israel, as well as from the people of Jerusalem. The money was taken to Hilkiah the High Priest for accounting, 10, 11. and then used by the Levites to pay the carpenters and stonemasons, and to purchase building materialsstone building blocks, timber, lumber, and beams. He now rebuilt what earlier kings of Judah had torn down. 12. The workmen were energetic under the leadership of Jahath and Obadiah, Levites of the subclan of Merari. Zechariah and Meshullam, of the subclan of Kohath, were the building superintendents. The Levites who were skilled musicians played background music while the work progressed. 13. Other Levites superintended the unskilled laborers who carried in the materials to the workmen. Still others assisted as accountants, supervisors, and carriers.
14. One day when Hilkiah, the High Priest, was at the Temple recording the money collected at the gates, he found an old scroll which turned out to be the laws of God as given to Moses! 15, 16. Look! Hilkiah exclaimed to Shaphan, the kings secretary. See what I have found in the Temple! These are the laws of God! Hilkiah gave the scroll to Shaphan, and Shaphan took it to the king, along with his report that there was good progress being made in the reconstruction of the Temple. 17. The money chests have been opened and counted, and the money has been put into the hand of the overseers and workmen, he said to the king. 19. Then he mentioned the scroll, and how Hilkiah had discovered it. So he read it to the king. 19. When the king heard what these laws required of Gods people, he ripped his clothing in despair, 20. and summoned Hilkiah, Ahikam (son of Shaphan), Abdon (son of Micah), Shaphan the treasurer, and Asaiah, the kings personal aide. 21. Go to the Temple and plead with the Lord for me! the king told them. Pray for all the remnant of Israel and Judah! For this scroll says that the reason the Lords great anger has been poured out upon us is that our ancestors have not obeyed these laws that are written here.
22. So the men went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum (son of Tokhath, son of Hasrah). (Shallum was the kings tailor, living in the second ward.) When they told her of the kings trouble, 23. she replied, The Lord God of Israel says, Tell the man who sent you, 24. Yes, the Lord will destroy this city and its people. All the curses written in the scroll will come true. 25. For my people have forsaken me and have worshiped heathen gods, and I am very angry with them for their deeds. Therefore, my unquenchable wrath is poured out upon this place. 26. But the Lord also says this to the king of Judah who sent you to ask me about this: Tell him, the Lord God of Israel says, 27. Because you are sorry and have humbled yourself before God when you heard my words against this city and its people, and have ripped your clothing in despair and wept before meI have heard you, says the Lord, 28. and I will not send the promised evil upon this city and its people until after your death. So they brought back to the king this word from the Lord.
29. Then the king summoned all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem, 30. and the priests and Levites and all the people great and small, to accompany him to the Temple. There the king read the scroll to themthe covenant of God that was found in the Temple. 31. As the king stood before them, he made a pledge to the Lord to follow his commandments with all his heart and soul, and to do what was written in the scroll. 32. And he required everyone in Jerusalem and Benjamin to subscribe to this pact with God, and all of them did. 33. So Josiah removed all idols from the areas occupied by the Jews, and required all of them to worship Jehovah their God. And throughout the remainder of his lifetime they continued serving Jehovah, the God of their ancestors.

2Ch. 35:1. Then Josiah announced that the Passover would be celebrated on the first day of April, in Jerusalem. The Passover lambs were slain that evening. 2. He also re-established the priests in their duties, and encouraged them to begin their work at the Temple again. 3. He issued this order to the sanctified Levites, the religious teachers in Israel: Since the Ark is now in Solomons Temple and you dont need to carry it back and forth upon your shoulders, spend your time ministering to the Lord and to his people. 4, 5. Form yourselves into the traditional service corps of your ancestors, as first organized by King David of Israel and by his son Solomon. Each corps will assist particular clans of the people who bring in their offerings to the Temple. 6. Kill the Passover lambs and sanctify yourselves and prepare to assist the people who come. Follow all of the instructions of the Lord through Moses.

7. Then the king contributed 30,000 lambs and young goats for the peoples Passover offerings, and 3,000 young bulls. 8. The kings officials made willing contributions to the priests and Levites. Hilkiah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, the overseers of the Temple, gave the priests 2,600 sheep and goats, and 300 oxen as Passover offerings. 9. The Levite leadersConaniah, Shemaiah, and Nethanel, and his brothers Hashabiah, Je-iel, and Jozabadgave 5,000 sheep and goats and 500 oxen to the Levites for their Passover offerings.
10. When everything was organized, and the priests were standing in their places, and the Levites were formed into service corps as the king had instructed, 11. then the Levites killed the Passover lambs and presented the blood to the priests, who sprinkled it upon the altar as the Levites removed the skins, 12. They piled up the carcasses for each tribe to present its own burnt sacrifices to the Lord, as it is written in the law of Moses. They did the same with the oxen. 13. Then, as directed by the laws of Moses, they roasted the Passover lambs and boiled the holy offerings in pots, kettles, and pans, and hurried them out to the people to eat. 14. Afterwards the Levites prepared a meal for themselves and for the priests, for they had been busy from morning till night offering the fat of the burnt offerings. 15. The singers (the sons of Asaph) were in their places, following directions issued centuries earlier by King David, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun the kings prophet. The gatekeepers guarded the gates, and didnt need to leave their posts of duty, for their meals were brought to them by their Levite brothers.
16. The entire Passover ceremony was completed in that one day. All the burnt offerings were sacrificed upon the altar of the Lord, as Josiah had instructed. 17. Everyone present in Jerusalem took part in the Passover observance, and this was followed by the Feast of Unleavened Bread for the next seven days. 18. Never since the time of Samuel the prophet had there been such a Passovernot one of the kings of Israel could vie with King Josiah in this respect, involving so many of the priests, Levites, and people from Jerusalem and from all parts of Judah, and from over in Israel. 19. This all happened in the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah.
20. Afterwards King Neco of Egypt led his army (against the Assyrians) at Carchemish on the Euphrates River, and Josiah declared war on him. 21. But King Neco sent ambassadors to Josiah with this message: I dont want a fight with you, O king of Judah! I have come only to fight the king of Assyria! Leave me alone! God has told me to hurry! Dont meddle with God or he will destroy you, for he is with me. 22. But Josiah refused to turn back. Instead he led his army into the battle at the Valley of Megiddo. (He laid aside his royal robes so that the enemy wouldnt recognize him.) Josiah refused to believe that Necos message was from God. 23. The enemy archers struck King Josiah with their arrows and fatally wounded him. Take me out of the battle, he exclaimed to his aides. 24, 25. So they lifted him out of his chariot and placed him in his second chariot and brought him back to Jerusalem where he died. He was buried there, in the royal cemetery. And all Judah and Jerusalem, including even Jeremiah the prophet, mourned for him, as did the Temple choirs. To this day they still sing sad songs about his death, for these songs of sorrow were recorded among the official lamentations. 26. The other activities of Josiah, and his good deeds, and how he followed the laws of the Lord, 27. all are written in The Annals of the Kings of Israel and Judah.

COMMENTARY

In the history of the northern kingdom one last strong king, Jeroboam II, reigned from about 782 to 753 B.C. This period may be called the Indian Summer of Israel. Jeroboam did not fear Jehovah; but he managed the government wisely so as to extend the borders of his kingdom and raise the living standards of the people. Within thirty years of the end of his reign Samaria was under Assyrian siege. Jeroboam was Israels last hope. In like manner, Josiah was Judahs last hope.[77] He was only eight years old when he was placed on the throne. Like Joash who had the able assistance of the priest, Jehoiada, Josiah had the strong support of the priest, Hilkiah. This great high priest must share any commendation Josiah received for being a good king. Josiahs father and grandfather provided no real spiritual heritage. From the very beginning of his reign he sought Jehovahs will. Much idolatrous rubbish had been brought back into Jerusalem by Amon. This was destroyed under the new king. When Jeroboam I set up calf worship at Bethel, a prophet out of Judah predicted that one day Josiah would desecrate the heathen altars (1Ki. 13:2). Josiah fulfilled this prediction (2Ch. 34:5-6). The destruction of idolatry was widespread under Josiah.

[77] Schultz, Samuel J., The Old Testament Speaks, p. 220

The Temple needed repairing. Money was collected from the people in Judah and Benjamin and from certain sections out of the northern kingdom. Responsible persons such as Shaphan, Maaseiah, and Joah turned the money over to the high priest, Hilkiah, who administered the funds for Temple renewal. Carpenters, stone-masons, and other skilled artisans worked faithfully. The priests and Levites had the responsibility of over-seeing the work. At this time musicians were appointed. Door-keepers, Temple officers, and scribes (students of Gods Law) were designated for service.
In the year 620 B.C., when the Temple renewal project was making good progress, the book of the Law was found in one of the storage rooms of the Temple. This was a most significant discovery. All evidence points to the complete Pentateuch (first five books of the Bible) as the book of the Law. This book was found at this time because it had been lost through carelessness and disuse. It was more than just the Book of Deuteronomy which liberal critics say had been written by some enterprising priests about thirty years before. This liberal theory supposes that the priests planted the book and conveniently found it at this time.[78] This theory denies the Mosaic authorship of Deuteronomy, the inspiration of the Scriptures, and the sincere faithfulness of Hilkiah and his associates. Such explanation of these events must be unalterably opposed by the honest student of Gods Word.

[78] Harrison, Ronald K,, Introduction to the Old Testament, pp. 43-46
Larue, Gerald A., Old Testament Life and Literature, pp. 246, 247
Oehler, Gustave F., Old Testament Theology, p. 414

The discovery of the book of the Law laid the foundation for a genuine revival of true religion in the days of Hilkiah and Josiah. Shaphan was a careful student of Jehovahs written Word. It was he who carried the book to the king. When Josiah heard Gods Word he immediately became a mourner. He rent his clothes. The king commanded Hilkiah and the other chief officers to get more information about what he had learned from the book. Inquire of Jehovah, the king ordered. He knew that Gods will and purpose had been totally disregarded. How could he and his people once more experience the grace and forgiveness of Jehovah? Huldah was a prophetess who was in Jerusalem. She had been called by God to speak for Him. Through her Jehovah revealed to Josiah that judgment was soon to come upon the southern kingdom because they have forsaken me (2Ch. 34:25). Wrath like fire would be poured out upon Judah and it would not be quenched until it had accomplished its work. Josiah would be spared all of the troubles that were to come because he loved God and sought His will.

When Huldahs prophetic word was brought to the king he called a great convocation at the Temple. The whole populace out of Judah and Jerusalem was gathered to hear the reading of Jehovahs Word. This Word was the book of the covenant because it told about Jehovahs agreement with His people and their pledge to serve the one true God. The covenant which Jehovah entered into with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was renewed and the king caused the people to stand to it. Josiah remained true to Jehovah throughout his life-time.
The original details of the Passover are recorded in Exodus, chapter 12. This book must have been a part of the book discovered by Hilkiah because Josiah was careful to keep the feast just as it was written.[79] Once more the priests were respected leaders among the Hebrews. They were to serve according to their courses and they were to be careful to follow Gods Word in all matters. The king provided thirty thousand lambs and kids for this passover. In addition to these, the princes brought in hundreds of other animals for passover-offerings. The Passover animals were killed. Their blood was properly applied. The animals were roasted according to the origional directions. All of the congregation shared in this wonderful memorial of the day when Israel became a free people. After all of the people were served in respect to the Passover, the priests and Levites served themselves. The priests and Levites also attended the Passover ritual in behalf of the musicians and the gate-keepers.

[79] Spence, H. D. M., The Pulpit Commentary, II Chronicles, p. 428

Concerning this celebration the historian observed that there was no passover like to that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet (2Ch. 34:18). It was a religious exercise long remembered among the Hebrew people. No king of Israel ever kept such a passover as Josiah kept (2Ch. 34:18).

The city of Carchemish was on the Euphrates River far to the north of Canaan (about three hundred and seventy five miles from Jerusalem), Neco came up out of Egypt to go to war against Babylon in the regions far to the north and east. Josiah thought he had a responsibility with regard to these eastern allies, so he attempted to intercept the king of Egypt. Neco tried to move along the coastal plain and through the valley of Megiddo near Mount Carmel without any delay in relation to Josiah or Judah. The battlefield of Megiddo is one of the worlds most famous military arenas. The Armageddon of Revelation is named after this well known plain resulting from a break in the Lebanon mountain chain near Mount Carmel. Neco claimed that God had sent him on his mission and said that if Josiah would fight against him, Josiah would be meddling with God. Josiahs action here was ill-advised. He was mortally wounded in the battle. His reformation ended with his untimely death. He was accorded a very honorable burial and all of his people deeply mourned his departure. Josiah died in 609 B.C. Jeremiah, the prophet, began his ministry about 626 B.C. and was able to share many of the joys the people knew under Josiahs good reign. Jeremiah was renowned for his lamentations in which the weeping prophet poured out his sorrow for his people.

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

(1) Moreover.And. The form of the Hebrew verb implies that this Passover was held subsequently to the renewal of the covenant; and 2Ki. 23:23 fixes the date precisely as the eighteenth year of king Josiah.

Kept.Made (2Ch. 30:1).

On the fourteenth day of the first month.In strict accordance with the law. Hezekiahs Passover was irregular in point of time (2Ch. 30:2; 2Ch. 30:13).

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

1. Fourteenth day of the first month The time prescribed in the law, (Exo 13:6; Lev 23:5,) and thus unlike the passover of Hezekiah. 2Ch 30:2.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

2Ch 35:1 Moreover Josiah kept a passover unto the LORD in Jerusalem: and they killed the passover on the fourteenth day of the first month.

2Ch 35:1 Comments – The keeping of the Passover took place in the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign, approximately 622 B.C. (see 2Ch 35:19). This was in accordance to the commandment of Moses, in the month Abib, which corresponds to April/May.

2Ch 35:19, “In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah was this passover kept.”

Lev 23:5, “In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the LORD’S passover.”

Num 9:5, “And they kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the first month at even in the wilderness of Sinai: according to all that the LORD commanded Moses, so did the children of Israel.”

Num 28:16, “And in the fourteenth day of the first month is the passover of the LORD.”

Deu 16:1, “Observe the month of Abib, and keep the passover unto the LORD thy God: for in the month of Abib the LORD thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night.”

2Ch 35:3 And said unto the Levites that taught all Israel, which were holy unto the LORD, Put the holy ark in the house which Solomon the son of David king of Israel did build; it shall not be a burden upon your shoulders: serve now the LORD your God, and his people Israel,

2Ch 35:3 Comments – Note similar words of King David, which interpret this passage to mean that the children of Israel were entering into rest so that they no longer needed to carry the vessels of the Tabernacle (1Ch 23:25-26).

1Ch 23:25-26, “For David said, The LORD God of Israel hath given rest unto his people, that they may dwell in Jerusalem for ever: And also unto the Levites; they shall no more carry the tabernacle, nor any vessels of it for the service thereof.”

Some scholars say that 2Ch 35:3 implies that the Ark of the Covenant was taken and hidden during the times of evil kings.

2Ch 35:4 And prepare yourselves by the houses of your fathers, after your courses, according to the writing of David king of Israel, and according to the writing of Solomon his son.

2Ch 35:4 Comments – The division for the Levites into courses by King David, which included the porters and musicians, is found in 1 Chronicles 23-26. The commandments to the Levites from Solomon are referred to in 2Ch 8:14:

2Ch 8:14, “And he appointed, according to the order of David his father, the courses of the priests to their service, and the Levites to their charges, to praise and minister before the priests, as the duty of every day required: the porters also by their courses at every gate: for so had David the man of God commanded.”

2Ch 35:4-6 Comments The Organization of the Service of the Temple – The Lord gave King David and King Solomon the wisdom to set in order the work of the Temple (2Ch 35:4). Each Levite was given a task (2Ch 35:5). So it is in the Kingdom of God. He has prepared a particular task for each believer to serve in the ministry. As each believer in the body of Christ submits to the Lord, the Holy Spirit will direct him into his unique place of service in the Body of Christ. Only then will be able to effectively prepare others for the work of the ministry (2Ch 35:6).

2Ch 35:15 And the singers the sons of Asaph were in their place, according to the commandment of David, and Asaph, and Heman, and Jeduthun the king’s seer; and the porters waited at every gate; they might not depart from their service; for their brethren the Levites prepared for them.

2Ch 35:15 “and Asaph, and Heman, and Jeduthun the king’s seer” – Comments – Twelve psalms are credited to Asaph (Psalms 50, 73-83). One psalm is credited to Heman (Psalms 88). Three psalms are dedicated to Jeduthun (Psalms 39, 62, 77). Jeduthun prophesied with musical instruments (1Ch 25:1). These three men were worship leaders in the Tabernacle (1Ch 25:6, 2Ch 5:12).

1Ch 25:1, “Moreover David and the captains of the host separated to the service of the sons of Asaph, and of Heman, and of Jeduthun, who should prophesy with harps, with psalteries, and with cymbals : and the number of the workmen according to their service was:”

1Ch 25:6, “All these were under the hands of their father for song in the house of the LORD, with cymbals, psalteries, and harps, for the service of the house of God, according to the king’s order to Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman .”

2Ch 5:12, “Also the Levites which were the singers, all of them of Asaph, of Heman, of Jeduthun , with their sons and their brethren, being arrayed in white linen, having cymbals and psalteries and harps, stood at the east end of the altar, and with them an hundred and twenty priests sounding with trumpets:)”

2Ch 35:18 And there was no passover like to that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet; neither did all the kings of Israel keep such a passover as Josiah kept, and the priests, and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel that were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

2Ch 35:18 Comments – Note the parallel passage in 2Ki 23:22, which does not say “from the days of Samuel the prophet,” but rather “from the days of the judges.” We know from Scriptures that Samuel was the last judge over Israel (1Sa 7:15), so there appears to be no discrepancy between these two verses.

2Ki 23:22, “Surely there was not holden such a passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah;”

1Sa 7:15, “And Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life.”

2Ch 35:19 In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah was this passover kept.

2Ch 35:19 Comments – The eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign was approximately 622 B.C.

2Ch 35:20 After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Necho king of Egypt came up to fight against Carchemish by Euphrates: and Josiah went out against him.

2Ch 35:20 Comments – Scholars date the famous battle of Carchemish in 609 B.C. This would make Josiah about 39 years of age.

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

The Celebration of the Passover

v. 1. Moreover, Josiah kept a Passover unto the Lord in Jerusalem. And they killed the passover on the fourteenth day of the first month, this being the proper date for its celebration.

v. 2. And he, in preparing for this great festival, set the priests in their charges, and encouraged them to the service of the house of the Lord, serving in their courses, they were admonished to be ready for their duties in the manner prescribed in the Lord’s precepts,

v. 3. and said unto the Levites that taught all Israel, which were holy unto the Lord, set apart for His service, Put the holy ark in the house which Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel, did build; for it had evidently been removed temporarily while the floors were being repaired; it shall not be a burden upon your shoulders, this ancient task of the Levites was no longer necessary. Serve now the Lord, your God, and His people Israel, namely, in those other duties which pertained to their office.

v. 4. And prepare yourselves by the houses of your fathers, after your courses, each division being composed of the members of one father-house, according to the writing of David, king of Israel, and according to the writing of Solomon, his son, these two having established the courses and noted down the divisions. 1 Chronicles 23-26.

v. 5. And stand in the Holy Place according to the divisions of the families of the fathers of your brethren, the people, after the divisions of the father-houses which had existed since ancient times, and after the division of the families of the Levites. It seems that to every division of a non-Levitical father-house there was a corresponding part of a Levitical father-house serving in the Temple.

v. 6. So kill the passover, the lamb prescribed for that purpose. and sanctify yourselves, and prepare your brethren, that they may do according to the word of the Lord by the hand of Moses; they were to observe carefully the ceremony of washing before they handed the priests the blood to sprinkle against the altar.

v. 7. And Josiah gave to the people, from his own possessions, of the flock, lambs and kids, the Law leaving the choice open, Exo 12:5, all for the Passover offerings, for all that were present, to the number of thirty thousand, and three thousand bullocks. These were of the king’s substance.

v. 8. And his princes, following the example of the king, gave willingly unto the people, to the priests, and to the Levites. Hilkiah and Zechariah and Jehiel, rulers of the house of God, gave unto the priests for the Passover offerings two thousand and six hundred small cattle, these free gifts consisting also of lambs and kids, and three hundred oxen.

v. 9. Conaniah also, and Shemaiah and Nethaneel, his brethren, and Hashabiah and Jeiel and Jozabad, chief of the Levites, gave unto the Levites for Passover offerings five thousand small cattle and five hundred oxen.

v. 10. So the service was prepared, everybody being exactly familiar with the work which was expected of him. And the priests stood in their place and the Levites in their courses according to the king’s commandment, everything being arranged so that the lambs, after their blood had been drained off, could quickly be delivered to the various housefathers, to be roasted and eaten as the Law required.

v. 11. And they killed the passover, each house-father performing this task himself; and the priests sprinkled the blood from their hands, as it was handed to them in special basins after the slaughter, and the Levites flayed them.

v. 12. And they removed the burnt offerings, set aside the parts of each sacrificial animal that was to be burned on the altar, that they might give according to the division of the families of the people, namely, these separated pieces, which were to be offered as burnt sacrifices, to offer unto the Lord as it is written in the book of Moses. And so did they with the oxen, preparing them as peace-offerings, to be eaten as a joyful festival in part, that is, after taking away the fat that was to be burned.

v. 13. And they roasted the passover with fire according to the ordinance, Exo 12:8-9; Deu 16:7; but the other holy offerings sod they in pots, and in caldrons, and in pans, and divided them speedily among all the people, this being done, of course, on all the days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, connected with the Passover proper.

v. 14. And afterward they made ready for themselves and for the priests; because the priests, the sons of Aaron, were busied in offering of burnt offerings and the fat, that of the peace-offerings, until night, having begun about two or three o’clock in the afternoon, therefore the Levites prepared for themselves and for the priests, the sons of Aaron.

v. 15. And the singers, the sons of Asaph, were in their place, in the station appointed to them, where they chanted their psalms, according to the commandment of David, and Asaph, and Heman, and Jeduthun, the king’s seer. And the porters waited at every gate, both the singers and the porters being on duty, of course, on every day of the feast; they might not depart from their service; for their brethren, the Levites, prepared for them, so they all could take part in the great sacrificial feast.

v. 16. So all the service of the Lord was prepared the same day, all the other days being modeled after the first day of the festival, to keep the Passover, and to offer burnt offerings upon the altar of the Lord, according to the commandment of King Josiah.

v. 17. And the children of Israel that were present kept the Passover at that time and the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days, the two being considered as one festival and the names later used as synonyms.

v. 18. And there was no Passover like to that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel, the prophet, even the great celebration of Hezekiah, 2 Chronicles 30, having been eclipsed in splendor and solemnity; neither did all the kings of Israel keep such a Passover as Josiah kept, and the priests, and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel that were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

v. 19. In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah was this Passover kept. This great celebration was a last merciful visitation of the Lord upon Judah, who once more gave His people the purity and the splendor of the ancient worship, just as He in these last days of the world has once more given us the purity of the Gospel in all its splendid power.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

EXPOSITION

This chapter of twenty-seven Verses, occupied with the account of Josiah’s great Passover (2Ch 35:1-19), and his death in the battle of Megiddo, waged by Necho King of Egypt with “Carchemish by Euphrates” (2Ch 35:20-27), is paralleled by the ten verses of 2Ki 23:21-30.

2Ch 35:1

They killed the Passover on the fourteenth of the first month; i.e. on the day appointed originally (Exo 12:6). It will be remembered that, under special circumstances, the same day of the second month was authorized by “Hezekiah and his princes” (2Ch 30:2).

2Ch 35:2

Comp. 2Ch 7:6; 2Ch 31:2; 1Ch 23:32; and our notes in those places.

2Ch 35:3

That taught (see 2Ch 17:7, 2Ch 17:9 : Deu 33:8-10). Which were holy (so 2Ch 23:6). Put the holy ark net to you a burden on the shoulder. There is a double difficulty, though not of a very formidable character, in this portion of the verse. We can only conjecture why the ark was not in its proper place, probably having been temporarily removed during Josiah’s own restorations, or possibly having never been yet replaced from the date of some earlier removal of an iniquitous character and on the part of an iniquitous king. Secondly, as to the burden, some would explain the language as a reminiscence of the general and ever-applicable principle found in 1Ch 23:26. This, at any rate, would seem rather more satisfactory than the suggestion conveyed by the italic type of our Authorized Version. Perhaps the explanation may rather be that the ark had latterly again and again been shifted, and Josiah wishes to protest that neither for one reason nor another shall it be again moved.

2Ch 35:4

According to the writing of David and of Solomon. It is more than possible that the fullest tabulation of arrangements of this kind has not come down to us.

2Ch 35:5

In brief, this verse purports to say that, for this special occasion of the Passover, the Levites shall take special care that, as stationed in the holy precincts, there shall be a family of themselves ready to minister to a family of the people, each to each.

2Ch 35:6

Prepare your brethren; i.e. as betokened by the wording of the foregoing verse, their brethren, the people. The Levites were to purify themselves, perform their other duties of killing the victims, and withal to use their opportunities of instructing the people to the better order and performance of the whole solemn service.

2Ch 35:7

Lambs kids bullocks. The variety of sacrificial offerings is specifically noticed in our 2Ch 35:13. While kids (“Ye shall take it out from the sheep or from the goats,“ Exo 12:5) as well as lambs answered for the Paschal feast, the bullocks served for “burnt” and “peace offerings” (Num 28:16-25).

2Ch 35:8

The princes; i.e. the three immediately mentioned by name. Jehiel (see Ezr 8:2).

2Ch 35:9

Conaninh Shemaiah Jozabad (see 2Ch 31:12, 2Ch 31:15).

2Ch 35:10

According to the king’s commandment (see 2Ch 30:16, where the sanction is referred further back, “according to the Law of Moses, the man of God”).

2Ch 35:11

Comp. 2Ch 29:1-36 :84; 2Ch 30:16; Lev 1:1-17; Lev 3:1-17; Lev 4:1-35, passim.

2Ch 35:12

Removed; i.e. cut off; the verso purporting that those who officiated cut off those portions of the animals slain which were of the nature of burnt offering, that they might be taken by the offering worshippers to the priests at the altars, there to be entirely consumed. Of the people; probably better, literally, to the children of the people, i.e. “to the people” (Le 2Ch 3:3-16).

2Ch 35:13

Roasted. (For the emphatic and repeated command to roast, see Exo 12:8, Exo 12:9; Deu 16:7.) Sod. The sodden or boiled offerings, peace offerings, were ordinarily eaten on the days of unleavened bread, and then particularly on the first and seventh (Lev 23:4-8, etc.). Divided them speedily among all the people. The marginal rendering of the original, and the Revised Version rendering, carried them quickly, may be noted; nevertheless attention is invited, probably not so much to the speed or quickness in question, but to the fact that “all the people” were carefully attended to.

2Ch 35:15

To the marginal references of 1Ch 25:1-31.; 9.; 26.; add 2Ch 6:33 -47.

2Ch 35:16

The same day; literally, that day, as next verse, “at that time.” No stress belongs to the day as the same day evidently.

2Ch 35:18

Upon this verse Professor Murphy says, “The Passover in Hezekiah’s time was great (2Ch 30:26), but this was greater. For it was kept on the proper day in the first month, and was not a mere supplementary Passover; it was observed with due regularity, and not by worshippers some of whom were unclean; and if we allow thirteen persons for each lamb or kid, there were upwards of half a million communicants; while, so far as we know, there were only seventeen thousand sheep presented by Hezekiah and his princes (2Ch 30:24), which would not supply more than half the number of partakers.

2Ch 35:19

The date is stamped as ever-memorable, ever-honorable landmark in Josiah’s reign.

2Ch 35:20

After all this. A period of about thirteen years of happy retrospect is now the portion of the good king. This period brings itself to an unhappy and even fatal termination in the year B.C. 608; when, as it would appear by the result, King Josiah did wrong, and went out of his way, in opposing the march of Pharaoh-Necho, successor of Psammetichus King of Egypt, against Cyaxares King of Assyria (2Ki 23:29), or King of Babylon at Circesium on the River Phrat, the head-quarters now of the united Assyrian and Babylonian power. Where the fault or sin of Josiah laywhether he ran before he was sent, or whether, according to our following two verses, he set out against the Divine word by Nechois certainly a question left in obscurity. Nothing is said in our history or its parallel to accredit the tale of Necho, or to discredit the heart and motive of Josiahnothing except what silence and the result seem to say. One other clement of interest and of difficulty may be added to the question; for of the thirteen years’ interval, which we have described above as one presumably of happy retrospect in certain aspects for Josiah, we know nothing from Scripture, but have every reason to suppose that during it Josiah and his kingdom had become subject, if only nominally, to Nabopolassar; so that, in offering to resist Necho of Egypt, he was offering to strengthen so far forth the royal line which did dishonour to his own country and his country’s God. Upon this supposition, however, we can lay no stress.

2Ch 35:21

Not against thee this day. Possibly the suggestion couched in these last two words may have been the opposite of agreeable to King Josiah. For God commanded me to make haste. The margin reading of the Revised Version seems preferable, both for the Hebrew text and the connection, hath given command to speed me.

2Ch 35:22

Would not turn his face (so 2Ch 25:17 and its parallel, 2Ki 14:8). Disguised himself. This is, possibly enough, the intention of the word, but it is more probable that the simple meaning is fully armed himself. The Septuagint has strengthened himself. Hearkened not unto the words of Necho from the mouth of God. Unless these words are intended to convey really their patent and most natural import, it is tenfold strange that they should find a place in the compilation of the Chronicles. It is indeed possible that they might purport, from the pen of the writer of Chronicles, that in point of fact the words of Necho had been the permitted warning, though not the actually dictated language of God. The genius of the whole passage strongly reminds us of 2Ch 25:17, 2Ch 25:19-21; and its parallel in 2Ki 14:1-29. In the valley of Megiddo; i.e. among those hills which separate the country of the coast from Esdraelona valley as that “of Kishon”.

2Ch 35:24

And he died. If the form of words used in the parallel, 2Ki 23:30, be followed, Josiah was dead before they reached Jerusalem. And all mourned for Josiah. We still find no note whatever of blame attributed to Josiah, and the general mourning (Zec 12:11) appears to have been most genuine.

2Ch 35:25

If Jeremiah’s lamenting on this occasion was one committed to writing, it has not survived. To this day; i.e. probably anniversary after anniversary to the time of the writer to whom this statement belongs, the authority from which our compiler draws his materials. Written in the lamentations. We have here another glimpse of a work which has not been handed down to us.

2Ch 35:26

Goodness; Hebrew text, kindnesses. According to that written in the Law. This sentence pictures Josiah a careful, loving student of the Word, to the end that he might become a “doer” of it.

HOMILETICS

2Ch 35:1-19

solemn celebration of the Passover.

(For the homiletics of this passage, or the subject of it, see those written on 2Ch 30:1-27.)

2Ch 35:20-27

The lamentations for Josiah’s death.

Some cloud of mystery, but, so far as we can see, none of shame, hangs over the closing events of Josiah’s reign and life. His determined resolution to oppose Necho King of Egypt, when he came to “Charchemish by Euphrates,” with the view of engaging in battle with the forces of Babylon or Assyria, had no doubt some strong motive, It is not at all impossible to imagine and even to assign some alternative motives as those most probably at work. One element in the obscurity concerns the questionWhat was the operating and determining reason? The larger source of difficulty, however, lies in the obscurity surrounding the question whether any blame whatsoever attached to Josiah for his immovable resolution. That he paid no heed to the representations and remonstrances of the King of Egypt, as that king made very free use, but by no means necessarily equally intelligent and religious use, of the name of God, was very natural, and surely diplomatically justifiable. We can, meantime, find nowhere any reflection passed on Josiah for neglecting the pretended anxious warning of Necho, which may be construed to mean all anxiety for himself only. No condemnation of Josiah’s conduct is written on the page of Scripture, either before or after his death, in connection with this subject. And, lastly, the allusions which the writings of the prophets contain (Jer 22:10, Jer 22:18; Jer 34:5; Zec 12:11) are not only equally clear of any suspicion of reflecting blame upon him, but also are of the most touching, tender, and sympathetic character. The probability seems to be that, after the earnest, religious work of Josiah to the date of the Passover, special and solemn celebration (in “the eighteenth year of his reign,” and twenty-seventh of his life), with its last effort to bring in the hapless remnant of Israel also, and after the lapse of another period of some thirteen years, the doings of which, on the part of Josiah, are nowhere recorded, he is to be permitted, before the sad plot thickens, to be “taken away from the evil to come;” and as his life was by no means in the sere and yellow leaf, the method of his departure shall be ordained mercifullynot one of sickness, or stricken plague, or ignominious “accident,” but in the honourable risk and challenge of battle. Occasion may be taken here to consider the mingled mysteries and mercies that mark the Divine methods of summoning men from this present life, the methods of him whose wisdom is unchallengeable, whose ways are so often a profound deep, but of whom this may ever be recorded as comforting certainty, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.” The phenomenon before us is that of a good man and a good king, placed at a most remarkable juncture of history; one, indeed, without the possibility of an exact parallel, who has served his day and generation and his God with singular fidelity amid circumstances of singular difficulty. He is the last true king, and the short following of his descendants and his successors on the throne are not in any degree the inheritors of his virtues and goodness. He has made one more, one last protest for his God and against that idolatry of his nation which has cankered to the very heart its religious and its national health. Such a stand he has boldly and for a year successfully made; but he has been told, and doubtless has seen, that all was too late, and that the tide could not be turned. He is but thirty-nine years of age. And the appearance is as of a man rushing on his fate. But there is no appearance of recklessness or of intemperateness. He does not sport nor gamble away his life; and if in any partial aspect it looks for a moment like a gratuitous hazarding, it cannot be said to come of any of the ordinary impulses in any such cases. It is not for self, for sense, for sin; not for the gratification of any of these; and, meantime, it is not plain for what it is! It is the parable of providencea parable by no means unfamiliar to us; known, indeed, to many an age, many a nation, many a family, and full of silent, deep, useful lesson and suggestion. It teaches

I. THAT WHAT WE KNOW AS DEATH IS NOT EXTINCTION OF LIFE. Let alone whatever else, what it simply and by itself means is the merging of one cycle of existence in another; the removal of life from one school of knowledge to another; the shifting of it from one sphere of activity to another. All the living force and excellence and virtue of Josiah are not quenched, cannot be merely thrown away; and if in one sense broken in twainthough all the analogies of sense must here in this very respect failonly in one sense. Such a death at such a time of present life, under such circumstances, is one of the strongest moral persuasivesa source of moral conviction irresistible as to what death is.

II. THE THING CALLED DEATH, IN ITSELF, ASKS ABSOLUTELY MORE TITAN ANY OTHER OF THE FACTS OF LIFE, THE THING CALLED FAITH. It is itself a fact of lifethe last fact of the series known here. To be understood rightly, and to be used rightly, and to yield anything like its full fruit of advantage, it demands to be “mixed with faith” more than any preceding fact of life. Therefore it is that sometimes it actually gives birth to faith, sometimes greatly strengthens it, or, lastly, supposing it is absolutely wanting, condemns the forlorn mourner to utter darkness.

III. THE METHODS OF DEATH OFTEN SERVE, EVEN BEYOND THE FACT ITSELF, TO SURPRISE, TO STARTLE INTO EXISTENCE A WONDER THAT WILL NOT REST. That irrepressible and often agonized wonder assists to tear open the eye of flesh and sense, and operates to find deep within, or deep behind, the dormant but now struggling germ of other and more real vision. Sorrow, grief, and wonder are three of the greatest moral forces of our nature, and their agonized unanswered questions avail to sound some of the deeper depths of that nature. The mystery of death is one thing, but the mysteries of the methods of deaththe victims of death, the apparently capricious or arbitrary action of death in those takenof youth and excellence and usefulness, in the height of their service to the world, add where heads and hearts are, in consequence, literally mowed down in widest sweep and circlesare other things. It is, indeed, sometimes not impossible to imagine the gain to those who go; but what a wrecked scene for all that is left behindwith work that must be abandoned, schemes that must be abortive, hopes that must be dashed to the grounda widespread field of desolation and devastation! For the whole scene there is one refuge. It is one which postulates, for its highest safety, and adequacy, not merely the existence and presence of faith, but faith of overcoming and dominant quality. Wanting this, which so uniformly is wanting, it may yet be that faith learns life, and lifts itself to bud and to begin to unfold its buds.

IV. THOUGH DEATH IS SUCH A VIGOROUS AND RELENTLESS BIDDER FOR FAITH, BOTH IN ITSELF AND IN ITS CIRCUMSTANCE, YET IT DOES ALSO INFER SOME VERY CERTAIN PRESENT USE AND SIGNIFICANCE. In every case, for instance, of deep sorrow and sincere expression of it in “lamentation,” what (comparatively speaking) healthy action of living hearts is betokened, and what a pure tribute of unharmful and direct honour is rendered to the vanished goodness! Upon this ancient sorrow, so far removed from ourselves, of “all Judah and Jerusalem and of Jeremiah and of all the singing men and the singing women”so that they made “an ordinance of it in Israel,” and recorded the words of their lamentation in their historical writingswith what pathetic interest we nevertheless look back! And we wish there were no sadder end to the history of Judah and her kings impending, no bitterer tears to flow, no anguished cries to be heard, no shame to be bowed beneath! So the death of Josiah, and his place after death yet on earth, in memory, in heart, and in song, are fraught with no little interest, apart from faith’s higher action, and are charged incentives to zeal, devotion, pure religion, and sensitiveness of conscience even for ourselves.

HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON

2Ch 35:3-7

The preferable service.

There is considerable uncertainty as to the meaning of the words (2Ch 35:3), “put the holy ark in the house,” etc. (see Exposition). But whatever interpretation we give them, it is clear that Josiah intended the Levites to understand that he required them to render a different and a higher service than that of carrying the ark as a burden on their shoulders; they were to “serve now the Lord their God, and his people Israel;” they were to do this by “standing in the holy place,” by “killing the Passover,” and thus enable “their brethren to do according to the Word of the Lord.” In other words, instead of the work of sacred porterage to which they had been accustomed, they were to render important services in the sanctuary; were to be instrumental in the keeping of a sacred feast by all their brethren; were to render valuable assistance in aiding them to carry out the commandments of the Lord. They were to give up the lower for the higher service, the mechanical one for that which was more spiritual; one that was no longer needed for that which was urgent; the comparatively unprofitable for that which was likely to be fruitful of devotion and piety. We thus judge

I. THAT ALL WORK FOR GOD MAY BE GOOD AND ACCEPTABLE. Josiah could not have meant that the carrying of the ark was not “service.” Although the words, as they stand in the third verse, certainly bear that construction, we conclude that he could not have intended them to have that significance. No devout Jew would have questioned the statement that the work of carrying the ark of the covenant under Divine commandment was an act of sacred service. Indeed, it matters not how humble or even slight and trivial be the work we do in the cause of God, so long as it is rendered

(1) cheerfully, and not of constraint or grudgingly

(2) faithfully, diligently, taking our part and carrying it out with loyalty and thoroughness;

(3) harmoniously, in concert with our fellow-labourers;

(4) religiously, devoutly, doing what we do as unto Christ, and not only as unto man; it is then good and sacred and acceptable unto God our Saviour.

“All works are good, and each is best

As most it pleases thee;

Each worker pleases when the rest

He serves in charity;

And neither work nor man unblest

Wilt thou permit to be.”

But there is another side to this truth. There are works which are to be preferred to others, if they can be rightly undertaken, because they are intrinsically better. Hence we urge

II. THAT THERE IS WORK WHICH IS TO BE PREFERRED WHEN THE CHOICE IS OFFERED US.

1. The spiritual to the mechanical; e.g. leading in prayer or urging to religious decision or to deeper and fuller devotedness, (to be preferred) to the work of “the doorkeeper in the house of the Lord,” good as that is in its time and way.

2. The practical to the speculative; e.g. doing some work of rescue or reformation rather than indulging in speculations as to the employments of the heavenly country, or trying to read the riddle of the Apocalypse.

3. The sympathetic to the argumentative. It may be well to demolish the arguments of the assailant of the faith; it is better to “visit the widow and the fatherless in their affliction;’ to carry consolation and hope to those who are ready to.faint or to despair. The logical man does well to argue, but the work of “the man who is a hiding-place from the wind and a covert from the tempest” is of a nobler, a Christlier kind.

4. The costly to the costless. No sum is too small for the treasury of the Lord, no word too simple for the sanctuary; yet is it a better thing to bring to Jesus Christ that which costs us something (2Sa 24:24)the work which commands and requires our strength, the word on which we have spent patient and prayerful thought, the feeling which is a real expenditure of ourselves.C.

2Ch 35:6-16

The service of the Lord.

From this account of Josiah’s great Passover we may learn

I. THAT RELIGIOUS LIFE INCLUDES A FEW GREAT OCCASIONS. The religious life of Israel included some special occasions, of which this was one. Provision was made in the Law for one event of surpassing solemnity in every year (Lev 16:1-34.). And the very checkered course the nation ran provided a few extraordinary scenes which were great and sacred opportunities. Thus is it with individual lives. During a life of ordinary length and interest there will occur some few events which are signal, striking, critical. Much may depend on them; much use should be made of them. But, after all, it is not by them that our life will be sustained, and it is not upon them that any wise man will rely. It is the regular worship; it is the daily devotion; it is the habitual recognition of God and appeal to him that determines our spiritual position, that makes us to “live before” him and in him.

II. THAT THE SERVICE OF GOD PROVIDES A VERY WIDE OPPORTUNITY. How many men, how many classes or orders of men, contributed to this one service! The king inspired and directed it (2Ch 35:1, 2Ch 35:2); the Levites “killed the Passover” (2Ch 35:6-11); the priests “sprinkled the blood” (2Ch 35:11). The heads of the orders, from the king downwards, contributed generously of their flocks to supply the people’s need (2Ch 35:7-9). The singers sang (2Ch 35:15); the porters “waited at every gate” (2Ch 35:15). So “all the service of the Lord’ was rendered, every one taking his place and doing his best thereat (2Ch 35:16). The Church of Christ is one Body with many members, and all the members have not the same office; very various indeed are the offices which are rendered by the disciples of the one Lord. And as, year by year, Christian life, as well as civilized life, becomes more complex and intricate, it becomes more decisively and imperatively our duty to recognize the fact that, while our own particular function has its importance, it is only one among many others, and that every one of us is beholden to his fellows for valuable services which it is not in his own power to render. And it is well also to mark that, in a state so complicated, with so many posts to be filled, there is the less excuse for any idle member.

III. THAT THE SERVICE OF OTHERS SHOULD PRECEDE PROVISION FOR OURSELVES. “Afterward they made ready for themselves” (2Ch 35:14). In the kingdom of Christ we are not to stand upon our official rights; we are to claim the supreme honour of serving others, after the manner of our Divine Leader. He was “among us as one that serveth;” he was here “not to be ministered unto, but to minister;” and we never stand nearer to him than when we abnegate any right we might officially claim, and prefer to wait upon others’ wants; to minister to their necessities; to make them glad, or to do them good. Of ourselves we may think and for ourselves we may care, but afterward, not first.

IV. THAT WE MAY RENDER AN EXCELLENT SERVICE BY A REVIVAL OF THE FORGOTTEN. It does not follow that old usages, though they once had the sanction of Christian custom, should be revived. Possibly they are better left alone. “The old order changeth,” etc. On the other hand, the time may come for their revival, if not in the same form, in a different one. That usage, in some form, deserves to be restored which promotes devotion, humility, charity.C.

2Ch 35:17-19

The moral of the Passover.

The keeping of this Passover is very particularly described in this chapter, and we may be sure that it was entered into and enjoyed, as a religious festival, with exceeding zest. We naturally askWhat was its significance? What did it mean to those who celebrated it? We reply that in it and by it

I. THEY RECOGNIZED THEIR UNITY AS THE PEOPLE OF GOD. They went back in thought to the time when they were bound together in the strong bond of a common sorrow; when they were a suffering people bent beneath the same yoke, bleeding with the same blows; and they recognized the fact that they were all the children of their fathers to whom Moses came as the great prophet and saviour. And the lamb of which they partook, with not a bone of its body broken, was the symbol of the national unity.

II. THEY REJOICED IN A GREAT DIVINE DELIVERANCEA DELIVERANCE THROUGH SACRIFICE. The prevailing thought of the whole institution was God’s merciful and mighty interposition on their behalf, redeeming them from the land of bondage and misery, bringing them out into liberty and happiness, and constituting them a nation, holy unto himself. And closely connected with the main idea of deliverance was that of sacrifice; they commemorated the fact that through the sacrifice of a slain lamb they had been spared and redeemed.

III. THEY HAD FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD AND WITH ONE ANOTHER. The Feast of the Passover and of Unleavened Bread was one in which they rejoiced together both as families and as a congregated nation “before the Lord.” Then they had true fellowship with one another, meeting and greeting one another as members of the same redeemed nation, whom the Lord had pitied and restored; and while they were thus gladdened in heart as they associated one with another, they were also solemnized by the thought that they met together in the city of God, in the courts of the Lord’s house, in his own presence. Theirs was a sacred union and communion; it was fellowship with the Supreme.

When we meet, as Christian men, in ordinary worship, and more particularly when we gather together at the Lord’s table, we are moved and animated by this same spirit, by these same convictions and considerations.

1. We realize our essential unity, our oneness in Jesus Christ. Are we not all members of that race on which, in all its distance from the home of God, he had compassion and which he stooped to save? Are we not bound together, not only as partakers of the same human nature, but as those who have bowed beneath the same yoke, who have needed the same Divine Redeemer, who have suffered in the same affliction?

2. We rejoice together in the same glorious redemptiona redemption that

(1) not only was designed and begun, but was triumphantly completed;

(2) a redemption which, in its spiritual character and its everlasting issues, dwarfs even such a great national deliverance as that which this Passover commemorated;

(3) a redemption which could only be (and was) accomplished through the sacrifice of the “Lamb of God,” slain from the foundation of the world for the recovery of the world.

3. We meet to have holy and happy fellowship with one another, and also hallowed and elevating fellowship with our Father and his Son Jesus Christ (1Jn 1:3).C.

2Ch 35:24, 2Ch 35:25

An early sunset.

That very good men may make very great mistakes we hardly need to be told; unfortunately, we have all too many illustrations of that fact. The text provides us with a very melancholy instance. What had Josiah to do with this contest between the kings of Egypt and Assyria? Was his heart, too, “lifted up,” that he thought himself and his people more than a match for the disciplined hosts of Egypt? Had he been attacked, and had he cast himself on God as Hezekiah did when Sennacherib appeared against him, then he might have hoped confidently for victory. But to contest with a great world-power on worldly principles was a supreme and a fatal error. He paid the penalty of his folly with his life. “His sun went down while it was yet day.” So passed, needlessly and unfortunately, one of the best and boldest spirits that occupied the throne of Judah. Regarding his death as that of one early removed from the scenes of earthly activity, we are naturally affected by

I. ITS EXTREME SADNESS. We are not surprised to read of so demonstrative and so fervent-natured a people as the Jews were, that “all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah;” nor that Jeremiah uttered his prophet’s plaint concerning him. It was a time for profound sorrow; and even passionate grief might, under such circumstances, be excused. For the nation had not merely lost its chief; it had lost an invaluable leader, a king who was leading in the paths of righteousness and therefore of prosperity. There must come occasions to the country, to the Church, to the city, to the family, when one man’s death will be felt to be a calamity. Very wise is that community, sacred or secular, national or domestic, that recognizes this fact and provides against it; that secures such resources, material or spiritual, that when such a blow comes everything will not be lost; that when its best is taken it has still much in reserve; that it is not dependent for the maintenance of its liberty, or its security, or its vigorous existence on anything so precarious as one human being’s life.

II. ITS RIGHTEOUSNESS. Why did God not interpose to prevent Josiah from throwing his life away? Why did he let darkness come down at noon, and put an end to this bright and useful day? Why does he not now intervene between us and the death we speak of as premature? Why does he permit the young statesmen to overtax his strength and die in his prime; the young minister to commit himself to the treacherous tide and be drowned in the very fulness of his powers and the midst of his usefulness; the young missionary to expose his life to the savages who pierce him with the poisoned spear? We ask such questions, wondering, if not complaining, at the Divine inaction. But we might very justly and more properly ask ourselves another questionWhat right have we to expect that God will give to any man a particular term of earthly life that we may choose for him? Has he promised to confer any one length of days on his servants? Is not the gift of every added day a prolongation of his goodness and his mercy? Ought we not, rather than complain, to bless him for the number of years he does bestowa number which is greater than our deserving? Would it be really wise or kind of our heavenly Father if he were always interposing to prevent us from suffering the natural consequences of our error or our negligence, because we were right at heart with him? Would that be the way to discipline, to purify, to perfect his children? No! when God lets death

“Descend in sudden night
On manhood’s middle day,”

he is not unrighteous, nor is he really unwise or unkind. Get down far enough, and we stand on the rock of righteousness and wisdom and love. We may look at

III. ALLEVIATING ASPECTS OF IT. No doubt, when Josiah found that he was “sore wounded,” and that he could not recover, he would grieve more or less, as Hezekiah did. But as he confronted death he would become reconciled to the will of God, and he would, probably, have some hope concerning himself for the future, and would entrust his country to the care of God. But we have a much larger measure of alleviation than Josiah had. For there has visited us and spoken to us that Divine One who is the Resurrection and the Life indeed. And in the light of his revealing truth, and in the hope of his gracious promise, we look upon death as introducing us into another part of the kingdom of Godanother and a better; a sphere from which sin is shut out;and not only sin, but weariness and disappointment and sorrow; a sphere that will be ever brightening and broadening as added years reveal in us and to us “enlarged and liberated powers.’C.

HOMILIES BY T. WHITELAW

2Ch 35:1-19

The great Passover of Josiah.

I. GREAT IN RESPECT OF ITS CONFORMITY TO THE LAW. To suppose (De Wette, Thenius, and others) that never before had a Passover been observed in Israel or Judah since the days of Samuel (2Ch 35:18; 1 Esdras 1:20, 21) or of the judges (2Ki 23:22), is not only to extract an unwarrantable inference from the sacred text, but is contradicted by the fact that Hezekiah, a former King of Judah, celebrated a Passover in Jerusalem which was not merely a Passover of his own arranging, but the Passover (2Ch 30:1, 2Ch 30:2) prescribed by the Law of Moses (2Ch 35:16, 2Ch 35:18). That this Passover, however, should have adhered more closely to the prescriptions of the lawgiver than any former, demands no additional explanation beyond the fact that it was celebrated in Josiah’s eighteenth year (2Ch 35:19), and after the discovery of the book of the Law (2Ch 34:14, 2Ch 34:15). The stricter adherence to Mosaic regulation appeared in three things.

1. The exactness of the date. The solemnity began “on the fourteenth day of the first month” (2Ch 35:1), as the book of the Law commanded (Exo 12:1-51.). Hezekiah’s festival commenced “in the second month” because of the difficulty of getting ready for the stipulated time (2Ch 30:2, 2Ch 30:3). The Passover proper also ended on one day, i.e. all were able to eat the sacrificial lamb at the appointed time (2Ch 35:16), without any requiring to defer their participation thereof for any reason whatever (Num 9:6-12).

2. The unity of the place. The feast was held in Jerusalem (2Ch 35:1) by all its celebrants. The same was true of Hezekiah’s Passover (2Ch 30:1), though it is doubtful if as much could be said of earlier observances from the days of the judges or of Samuel.

3. The completeness of the ritual. Everything was done “in accordance with the Word of the Lord by the hand of Moses” (2Ch 35:6); i.e. the instructions as to the duties of the priests, Levites, and people; as to the killing, burning, eating of the victims; and as to the presentation of mazzoth gifts for the ensuing feast, were faithfully carried out.

II. GREAT IN RESPECT OF THE PREPARATIONS FOR ITS OBSERVANCE. Not greater as to amount of labour than were those made in connection with Hezekiah’s festival; but still great.

1. Concerning the priests. These were set in their charges and encouraged to the service of the house of the Lord (2Ch 35:2). Following the example of Jehoiada (2Ch 23:18), Josiah distributed among the divisions of the priesthood as arranged by David (1Ch 24:1-31.) the different parts of work required by the Law of Moses in the celebration of the Passover, i.e. he set them “according to their daily courses, Being arrayed in long garments, in the temple of the Lord’ (1 Esdr. 1:2); after which he strengthened them for their labours by detailed instructions as to their duties, and by encouraging exhortations to its faithful performance.

2. Concerning the Levites. These were:

(1) Defined as to their official work and character; in respect of the former being called “teachers of all Israel” (cf. 2Ch 17:8, 2Ch 17:9; Neh 8:7, Neh 8:9), and with reference to the latter being designated “holy unto the Lord” (Num 3:12, Num 3:13)an epithet applied also to the priests (2Ch 23:6; Le 2Ch 21:6), and even to the people (Deu 7:6); an epithet expressive of outward consecration, which, however, ought in every instance to reflect an inward consecration as its ground and justification.

(2) Directed about the ark, which they were told to “put,” or leave (Keil), “in the house which Solomon the son of David King of Israel did build” (2Ch 35:3). The ark, it is supposed, had been removed from the holy of holies during the idolatrous reigns of Manasseh and Amon By these kings themselves (Estius, Piscator), or by the priests who wished to preserve it (A. Clarke), and now was ordered by Josiah to be replaced; but against this stands the fact that the work of placing the ark in the holy of holies belonged not to the Levites, but to the priests (verse 7). It has also been conjectured that the Levites had been accustomed to carry the ark about the temple courts during the Passover celebration “under the impression that they were required so to do by the Law, and that Josiah pointed out to them the alteration which had taken place in this respect since the erection of the temple by Solomon” (Bertheau); but for this conjecture there is no positive historical foundation. A third explanation is that, as the Levites were no longer required to carry the ark about from place to place since it now had a resting-place in the temple, they should leave it there and give themselves to such other duties as were now demanded of them (Keil).

(3) Commanded relative to themselvesto arrange themselves according to their fathers’ houses and after their courses according to the writings of David and Solomon (verse 4); to take up their stations in the holy place according to the divisions of the fathers’ houses of their lay brethren, so that one of their divisions should fail to each father’s house of the laymen (verse 5); to kill the Passover and sanctify themselves, probably by washing themselves, before handing the blood to the priests to sprinkle on the altar (Keil), or after they had done so and before they performed any further duties (Bertheau); and, finally, to prepare, so. the Passover for their brethren the laymen, that they might do according to the Word of the Lord by the hand of Moses (verse 6).

3. Concerning the people. These, i.e. such of them as were poor, or had come from a distance without having brought the necessary sacrificial animals, were furnished with lambs, kids, and bullocks, or small cattle and oxen (verses 7-9), without which they could not have taken part in the celebration. At least the poor would have been excluded, which would have marred both the completeness and hilarity of the celebration.

III. GREAT IN RESPECT OF ITS ACCOMPANYING LIBERALITY.

1. On the part of the king. From the royal revenues Josiah contributed for the Passover offerings

(1) largelythirty thousand lambs and kids and three thousand bullocks (verse 7), a much larger gift than was presented by Hezekiah (ch. 30:24); and

(2) promptly, taking the lead in his good work, and so supplying an example to his subjects.

2. On the part of the royal princes. These, copying the action of their sovereign, likewise made donations

(1) freely, or “for a free-will offering “an indispensable quality in all religious giving (2Co 8:12); and it may be hoped

(2) largely, though this is not stated. They would hardly fall behind the princes in the time of Hezekiah (2Ch 30:24).

3. On the part of the rulers of the temple. Hilkiah the high priest (2Ch 34:9), Zechariah, perhaps the next in rank to him, “the second priest” (2Ki 25:18; Jer 52:24), and Jehiel, the chief of the line of Ithamar (Ezr 8:2), exhibited a similar praiseworthy liberality (verse 8).

4. On the part of the Levite princes. Six of these whose names are recordedConaniah, with his two brothers Shemaiah and Nethaneel, with Hashabiah, Jeiel, and Jozahad also displayed a high degree of generosity (verse 9).

IV. GREAT IN RESPECT OF ITS CO–OPERATING ACTIVITY. Each had his part to perform, and each performed it in such a way as not to hinder, but to accelerate the progress; and not to mar, but to increase the effect of the whole.

1. The priests. These

(1) stood in their place beside the altars (verse 10; 2Ch 30:16);

(2) sprinkled the blood they received from the Levites (verse 11; 2Ch 30:16); and

(3) offered burnt offerings and the fat until night (verse 14).

2. The Levites. These

(1) killed the Passover victims (verse 11);

(2) flayed or skinned them (verse 11); and

(3) removed from their carcases such parts as were designed to be offered as burnt offerings (verse 12); after which they

(4) roasted the Passover with fire, according to the Mosaic ordinance (verse 13; Exo 12:8, Exo 12:9);

(5) boiled the other offerings in pots, caldrons, and pans (verse 13);

(6) divided them as they were ready among the people (verse 13); and

(7) prepared the Passover for themselves and for the priests (verse 14).

3. The singers. These, the sons of Asaph, stood in their places, in the court of the temple, discoursing music with harps, psalteries, and cymbals (1Ch 25:1), without once leaving their ranks even to eat the Passover, the Levites preparing for and fetching to them their portion (verse 15).

4. The porters. At every gate these watched, never departing from their service, because the Levites did for them as for the musicians (verse 15). Thus each contributed his part, and all worked harmoniously towards the production of the general result.

V. GREAT IN RESPECT OF ITS CELEBRATING NUMBERS. The feast was attended by:

1. The inhabitants of Jerusalem, including Josiah and his princes, with the priests and the Levites.

2. All Judah, meaning the population beyond the metropolis, in the country districts.

3. The children of Israel; i.e. the members of the northern kingdom who had not been carried into exile, and who had come to Jerusalem to be present at the feast.

Learn:

1. The duty of observing the public ordinances of religion.

2. The beauty and value of unity and co-operation in Christian work and worship.

3. The propriety of having special seasons of religious service.W.

2Ch 35:20-27

The death of Josiah.

I. JOSIAH‘S MILITARY EXPEDITION. (2Ch 35:20.) Seemingly the only expedition in his reign.

1. When it took place. “After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple;” i.e. after the eighteenth year of his reign, in point of fact, thirteen years after (2Ch 34:1).

2. Against whom it was directed. Necho King of Egypt; in Egyptian, Neku, son of Psammatik I; the illustrious founder of the Saitic or twenty-sixth dynasty, and grandson of Necho I; of the twenty-fifth or Ethiopian dynasty, Necho II. ascended the throne of the Pharaohs in B.C. 612, and reigned sixteen years. A warlike and adventurous prince, he was likewise devoted to commercial pursuits; he possessed two fleets of Greek-made triremes, one in the Mediterranean and another in the Red Sea. In his service Phoenician sailors were the first to circumnavigate Africa (Herod; 4:44).

3. For what reason it was projected. To oppose Necho, who was on his way through Palestine towards Carchemish on the Euphrates, to fight against the King of Assyria. Whether this sovereign was “King of Assyria proper”in which case he would most likely be Esarhaddon II; the last ruler of Ninevehor whether he was the Babylonian monarch Nahopolassar, who seized the empire after the overthrow of the Assyrian power, cannot be conclusively determined, although the best authorities favour the latter hypothesis (Ebers, Sayce, Rawlinson). In any ease, Necho, taking advantage either of the declining power of Nineveh, or of the still unsettled state of Babylonian affairs, resolved to strike a blow for the recovery of those Asiatic provinces which had formerly been subject to the Pharaohs; and Josiah, still regarding himself as a tributary of the Assyrian crown, and probably under Jeremiah’s teaching (Jer 47:1-7 :25), dreading the rise of the Egyptian power, hastened to resist his advance.

II. JOSIAH‘S PROVIDENTIAL WARNING. (Verse 21.)

1. The purport of this warning. Before the two armies met, Necho despatched an embassy to Josiah, requesting him to desist from offering opposition.

(1) Because he, Necho, was not seeking to disturb or injure him, Josiah, but was aiming at Assyria”the house wherewith I have war.” Cf. Joash to Amaziah (2Ch 25:18, 2Ch 25:19).

(2) Because he, Necho, was acting in accordance with a Divine commission, so that in opposing him Josiah would be guilty of resisting God, and would only bring ruin upon himself. In claiming to act under the impulse of Heaven, Necho probably meant no more than Pianchi-Mer-Amon of the twenty-fifth dynasty, who, when marching against Tafnakhth and other rebel chieftains, said, “Thou knowest what Amon the great god hath commanded us;” and again, “I am born of the loins, created from the egg, of the deity; the divine procreation is in me. All hail to him, I have not acted without his knowing; he ordained that I should act” (‘Records,’ etc; 2.84, 91).

2. The author of this warning. Though Necho may have had no other idea in using the term “god“ than that above explained, and though certainly it cannot be assumed that he understood himself to be the medium of conveying a Divine warning to the King of Judah, it is nevertheless clear that the Chronicler beheld in the incident the finger of God. Whether Jehovah actually put the words into Necho’s mouth, or only permitted him to speak as he did, the Hebrew historian, perhaps judging from the fatal issue of the war, regarded the message of Pharaoh as a clear warning from Heaven which Josiah should have accepted. There is no need for supposing either that Necho spoke of Josiah’s God or that Josiah’s God spoke to Necho.

III. JOSIAH‘S LAMENTABLE OBSTINACY. (Verse 22.)

1. His rejection of the warning. “He hearkened not unto the words of Necho from the mouth of God.” To assume Josiah knew that Necho was going against Nabopolassar with the express sanction of Jehovah, and that Necho’s dissuasive admonition proceeded straight from Heaven, and to hold moreover that Josiah, cognizant of all this, nevertheless closed his ear against the voice of the Supreme, is to put the worst construction possible on Josiah’s conduct; to understand the sacred writer’s language as merely importing, that Josiah was not disposed to hearken to Necho’s advice, and so failed to recognize it as “from the mouth of God,” is probably to put upon the King of Judah’s behaviour the best construction it will admit of. Had Josiah not been bent upon this war, he would have quickly discerned the prudence of Necho’s counsel.

2. His determination to fight. “Josiah would not turn his face from him” (Necho), but pushed on and offered battle in the valley of Megiddo, Magdol (Herod; 2.159)the modern Leijun, west of the Plain of Esdraelon, and near Taanach (Robinson), though a claim has been advanced for the modern Mujedd’a, “an important ruin in the Plain of Beisan, at the foot of Gilbea” (Conder). Here had. once stood an old Canaanitish town, of which the king was conquered by Joshua (Jos 12:21), and which, though within the territory of Issachar, was yet assigned to Manasseh (Jos 17:11). In later years Solomon selected it as one of his fortified cities (1Ki 9:15). In Megiddo Ahaziah sought refuge when mortally wounded by Jehu (2Ki 9:27). Megiddo had been the scene of a great battle between Thothmes IIL and one of the confederations of the small kings and princes of Palestine, B.C. 1600 (‘Records,’ etc; 2:35). Now on this historic ground the forces of Josiah and Necho come into collision.

IV. JOSIAH‘S FATAL WOUND. (Verse 23.)

1. The ineffectual disguise Like Ahah at Ramoth-Gilead (2Ch 18:29), Josiah resorted to a customary hut foolish and, in this case, useless artifice. Josiah should have ventured upon no campaign which demanded such an expedient. Had Josiah been sure of the Divine approbation, he would have needed no protection beyond the invisible shield and buckler of Jehovah (Psa 91:1-16.).

2. The death-winged arrow. No coat of mail can protect a soldier, or stratagem prolong the days of him whose hour is come. Whether the Egyptian bowmen penetrated through Josiah’s disguise or not, Jehovah did. If Necho’s archers shot at random, the almighty and omniscient Archer (Lam 2:4; Job 6:4; Rev 6:2) did not. Every shaft that flies from his hand hits. Josiah believed he was only fighting against Necho; Necho told him he was fighting against God. In this unequal contest (Isa 27:4) Josiah was of course defeated. “The archers shot at King Josiah; and King Josiah said to his servants, Have me away; for I am sore wounded.”

V. JOSIAH‘S UNTIMELY DEATH. (Verse 24.) It was:

1. Immediate. The pious but mistaken monarch felt he had received his death-blow. Obeying his instructions, his soldiers lifted him from his war-chariot, and, placing him “in a second chariot which belonged to him, and was probably more comfortable for a wounded man” (Keil), conveyed him to Jerusalem, where he shortly after expired.

2. Untimely. What Hezekiah feared was about to happen to him in his thirty-ninth year (Isa 38:10), happened in reality to Josiah; he was deprived of the residue of his years. What another singer prayed against (Psa 102:24) befell him, perhaps, notwithstanding his prayershe was cut off in the midst of his days. In the language of a Hebrew prophet, “his sun had gone down at noon” (Amo 8:9). Considering his elevated character, the quality of the work he had already performed, and the promise of good for his land and people which lay, or seemed to lie, in his prolonged life, his death could scarcely be pronounced other than premature; it was all too soon for Jerusalem and Judah. Yet was it not too soon for God, who best knew the moment in which to fulfil his own promise (2Ch 34:28; Psa 31:15); or for Josiah, who was thereby removed from the evil to come (Psa 12:1; Isa 57:1), so that his eyes saw not the calamities which forthwith began to descend upon his country (2Ch 36:3).

3. Regretted.

(1) Mourned for by the people. When they buried him in the sepulchres of his fathers (verse 24), or in his own sepulchre (2Ki 23:30)perhaps in one of the chambers of Manasseh’s tomb (2Ch 33:20)the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem felt that “a prince and a great man” had been taken from them. They sorrowed for him as they had never before sorrowed for a sovereign, “lamenting and grieving on his account many days” (Josephus), with such an intensity of heartfelt anguish that even after the Captivity “the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon” became a proverbial expression for the deepest and truest grief (Zec 12:11).

(2) Lamented by Jeremiah. The most plaintive of all the prophets, who had commenced his ministry in the thirteenth year of the deceased sovereign’s reign (Jer 1:1), composed a dirge to keep in memory his death. Whether that elegiac hymn was recited at his funeral (Stanley) or not, it was placed in the national collection of such threnodies, and was long after chanted by the singing men and singing women who, on fixed days, were appointed to recall the memory of the good king.

LESSONS.

1. The danger of intermeddling with other people’s strife (Pro 26:17).

2. The folly of rejecting good advice, even though given by an enemy.

3. The probability that he who runs into danger unbidden will not escape unhurt (Psa 91:11).

4. The certainty that death will overtake all, in such an hour as they think not (Mat 24:44).

5. The loss which a good man’s death is to a community or nation (2Ki 2:12).

6. The propriety of perpetuating the recollection of noble lives (Pro 10:7)

7. The fitness of song to express sorrowful emotions (2Sa 1:17; Mic 2:4).W.

Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary

p. Josiah: the Prophetess Huldah.Ch. 34, 35

. Josiahs Beginnings; the Extirpation of Idolatry: 2Ch 34:1-7

2Ch 34:1.Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. 2And he did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, and walked in the ways of David his father, and declined not to 3the right hand nor to the left. And in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet a youth, 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, 4and the asherim, and the carved images, and the molten images. And they pulled down before him the altars of Baalim; and the sun-statues which were above them he hewed down; and the asherim, and the carved images, and the molten images, he broke and pounded, and strewed upon the 5graves of them that had sacrificed to them. And the bones of the priests he 6burned upon their altars,1 and he purged Judah and Jerusalem. And in the cities of Manasseh, and Ephraim, and Simeon, even unto Naphtali, in their 7ruins2 around. And he pulled down the altars and the asherim, and he cut down the carved images to pound them, and hewed down all the sun-statues in all the land of Israel; and he returned to Jerusalem.

. The Purging of the Temple and the Recovery of the Book of the Law: 2Ch 34:8-21

8And in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he purged the land and the house, he sent Shaphan son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah son of Joahaz the chancellor, to repair the house of the Lord 9his God. And they came to Hilkiah the high priest, and delivered the money that was brought into the house of God, which the Levites that kept the thresholds had gathered from the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim, and from all the remnant of Israel, and from all Judah and Benjamin, and the inhabitants3 of Jerusalem. 10And they put it into the hand of the work-masters who were appointed over the house of the Lord; and the work-masters who worked in the house of the Lord gave it to restore and repair the house. 11And they gave it to the carpenters and masons, to buy hewn stones and timber for girders and for joists of the houses, which the kings of Judah had destroyed. 12And the men wrought faithfully at the work, and over them were appointed Jahath and Obadiah the Levites of the sons of Merari, and Zechariah and Meshullam of the sons of the Kohathites, to oversee; and the 13Levites, all that had skill in instruments of song. And over the carriers, and overseeing all that were doing the work in any manner of service. 14And when they took out the money that was brought into the house of the Lord, Hilkiah the priest found the book of the law of the Lord by Moses. 15And Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord: and Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan. 16And Shaphan brought the book to the king, and returned to the king a report, saying, All that was committed to thy servants, they do. 17And they have poured out the money that was found in the house of the Lord, and 18given it into the hands of the overseers and of the workmen. And Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest hath given me a book: 19and Shaphan read in it before the king. And when the king heard the words of the law, then he rent his clothes. 20And the king commanded Hilkiah, and Ahikam son of Shaphan, and Abdon4 son of Micah, and Shaphan 21the scribe, and Asaiah the servant of the king, saying: Go, inquire of the Lord for me, and for them that are left in Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book that is found; for great is the wrath of the Lord that is poured out upon us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the Lord, to do after all that is written in this book.

. Consultation of Huldah the Prophetess, and Solemn Reading of the Law in the Temple: 2Ch 34:22-33

22And Hilkiah and those who were appointed5 by the king went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum son of Tokehath, son of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe; and she dwelt in Jerusalem in the second (quarter); and 23they spake to her to this effect. And she said to them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Say ye to the man who sent you to me, 24Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, and upon its inhabitants, all the curses that are written in the book which they have read before the king of Judah: 25Because they have forsaken me, and have made burnings6 to other gods, to provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands; and my 26wrath is poured out on this place, and will not be quenched. And to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, thus shall ye say: Thus saith the Lord God of Israel of the words which thou hast heard. 27Because thy heart was tender, and thou didst bow down before God, when thou heardest His words against this place and its inhabitants, and thou didst bow down before me and didst rend thy garments and weep before me, so have I also heard thee, saith the Lord. 28Behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace, and thine eyes shall not see all the evil that I will bring upon this place and upon its inhabitants: 29and they brought the king word again. And the king sent and gathered all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. 30And the king went up into the house of the Lord, and all the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests and the Levites, and all the people, great and small; and one read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant that was found in the house of the Lord. 31And the king stood in his place, and made the covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep His commandments and testimonies and statutes with all his heart and with all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant which are written in this book. 32And he caused all that were found in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand to it; and the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers. 33And Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries of the sons of Israel, and bound all that were found in Israel to serve the Lord their God: all his days they departed not from the Lord God of their fathers.

. The Passover: 2Ch 35:1-19

2Ch 35:1.And Josiah kept a passover unto the Lord in Jerusalem; and they killed the passover on the fourteenth of the first month. 2And he set the priests in their charges, and strengthened them for the service of the Lord. 3And he said unto the Levites, who taught all Israel,7 who were consecrated to the Lord, Put the holy ark into the house which Solomon son of David, the king of Israel, built; it shall not be a burden on your shoulders: now 4serve ye the Lord your God, and His people Israel. And make you ready8 in your father-houses by your courses, after the writing of David king of 5Israel, and after the description of Solomon his son. And stand ye in the sanctuary after the divisions of the father-houses of your brethren, the sons 6of the people, and a part of a father-house of the Levites [ for each]. And kill the passover, and sanctify you, and prepare your brethren, to do according to 7the word of the Lord by Moses. And Josiah dealt to the sons of the people sheep, lambs, and kids, all for paschal offerings, for all that were found, to the number of thirty thousand, and three thousand bullocks: these were of the property of the king. 8And his princes presented a free gift to the people, to the priests, and to the Levites: Hilkiah, and Zechariah, and Jehiel, rulers of the house of God, gave unto the priests for the passover-offerings two thousand 9and six hundred [ sheep], and three hundred oxen. And Conaniah, and Shemaiah, and Nethaneel, his brethren, and Hashabiah, and Jeiel, and Jozabad, chiefs of the Levites, presented to the Levites for passover-offerings five thousand [ sheep], 10and oxen five hundred. And the service was prepared, and the priests stood in their place, and the Levites in their courses, at the command of the king. 11And they killed the passover, and the priests sprinkled [ the wood] from their hand, and the Levites flayed. 12And they removed the burnt-offering to give them to the divisions of the father-houses of the sons of the people, to offer unto the Lord, as it is written in the book of Moses; and so with the oxen. 13And they roasted the passover with fire, according to the ordinance; and the holy things they sod in pots and kettles and pans, and brought them quickly 14to all the sons of the people. And afterwards they made ready for themselves and for the priests: because the priests the sons of Aaron were engaged in offering the burnt-offering and the fat until night; and the Levites prepared for themselves and for the priests the sons of Aaron. 15And the singers the sons of Asaph were in their place, according to the command of David, and Asaph, and Heman, and Jeduthun the kings seer; and the porters were at every gate: it was not necessary for them to depart from their service, 16for their brethren the Levites prepared for them. And all the service of the Lord was prepared that day, to keep the passover, and to offer burnt-offerings 17on the altar of the Lord, at the command of King Josiah. And the sons of Israel that were present kept the passover at that time, and the feast of unleavened bread seven days. 18And there was no passover like that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet; nor did all the kings of Israel keep such a passover as Josiah kept, and the priests, and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel that were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 19In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah was this passover kept.

. Josiahs Battle with Necho of Egypt, and End: 2Ch 35:20-27

20After all this, when Josiah had prepared the house, Necho king of Egypt came up to fight at Carchemish, on the Euphrates; and Josiah went out against 21him. And he sent ambassadors to him, saying, What have I to do with thee, O king of Judah? I am not against thee this day, but against the house of my war;9 and God hath commanded me to make haste: withdraw thee from 22God, who is with me, that He destroy thee not. And Josiah turned not his face from him, but disguised himself,10 to fight with him, and hearkened not unto the words of Necho from the mouth of God, and he came to fight in the valley of Megiddo. 23And the archers shot at King Josiah: and the king said 24to his servants, Remove me, for I am sorely wounded. And his servants removed him from the chariot, and put him on his second chariot; and brought him to Jerusalem, and he died, and was buried in the sepulchres of his fathers: and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. 25And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah; and all the songsters and songstresses spake of Josiah in their laments unto this day, and they made them an ordinance for Israel: and, behold, they are written in the Lamentations.

26And the rest of the acts of Josiah, and his kindness, as it is written in the law of the Lord, 27And his deeds, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.

q. Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, Zedekiah: Close.Ch. 36

. Jehoahaz: 2Ch 36:1-4

2Ch 36:1.And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and made him king instead of his father in Jerusalem. 2Jehoahaz was twenty and three years old when he became king; and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. 3And the king of Egypt put him down11 in Jerusalem, and fined the land a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. 4And the king of Egypt made Eliakim his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem, and turned his name to Jehoiakim: and Necho took Jehoahaz his brother and carried him to Egypt.

. Jehoiakim: 2Ch 36:5-8

5Jehoiakim was twenty and five years old when he became king; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; and he did that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord God. 6Against him came up Nebuchadnezzar king of Babel, 7and bound him in fetters, to carry him to Babel.12 And Nebuchadnezzar brought of the vessels of the house of the Lord to Babel, and put them in 8his palace at Babel. And the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and his abominations which he did, and that which was found against him, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah: and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead.

. Jehoiachin: 2Ch 36:9-10

9Jehoiachin was eight years13 old when he became king; and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem: and he did hat which was evil in 10the eyes of the Lord. And at the turn of the year, King Nebuchadnezzar sent and brought him to Babel, with the goodly vessels of the house of the Lord; and he made Zedekiah his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem.

. Zedekiah: 2Ch 36:11-21

11Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. 12And he did that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord his God; he humbled himself not before Jeremiah the prophet, from the mouth of the Lord. 13And he also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who made him swear by God: and he stiffened his neck, and hardened his 14heart from turning unto the Lord God of Israel. Also all the chiefs of the priests and the people transgressed very much, after all the abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the Lord, which He had hallowed in 15Jerusalem. And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by His messengers, rising early, and sending; because He had compassion on His people and His 16dwelling-place. And they mocked the messengers of God, and despised His words, and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord rose against 17His people, till there was no healing. And He brought up against them the king of the Chaldees, and slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and He spared neither young man nor maiden, the old nor the grey-headed; the whole He gave into his hand. 18And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king and his princes; the whole he brought to Babel. 19And they burned the house of God, and pulled down the wall of Jerusalem, and burned all its palaces with fire, and destroyed all its goodly vessels. 20And he carried away those that remained from the sword to Babel; and they became servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia: 21To fulfil the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: all the days of the desolation she rested to fulfil seventy years.

. Close: the Return from Captivity under Cyrus: 2Ch 36:22-23

22And in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord, by the mouth of Jeremiah, might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, and he made proclamation in all his kingdom, and also in writing, saying, 23Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth hath the Lord God of heaven given me; and He hath charged me to build Him a house at Jerusalem: whoso is among you of all His people? The Lord14 his God be with him, and let him go up.

EXEGETICAL

Preliminary Remark.Whereas in 2 Kings 22, 23 the several moments of the reforming action of Josiah are so combined that they appear all conditioned and determined by the repair of the temple, and the discovery in it of the book of the law, the Chronist separates the several acts or steps of his reforming activity more exactly, and indeed chronologically, as he makes the work of the king begin with the eighth year of his reign, the commencement of his more energetic proceedings to fall in the twelfth, and its end in the eighteenth (comp. on 2Ch 34:3). In other respects the two accounts agree substantially, though the Chronist has related the cleansing of Judah and Jerusalem from idolatry (2Ch 34:3-7) with great brevity, and, on the contrary, the great passover (2Ch 35:1-19) so much the more fully; whereas the author of 2 Kings, in accordance with his It less careful attention to the history of the Levitical worship, has reversed this method, and treated of the passover quite briefly. Both historians relate the closing catastrophe of the history of Josiah at nearly the same length and in much the same manner, though the Chronist gives vent to the pragmatic reflective connection of this tragic end with the previous transactions of his reign (2Ki 23:25 f.). He proceeds, lastly, quite in the form of an epitome in his statements concerning the four last reigns, in 2 Chronicles 36, to which the author of the books of Kings devotes a great deal of space.

1. Josiahs Beginnings; the Eradication of Idolatry: 2Ch 34:1-7.

2Ch 34:1-2 agree with 2Ki 22:1-2, especially with regard to the eulogy applied to Josiah (alone of all kings), that he declined not to the right hand nor to the left; only the mention of his mother (Jedidah, daughter of Adaiah) is wanting in our passage.

2Ch 34:3. And in the eighth year of his reign, when he was sixteen years old. The seeking after God, as 22:19 and elsewhere. On the relation of the present chronological statements, especially that referring to the twelfth year of Josiahs reign as the date of the beginning of the abolition of idolatry, in 2Ki 22:3 ff, and 2Ch 34:33 of our chapter, see Bhrs full discussion (Bibelw. vii. 453 ff.). This agrees with the conclusion of almost all recent expositors in this, that neither the Chronist nor the author of 2 Kings proceeds exactly in chronological order, in so far as the latter compresses the whole measures of the purification of worship and extirpation of idolatry into the eighteenth year of his reign; but the former (according to 2Ch 34:4-7, which are to be taken partly as proleptic) attaches to that which was put in operation in the twelfth year part of that which was only carried into effect in the eighteenth year, as he himself indicates at the close of the chapter (2Ch 34:33).

2Ch 34:4. And they pulled down before him the altars of Baalim, and the sun-statues . . . he hewed down; comp. 2Ch 33:3, 2Ch 31:1; and for the sun-statues especially, 2Ch 14:4; and for that which follows, 2Ch 15:16.And strewed (the dust of the ground images) upon the graves of them that had sacrificed to them, literally, upon the graves that sacrificed to them. In 2Ki 23:6, perhaps more exactly the ashes of the great asherim merely are designated as strewn upon the graves of the idolaters.

2Ch 34:5. And the bones of the priests he burned; for the particulars, see 2Ki 23:13-14; 2Ki 23:16-20.

2Ch 34:6. And in the cities of Manasseh, and Ephraim, and Simeon, and unto Naphtali, that is, in all the land, from the most southern to the most northern part of the tribes. That the regions belonging to the northern kingdom (among which here, as in 2Ch 15:9, Simeon also is named as a tribe addicted to idolatry) were at that time wasted by the invasion of Shalmaneser and Sargon, is indicated by the addition: in their ruins around. For the exclusive admissibility of this reading (), see Crit. Note. Moreover, the present account (with the parallel statement in 2Ki 23:19-20 f.), according to which the kingdom of Josiah included again in some measure all the twelve tribes, is certainly to be estimated in the same way as the statement in 2Ch 30:18, according to which, even in the beginning of Hezekiahs reign, before the northern kingdom had fallen, a partial annexation of its inhabitants to the southern kingdom in respect of worship had taken place. Here also it is only the introduction of the remnant of the inhabitants of the north into the work of the purification of worship that is spoken of, not the exercise of a formal sovereignty over their country. What Neteler says, p. 261, of a supposed reunion of the country of Israel with the kingdom of Judah under Manasseh, and of an inheritance of this collective Israelitish kingdom, restored to its original compass, on the part of Josiah son of Manasseh, is devoid of all definite hold in the text as well of the books of Kings as of Chronicles.

2Ch 34:7. Pulled down the altars; here first is the chief sentence to the (in the form of an absolute sentence, 2Ch 34:6) premised determination of the scene of the kings action.And the asherim; is a perfect-like (retaining the vowel of the perfect) infinitive with , on which see Ewald, 238, d.And he returned to Jerusalem, from his campaign against the idols, which had carried him into the former region of Ephraim and Simeon. In 2Ki 23:20 also is this notice found, but there certainly in reference to the eighteenth year of Josiah. A chronological contradiction of the two accounts, however, can scarcely be found in this circumstance; comp. Bhr on the passage.

2. The Purging of the Temple and Recovery of the Book of the Law: 2Ch 34:8-21. Comp. 2Ki 22:3-13, and Bhr on the passage.In the eighteenth year . . . when he purged. is neither after the purging, after he had purged (Luther, de Wette, etc.), nor in order to purge (Berth., Kamph.), but a note of time and circumstance in the purging (Keil, Net.); comp. Jer 46:13. In the naming of Shaphan, his designation as scribe or royal secretary (2Ki 22:3) has perhaps fallen out of the text of our account by a mere oversight, for the two other officers named by the Chronist (reporting more exactly than 2 Kings) are introduced by the addition of their titles. For repair (literally, strengthen) the house of the Lord, see on 2Ch 24:5, and also on 2Ch 34:9 of the present report concerning the repair of the temple under Joash (2Ch 24:11-13); see, moreover, the Crit. Note on 2Ch 34:9.

2Ch 34:10. Put it into the hand of the work-masters, etc. is a resuming of the same verb in the foregoing verse, but connected with , into the hand, by which the sense of handing is reached. For the plur. (for ), comp. 1Ch 23:24.The work-masters . . . gave it, etc.; so according to the received text; but if, as 2Ki 22:5 seems to show, a has fallen out before , it should be rendered: they gave it to the work-masters (or labourers). The latter reading appears the more suitable, though it cannot be affirmed that it is the original one.

2Ch 34:11. And timber for girders and for joists of the houses, literally, to joist the houses; comp. Neh 3:3; Neh 3:6. This means, naturally, not any houses of the city, but the buildings of the temple.Which the kings of Judah had destroyed, let go to ruin; a like exaggeration of phrase as in the case of Athaliah, 2Ch 24:7.

2Ch 34:12. And the men wrought faithfully at the work, literally, were working. For , truly, conscientiously, see on 2Ch 31:12.To oversee the building; comp. in essentially the same meaning, Ezr 3:8.And the Levites, all that had skill in instruments of song; comp. 1Ch 15:16; 1Ch 25:7; Dan 1:17. These closing words of 2Ch 34:12 are to be connected with 2Ch 34:13 a, so that the repeated is = as well as. This is simpler and less violent than the proposal of Bertheau, accepted by Kamph., to erase the first of 2Ch 34:13, and annex the words over the carriers to 2Ch 34:12. On 2Ch 34:14, comp. 2Ki 22:8.The book of the law of the Lord by Moses, that is, the Mosaic law (comp. for the phrase, 2Ch 33:8). The whole Torah at all events is meant, not merely Deuteronomy, as the modern critical school (last of all, Hitzig, Gesch p. 236) think; and not merely the groups of laws contained in the three middle cooks of the Pentateuch (according to Bertheaus hypothesis, Beitrge zur israelit. Gesch. p. 375). Decisive grounds against these modern hypotheses, especially so far as they endeavour to connect the assertion of an origin from Manasseh or even Josiah with our passage, see in Kleinert, Das Deuteronomium und der Deuteronomiker, 1871, and in Klostermann, Das Lied Mosis und das Deuteronomium, Theol. Stud. und Krit. 1871, ii.;1872, ii. and iii. Comp. also Sthelin, Einleit. ins A. T. (1862) p. 242 ff.; J. Frst, Gesch. der bibl. Literat. i. 351 ff.; and Bhr on 2Ki 22:7.

2Ch 34:16. And Shaphan brought the book to the king. Somewhat different in the parallel 2Ki 22:9, where at first it is only related: and Shaphan the scribe came to the king, and where, therefore, no , yet, stands in the following: and brought the king word. The structure of the words in the Chronist appears in every respect the younger, although none of its deviations is of any essential importance; comp. Keil on this passage.

2Ch 34:17. Given it into the hands; comp. on 2Ch 34:10 at the beginning.

2Ch 34:20. And Ahikam son of Shaphan, the father of Gedaliah and protector of Jeremiah; see Jer 26:24; Jer 40:5. For the probable originality of the reading Achbor for Abdon, see the Crit. Note. The Achbor of this passage appears the same who is so named Jer 26:22; Jer 36:12.

Ver 21. And for them that are left in Israel, literally, for that which is left; a significant phrase, like the parallel 2Ki 22:13 : for the people and for all Judah. The expression that is poured out () stands for the essentially synonymous that is kindled () of the parallel.

3. Consultation of Huldah, and Solemn Reading of the Law in the Temple: 2Ch 34:22-33. Comp. 2Ki 22:14-20; 2Ki 23:1-3, and Bhr on this passage.Went to Huldah . . . the wife of Shallum. The forefathers of this husband of Huldah are called in 2 Kings, not Tokehath and Hasrah, but Tikvah and Harhas.15 Which of these (nowhere else occurring) names are original cannot now be decided. For the second quarter or district of the lower city, see Bhr.And they spake to her to this effect, namely, as Josiah had said to them; this , which reminds us of 2Ch 32:15, is wanting in 2 Kings.

2Ch 34:24. All the curses, etc.; in 2 Kings less strong: all the words.

2Ch 34:25. And my wrath is poured out on this place. As in 2Ch 34:21, here again stands the verb instead of , the one usual in the parallel (2Ki 22:17), which latter, moreover, the Sept. expresses also in our passage, perhaps because it appears to suit better the following words: and will not be quenched.

2Ch 34:27. Because thy heart was tender . . . when thou heardest his words. In the original text the construction is somewhat different, namely, the words which thou hast heard (2Ch 34:26 for example), because thereby thy heart was made tender, and thou didst bow down before God, when thou heardest, etc. The words , absolutely prefixed, can scarcely be translated. In 2Ki 22:19, moreover, the words against this place are rendered still more distinct by the addition wanting here: that they should become a desolation and a curse.

2Ch 34:28. And they brought the king word again; comp. 2Ch 34:16.

2Ch 34:32. Caused all . . . to stand to it, namely, to the covenant. In 2Ki 23:3, instead of stands rather the Kal, joined with , and all the people stood to the covenant.

2Ch 34:33. And Josiah took away all the abominations. For the relation of this statement, that reverts to 2Ch 34:3-7 in the way of recapitulation, to 2Ki 23:4-20, see above, Preliminary Remark, and on 2Ch 34:3, By all the countries of the sons of Israel are here meant the territories of the former kingdom of the ten tribes, as distinguished from Jerusalem and Benjamin, 2Ch 34:32 (that is, Jerusalem, Judah, and Benjamin). Comp. above, 2Ch 34:6, also 2Ki 23:15; 2Ki 23:19, where in particular Bethel and the cities of Samaria are mentioned as places of the former Israel that were subjected to the great purging process of Josiah.And bound all to serve ( ), caused to serve, bound to the service of the Lord.All his days they departed not from the Lord. This theocratic behaviour of the people during the whole reign of Josiah can, at all events, have only been external, without true conversion of heart, and therefore without real constancy; see Evangelical and Ethical Reflections, No. 1.

4. The Passover: 2Ch 35:1-19. Comp. 2Ki 23:21; 2Ki 23:23; as also the tolerably close Greek version of our section in 1Es 1:1-21 (in Tischendorfs edit. of the Sept. the first book of Esdras).And they killed the passover on the fourteenth day of the first month; thus, though Hitzig (Gesch. p. 235) doubts it without any ground, at the time prescribed by law, otherwise than in the passover of Hezekiah, 2Ch 30:2 ff. The year of this solemnity is (2Ch 35:9; see on this verse) the eighteenth of Josiahs reign, and therefore 623 (or 622) b.c.

2Ch 35:2. And he set the priests in their charges (watches; comp. 2Ch 7:6, 2Ch 8:14), in their functions; comp. 1Ch 23:32.And strengthened them for the service of the Lord, by comforting, encouraging exhortation, as also by instructions in their legal functions; comp. Neh 2:18, where stands in the same sense, and 2Ch 29:5.

2Ch 35:3. Who taught all Israel. Comp. in Neh 8:7; Neh 8:9, also the synonymous above, 2Ch 17:8-9. For the following designation of the Levites as consecrated to the Lord, that is, alone entitled to enter His sanctuary and conduct His holy service, comp. 2Ch 23:6.Put the holy ark into the house. These words are somewhat surprising, and admit of various interpretations, as a parallel yielding a more definite explanation is wanting. But although not , bring back, but , give place, is the verb used, yet the assumption of a previous removal of the ark from its place in the holy of holies appears to present itself with constraining necessity, even if we think (with many ancients, as well as Berth. and Kamph.) of Manasseh or Amon as the author of this temporary transference of the ark; in which case, however, it would be very surprising that nothing should be expressly stated in the reign of these godless kings concerning so profane a violation; or if (with Starke and others) we consider Josiahs repair of the temple to be the occasion of the temporary removal of the ark from its place, which is undoubtedly the simplest and best supposition. Quite arbitrary is the hypothesis of some ancients, that the ark was, in the days of the idolatrous kings, sometimes carried round the country as a means of strengthening the faith of the people, and Josiah now forbids this custom in the present words (see v. Mosheim in Calmets Bibl. Untersuchungen, vi. 226 ff.); and equally so the Rabbinical conceit, that Josiah here gives orders to remove the ark from its place in the holy of holies to a subterranean chamber, to place it in safety from the impending destruction of the temple. But even the rendering: Leave the holy ark in the house, leave it in the temple, to which it properly belongs (Keil, after the ancients), is arbitrary; and so is Netelers attempted emendation, which, against the grammar, would change the imperat. into the perf. (from = , give), and translate accordingly: And he said to the Levites, Those who taught all Israel, who were consecrated to the Lord, have put the ark of the sanctuary into the house, etc. Were such an explanation of the passage possible, how surprising that it is first discovered in the 19th century !It shall not be a burden on your shoulders; comp. Num 4:15; Num 7:9. The sense of these words can only be: ye have to minister to the ark of the Lord not as a moveable sanctuary, to be carried laboriously on the shoulders, through the wilderness or from city to city, but as the throne of God standing in the centre of the temple; the times of the toilsome and perilous (comp. 1Ch 13:9) transport of the ark are over; an easier ministry before this sanctuary, but not the less conscientiously to be discharged, now lies upon you. If we take the words thus (with Keil, Kamph., etc.), there seems to be no necessity for Bertheaus assumption that the Levites at the pass-over had carried round the ark on their shoulders in an inconsiderate way, and Josiah therefore instructed them that this function of carrying was no longer binding on them with regard to the ark of the covenant.

2Ch 35:4. And make you ready (see Crit. Note) . . . after the writing of David, properly, in the writing, etc. (, as in 2Ch 29:25). There were then writings or notes (, as in 2Ch 26:22, 1Ch 28:19) of David and Solomon, in which these kings had established as law their prescriptions for the ministry of priests and Levites in the sanctuary, from which also our author had directly or indirectly drawn his former communications on this subject (1 Chronicles 23-26); comp. Introd. 5, for example, and the preliminary remark in explanation of 1 Chronicles 23-26

2Ch 35:5. And a part of a father-house of the Levites (for each); so that to every division (, as Ezr 6:18) of the non-Levitical father-houses may correspond a part of a Levitical father-house (comp. 1Ch 24:6). In this way it is not necessary to erase before in the sense of and indeed, or namely (against Berth.).

2Ch 35:6. Kill the passover and sanctify you, namely, by washing, before ye hand to the priests the blood to sprinkle on the altar; comp. 2Ch 30:16 f.

2Ch 35:7-9. The King and his Princes bestow Victims.And Josiah dealt to the sons of the people; , bestow as a heave-offering, as in 2Ch 30:24, Ezr 8:25.To the number of 30,000 head of small cattle, and 3000 bullocks,the latter, as appears from 2Ch 35:13, for slaying and consuming as peace-offerings. All this was from the kings domains; comp. 2Ch 31:3, 2Ch 32:29.

2Ch 35:8. And his princes presented a free gift; so is to be taken here (comp. the corresponding for passover-offerings in the verse before), not as an adverb, willingly, as Berth. thinks. How many the princes gave as free gifts is not here mentioned (it is otherwise in 2Ch 30:24); for the three rulers of the house of God named in b as in 2Ch 35:9, and six chiefs of the Levites, are certainly as different from the princes of the king as the spiritual office-bearers in any kingdom are from the temporal. Moreover, of the three princes of the house of God, Zechariah, named next after the high priest Hilkiah, appears to be his nearest subordinate or deputy ( , 2Ki 25:18); but the third, Jehiel, seems to be the head of the line of Ithamar (comp. Ezr 8:2, and Berth, on this passage). Of the six chiefs of the Levites named in 2Ch 35:9, threeConaniah, Shemaiah, and Jozabadhave the same names with those named in 2Ch 31:12-15 on the occasion of the reform of Hezekiah, but are scarcely the same persons.

2Ch 35:10 ff. depicts the preparation of the passover and the sacrificial feast connected with it.And the service was prepared (or arranged, Luther), comp. 2Ch 35:16; 2Ch 29:35; for the following, also 2Ch 30:16 f.

2Ch 35:12. And they removed the burnt-offering; is here to separate the parts of the victim that were to be burned on the altar; comp. Lev 3:9 f., Lev 4:31. These parts are here called , because, as the law of the peace-offering, Lev 3:6-16 (especially 2Ch 35:11; 2Ch 35:16), directs, they were wholly burned as the burnt-offering, and, moreover, on the flesh of the evening sacrifice. A special burnt-offering is not to be thought of, because such were not prescribed on the evening of the 14th Nisan for the pass-over; the only offerings to be presented thereon were the paschal lambs.To give them to the divisions; them, namely, the separated pieces, to be burned as burnt-offerings.And so with the oxen; they also (those special gifts in oxen mentioned 2Ch 35:7-9, 3800 head in all) were presented not as burnt-offerings or holocausts to be wholly burned, but as peace-offerings, to be eaten as a joyful festival in part, that is, after taking away the fat that was to be burned.

2Ch 35:13. And they roasted the passover with fire, according to the ordinance; see Exo 12:8-9. The holy things () are the slain oxen (see 2Ch 29:33). If it is further said of these, that their flesh, after being sodden in pots, etc., is to be brought quickly to the sons of the people, that is, the non-Levitical partakers in the feast, it does not follow that this was done on the first evening of the feast, the 14th Nisan, and thus that all that was provided, passover lambs and peace-offerings, was consumed on the very first evening (as Berth. and apparently also Kamph. think). On the contrary, Keil justly remarks: Such a junction or rather mingling of the feast prepared of the roasted lambs with the eating of the boiled beef would have been so rude an offence against the legal prescriptions concerning the passover, that we shall not ascribe it either to King Josiah and the priests, or even to the author of Chronicles, as the latter expressly remarks that they proceeded in the festival according to the prescription of the law of Moses, and according to the ordinance. Accordingly, that which is here and in the two following verses recorded concerning the preparation of the offering and the feast refers not merely to the opening evening, but to the whole seven days of unleavened bread.

2Ch 35:14. And afterwards, when the laity were provided for.Because the priests . . . (were engaged) in offering the burnt-offering and the fat until night, and thus could not cook and prepare for themselves, the Levites must do this for them. Burnt-offering and fat appear to denote one and the same thing, and so to form a hendiadyoin; or also the conjunctive between the two phrases appears to be explicative (Keil).

2Ch 35:15. And the singers . . . were in their place (comp. 1Ch 23:28; 1Ch 25:1; 1Ch 25:6). What is here recorded concerning the co-operation of the singers and the porters in the solemnity clearly refers, as the comprehensive character of the scene shows, not merely to one, but to all the seven days of the feast. The phrase that day, at the beginning of 2Ch 35:16, does not oppose this view, but reverts to the 14th Nisan as the fundamental day of the festival; comp. the sing. in Gen 2:4 and in 2Ch 35:17, which shows most directly and clearly the correctness of our interpretation.

2Ch 35:18. And there was no passover like that kept. . . from the days of Samuel. This does not contradict 2Ch 30:26, for there the point of comparison is the magnificence and numerous participation in the solemnity; here, on the contrary, its theocratic purity and legitimacy. Comp. above on that passage, as well as Bhr on the parallel 2Ki 23:22. On all Judah and Israel that were present, that is, so far as they were present, comp. 2Ch 34:33.

2Ch 35:19. In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah was this passover kept; thus in the same year in which, according to 2Ch 34:8, the full execution and conclusion of Josiahs reform of worship took place (comp. on 2Ch 35:1). There is no proper chronological difficulty in this date, which is also found in 2Ki 23:23; for the 18th year which is here spoken of is a reign and calendar year (Bhr), and if dated from the autumn, from that time till the legal term of the paschal feast, about the middle of Nisan (in the spring of the following calendar year), all that is related in 2Ch 34:8-33 may take place. And all the more because not a little that referred to the cleansing and repair of the temple might have been already prepared in the previous years of Josiahs reign (from the 12th, 2Ch 34:3).

5. Josiahs Battle with Necho of Egypt, and End: 2Ch 35:20-27. Comp. 2Ki 23:25-30.After all this . . . Necho, king of Egypt, came up; not the Necho I. (Ni–ik–ku–u sar Mi–im–im–piu Sa–ai, king of Memphis and Sais, on an inscription of Asurbanipal) mentioned 2Ch 33:11, who had reigned before 664, but the successor of Psammetichus, Necho II., who reigned till about 605. The Assyrian (or rather Babylonian) king who is attacked by Necho in the present campaign is probably Asur-idil-ili, the Sarak of Abydenus and Syncellus (see Schrader, p. 231 ff.), or even, if Nineveh was already fallen, Nabo-polassar (see Then., Berth., Bhr, etc.), but by no means Sardanapalus (5. Gumpach, Zeitrechnung der Babyl. und Assyr. p. 146), who was much earlier. For Carchemish = Circesium, on the Euphrates, comp. the expositors on Isa 10:9; Jer 46:2.16

2Ch 35:21. What have I to do with thee? properly, what is there to me and thee? comp. Jdg 11:12; 2Sa 10:9; Joh 2:4.I am not against thee this day, I am come up (), my attack is not on thee; after the suffix of the second pers. is rendered emphatic by an added , which would be expressed in English by even thee.But against the house of my war. These words must, if original, be interpreted like the phrase: man of wars of Tou, 1Ch 18:10, or the similar form in 2Sa 8:10, and would thus denote the hereditary foe of the Egyptian king. But it seems more natural to amend, as in 1 Esdras 1, according to the Crit. Note.And God hath commanded me to make haste. By this God, to whose command he was obedient, Necho means not any Egyptian deity, as the Targ. as well as some recent expositors (appealing to Herodotus, 2:158) think, but, according to 2Ch 35:22, the true supreme God, the acknowledgment of whom in the mouth of Necho cannot surprise us more than 2Ch 36:23 in the edict of Cyrus. The older expositors assume a special divine command (sive per somnium, sive per prophetam aliquem ad ipsum a Juda missum) without sufficient necessity; what Necho had recognised as agreeable to the will of his Egyptian deity, that he transfers at once to a supposed indication of the will of Jehovah.

2Ch 35:22. But disguised himself to fight with him; he gave up his true character, the part of the peaceful, which he was bound to play, and engaged against the will of God in combat with Necho. Perhaps, however (with Berth., Kamph.), the reading of the Sept.: but made himself strong for battle (comp. 2Ch 25:11), is to be preferred. A literal disguise, such as that of Ahab, 2Ch 18:29, should in no case be thought of (against Starke and other ancients, also Neteler). For the well-founded opinion of our author, that the battle of Josiah with Necho was a contravention of the divine will, see Evangelical and Ethical Reflections, No. 1. For the valley of Megiddo, see on 2Ki 23:29 f.

2Ch 35:24. And his servants . . . put him in his second chariot, perhaps a more commodious one, which he had with him besides the war chariot. Not so exact 2Ki 23:30.

2Ch 35:25. And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah. This lamentation of Jeremiah was certainly included in the collection of lamentations () on Josiah mentioned immediately after at the end of the verse, but is no longer found in the present Lamentations of Jeremiah, which must be regarded as a later collection than that here named. Perhaps the passages in Jer 22:10; Jer 22:18, and Zec 12:11 contain allusions to the older laments in memory of Josiah that are here intended; comp. Ngelsbach on Jeremiah, and Khler on Zechariah.

2Ch 35:26. And his kindness; , as in 2Ch 32:32 of Hezekiah, but more exactly defined in our passage by the addition: as it is written in the law of the Lord, corresponding to the characteristic peculiarity of Josiah, as a prince living and reigning in the strictest sense according to law.

6. Jehoahaz: 2Ch 36:1-4. Comp. 2Ki 23:30-35.And the people of the land took Jehoahaz; the same mode of elevation to the throne as in Josiah, 2Ch 33:25, and Uzziah, 2Ch 26:1. In the present case, the will of the people took effect in a usurping way, as the younger brother (Jehoahaz, or properly Shallum; see 1Ch 3:15, and comp. remarks on this passage) was preferred to the older Jehoiakim, perhaps because they had learned to fear the latter on account of the tyrannical spirit early manifested by him (comp. on 2Ch 36:8).

2Ch 36:3. Put him down. For the here probably necessary supplement of after , see Crit. Note. On the terms 100 talents of silver and a talent of gold, which are also found in 2 Kings 23, see Bhr on this passage.

7. Jehoiakim: 2Ch 36:5-8. Comp. 2Ki 23:36 to 2Ki 24:7.Jehoiakim was twenty and five years old when he became king, and so two years older than his brother Shallum-Jehoahaz.Against him came up Nebuchadnezzar; according to the Assyrio-Babylonian monuments, Nabiuv–kudurriusur (comp. the Hebrew form , Jer 49:28 and Ezr 2:1, Kethib; likewise in Alex. Polyhistor, Megasthenes, and Abydenus). The name (according to Schrader, p. 235) is compounded of the idol name Nabiuv or Nabu, the subst. Kudur, crown (), and the imperat. usur or nasar, protect, and means: Nebo, guard the crown (not Nebo guards the crown, as Keil states our passage and at Dan 1:1).And bound him in fetters, as befell Manasseh, and as the Assyrio-Babylonish sovereigns were wont to do to all captive princes; comp. on 2Ch 33:11.To carry him to Babel. That this carrying to Babel was only intended, not executed, almost all recent expositors justly assume; comp. besides Movers (Chron. p. 333), Bertheau, Keil, Neteler on our passage, also Bahr on 2Ki 24:1 ff., Ngelsbach on Jer 22:17 ff., as well as my remarks on Dan 1:2. If the Sept., which presents a text often deviating from the Masoretic text, and amplified with many additions, makes out of to carry him () an actual and carried him (), and also 1 Esdras and the Vulg. translate accordingly (et vinctum catenis duxit Babylonem), this has its ground in the erroneous assumption derived mainly from a onesided view of Dan 1:2, as if already the misfortune of being carried to Babel had befallen Jehoiakim, which, according to the sequel, first overtook his son Jehoiachin, whereas he himself, according to the express statement of 2Ch 36:5, reigned eleven years at Jerusalem (the last of these eleven years, naturally, as the vassal of Nebuchadnezzar). On the date of this first invasion of Nebuchadnezzar, according to Dan 1:1 in the third year of Jehoiakim, about 606 or 605 b.c., comp. our remarks in the Introd. to the book of Daniel, 8 (Bibelw. xvii. 28, 30 ff.). On 2Ch 36:7, comp. Dan 1:2; Ezr 1:7.

2Ch 36:8. And his abominations which he did; not certainly a mere designation of the idolatry of Jehoiakim (as Berth. thinks, who understands of the making of idols), but also of his other evil deedsfor example, his shedding of innocent blood, 2Ki 24:4. The next phrase: and that which was found against him, is a still more general and comprehensive expression for these evil deeds; comp. 2Ch 19:3.

8. Jehoiachin: 2Ch 36:9-10. Comp. the fuller account, 2Ki 24:8-17.Jehoiachin was eight years old. That the number eight here is, at all events, a miswriting for eighteen, see in Crit. Note. Not merely in 2Ki 24:8 is Jehoiachin designated as a youth of eighteen years at his accession, but Eze 19:5-9 makes him appear at least as old, since he is depicted as a young lion, who practised man-stealing, oppressed widows, and laid waste cities, abominations which a boy of eight years could not have committed. Against Bertheaus opinion, that it follows from 2Ki 24:12; 2Ki 24:15, Jer 22:26, where Jehoiachins mother is mentioned along with him, that he was still in his minority, and thus the present statement of the Chronist that he is only eight years old is correct, is the joint mention of the queen-mother in the account of the accession of a new king which is usual in the books of Kings, and occurs, for example, also in Jehoahaz (2Ki 23:31), Jehoiakim (2Ki 23:36), and Zedekiah (2Ki 24:18). For the name Jehoiachin, and its relation to the kindred form Jechoniah or Coniah, comp. on 2Ki 3:16.

2Ch 36:10. And at the turn of the year, in the spring, when men are wont to open the campaign (comp. 2Sa 11:1; 1Ki 20:22).And brought him to Babel (caused him to come) with the goodly vessels, etc. In the mention of these goodly vessels (as in 2Ch 32:27) there is an advance in comparison with some of the vessels, as in 2Ch 36:7. The spoliation under Jechoniah (598 b.c.) was more thorough than under Jehoiakim.And he made Zedekiah his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem. That this designation of Zedekiah, the last king before the exile, as the brother of Jehoiachin is inexact, and, according to 2Ki 24:17, to be explained by fathers brother (uncle,), or even directly changed into this term, is shown by the full list of Josiahs four sons already communicated by the Chronist, 1Ch 3:15 f. Comp. on this passage, especially on 1Ch 3:16, where also mention is made of Mattaniah, the name borne by Zedekiah before he ascended the throne.

9. Zedekiah: 2Ch 36:11-21. Comp. 2Ki 24:18 to 2Ki 25:21, also Jeremiah 52. and 1Es 1:44-55.Zedekiah was twenty-one years old. The younger Zedekiah, brother of Jehoiachin, and nephew of Mattaniah Zedekiah (see 1Ch 3:16), could not have been so old at the time when Jehoiachin, being eighteen years old, was deposed. The eleven years of Zedekiahs reign extend from 598 to 587.

2Ch 36:12. Humbled himself not before Jeremiah the prophet from the mouth of the Lord, who spoke from the mouth of God; comp. 2Ch 35:22; Jer 23:16. Of these prophetic warnings and threatenings addressed by Jeremiah to Zedekiah, Jer 21:4 ff. especially comes into account; comp. also Jer 37:2 ff.

2Ch 36:13. And he also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar. This revolt is also censured by the prophet Ezekiel (Eze 17:13 ff.) as a grievous transgression.And he stiffened his neck (showed himself stiff-necked; comp. 2Ki 17:14; Jer 19:15, etc.) and hardened his heart, made his heart firm. Comp. Deu 2:30, where God is said to harden and make stiffnecked; which does not, however, warrant the conclusion that he must also here be the subject of , as Bertheau thinks; comp., on the contrary, Deu 15:7.

2Ch 36:14. Also all the chiefs of the priests and the people transgressed very much; comp. Eze 8:6 ff., where priests and people are described as sunk in base idolatry under the last kings, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah, while prominence is expressly given to the elders of the people (2Ch 36:11) and the priests (2Ch 36:16) as the chief participators in these abominations. Neither there nor here would a reference of the accusation concerning idolatrous abominations to an earlier time than that of the last kings, namely, to that of Manasseh and Amon, be justified (against Berth.). From the circumstance that in the prophetic discourses of Jeremiah such complaints of idolatry are less vehement under Zedekiah, no inference can be drawn against this view. The phrase: chiefs of the priests, denotes here, as in Ezr 10:5, the presidents of the twenty-four classes, together with the high priests, and therefore the same whom Ezekiel has in view in the twenty-five men in the temple; comp. Hitzig, Gesch. p. 238.

2Ch 36:15. Sent to them by his messengers, rising early and sending, constantly and earnestly; , as in Jer 26:5; Jer 29:19; Jer 35:14 f.Because He had compassion on His people, exercised forbearance toward them, did not wish to deliver them over instantly to condign punishment.

2Ch 36:16. And they mocked, literally, were mocking. (also occurring in Syriac in the sense of subsannantes) is . ., of like import with 30:10. Also the following (Hithp. of ), ape, befool, occurs only here; the equivalent pilel, see in Gen 27:12. On the contents of the present accusation, comp. especially Eze 33:22. If, then, at first only Ezekiel, the prophet of the exiles, is named as mocked by the people, yet it cannot be doubted that mocking and reproach were often cast upon the other prophets, especially Jeremiah, whose bold exhortations to repentance had to encounter so much opposition on the part of the ungodly population under the last kings before the exile. There is, therefore, in the plural messengers of God and prophets no exaggeration, though there may be some rhetorical generalization In the expression.Till there was no healing, till the threatening judgment could no longer be averted. Comp. on the phrase, 2Ch 21:18, 2Ch 30:20; Pro 6:15.

2Ch 36:17. And slew their young men with the sword. To , slew, or caused to slay, also is God the subject, as to the foregoing and following verbs. To bring in Nebuchadnezzar here as the subject is to import an unnecessary harshness of construction (against Keil, Neteler). The temple, where the young men were slain, is designated the house of the sanctuary, because they had profaned it by their idolatry; comp. 2Ch 36:14 b. The Sept. ( ) unnecessarily changes into (2Ch 7:20).The whole He gave into his hand; comp. Jer 27:6; Jer 32:3-4. The neutral , notwithstanding that persons only are previously named, is used, in view of the vessels and treasures about to be mentioned in the following verse; yet it may be rendered them all.

2Ch 36:19. And they burned; comp. Jer 39:8; 2Ki 25:9.And destroyed all its goodly vessels (comp. Isa 64:10, also 2Ch 36:10), literally, to destroy; comp. in 2Ch 12:12.

2Ch 36:20. And he carried away those that remained from the sword, literally, the remnant from the sword. The following words: and they became servants to him and his sons, coincide with the prophecy, Jer 27:7.

2Ch 36:21. To fulfil; , as in 1Ch 29:5; Dan 9:2. The oracle here quoted stands in Jer 25:11 f. (comp. Jer 29:10), where, however, only the seventy years duration of the Babylonish bondage is predicted; but nothing is said of a representation of these seventy years as an expiation or requital for the neglect of the sabbath years. This symbolizing of the seventy years duration of the exile predicted by Jeremiah, contained in the words: until the land enjoyed her sabbaths, is taken from the passage Lev 26:34, where such an expiation of neglected sabbath-year solemnities by an equally long time of desolation was announced to the people; and the added remark: all the days of the desolation she rested (kept a sabbath), is taken word for word from this passage of Leviticus. That there were exactly seventy neglected sabbath-years, and therefore a period of 490 years on account of which the seventy years of exile (with the beginning of the Persian monarchy as terminus ad quem, see 2Ch 36:20) were decreed, our author scarcely assumes. The terminus a quo of his reckoning of the neglected sabbath-years need not be sought exactly 490 years before the beginning of the exile (606 or 605), in the time of the last judges, Eli and Samuel; and we can scarcely suppose the whole period of the kingdom down to the exile to have been marked by the neglect of the sabbath-years, since under such theocratic sovereigns as David, Solomon, and Hezekiah, the observation of the precept in question was scarcely omitted. The whole statement is only approximate (like that in 2Ch 35:18 regarding the passover of Josiah, and its relation to the preceding one); it is in no way fitted to be the basis of any calculations, whether of the number of sabbath-years neglected till the exile, or of the point from which these acts of neglect date.

10. Close; The Return from the Captivity under Cyrus: 2Ch 36:22-23. Comp. Ezr 1:1-3 (also 1Es 2:1-5); and on the coincidence of the beginning of Ezra with the close of Chronicles, Introd. 2 and 3.And in the first year of Cyrus, in the first year of his sovereignty over the former Babylonian-Assyrian monarchy, immediately after the taking of Babylon. For the name Cyrus (. Pers. Quurus), see the expositions on Ezr 1:1 and Isa 44:28.That the word of the Lord might be fulfilled; (from perfici, 2Ch 29:34) thus = of the verse before, as the same prediction of Jeremiah is spoken of there as here.And he made proclamation, literally, let go a cry; comp. 2Ch 30:5.

2Ch 36:23. All the kingdoms of the earth hath the Lord God of heaven given me. In the same way as Necho, 2Ch 35:21, Cyrus knows and confesses himself the instrument or the anointed (Isa 45:1) of the most high, living, and only true God, but designates Him not by the common name God, like the former, but at once as Jehovah, the name of the God of the Jews, whose existence and identity with his own supreme god he at once acknowledges, and therefore as the God of heaven, by the title which his supreme god, Ahuramazda, was wont to receive at the heads of all the royal edicts of the Persian sovereign. Comp. Evangelical and Ethical Reflections, No. 3.Whoso is among you all of his people, the Lord his God (be) with him. That here probably is to be read instead of , see in Crit. Note. On the abrupt termination of the narrative after these words of the royal edict, see Introd. as quoted above.

Evangelical And Ethical Reflections And Homiletic Hints On 2 Chronicles 34-36

1. The last mighty outburst of the theocratic spirit under Josiah, which brought in at the same time the last flourishing epoch of the Jewish kingdom and people, is depicted by our author with comparative fulness in one respect, namely, as regards the great passover after the purging of the temple, which accords with his Levitical leanings, with much greater fulness than by the author of the books of Kings. If he not only celebrates the theocratic purity, exactitude, and legitimacy of this festival, as one the like of which had not been held during the whole period of the kings (from the days of Samuel the prophet, 2Ch 35:18), but praises the pious deeds of Josiah as it is written in the law of the Lord, 2Ch 35:26, designates the single case in which he renounced his character as a prince of peace, walking strictly according to law, as a disguising of himself, as being untrue to himself (2Ch 35:22), and in the very opening of his description gives him a commendation which was given to no other king, namely, that he walked in the ways of David his father, and declined not to the right hand nor to the left (2Ch 34:2), nothing of all this appears to be exaggerated; on the contrary, the whole extremely favourable picture of the prince is correctly conceived and faithfully rendered from the standpoint of our author. In the second book of Kings, while no specially Levitical leaning affects the pragmatism of the narrator, the praise of his walking in the footsteps of David, without declining to the right or left, is set forth with equal prominence; and a special aspect of his theocratic disposition and demeanour, his zeal in the extirpation of idolatry, is there described still more minutely and commended with more fulness (2Ki 23:4-20) than in the account before us, which compresses that which is here referred to, as already sufficiently known, into a brief sketch of a few verses. But as there, so here, it is manifest, amid the glory of his theocratic success, that his strenuous efforts were unsatisfactory, and insufficient to effect a permanent recovery, a true regeneration of the people of God. That, notwithstanding the sincerity of his conversion, the Lord turned not from the great hotness of His anger which was kindled against Judah because of the provocations of Manasseh, but rather the divine sentence of extirpation against the kingdom of Judah remained unrevoked (2Ki 23:26 f.),this our author certainly does not say in the express words of the older parallel text; indeed he appears, according to 2Ch 34:33, to add to the testimony for the sincerity of the kings conversion the assurance of the reality of the conversion of the people, when he writes: All his days they departed not from the Lord God of their fathers. But even this all his days contains a fatal limitation of the praise here bestowed on the endeavours of Josiah; and the lamentable state of idolatrous degeneracy which betrayed itself immediately under his sons (2Ch 36:5 ff.), and which was the fault no less of the maladministration of these last kings than of the apostasy of the chiefs of the priests and the people (2Ch 36:14), sufficiently shows that the adherence of Judah to the law of the Lord during the period from the reform of Josiah to his death was by no means sincere or truly genuine, but rather the complaints uttered in the last days of the kingdom by Jeremiah, of the unfaithfulness, the inner apostasy, and immorality, uncleanness, corruption indeed, of the people (Jeremiah 11, 13, 25, etc.), were fully justified. The insufficiency of mere reforms of the theocratic worship, healing only the surface, not the deep seat of the wound, and accordingly, as all that could serve the king as the standard for his reforming action lay in the ordinances of worship, the inadequacy of the law to the production of true life, that (Rom 8:3), that impotence of the law to secure true freedom, true righteousness, and assured hope of the heavenly inheritance (Gal 3:4; Romans 7),all this came out with astonishing clearness in the history of the reform of Josiah, which was pursued with so much zeal and sudden success, and yet yielded so transient a result. The king hears the words of the law discovered in the temple; the curses which it pronounces on the infidelity of the apostates pierce through his heart; he rends his garments, weeps, and bows down in deep, sincere sorrow before God. He succeeds also in inspiring the rulers of the people, if not with the same spirit of sincere repentance, yet with the fiery zeal that turns to the monuments and instruments of idolatry, and repeats the deeds of an Elijah. And what does he effect by all this? The stern message of Huldah announces this to him: for himself, and for the duration of his reign, he shall enjoy the blessings of walking with God; in peace he shall be gathered to his fathers sepulchres; his eyes shall not see air the misfortune which the Lord is determined to bring upon his kingdom and city; for His wrath is now once for all poured out on this place, and nothing is now able to quench it (2Ch 34:23-28). It is impossible more thoroughly and powerfully to exemplify and exhibit what is the curse which the law works (Gal 3:13) than by these words of Huldah, of which it can scarcely be said whether they are more an exhortation to repentance or a promise of mercy (comp. the in many ways similar address of Azariah ben Oded to King Asa, 2Ch 15:1-7). And not even the salvation and blessing which they promise the king on account of his personal pietythat he shall depart in peace to his fathersis fulfilled in a perfectly satisfactory way. Josiah departs before he has seen all the misfortune that the Lord has threatened to send, but as a brand plucked from the fire! Not in a painless way is he brought home to his fathers, but through conflict, war, and bloodshed, as he himself had willed. The only infidelity of which he made himself guilty in an otherwise irreproachable walk is avenged by a certainly only temporal (slaying only the body, not the soul), but yet terribly sharp and severe punishment; and even thereby is the series of judgments which bring on the end of the Jewish state and kingdom immediately introduced.

2. Josiahs defeat and tragic decease is the beginning of the end. As a fair but rapidly-overspreading evening glow after a dull, rainy day indicates the approaching nightfall, so his reform of worship, as the last powerful movement of the theocratic spirit, almost immediately precedes the sinking of the people of God into the murky night of political annihilation and protracted subjugation. It goes rapidly down, after its better administration of the people and the kingdom had once risen to a certain height; and, like that better emperor of the house of Palologus shortly before the fall of the Byzantine Empire, or like the reign of Louis XVI. as the forerunner of the terror of the French Revolution, had delayed for a short time the execution of the sentence of extirpation, already ripened into an inevitable decree under the last preceding kings. The Chronist indicates this rapid riding of the dead that came on after the decease of Josiah, this entrance of the galloping consumption into the long since internally rotten and putrid state of Judah, by the extreme brevity with which he despatches the last four reigns. In a way more summary still than the author of the books of Kings, who likewise does not dwell very long on them, he depicts the ungodly practice of the first three successors of Josiah, to none of whom he devotes more than four verses, and for none of whom he has any word of praise or acknowledgmentnot even for Jehoahaz, with respect to whom he does not indeed employ the formula used of the following two, in harmony with 2 Kings, and he did that which was evil before the Lord (comp., on the contrary, 2Ki 23:32), but simply on account of his epitomizing habit, as he hastens to the end, not because he cherished any better opinion of him. On Zedekiah he dwells somewhat longer; but not to report more fully the public acts of this unfortunate last of the Davidic kings, nor to depict the terrible catastrophe of wasting and destruction forming the close of his reign with the same fulness as in 2 Kings 25 or Jeremiah 52, but only to exhibit the ungodliness and perversity, carried out to the end, of the course of both king and people, in a pragmatic, reflective way, as the cause of the inevitable judgment (see vers. 1316), and to display the contrast between this course and the incessant but always ineffectual cries of admonition and warning coming from the prophet Jeremiah (vers. 12, 21). His report of the fall of Jerusalem and the beginning of the Babylonish captivity (vers. 1720) is, compared with the fuller accounts of the parallels, in fact, as compendious as possible, but by its very conciseness and brevity produces only the deeper and more powerful impression.

3. The conclusion of his historical account, 2Ch 36:22-23, is also characteristic for the standpoint and method of our author. While the author of the books of Kings (2Ki 25:27-30) closes with a notice of the release of the captive king Jehoiachin in the middle of the exile, by the grace of the Babylonian king Evilmerodach, and thus, in correspondence with his paramount interest in the personal fate of the king, reports a mere prelude of the final release of Judah from the exile, and not the very release itself, our work closes with a notice, though brief, of the cessation of servitude in a foreign land by the gracious edict of Cyrus. In this characteristic trait is exhibited the historian who bears on his priestly heart the fortune of the whole people, not merely of the royal house. As he had set forth immediately before the divinely decreed and prophetically attested necessity of a servitude of seventy years, to compensate for the past neglect of seventy sabbath-years, so he cannot but point, at the close of his work, to the final fulfilment of this prediction. The internal organic connection of this closing notice, by which the fair perspective opens into a new and more fruitful beginning of the history of the covenant people after the exile, with that which was recorded immediately before concerning the last kings before the exile and their downfall, is as clear as day, and precludes any such opinion as that the contents of 2Ch 36:22-23 stood originally only at the beginning of Ezra, and was afterwards Added at the close of our work by a later hand (comp. Introd. 3, p. 7). But these closing Verses betray their originality and integral connection with the whole preceding work not only by the manifest reference to predictions of Jeremiah and Moses quoted in ver. 21, but also by this, that they add to that earlier testimony from the mouth of Necho to the fate of Israel-Judah as divinely decreed and carried on (2Ch 35:21) by the counsels of the supreme living God, the God of heaven (2Ch 36:22), a second such testimony on the part of a holder of the heathen world-power; as if it were intended to prove to superfluity that Gods judicially strict but also gracious rule over His deeply guilty and corrupt people might be known in its reality, and according to its salutary effect on the people, even on the part of the heathen executors of His judgments. Necho and Cyrus appearing as witnesses of the divine truth, as involuntary and more or less unconscious heathen prophetic announcers of the severity and the goodness of God in reference to the destiny of His people, as prophetic dispensers of blessing to Israel,as Balaam formerly,the one as a foe, but the other as a friend and protector, yea, as the type of its future Messiah (comp. Isa 45:1);in this light the close of our history presents the relations of the heathen world-powers to the people of God when entering the period of its development after the exile. His representation in this respect corresponds with the mode of thought of the prophets before the exile, especially Jeremiah, to whom the world-power external to Israel had ceased to appear as something absolutely opposed to God, so that they frequently warn their people against foolish opposition to it, and inculcate willing submission to its authority (comp. Bibelw. XV. p. X. ff., and especially E. Vilmar, Der Prophet Jeremia, in the monthly journal Bew, des Glaubens, Bd. v. 1869, p. 19 ff.); and on the other hand, with the view of the world taken by the prophetic men of God of and after the exile, as Daniel, Zechariah, etc., in accordance with which the dependence of the destiny of Israel on such of the world-powers as were occasional executors of the judicial and beneficent providence of God is presupposed as a thing understood of itself, a certain mission-call of Israel in reference to the heathen nations around is preached, and the continuance of this state to the entrance of the Messianic era is announced (comp. Bibelw. Bd. xvii. pp. 3 f., 37 f., 41; also Hengstenb. Gesch. des Reiches Gottes, ii. 2, p. 277 ff.). It is of no small consequence that the Old Testament Chronicles, the most comprehensive historical work of sacred literature, closes with such universalistic views of Israels call of salvation to all nations, and of the future union of all in faith in Jehovah as the one and only true God. Its end thus turns to its beginning. Setting out from the first Adam, the author concludes his work with the consoling expectation of the future and not far distant, but rather, in the reconstruction of the theocracy promoted by the edict of Cyrus, already guaranteed and necessarily involved restitution of the blessed kingdom of the second Adam, the Redeemer of the world.

Footnotes:

[1] is probably an error of transcription for

[2]Instead of the Keri , that appears formed after Eze 26:9, or Neh 4:7, but yields not suitable sense, we should point , in ruinis eorum (comp. Psa 109:10). The Kethib: , he chose (examined, searched) their houses, is scarcely warranted by the usage of speech.

[3]The Kethib is undoubtedly to be preferred to the Keri , and they returned.

[4]For the Syr. presents , which seems to be the original reading according to 2Ki 22:12.

[5]For is to be read, according to the Sept: , and whom the king had commanded.,

[6] Kethib , have burned offerings; Piel, as 2Ki 22:17 : have burned incense.

[7] Kethib , perhaps only a slip of the pen for (Keri), the teaching, instructing; some mss. give this directly as the Kethib; some have , which is perhaps only another way of miswriting the original .

[8]The Kethib (imp. Niph. make you ready) is undoubtedly to be preferred to the Keri , prepare ye (comp. 2Ch 35:6).

[9]The difficult phrase is not translated by the Sept.; the Vulg. gives the very free rendering: sed contra aliam pugno domum. The original text is perhaps still to be discovered from 1Es 1:25 : , namely, (comp. also Josephus, Antiq. x. 5, 1). So at least O. F. Fritzsche (on 1 Esdras), Berth., and Kamph.

[10]Instead of , disfigured, unrobed himself, the Sept. read () (comp. 2Ch 25:11); the Vulg. (prparavit) and 1 Esdras () appear only to have run into the indefinite.

[11]Instead of , and removed, put him down, the Sept. read () , agreeing with 2Ki 23:33. But the Vulg., Syr., and 1 Esdras confirm the Masoretic reading The last (1Es 1:33) seems to have read , with a supplement which Berth., Kamp., and others pronounce necessary before .

[12]The Sept., Vulg., and 1 Esdras change into the past ; comp. Exeg. Expl.

[13] , though the Sept. and Vulg. give the number 8, is certainly an error of the pen for ; comp 2Ki 24:8, also some Hebr. manuscripts, the Syr. and Arab. in our passage.

[14]For the parallels Ezr 1:3 and 1Es 2:5 present , which is perhaps the original form.

[15]Not Harham, as Luther and after him also Bhr (changing the into ) write

[16]Recently G. Maspero (De Carchemis oppidi situ et historia antiquissima, Lut. Par. 1872) has attempted to identify Carchemish with the town Mabug = k or Hierapolis, north-east of Aleppo, following the lead of Ephraem on 2Ki 23:30.

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

CONTENTS

This chapter concludes the history of Josiah. He keeps a solemn pass over. He goes to battle at Magiddo, and is slain. Is deeply lamented at his funeral by his people.

2Ch 35:1

The passover which Josiah observed is mentioned in the parallel history, 2Ki 23 ; but not so particularly recorded in all the circumstances of it. As this solemn service is by the Holy Ghost himself, through the apostle Paul’s ministry, explained to have been typical of Jesus, perhaps it would not be unprofitable if we were to mark some of the more prominent features with which that service was observed in the Jewish church in those days of Josiah, by which we shall learn how highly the Lord prized it as an institution to lead the soul in type and shadow to the contemplation, by faith, of him who was the substance of the whole, even the Lord Jesus Christ.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

2Ch 35:1 , 2Ch 35:18

“Josiah [ 2Ki 23:21-22 ] kept a passover unto the Lord in Jerusalem: and they killed the passover on the fourteenth day of the first month. [Not at an irregular time like Hezekiah (chap. 2Ch 30:2 ), but on the day appointed by the law ( Exo 12:6 )].

“And there was no passover like to that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet; neither did all the kings of Israel keep such a passover as Josiah kept, and the priests, and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel that were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.” [The chronicler agrees with the writer of Kings that there had been no such passover since the days of the last judge, Samuel. Its superiority to other passovers seems to have consisted (1) in the multitudes that attended it; and (2) in the completeness with which all the directions of the law were observed in its celebration. Comp. Neh 8:17 . The Speaker’s Commentary. ]

A Solemn Passover

HOW one religious exercise gathers around itself the memory of all others! one day may be the keystone in a bridge of days. There was no such passover, no such holy excitement, divine and ennobling enthusiasm, no such conscious unity of heart and consent of will and sacrifice of soul, no such supremacy of joy. What does history say about this matter? The testimony of history is that the divinest enjoyments are associated with religion. Analyse the emotion as we may, it is in the excitement of true religious feeling that the highest, deepest, truest joys of men have ever been found. How then can such joy, even religious gladness, be enhanced? Only by an action from within itself. We can add nothing to religious excitement that is intelligent and noble. But we can develop such excitement from passion to passion, from enlargement to enlargement, until the whole heaven seems to be filled with its glory, and all the heart to be inspired by its music. We need occasional days in religious history. We cannot have a continual revival, for then the unusual would become the familiar. We cannot carry miracles beyond a certain number, because they would cease to be miracles and fall into commonplaces. Wealth itself cannot, for effective purposes, be carried beyond a given quantity until it becomes poverty, and no man is so poor as the poor millionaire. We need occasional revival, excitement, enthusiasm of sensation, leading to completeness of sacrifice. We could not hear some preachers always, because we cannot live on their level, or abide in the tabernacle of their imagining and their prayer. It is well to hear them now and again, they create epochs in our memories. They make us forget the past except for purposes of comparison. We cannot always live in the highest prayer; for days together we must hardly pray at all, except in our readiness to pray; we cannot enter into the passion of intercession; we sink into the repose of gracious willingness to see the Lord when it pleases him to reveal himself; but we are not to consider that such repose is indolence or spiritual desuetude, involving the criminality of conscious neglect.

Herein is a law of nature, an operation of the soul familiar to us in the higher education, and in the higher excitements of commercial, political, and literary life. But the occasional passover, how memorable, how tender, how good to recall! What an inspiration to revive in the soul. Pity the man whose calendar is all written alike, who has no red-letter days of the heart, no memory of prayer that thrills him with unutterable joy. You remember the early struggle with sin and the devil, and how by the grace of God you were enabled to fling the monster to the ground and stand upon him in sign of victory? Never let that writing in the record fade out. You remember the first glimpse of God in prayer? You prayed on with difficulty, words seemed to come hesitantly to your use, as if they were partly afraid of you: but you persevered, and from sentence you passed to sentence, until the whole soul glowed with a new delight; and for the moment for men can only be conscious of God for one moment for the moment heaven was opened, and you by the cross of Christ had right of entry. Never forget that day. When temptation thickens upon you, and the devil’s hand is on your throat, remember that blessed passover, and the memory of it shall be a protection, a benediction, and an inspiration. Comfort one another with these words.

Prayer

Almighty God, it is our joy to know that all things are in thy hand, and not in ours. The Lord reigneth, and no other god thy throne is in the heavens, and thy dominion ruleth over all. The very hairs of our head are all numbered, our steps are known; our downsitting and our uprising, our outgoing and our incoming, are all observed. There is not a word upon our tongue, there is not a thought in our heart, but, lo, O Lord, it is known altogether, for all things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. But thine is a kind eye, a tender look, a heart of pity; truly thy mercy endureth for ever. When our father’s pity fails, and there is no more love in our mother’s heart, thy mercy, so abundant, seems but to begin to be, for there is no measure thereof, and no line can be laid upon it, and no man hath found the shore of that great sea. We ourselves know these things, for we live in thy mercy. It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed. If thy pity were less, our life would be shorter it is because thy compassions fail not that our days run on; we live and move and have our being in thine unwasting love. We bless thee that we know these things: once we did not know them; we were gods unto ourselves, and our hearts turned in upon their own resources and found a sanctuary in their own ignorance and feebleness. But now our house is built upon the rock, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. We have found the Living One, the strong Lord, the God of hosts, the Creator of the ends of the earth. In thine omnipotence we find our defence, in thy wisdom we find our judgment behold thou art unto us as an infinite pavilion, giving us security by night and day; and thou art a great sun, in whose rays we find our morning and our summer. For all these convictions, hopes, delights, and unspeakable satisfactions we magnify the Lord. We are no more kept away from him, we have been taken up into the Lord’s chariot, and neither hill nor sea shall keep us from him. We bless thee for all the mercies of the week seven days of compassion, pity, care, watchfulness, pardon, love. We would gather up all our memories into one adoring psalm and thankful hymn, and with one voice and one heart praise the Lord for his wonderful works. We come before thee to find rest, for we are weary: we return to replenish our strength, for our power has gone out of us. O Living Fountain, Eternal Spring, River that is full of water, to thee we come, and our thirst is swallowed up as a spark in the sea. We believe that thou dost give unto thy people peace, rest, joy, renewal of strength: thou dost recall their tenderest memories, thou dost cause their recollection to become as prophecies of the future: from all their history thou art drawing new revelations of thine own power, wisdom, and graciousness, and because our yesterdays have glowed with so warm a heat, and have been brilliant with so intense a light, we will not fear the coming morrow we put ourselves into thy hands, we will go whither thou dost lead. Jesus, be our Guide. Help us to believe that all things work together for good to them that love thee. Enable us to believe that everything in the universe is in thy care. Thou numberest the drops of the dew of the morning, and there is no cloud that falleth in tender showers upon the earth that is not reckoned up in thy host of riches. All things are thine, and we are thy creatures, made in thine image, capable of ascertaining and obeying thy will. Help us to make it our only delight to find out the law and the will of heaven, and to do this with a glad heart and an industrious hand. We have many wants, but thou knowest every interest which we represent: we have much sin, but there is much blood: great guilt, but there is a greater cross. Where sin abounded grace hath much more abounded it is then to that abounding and redundant grace that we now come, that our sin, poverty, weakness, may be destroyed and forgotten because of the infinite love of God. Take our life into thy charge shape it into thine own forms, inspire it with thine own meaning; lead it to the accomplishment of thy purpose, up the steep hill, down in the dark and tortuous vale, through the Jordan, over the Red Sea, through the wilderness anywhere, everywhere; choose the way and keep our choice back from us only let us follow thee willingly, joyously, with indestructible hopefulness of spirit, knowing that nothing can happen that is not caught within the sweep of thy great plan, that all things fall into the scheme of thy wisdom, are overruled, directed, and sanctified by an immutable and invincible power. Regard thy servants who try to pray whose prayer trembles upon their lips as if unable to get away to heaven a poor, broken-winged bird that can hardly flutter. O help their infirmities, and be the minister of their prayers. Help them in their confessions and lamentations, in their desire for wider knowledge, for clearer insight into truth give them all the blessings needed to redeem, purify, enlarge, and glorify the life upon which they have entered. Let there be great answering of prayer to-day; yea, let the answers of the Lord overflow the house then shall we truly know that we have been praying in the name of the Lamb of God, Saviour of the world, Priest of the universe, our Lord Christ Jesus. Amen.

Meddling With God

2Ch 35:21

JOSIAH was an excellent king of Judah. There had been none like him for many a long day. He was but an infant when he came unto the throne, that is to say, he was eight years old. The written law had been lost a very long time; Josiah had nothing by way of example to draw upon that could lift him up towards the true notion of worship and service to the real God. Being so young, what could he do? He found something in his own heart, as we should humanly say, that started him on the right direction. He began in a very wonderful way to do very excellent things. He seemed to be a kind of instinctive or intuitional reformer, for the law was lost, and the priests and prophets seemed to be dumb, and the poor young king wrought away with such light as he had, and in the course of his working he did what we may do if we try he found the law. We should find more if we sought for more: he that doeth the will shall know the doctrine: he who uses the little candle that is at his disposal shall be led out into solar light twilight to begin with, but growing unceasingly and unchangeably up into the midday blaze of glory.

Josiah then found the law, had it read in his hearing, learned from it that every king of Judah and of Israel had been covenanted to keep that law with his own hand, and he felt that all the judgments prophesied against the house of Israel and of Judah would fall upon his own head, because he had not obeyed the letter of the word of the Lord. What was to be done? It was speedily discovered that the wardrobe-keeper had a wife in whom was the spirit of prophecy, and so to Huldah they went, and she sent comfortable messages to the young king. She said: Thus saith the Lord to the man who hath acted so, Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast feared the Lord, none of these judgments shall fall upon thee, but thou shalt be gathered to thy fathers in peace, and after that there shall come a black day upon the black people. So Josiah took heart again, and it came into his mind to revive the old ceremonies and ritual of Israel, and to do wonderful things in the way of the passover, and we read that there was no passover like to that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet.

Now Josiah will go down to his fathers in peace if he behave himself. He reigned one and thirty years, and in the last month of that last year he may be tripped up. We are not safe while we are on the water, though there may be but eighteen inches between the ship and the land; there is room enough in eighteen inches to sink down. Let us get on to the land before we sing be on the rock before we take the trumpet and put it to our lips: risk nothing of the detail of life an iota may ruin us, the miss of the smallest writing in all the minutest detail may lead to loss, to death, to hell. Man is not saved by lumps of good behaviour, by breadths of possible morality: he that is unfaithful in the least will be unfaithful in the greatest. Even yet Josiah may be smitten from heaven after his one and thirty years of very excellent service so many people get wrong just at the last, so many people fall into the water just as they are stepping on land. What I say unto one, I say unto all Watch.

The miscarriage in the case of Josiah came about in this way. There was a king of Egypt called Pharaoh Necho, an old foe of the Assyrian empire. He came up to fight against Charchemish, by Euphrates, and Josiah at his own instigation went out against Necho king of Egypt. But Necho king of Egypt sent ambassadors to him, saying, “What have I to do with thee, thou king of Judah? I come not against thee this day, but against the house wherewith I have war: for God commanded me to make haste: forbear thee from meddling with God, who is with me, that he destroy thee not.” A noble message the man who can speak so calmly, solemnly, religiously, will fight well. Have no faith in the blustering assailant dread the man who challenges thee when on his knees.

Josiah would not turn his face from Necho, but disguised himself that he might fight with him; he hearkened not unto the words of Necho from the mouth of God, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo. And the archers shot at King Josiah, and the king said to his servants, “Have me away, for I am sore wounded.” So he was put into his second chariot, and carried home. And he died, and was buried in one of the sepulchres of his fathers he who might have been gathered to his fathers quietly, in the very peace, in the infinite sweetness of the benediction of God, was shot like a dog.

Does any man pride himself upon a quarter of a century’s good behaviour? If there is a day yet left to him, that is time enough to sponge out all the beauty of the past and to find his way into perdition. The question most deeply interesting is, What can we learn from the words of the king of Egypt that will help us to live a true and useful life?

Do we not learn from Necho unfamiliar name, unaccustomed minister that our life is not a series of unrelated accidents, but that it is part of a divine and immutable scheme? The king of Egypt said in effect to Josiah: “This is no doing of mine; I am secondary in the matter; I am not following the lure of my own fancy; I am impelled by God; I am here as his servant treat me as such, or God will cause his judgment to fall upon thee.” This is the only solid ground to occupy, if life is to be more than a continual exasperation and a bitter disappointment. This is the great doctrine of Providence which Jesus Christ never ceased to teach, and never ceased to live. When he began his life, what did he say? O to catch the first words from those eloquent lips! what was the first note in the anthem of that tragic life? “Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” What was the last note in that same anthem? Will he be able to make his way round, so as to finish where he began? Hear him on the cross: “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.” Father at first,. Father at last, and throughout all the teaching the same word glowed like a sun that kept all the inferior stars in their places.

Have you been centring in yourself, beginning with your own little individuality, carving out a small system of astronomy with your own shadow as a centre? Then wonder not that your faces are wrinkled, and that there is a murmur in your speech, a cloud in your sky, and that you are lost amid all the little, petty, fretful, vexatious details of life. You are wrong. We are invited in Holy Scripture to believe that we are not our own creators; that we live because God wills it; that the very hairs of our head are all numbered; that our steps are of the Lord’s ordering, and that our downsitting and our uprising are noted in heaven; that our outgoing is observed, and our returning regarded in the heavenly books, and at the last our deeds and words will be judged by the wise God, whose strength and wisdom are the stay of the universe. If you accept that faith you cannot be troubled; if you have any other creed, the weather, the climate, will have you up and down according to the fickleness of its own movement.

The doctrine of the Bible is a doctrine of a providential plan a divine scheme. Every page is rich with the promises of this doctrine, not a line is out of chord with its solemn music. Yea, the cross itself is part of the infinite plan foreseen from eternity in every shadow of its gloom and every pang of its agony. So, then, we believe that God is over all, that the earth is in the hollow of his hand, and that nothing happens, even down to the falling out of its nest of the youngest sparrow in the early summer, without his notice. A grand conception, if it be nothing more a marvellous poem if only a flash of fancy an infinite rock if a divine revelation. And yet there are people round about us who pray to God but don’t trust him. What wonder that their prayers, like birds with broken wings, die on the threshold of the closet in which they were conceived?

The great doctrine of divine providence is like the sun, distant, inaccessible; but the exemplification of that doctrine in personal and practical life is like the light which falls out of the sun, which makes morning upon our window and the abundant summer round about our houses. Let us therefore, turning from the great general doctrine which underlies the message which the king of Egypt addressed to Josiah, look at some of the minute and special colourings of this doctrine which come to us through its personal trials and realisations.

I. In the first place the king of Egypt considered that the doctrine of a providential plan was not inconsistent with difficulty, contention, loss, and suffering on the part of man. Does the king of Egypt say: “This is Providence, brother king Josiah, sitting on my throne, my head upon a pillow of down, my feet resting on velvet soft as moss, my whole house glowing with every light and every beauty”? No such foolish message does he send to the king of Judah. Necho has come up from his own land, come up to suffer, come up to fight, come up to shed blood: yet he says, “God sent me.” It is so seldom we think God send us to church on a wet Sunday: we think he is so fearful of our taking cold that surely he would never be so unreasonable as to ask us to go out in wet weather. In the old, old times, when heroes shook the earth with their majestic step, they were not afraid of insects and wet days we are.

“…. ‘t is true: ‘t is true, ‘t is pity; And pity ‘t is, ‘t is true.”

It was no holiday dream that had touched Necho’s ambition or vanity: it was a service of severe discipline, anxious preparation, daily watching, mortal strife, and yet he saw God over it all, watching, directing, controlling. There are some who believe in providence when they are in a nice large boat and have the best seat, and when the water is like molten silver, and the banks are near and green, and the sky far off and blue, with many a keen light lodging in its fleecy clouds. Then they say, “Ah, after all he must be blind who does not see God in this.” How sad to hear such talk! But to hear a poor woman a widow who has buried the one boy in the family that could work for its sustenance to hear her say, looking at all the little girls who are nearly helpless, taking up the corner of her apron to wipe off the tear from her poor eyes “God’s will be done: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord” that should convert us, bring us home, make us pray.

O full summer Christian, what art thou doing to bring lustre upon thy faith, to make the world wonder if it does not worship, stand aghast and amazed if it do not join thy psalm of resignation? If Christians carried out their creed, we should soon, by the blessing of God, convert the heathen.

II. In the next place the king of Egypt acknowledged and proclaimed the tender and ever-comforting doctrine of a special, personal, detailed Providence. Did he say to Josiah, “The Lord reigneth”? No. Did he refer Josiah to great abstract principles? He did not. What said Necho man of the strange mouth and the unfamiliar voice? He said, “God commanded me, God is with me.” There is a deism which says that the whole is cared for, but the part must take care of itself. The king of Egypt reversed the doctrine, saw God caring for the part, and reasoned that therefore he cared for the whole. This is the very teaching of Christ: Christ has some strange ministers, some irregular expositors, some preachers who do not come through the orthodox gate, and therefore much to be suspected by people who are cradled in orthodoxy and will be buried in it. Jesus Christ and Necho king of Egypt were at one in this high, sweet note. Jesus said, “Wherefore,” after having looked at bird and lily, and small things accessible to the people generally, “Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?” If we believed that, the remainder of our lives would be happy.

God will take care of thee, O man, if thou dost live in him and for him, and dost love him. He will not let thy grey hairs go down with sorrow to the grave, and he will find the key of that shut door, and he will search for a rod the shadow of which shall make the Red Sea sever in two parts, and thou shalt go through on dry land. Have faith in God cast thyself upon him and wait patiently his will and the revelation of his purpose, and if thou must perish, perish with thy belief upon thy lips. No man was ever wounded to death by that dart.

God cares for the individual, for the unit. Do you care for your family as an abstraction or as a reality? Do you care for your children as a whole or do you care for them individually? If you lump them, speak of them as a poetical abstraction, who would wish to be under your patronage? But if you pick out the eldest, and the youngest, and the three or four or five between, and care for each of them as if that were the only child, then it would be well to be one of the number. And so you do. Very well: “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him ” give the Holy Ghost to them that seek him give direction to every one of his children? Why, if one of them went astray, what would he do? He would leave the ninety and nine and would go after that which was gone astray. The God that gave that representation of himself is all the God we want. The tenderness of that suggestion shall stand for learning, for criticism, for history, for logic it shall be all in all.

By constantly desiring to know and to do the will of God, we seem to link our small life to the great chariot of God’s providence; but when we take our life into our own keeping, we detach ourselves from that chariot and grope like cripples in the dark. By our faith we draw succour from the very root of God’s own being, but by our unbelief and self-sufficiency we lose the sustenance, and perish because we seek not to live on God’s word but on our own. To-day there are some people who imagine that they can get along pretty well without God: who are the people? Debtors to his mercy. Who are the people that have wounded you most keenly? The people to whom you have been most kind. Nobody else can thrust the knife so far into the heart. Barbarian and Scythian can give you an ugly thrust that shall tear the skin, but man of your own household, child of your own bones, friend that has sucked the blood of your love he can thrust the blade up to the hilt.

When a man has been born in a Christian land, has been reared in a Christian atmosphere, and has had all the advantages of a Christian example and Christian training, it is impossible for that man to know exactly what he would have been and what he would have done but for those facts. Standing in a railway station, we once saw something which graphically illustrates this point. There came a carriage, all by itself no steam engine, just a carriage and nothing more. And the carriage said, “There is a notion abroad, an old-fashioned but mistaken and sometimes mischievous notion, that it is needful to have a steam-engine in order to draw a carriage. Gentlemen,” continued the carriage, looking to the few persons on the platform, “if you seek an argument to disprove that fallacy, circumspice , look around.” And we all looked around, and we all saw it, and we all said, “Carriage, this is very wonderful: you brought yourself into this station apparently, now take yourself out of it.” And the carriage is standing there still, and may stand there till it rots it cannot turn a wheel. It was a detached carriage; the great engine that brought it along with mighty sweep went on, and this was left behind to spend its momentum, and it just came into the station so nicely and thought it had brought itself in. And there be many human detached carriages. They have had fathers, mothers, ministers, schools, lectures, books; they have been brought up under Christian culture, taken so far along the line: by some means or other become detached asked to be detached, and in spending their dying momentum they think they are using an original force. Be it mine to be drawn on by the great God: I would live and move and have my being in God; my smallest affairs I would spread before him; I would ask him to my bed-chamber that he may give me sleep; I would see him at my table as the Giver and Sanctifier of my daily bread. He shall keep my door lest an enemy enter or a friend go out when I pass through the valley of the shadow of death I will ask no other comfort than his rod and staff.

“Forbear thee from meddling with God.” It is very notable that we should have this great saying from the mouth of a king of Egypt. This would have come well from the lips of Jeremiah, who prophesied in the days of Josiah king of Judah. It would have befitted the burning lips of Ezekiel; it would have fallen well from the eloquent mouth of Isaiah. But we get this doctrine from Necho king of Egypt. This is indeed water in an unexpected place behold, a fair flower in a wide, bleak desert: hear the music of heaven played upon a strange instrument.

Do you think it cannot be true because Necho the heathenish king of Egypt said that? Then you know not that it is part of the divine plan to bring strange prophets into the ministry of the word. Were there not ten lepers cleansed? Yes. How many returned to give glory to God? One. Who was he? A stranger. Did not one man stoop to pity the wounded traveller on the road, to pour in wine and oil, to set him on his beast, to bring him to an inn, and to take care of him? Yes. Who was that? A Samaritan. Was there not a woman who surprised the Son of God himself by the abundance and vividness of her faith did she not seem to turn back the going of the Eternal? She did. Who was she? A woman, a Syro-Phnician, no well-dressed Jewess who was caught within the cordon of the old covenants, and seemed to have an hereditary right to the divine ministrations and privileges. Was there not a man who once said, preaching the gospel before the time, “It is expedient that one man die for the people”? Yes. Who was it Peter? No. John? No. Who? Caiaphas. Certainly, it is God’s way. If we hold our peace he will make the stones cry out. If we English Christians, stall-fed if we hold our peace, he will make the stones cry out. If we who swallow three sermons a week, and would kill the finest preacher that ever breathed by drawing from him and never giving anything in return, if we hold our peace, He will make the stones cry out. If we who know about Nazareth, and Bethlehem, and Capernaum, and Jerusalem, and Golgotha, and Bethany, if we who have seen the blood and felt the hot healing drops fall upon our guilt if we are dumb, the heathen shall take our places and we shall be shut out.

Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker

XVIII

THE REIGNS OF MANASSEH, AMON, AND JOSIAH

2Ki 21:1-23 -30; 2Ch 33:1-35:27

We take up in this chapter the reigns of Manasseh, Amon, and Josiah. We saw at the close of the last chapter the complete vindication of Isaiah as a prophet, the miraculous deliverance of Judah and Jerusalem from the hand of the Assyrians by the destruction of the army, and the apparent triumph of the principles of right and of good in the kingdom of Judah, the continued prosperity of the reign of Hezekiah, and the paramount influence of the prophet Isaiah.

One would naturally expect a period of great religious revival and national prosperity to follow such a good king as Hezekiah; that he would leave an heir worthy of his name, also that Judah would now enter upon a long career of prosperity and ascendancy among the nations of the world. But we must not deceive ourselves as to the condition of the people in Judah and Jerusalem. We read in Isaiah a description of the people: “In that day did the Lord God of Hosts, call to weeping and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth: and, behold, joy and gladness, slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine: Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we may die.” There is still an utter absence of faith in Jehovah: “And it was revealed in mine ears by the Lord of hosts. Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die, said the Lord God of Israel.” We see by this that the masses of the people were still practically incorrigible in their religious deterioration. “Wherefore, the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men, therefore behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people.” These passages give a little glimpse into the inner life of the people. But the magnificent work of Isaiah and the goodness of Hezekiah have had one splendid result, viz: Judah and Jerusalem have been saved from the yoke of the Assyrians. They are now free and for many years they pay no tribute to that foreign power.

Manasseh was twelve years old when he came to the throne and his was the longest reign fifty and five years of any king of Judah. Uzziah reigned fifty-two years altogether. We would expect a good boy to be raised up in such a home as that of Hezekiah, but instead, he was just the opposite of his father in almost every respect, which shows that, perhaps, even in the palace of Jerusalem there was a taint of Baal worship and there were those who adhered to it and taught it to the young prince. The description of Manasseh’s reign is terrible. The idolatrous party attains the ascendancy almost as soon as he comes to the throne, and Manasseh begins at once to undo all the work that had been done by Isaiah and Hezekiah. There is a great revival of idolatry. We are reminded of Rev 20:1-10 , the first resurrection representing a great revival of righteousness throughout the world as if there were life from the dead, and the second resurrection the loosing of Satan ushering in a revival of evil. This is on a small scale the same thing. Notice what Manasseh did: “For he built again the high places which Hezekiah destroyed; and he reared up altars for Baal, and made an Asherah” an image representing the female deity, the worship of which was really licentiousness. He worshiped all the hosts of heaven, something apparently new among those kings. Probably this kind of worship was imported from Assyria or from Babylon, quite probably from Babylon. We recall that Ahaz imported something from Damarcus, a new style of altar. Now Manasseh imports the new system of worship of the hosts of heaven from Assyria or Babylon. He built altars in the house of Jehovah, equaling Ahaz in his desecration of that sacred place. He built altars for all the hosts of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord, “And he made his son to pass through the fire, and practiced augury, and used enchantments, and dealt with them that had familiar spirits, and with wizards” went after the fortunetellers, which is about as sure a sign of the deterioration of character as we find. It is a great offense against Almighty God to go to these people to find out his will, when he has given right ways of finding it out. “And he set the graven image of Asherah, that he made, in the house of which the Lord said to David and to Solomon his son. In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, will I put my name forever.” Thus we see the idol worship re-established in Judah with its center in the Temple, and the result is: “And Manasseh made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err, so that they did evil more than did the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the children of Israel.”

Next we notice the change of rulers in Assyria. Sennacherib was slain by his two sons in an insurrection that was intended to place a new monarch on the throne of Assyria. They escaped, and after five months of insurrection and revolt and disturbance Esarhaddon, another son, took his place upon the throne. We are told in one of the lists of Esarhaddon that Manasseh king of Judah paid him tribute. We are not sure just when Manasseh began to pay tribute, but in one of his western expeditions Esarhaddon must have come close to Judah and Jerusalem, and Manasseh in order to keep his throne, began to pay him regular tribute. How long he did this we are not told, but we know that Esarhaddon conquered Egypt with all the western states of Asia and made them pay tribute, and we know also that when his son succeeded him upon the throne, that was a signal for a general revolt among those nations, and it seems almost certain that Manasseh was one of those who revolted and refused to pay tribute. As a consequence Manasseh was taken captive by the king of Assyria and led away in chains to Babylon. During all this time there were some servants of God, prophets, warning him: “And the Lord spake by his servants the prophets, saying, Because Manasseh king of Judah hath done these abominations, and hath done wickedly above all that the Amorites did, which were before him and hath made Judah also to sin with his idols: therefore thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, Behold I bring such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, and whosoever hears of it, both his ears shall tingle. And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab: and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. And I will cast off the remnant of mine inheritance, and deliver them into the hand of their enemies.” That was to be the result of Manasseh’s idolatry and wicked reign. The doom is settled, the fate of Jerusalem is inevitable. The seeds of idolatry have been sown in the people’s hearts, and so grown in their hearts and lives that they are incorrigible and salvation is impossible. It is possible for a nation to go so far into sin that God must withdraw his mercy from it; it is also possible for an individual to go so far that even the Spirit of God cannot stem the tide of evil within him.

As a result of this rebellion Manasseh is taken captive by the king of Assyria, and as a result of his captivity and imprisonment Manasseh comes to himself and repents. When he was in distress “He sought the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers and he prayed unto him.” In the Apocrypha we have that prayer. Here is a part of it: “O Lord Almighty, that art in heaven, thou God of our fathers, of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and of their righteous seed. . . . Thou, O Lord, according to thy great goodness hast promised repentance and forgiveness to them that have sinned against thee: and of thine infinite mercies hast appointed repentance unto sinners, that they may be saved. Thou therefore, O Lord, thou art the God of the just, hast not appointed repentance to the just, to Abraham, and Jacob, which have not sinned against thee. But thou hast appointed repentance unto me that am a sinner: for I have sinned above the number of the sands of the sea. My transgressions are multiplied, O Lord: my transgressions are multiplied and I am not worthy to behold and see the height of heaven for the multitude of iniquities. . . . I have provoked thy wrath and done that which is evil in thy sight. I did not thy will neither kept I thy commandments. . . . I bow the knee of mine heart, beseeching thee of grace; I have sinned, O Lord, I have sinned, and I acknowledge mine iniquities: but, I humbly beseech thee, forgive me, O Lord, forgive me, and destroy me not with mine iniquities.” That prayer may or may not be genuine, but it certainly is a penitent one. It is not an inspired prayer. Manasseh was restored to his kingdom on his pledge of fealty and payment of tribute to the Assyrian monarch, for under no other conditions would an Assyrian king release him and restore him to his kingdom.

Now he seeks to undo in the rest of his life all the evil that he had done. He builds the outer wall of the city of David, which had doubtless been thrown down or injured by the Assyrians. He compassed about Ophel, which is the southeastern division of the city of Jerusalem, put captains in all the fenced cities of Judah, “And he took away the strange gods, and the idol out of the house of the Lord, and all the altars that he had built in the mount of the house of the Lord, and in Jerusalem, and cast them out of the city. And he built up the altar of the Lord, and offered thereon sacrifices of peace offerings and of thanksgiving, and commanded Judah to serve the Lord, the God of Israel.” But it was too late. Manasseh died, having to some extent redeemed the evil of his early reign, but was not buried in the sepulchers of the kings. During that terrible revival of idolatry and of evil, there was a severe persecution against all the righteous people, especially the prophets, so severe that the blood of the prophets and righteous people was spilled like water in Jerusalem. During that period, tradition says, Isaiah was sawn asunder. It is a tradition which goes far back, and is probably true. Thus during that terrible persecution in the reign of Manasseh, Isaiah met his death.

Now we take up the reign of Amon, son of Manasseh. He reigned but two years and walked in the footsteps of his father Manasseh, kept up the idolatrous worship, promulgated heathenism, learned no lessons from his father’s sins, repentance, remorse, and reformation, and at the end of two years by means of a palace insurrection not an insurrection among the people, but a palace insurrection he was put to death. Why this insurrection came, and why they sought to put Amon to death we do not know. Certainly it could not have been the work of the prophetic class, who were true to Jehovah. That class of men do not murder, and yet what class of people were there who desired the death of Amon since he favored idolatry? We have so little light that we cannot settle the question. The people at once rose up and the murderers of the king were put to death, and Josiah, only eight years old) the son of Amon was put on the throne.

So now we come to the reign of Josiah, the best of all the kings, a man against whom nothing can be said; we have a description of his character: “And he did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, and walked in all the ways of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left.

And like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him.” But in spite of the fact that there was such a king upon the throne, as nearly perfect in character as any king ever was, the sin of Judah still remained, too deep dyed and too great to be forgiven by the Lord, though God defers the evil day till Josiah has passed from the earth. Josiah began in the eighth year of his reign to make reformations in his kingdom, and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from all its high places, and the image of Asherah, and the graven images and the molten images, and brake down the altars of Baalim in his presence, and even took the bones of the priests that were buried there, and burned them upon the altars, desecrating them so that they would not use them any more. He carried on a drastic reformation as early as he was able to do so, beginning at sixteen years of age, and when twenty, redoubling his vigor. The next work was to repair the Temple. When twenty-six years of age he gave orders for it to be repaired, and the man that carried on the reformation and renovation of the Temple was Hilkiah of whom we shall speak later. Behind Josiah, working with and among the people, is another great prophet, Jeremiah. No doubt he was one of the powers behind the throne, one of the great forces which inspired Josiah to carry on his work, for in this period Jeremiah was in the first part of his career. So Josiah, helped by Hilkiah and Jeremiah, repaired the Temple, built it, rededicated it, sacrificed and kept the Passover, etc.

While that was going on one of the principal events of his reign occurred. The Temple had been desecrated for nearly forty years. It had been broken down, and now while they were repairing it, clearing away the rubbish from the altars, perhaps into the holy of holies, and to the ark of the covenant, Hilkiah the high priest found a book. It was the book of the Law given by the hand of Moses. Hilkiah at once spoke to Shaphan the scribe and handed the book to him, and Shaphan took it before the king. It is certain that the book discovered there contained the book of Deuteronomy. The book of Deuteronomy (Deuteronomy 27-28) contains the curses that would come upon the nation (Israel) if it forsook the law of God. I have no doubt that this section was read before king Josiah, and no monarch could but tremble and shudder if he heard those words of Moses. Josiah rent his clothes, and he sent for the prophetess, Huldah. Josiah remembered that the kingdom had committed all the sins Moses here mentioned. He knew that the evils threatened must inevitably come, and that meant his kingdom and his throne would go down in utter and overwhelming shame.

They went to the prophetess, Huldah, and she said, “These things are true; they shall come to pass,” but adds this: “Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, Tell ye the man that sent you unto me, Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the curses that are written in the book which they have read before the king of Judah; because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore is my wrath poured out upon this place, and it shall not be quenched. But unto the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, thus shall ye say to him, Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel: as touching the words which thou hast heard, because thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God, when thou heardest his word against this place and against the inhabitants thereof, and hast humbled thyself before me, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before me, I also have heard thee, saith the Lord. Behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace, neither shall thine eyes see all the evil that I will bring upon this place.”

Thus Josiah trembling beneath the terrible curse that must inevitably come, had this assurance, which leaves some hope and courage in his heart, that it would not come in his day, but that he should see peace. Then what does Josiah do? The next thing is to gather together all the elders of all Judah and Jerusalem and have the book read before them. There were probably many idolatrous men among them, but when summoned thus by the king they came and on hearing the book of the law read with curses there pronounced, they concurred with Josiah and the nation thus represented, renewed its covenant with God. The old covenant that had been broken was now renewed and they vowed that they would keep his commandments and testimonies and statutes with all their heart and soul. This was an epoch in the life of Josiah and of the nation and in the life of Jeremiah also, for we find in Jer 11 that it had a great effect upon his preaching. He had been prophesying several years before this, and in chapter II we see that his preaching took a new turn: “Thus saith the Lord, hear ye the words of his covenant, and speak unto the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.”

This furnished Jeremiah with a text, and he goes forth preaching with marvelous power on the basis of this great covenant renewed because of the finding of the Law. As soon as the Law was found Josiah carried on his reformation even more drastically than before. The work had never been completed. Now Josiah carries it to completion. Notice what he does: brings forth out of the Temple of the Lord all the vessels that were made for the worship of Baal and for the Asherah and all the hosts of heaven; put down all the idolatrous priests; brought out the image of Asherah from the Temple; broke down the houses of the Sodomites where they carried on their abominations under the name of religion; degraded the priests that bad been officiating at the high places; defiled Topheth, the place where they had been causing their sons to pass through the fire to the god, Molech; took away the horses that the king of Judah had made and had given to the sun, images of horses representing a part of the idolatrous worship of some of their deities; removed all the altars and destroyed the high places and desecrated them by burning the bones of the priests thereon. It was as drastic and as complete as could be made.

But it is only outward. Josiah didn’t turn the people’s hearts, and Jeremiah who had been prophesying all this time at last comes to the conclusion the first man in the history of revelation that “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it?” And the only way that Israel could be saved was to be saved through a new covenant which would write the laws of God upon their hearts and put them in their minds.

In connection with his great reformation Josiah went to the Northern Kingdom and defiled the altar of Bethel in fulfilment of the prophecy of the old man of God who had come up from Judah and warned Jeroboam against his departure from the worship of Jehovah in going after the calves of Dan and Bethel. But he spared the old prophet’s monument. Now he kept the Passover as it had not been kept for many years; he gathered together all the people of Israel far and near, even from the north. Notice in 2Ch 35:7 that he “gave to the children of the people, of the flock, lambs and kids, all of them for the passover.” To the poor people who could not afford it, Josiah gave offerings for the passover, “and the princes gave freewill offerings.” The Passover was kept, as it had not been kept since the days of Samuel.

Now we would expect this to result in a revival, a long period of blessing and of the true worship of God, but it was only outward; it was not deep in heart; it was not lasting; Josiah did his noblest, and his name is one of the most blessed in all the annals of kings. He tried to prevent the awful doom of Judah, but “the times were out of joint,” and the sin of Judah was so deep and terrible that nothing could check it. The tears of Jeremiah, the most pathetic of all the figures in prophetic history, after forty years of effort, failed to do it.

We now come to the death of Josiah. It is quite probable that Josiah had to pay tribute to the kingdom of Assyria during all his reign. Manasseh did, and it is quite probable that Josiah felt himself under obligation to the king of Assyria, and this fact may account for the strange action which led to his death. During this time Egypt had risen to power; a very able king was on the throne, Pharaoh-necoh, and the old time rivalry between Egypt and Assyria had revived. Egypt wanted all the world and Assyria wanted all the land next to hers, and those two great nations, one in the Nile Valley and the other in the Mesopotamian Valley, were always trying to conquer each other. Now Pharaoh-necho was coming up the coast of Palestine to meet the Assyrians. It seems that Josiah felt himself duty bound to help Assyria and check Pharaoh’s progress, for he marched out against him to fight a little kingdom, Judah, little more than the city of Jerusalem itself against the king of Egypt. The king of Egypt warned him: “Now, don’t you meddle with me. I come not against thee this day, but against the house wherewith I have war; and God hath commanded me to make haste: forbear thee from meddling with God, who is with me: that he destroy thee not.” For some reason Josiah determined to fight him and check him on his way. They met in the valley of Esdraelon, then called the valley of Megiddo; the battle was joined; Josiah, though he disguised himself, was wounded by the archers and turned about to flee to Jerusalem and died. He was cut off after a reign of not more than thirty years, in the middle of one of the most glorious and useful reigns that Judah ever witnessed. There was great grief. All Jerusalem and Judah mourned for Josiah. Jeremiah lamented sorely, and we can understand why. Jeremiah wept because he could see plainly the hope of the kingdom was gone, and the doom now was swift and sure. “All the singing men and singing women speak of Josiah in their lamentations until this day,” meaning, of course, when this was written. “And they made them an ordinance in Israel: and, behold, they are written in the lamentations.” The book of Lamentations written by Jeremiah, is not referred to here; it must have been a collection of songs of that nature written and preserved. We do not possess them now, as they have been lost. It seemed that the light of Judah had gone out, and the only thing to be done was to wait patiently until the end came, and it came before very long.

QUESTIONS

1. Give a general statement of the condition of Judah at the end of Hezekiah’s reign.

2. What was the result of the work of Isaiah and Hezekiah?

3. Who succeeded Hezekiah, what was his mother’s name and what its meaning?

4. What was his character and work?

5. What change in the throne of Assyria during his reign?

6. What was Jehovah’s message to Judah through the prophets?

7. Give an account of Manasseh’s further crimes, imprisonment, and

8. What was the spiritual condition of the people at this time?

9. What of his repentance and where do we find his prayer recorded?

10. Who succeeded Manasseh and what was his character and death?

11. Who succeeded Amon, and what his character, how old was he when he began to reign and when was he converted?

12. What of his early reformation?

13. What book found m repairing the Temple and what effect of the discovery on Josiah?

14. What great prophet begins his work in this period and what other contemporaneous with him?

15. What prophetess appears here and what were her prophecies?

16. Give an account of the making of the covenant.

17. What was Josiah’s further reformation?

18. Why did he send the ashes of the images of Baal to Bethel?

19. What did he do with the powder of Asherah?

20. What was the meaning of “horses given to the sun”?

21. What prophecy fulfilled in Josiah’s acts at Bethel?

22. Who was the prophet “that came out of Samaria”?

23. Give an account of Josiah’s passover.

24. What circumstances of Josiah’s death?

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

2Ch 35:1 Moreover Josiah kept a passover unto the LORD in Jerusalem: and they killed the passover on the fourteenth [day] of the first month.

Ver. 1. Moreover, Josiah kept a passover. ] See on 2Ki 23:21 .

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

2 Chronicles Chapter 35

He too keeps a passover (2Ch 35 ). He kept it, as we are told, on the fourteenth day of the first month, for now things are more in order as far as this was concerned. The preparations were made more orderly than in the hurried preparations of king Hezekiah, which they were obliged to keep in the second month. This chapter gives us a full account of this striking passover. There was no passover, we are told, like to that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet. Of Hezekiah’s it was said there had been none such since the days of Solomon; but of Josiah’s it is said, “since the days of Samuel.” We have to go up to earlier times to find with what to compare it. The reformation, therefore, was remarkably complete in appearance. Alas! what was beneath the surface was corrupt and vile – not in Josiah, nor in certain godly ones that gathered in sympathy round the king, but in the mass of the people – and Josiah himself shows, after this, the usual failure of man, for he goes out unbidden against the king of Egypt when he had come against Charchemish. And, though he is warned by Pharaoh that he does not wish to fight with him, Josiah would not turn back. “He disguised himself that he might fight with him, and hearkened not unto the words of Necho from the mouth of God, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo. And the archers shot at king Josiah; and the king said to his servants, Have me away, for I am sore wounded. 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.” Yet not they only; there was one heart more true than any – Jeremiah. Jeremiah knew from the Lord that there was buried the last worthy representative of the house of David. All that followed was only a shame and a scandal. It was but the filling up of the measure of their sins that they might he carried away into Babylon. Josiah was taken from the evil to come. “Jeremiah lamented for Josiah; and all the singing men and the singing women spake of Josiah in their lamentations to this day, and made them an ordinance in Israel; and behold they are written in the Lamentations.”

Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)

Josiah. This passover kept in the eighteenth year of his reign (2Ki 23:21-23).

kept a passover. One of the ten observances recorded. See note on Exo 12:28.

fourteenth day. In this respect it was unlike Hezekiah’s. Compare 2Ch 30:2, 2Ch 30:3; 2Ki 23:22, 2Ki 23:23.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

Chapter 35

The death of Josiah is declared in the latter part of chapter 35. And what had happened is that the king of Egypt had come into the land and was fighting up in the area of Megiddo and Josiah went up against him. And the king said, “Hey, God has sent me to be an instrument here of judgment. Now just don’t meddle around. Go on back to Jerusalem and dwell there and don’t meddle around, because I haven’t come to fight you and I have no grudge against you. But I’ve been sent by God to destroy this place.” And so Josiah, rather than listening to the advice of Necho, the pharaoh from Egypt, he decided that he would get into battle. And he disguised himself, got into the fight, and one of the archers hit him. And he changed chariots and headed back to Jerusalem. But he died of the wounds that were afflicted. So it would seem that perhaps a premature death from meddling around in a place where he shouldn’t be. And because God had sent the pharaoh up there for this particular mission.

So Jerusalem lamented for Josiah. And Jeremiah also wrote a lamentation for him. Not the lamentation that we have in the Bible but in the… there is a reference, perhaps to Josiah, in the book of Lamentations. But of course, verse 2Ch 35:20 of chapter 4, “The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord, was taken in their pits, of whom we said, ‘Under his shadow shall we live among the heathen'” ( Lam 4:20 ). But a little vague.

“

Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary

2Ch 35:1-6

Introduction

JOSIAH GIVES ORDER FOR OBSERVANCE OF THE PASSOVER ACCORDING TO THE WORD OF JEHOVAH BY MOSES

This passover was utterly unlike the one kept in the reign of Hezekiah, in a number of important particulars. (1) It was kept at the prescribed time. (2) The ceremonial cleanness of participants was observed. (3) And all the particulars of the Mosaic instructions were strictly observed. (4) Although the singers were mentioned, the instruments of music were not mentioned, and apparently not used. These important distinctions fully justify the statement in 2Ch 35:18 that, “From the days of Samuel the prophet, none of the kings of Israel keep such a passover as Josiah kept.”

2Ch 35:1-6

“And Josiah kept a passover unto Jehovah in Jerusalem: and they killed the passover on the fourteenth day of the first month. And he set the priests in their offices, and encouraged them to the service of the house of Jehovah. And he said unto the Levites that taught all Israel, that were holy unto Jehovah, Put the holy ark in the house which Solomon the son of David king of Israel did build; there shall no more be a burden upon your shoulders. Now serve Jehovah your God, and his people Israel; and prepare yourselves after your fathers’ houses by your courses, according to the writing of David king of Israel, and according to the writing of Solomon his son. And stand in the holy place according to the divisions of the fathers’ houses of your brethren the children of the people, and let there be for each a portion of a fathers’ house of the Levites. And kill the passover, and sanctify yourselves, and prepare for your brethren, according to the word of Jehovah by Moses.”

E.M. Zerr:

2Ch 35:1. This passover was the feast instituted by Moses on the night the children of Israel prepared to leave Egypt. It was so named because the Lord made certain exceptions to a great destruction of life among the families. All the firstborn of the Egyptians, and any others who did not observe this feast, were to be visited with the death of the oldest member of the family. If a family of the Israelites carried out the requirements of this ordinance, which included the sprinkling of blood over the doors of the homes, the death angel would pass over that house. It was then established as one of the set feasts of the nation, to be observed on the 14th day of the 1st month of each year. (Exodus 12.)

2Ch 35:2. Set the priests in their charges indicates that Josiah required some system to be observed. The priests were assigned their several duties, and were encouraged to carry on the divine service that had been given into their hands.

2Ch 35:3. The Levites (of whom were the priests), were to teach the people. Read Lev 10:11; Deu 17:9; Mal 2:7 . Put the holy ark in the house implies that it was then outside its own proper room. 2Ch 5:7 states that it was placed in there by Solomon, and there is no evidence that it had been taken out. Moffatt’s translation of this passage shows a different construction of the language, which agrees with all the known facts and I shall quote it. “Since the sacred ark,” said he, “was placed inside the temple built by Solomon the son of David, king of Israel, and you have no longer to carry it on your shoulders, see to the worship of the Eternal your God, and of his people Israel.”

2Ch 35:4. In the general disorder that had befallen the nation, the orders or courses that David had instituted for the priesthood had shared in the confusion. Josiah instructed them to adjust themselves to the proper places again.

2Ch 35:5. This verse is practically a repetition of the preceding one. But the importance of proper order was so great that the king did not wish to take any chances on the men being short about their performances. Stand is from an original word that has a very wide extent of applications; all of them, however, are in just two major classes.; either figurative or literal. The priests were to continue in the holy place that had been appointed for them in the law. One family was not to encroach upon the work or place of another, but was to observe the order given to their forefathers.

2Ch 35:6. After the instructions of the several preceding verses, the people were told in direct terms to kill the passover. It reminds us of the introductory instructions that Moses gave the people on the night of the first passover. (Exodus 12.) Sanctify. In every passage of the Old Testament this is from the same Hebrew word, which is QADASH. Strong’s definition is, “a primitive root; to be (causatively make, pronounce or observe as) clean (ceremonially or morally)”. A man was not permitted to partake of the passover if he were unclean in any sense, hence the full definition would apply in the command that Josiah gave the people. One illustration of ceremonial uncleanness would be where a man had touched a dead person. Actual uncleanness requires no illustration to make it understood by the reader. Prepare your brethren was addressed to these Levites, who will be in charge of the feast. They were to transmit the order of the king to their brethren of the nation, and see that they removed any defect, either ceremonial or actual, that would hinder them from partaking of the feast. Word of the Lord by the hand of Moses. This is another instance that shows the writings of Moses to have been the Lord’s word. It is a solemn rebuke for the sabbatarians who presume to distinguish between the two as to authority of the word.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

This chapter gives us the story of the great Passover, in which, following in the steps of Hezekiah, after the cleansing of the land and the restoration of the people Josiah thus restored the great feast of the Exodus.

In the account of the joy following the Passover of Hezekiah, comparison is made with the times of Solomon. Under Josiah this goes further back than Solomon, and declares that none like it was kept by any king.

Following the story of his death we read of the lamentation of the people. Josiah had evidently made himself greatly beloved by them, and the probability is that the reforms he instituted were based on that love rather than on the people’s real return to devotion to God. Hence the transitory nature of the reformation, which was so soon followed by the final stages in the corruption even in Judah.

Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible

a Memorable Passover

2Ch 35:1-15

This Passover was memorable, not only for the imposing grandeur of the ceremonial, and the concourse of worshipers, but because of the strict adherence, even in minute particulars, to the prescriptions of the Law. Josiah was the soul and life of the movement. First the Levites were addressed, and reminded that as they were not required to carry the Ark from place to place, as in the days of the Exodus, they might fitly undertake other work and assist the priests, who were likely to be overwhelmed by the demands of the approaching celebration. Let us not cling to stereotyped conditions, but adapt ourselves cheerfully to new demands. One of their first duties was to bring the Ark out of the side chamber to which neglect had relegated it, and re-establish it in the Most Holy Place.

Vast preparations were made for the poor and those unable to provide for themselves. Munificent offerings were made by the king and the princes. True love to God is always accompanied by unselfish care for others. If you really love God, you will desire to promote the knowledge of, and participation in, His love. Never forget to leave a place for worship and praise!

Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

CHAPTER 35 The Keeping of the Passover and Josiahs Death

1. The Passover kept (2Ch 35:1-19)

2. The death of Josiah (2Ch 35:20-27)

In the eighteenth year of his reign, Josiah, like his great-grandfather Hezekiah, kept the Passover. No doubt the reading of the law had made this feast once more an urgent necessity. Moreover they had made a solemn covenant to walk after the LORD, to keep His commandments, His testimonies and His statutes, and to perform the words of the covenant written in the book. Therefore in the appointed time, on the fourteenth day of the first month, they kept the memorial feast, the last before the house of Judah was carried into captivity. (Hezekiahs Passover was kept in the second month. See 2Ch 30:2-3.) And all was done by the godly king according to the word of the LORD–as it is written in the book of Moses. It was obedience to the Word. And such an obedience is needed in the days of decline in the professing Church. It is this which pleases God. The Passover kept was even greater than that of Hezekiah (verse 18). All Judah and Israel (those who were still left) kept the great feast.

The death of this excellent man and king of Judah has its lessons. The king of Egypt, who was Necho, also called Pharaoh-Necho, came up to fight against Charchemish by Euphrates. Josiah went out against him. But did Josiah ask counsel of the LORD? Was the good man guided by the LORD when he went out against Necho, who did not intend to attack Judah? The evidence is conclusive that Josiah acted of himself and was not directed by the LORD. The Egyptian king rebuked him. Necho had not come against Judah. God had commanded him to make haste and fight against Assyria. Josiah should have known what the prophets had announced about Assyria and its overthrow. Thus Necho sent his ambassadors to give a warning. Necho was on a mission which he knew was of God. Josiah opposed him. Forbear thee from meddling with God, who is with me, that He destroy thee not. But he gave no heed. The king who had cleansed Jerusalem and Judah, who had repaired the temple, obeyed the word and kept the Passover, neglected to ask the LORD in this matter and then continued in the wrong course. Perhaps pride played here also an important part. It would have greatly humbled him if he had desisted from his uncalled for warfare. How all this has been repeated and is being repeated in the individual experience of Christians needs hardly to be pointed out. Many who were much used like Josiah, stumbled and fell, when they ceased to depend on the Lord and acted in self will. Like Ahab (2Ch 18:29) he disguised himself. The arrow found him as it was with Ahab. He was pierced in the valley of Megiddo; he died in Jerusalem. There was great lamentation. The lamentations of Jeremiah are not the lamentations as we possess them in the book which bears that name. Jeremiah, however, refers to him (Jer 22:10-13; Lam 4:20). In Zec 12:10-14 the lamentation in the valley of Meggido is mentioned. It is connected there prophetically with another lamentation for another son of David, who was pierced. And He, our Lord, was pierced and wounded for our transgression. When He comes again to fill the throne of His father David, the people shall mourn for Him, but in a different way as they mourned for Josiah. Josiah was the last good king of the house of David who reigned. But there is another one coming who shall rule in righteousness (Isa 32:1).

Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)

first month

i.e. April.

Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes

Josiah: The whole solemnity was performed with great exactness according to the law, and upon that account there was none like it since Samuel’s time; for even in Hezekiah’s passover there were several irregularities. Bp. Patrick observes, that in this also it exceeded the other passovers which preceding things had kept, that though Josiah was by no means so rich as David, or Solomon, or Jehoshaphat, yet he furnished the congregation with beasts for sacrifice, both paschal and eucharistical, at his own proper cost and charge, which was more than any king ever did before. 2Ch 30:1-27, 2Ki 23:21-23

the fourteenth: Exo 12:6, Num 9:3, Deu 16:1-8, Ezr 6:19, Eze 45:21, Josiah’s solemnization of the passover, which is merely alluded to at 2Ki 23:21, is very particularly related her, while the destruction of idolatry is largely related in the Kings, and here only touched upon. The feasts of the Lord God, appointed by the ceremonial law, were very numerous; but the passover was the chief. It was the first which was solemnized in the night wherein Israel came out of Egypt, and ushered in those which were afterwards instituted, and it was the last great feast which was held in the night wherein Christ was betrayed, before the vail of the temple was rent in twain. Be means of this feast, both Josiah and Hezekiah revived religion in their day.

Reciprocal: Num 9:2 – his appointed Jer 3:10 – Judah Mat 1:10 – Josias

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

2Ch 35:3. Put the holy ark in the house. Perhaps in idolatrous times the ark had been removed: and as the copy of the law written by the hand of Moses had been concealed, we need wonder the less. However, Tremelius reads this text, Put the holy things before the ark.

2Ch 35:21. I come not against thee. Pharaoh dissuaded Josiah from fighting, by alleging the command of his god to make haste against the Assyrians. Meanwhile the prophet Jeremiah had warned Josiah not to fight, and avowed that he spake from the mouth of the Lord. The four next short- reigning kings of Judah seemed to reign only to allow Jerusalem to fill up the measure of her sins.

REFLECTIONS.

Josiah was pious, firm, and exceedingly vigorous in his efforts to reform the land; and they were the last of political efforts. So great was his zeal that he almost dragged the degenerate priests and levites to their sacred duties. In this view he shines more illustrious than the other good kings of Judah, because the age in which he lived was more depraved. The efforts he made to revive the long neglected passover do great honour both to his head and his heart; and the multitude who came to partake of his bounty, and the bounty of the princes, was more than had attended since the days of Samuel. But what avails this vast parade, while the heart is attached to idols and to wickedness? In vain did the altars smoke, in vain did the music sound, and the scribes read. It was a feigned devotion. Jer 7:10. The very priests who sprinkled the blood were some of them ready to lend a hand to erect idols, yea, perhaps a Venus in the house of God; and the very princes who now gave cattle were in their hearts resolved to erect altars to every god: 2Ch 36:14. Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem. Hypocrisy is in thy heart, and the blood of the prophets is unwashed from thy streets. For this there is now no atonement but by the blood of thy children. Egypt and Babylon shall make thy country the theatre of war, and thou shalt be swallowed up in the vortex of divine visitation. And all the surrounding nations, marvelling at the peculiar severities of thy fall, shall be told that it was because thou didst forsake the God of thy fathers.And here is a mirror for the christian church. We, as well as Judah, say Lord, Lord; but in works we deny him. We are supine and indifferent, like those levites about his service. We make light of the sacred ministry; we see nations punished and plundered in war, as Judah saw Samaria fall; and yet we take no warning. What then will be the issue.

This good king, having attained his thirty ninth year among a faithless people; and perhaps his early piety somewhat cooled by the character of the age, found himself drawn into a snare. Pharaoh-necho entered his country to fight the Babylonians on the Euphrates. If Josiah had let him pass, he must have broken his league with Nebuchadnezzar; therefore he resolved to give him battle; and alas, for Israel, he fell near Megiddo. But he fell bravely: he fell, not looking on while others fought, but disguised as commander of a chariot, he fell worthy of David, and worthy of his name in personal conflict. God took him from the evil to come. People of Israel, weep for Josiah. You have lost the best of kings; and the greater is your calamity, because you shall never be counted worthy of so great a loss again. Weep, people of Israel; and let Jeremiah suggest the language of your tears. He consulted not the prophet, but the prophet shall weep at once both for him, and for you. See Zec 12:11, where the prophet figures the mourning of future times by this mourning in Hadadrimmon.

Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

2Ch 34:1 to 2Ch 35:27. The Reign of Josiah.See notes on 2 Kings 22, 2Ki 23:1-30, which form the basis of the Chroniclers account; but he has made many alterations in accordance with his general tendencies. One important difference between the two accounts is that, according to the Chronicler, Josiahs Reformation takes place before the finding of the book of the Law, an obviously illogical sequence; but the Chronicler desires to emphasize Josiahs piety even in his tender years. The description of the celebration of the Passover (2Ch 35:1-19) is far fuller than that given in 2Ki 23:21-23.

2Ch 36:1-4. The Reign of Jehoahaz (see notes on 2Ki 23:30-34).

2Ch 36:5-8. The Reign of Jehoiakim (see notes on 2Ki 23:36 f.).

2Ch 36:9 f. The Reign of Jehoiachin (see notes on 2Ki 24:8-17).

2Ch 36:11-21. The Reign of Zedekiah; the Destruction of Jerusalem (see notes on 2Ki 24:18-20; 2Ki 25:1-7; 2Ki 25:13-15).

2Ch 36:22 f. The Decree of Cyrus (see Ezr 1:1-3).

(See also Supplement)

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

AN EXCEPTIONAL PASSOVER

(vv.1-19)

So near to the end of the history of the kings of Israel it is beautiful to see a Passover being kept, of which we are told, “There had been no Passover kept in Israel like that since the days of Samuel the prophet, and none of the kings of Israel had kept such a Passover as Josiah kept, with the priests and the Levites, all Judah and Israel who were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem” (v.18). Does this not tell US that it is possible, even in our own day of the ruin and failure of the Church publicly, to give some true honour to the name of the Lord Jesus such as will delight the heart of God? For the Passover speaks of the thankful worship of the Lord Jesus as the One who sacrificed Himself for us on the cross of Calvary. While the people may fail miserably, yet He remains faithful and true.

Hezekiah had kept a remarkable Passover (ch.30), but it was one month later than the prescribed time, though none like it had been kept since the days of Solomon (ch.30:36). However, there had been no Passover like Josiah’s since before any king had ever reigned. Josiah made sure that all the details of order were observed in this Passover. Today this would remind us that for centuries the simple service of breaking of bread in remembrance of the Lord Jesus was ignored, and as we near His coming He would surely desire us to give Him honour in this simple way.

The Passover that Josiah kept was the most correct in all its details of any that were kept in the time of the Kings, because Josiah was careful to see that it corresponded to the Word of God. Josiah was the last of the kings in Israel or Judah who truly honoured God, and this should be an encouragement for believers today to get back to the truth of scripture at a time when God’s rights have been cast aside by the professing church. The following outline will be helpful in our studying this passage:

1. The Time (v.1) that which scripture had prescribed.

2. The Centre (v.3) The Ark, typical of Christ, to whom the people were to gather.

3. The Preparation (v.4) Every house finding its place according to the instructions of David and Solomon.

4. The Order (v.5) Priests and Levites standing in their place to kill the Passover according to the Word of the Lord by Moses.

5. The Provision (vv.7-9) Josiah, the princes and chief of the Levites willingly giving to the people the necessary offerings for the Passover

6. The Death (v.11) The Passover killed, the blood sprinkled, with burnt offerings accompanying the sacrifice.

7. The Roasting (v.13) Speaking of the severe judgment of the Lord Jesus, exposed directly to the flame of God’s wrath.

8. The Singing (v.15) Speaking of the unspeakable joy resulting from the value of Christ’s sacrifice.

9. The Guarding (v.15) Porters (or gatekeepers) were necessary at every gate, allowing in what should be in and keeping out all that should be out.

Thus, the Passover was kept on the 14th day of the first month, with the, priests set in their proper places and encouraged to serve the Lord. The Levites were told to put the ark of the covenant in the temple Solomon had built, for this was the gathering centre of Israel (v.3), just as Christ is the gathering centre for the Church of God. “For where two or three are gathered together unto My name, there am I in the midst of them” (Mat 18:20).

The Levites were told also to prepare themselves by the houses of their fathers (v.4). Their fathers were Kohath, Gershon and Merari, whose distinct services are recorded in Num 4:2; Num 4:24; Num 4:42. Thus, having prepared themselves, they were to “stand in the holy place according to the divisions of their families” (v.5), maintaining an order according to God when they killed the Passover according to God’s word by Moses (v.6).

Before the actual killing of the Passover, however, the provision for it is seen in verses 7-10. Josiah’s gift for this far outnumbered the gifts of the princes and of the chief of the Levites. For the king, is typical of the Lord Jesus whose giving far exceeds the willing-heartedness of the most devoted servants. Josiah gave 30,000 lambs and kids and 3,000 bulls (v.7). The rulers gave 2,600 small animals (sheep, etc.) and 300 oxen (v.8). The chief of the Levites gave 5,000 small animals and 500 oxen. This was more than the rulers gave, but only one-sixth of Josiah’s gift.

Verse 12 records the killing of the Passover, the priests sprinkling the blood and the Levites skinning the animals. The burnt offerings were however removed from the Passover sacrifice, which was a peace offering of which the offerers were to share. But the burnt offerings were evidently gifts given to the people to offer not to eat, but to offer all in fire to the Lord, signifying the glory that God receives from the value of the sacrifice of Christ.

After being killed, the Passover offering was roasted as prescribed in Exo 12:8. Other offerings were made at the same time, some boiled in pots or cauldrons, some baked in pans, those too being peace offerings (see Lev 7:11-16). These were divided among the people, which shows they were peace offerings.

The Levites afterward prepared portions for themselves and for the priests, all of whom had been unselfishly occupied with caring for the people (v.14). How lovely an example for the Church of God! Those prominent are to remember they are servants to the need of others, not masters who demand first consideration.

The singers are seen in their place, for the occasion was one of real joy in praising the Lord (v.15). The death of the animals is of course symbolic of the death of the Lord Jesus, and this surely affects believers with deep sorrow, yet the results of that matchless death are so great and marvellous that we should be filled with unspeakable joy in the very face of the greatest sorrow. Is this not true when we remember the Lord in the breaking of bread?

Thus, at this late date in the history of the Kings, the Lord moved His servant to keep the Passover in its prescribed order, and the seven days’ Feast of Unleavened Bread. This took place in the 18th year of his reign (v.19), his age only 26 at the time. Who could despise his youth?

JOSIAH’S UNTIMELY DEATH

(vv.20-27)

“After all this” after Josiah’s faithful devotion to the Lord in banishing idolatry out of Judah, and after his keeping so outstanding a Passover to the Lord, this favoured king made a serious blunder in not consulting the Lord before going out to war. The king of Egypt came to the Euphrates River to engage Carchemish (a Hittite king) in battle, and Josiah intervened to fight against Egypt (v.20). Why he did this we are not told. Could it have been that since be had been preserved by God from harm in warfare that he thought he could settle the disputes of others by the force of arms? In this case the king of Egypt was wiser than Josiah, telling him that he was meddling with God whom the king of Egypt considered was on his side (v.21).

Surely Josiah ought to have considered this advice and to have at least sought God’s guidance himself before proceeding any farther. But he had committed himself, and refused to change. In fact, he disguised himself (always a bad act for any believer), and like Ahab, who disguised himself to go to battle (2Ch 18:29). he suffered similar consequences, though he was a believer, as Ahab was not.

Verse 22 tells us that Josiah “did not heed the words of Necho from the mouth of God.” God may speak to believers through any agency, and we should be awake to discern whether it may be God speaking even through an unbeliever. At least, Necho’s words ought to have made Josiah pause to consider that he ought to consider God’s will in this matter.

Josiah received no benefit from his going into battle. We are not even told whether others were killed in the battle, but only that Josiah was wounded by an arrow and ordered his servants to take him away (v.23). He was taken by his second chariot to Jerusalem, and died, then was buried in one of the graves of the kings. How unspeakably sad was this unnecessary death of a king who been so faithful to the Lord for the years before!

Jeremiah and all the people were deeply affected by Josiah’s death and lamented greatly. Well they might, for his reign had been like a shining light in the midst of Israel’s darkness, which darkness descended again rapidly after his death. In fact, the lamentations of the singing men and women became a regular memorial of Josiah (v.25).

Verse 26 tells us that the rest of Josiah’s acts and his goodness in observing the law of the Lord are matters recorded in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.

Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible

35:1 Moreover Josiah kept a passover unto the LORD in Jerusalem: and they killed the {a} passover on the fourteenth [day] of the first month.

(a) The scripture in various places calls the lamb the “passover” even though it is only the sign of the passover for in all sacraments the signs have the names of the things signified.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

2. Josiah’s Passover 35:1-19

As Hezekiah had done, Josiah led his people in observing the Passover, that greatest feast of Israel that commemorated her redemption from Egyptian slavery. Josiah’s Passover was even greater than Hezekiah’s, which Hezekiah had put together quickly (2Ch 35:18; cf. 2Ch 29:36). Josiah offered almost twice as many sacrifices as Hezekiah did (2Ch 30:24), but far fewer than Solomon did at the temple dedication (2Ch 7:5). The writer’s attention to detail reflects his intense interest in Josiah’s concern that the people worship Yahweh properly. [Note: See Lyle Eslinger, "Josiah and the Torah Book: Comparison of 2 Kings 22:1-23:28 and 2 Chronicles 34:1-35:19," Hebrew Annual Review 10 (1986):37-62.] All that the writer recorded between 2Ch 34:8 and 2Ch 35:19 happened when Josiah was 26 years old. The phrase "in the eighteenth year of his reign" forms an inclusio for the section.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

THE LAST KINGS OF JUDAH

2Ch 34:1-33; 2Ch 35:1-27; 2Ch 36:1-23

WHATEVER influence Manassehs 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 Manassehs 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 Manassehs 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 Manassehs 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 fathers 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 Amons 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, Josiahs 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 chroniclers 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 Naphtali, 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 chroniclers 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. Manassehs 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 Solomons 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 Jeroboams 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.

Next, the king and his nobles provided beasts of various kinds for the sacrifices and the Passover meal. Josiahs 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 Hezekiahs 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 Josiahs 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.

Josiahs 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 chroniclers 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. Pharaohs 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 Jehoiachins 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 chroniclers 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 Nebuchadnezzar 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 Jehoiakims 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 Nebuchadnezzar to change his mind, or, like Manasseh, Jehoiakim might have repented and been allowed to return. But it is very doubtful whether the chroniclers 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 chroniclers 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 2Ch 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 Lev 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 Nehemiah 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.” {2Ch 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 Nehemiah 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 New 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 Gods 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 mans transgression and punishment the prophets saw the vision of his forgiveness and restoration to God.

Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary