II
K I N G S
CHAP. XXIII.
We
have here, I. The happy continuance of the goodness of Josiah's reign, and the
progress of the reformation he began, reading the law (ver. 1, 2), renewing
the covenant (ver. 3), cleansing the temple (ver. 4), and rooting out idols
and idolatry, with all the relics thereof, in all places, as far as his power
reached (ver. 5-20), keeping a solemn passover (ver. 21-23), and clearing the
country of witches (ver. 24); and in all this acting with extraordinary
vigour, ver. 25 II. The unhappy conclusion of it in his untimely death, as a
token of the continuance of God's wrath against
Jerusalem, ver. 26-30 III. The more unhappy consequences
of his death, in the bad reigns of his two sons Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim, that
came after him, ver. 31-37
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Josiah
Destroys Idolatry.
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B.
C. 623.
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1 And the king sent, and they gathered unto him
all the elders of
Judah
and of
Jerusalem. 2 And the king went up into the
house of the LORD, and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with
him, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, both small and
great: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant
which was found in the house of the LORD.
3 And the king stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before the LORD,
to walk after the LORD, and to keep his
commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all their heart
and all their soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were
written in this book. And all the people stood to the covenant.
Josiah had received a message from God that there was no preventing the ruin
of Jerusalem, but that he should deliver only his own soul; yet he did not
therefore sit down in despair, and resolve to do nothing for his country
because he could not do all he would. No, he would do his duty, and then leave
the event to God. A public reformation was the thing resolved on; if any thing
could prevent the threatened ruin it must be that; and here we have the
preparations for that reformation. 1. He summoned a general assembly of the
states, the elders, the magistrates or representatives of Judah and Jerusalem,
to meet him in the house of the Lord, with the priests and prophets,
the ordinary and extraordinary ministers, that, they all joining in it, it
might become a national act and so be the more likely to prevent national
judgments; they were all called to attend (v. 1, 2), that the business
might be done with the more solemnity, that they might all advise and assist
in it, and that those who were against it might be discouraged from making any
opposition. Parliaments are no diminution at all to the honour and power of
good princes, but a great support to them. 2. Instead of making a speech to
this convention, he ordered the book of the law to be read to them; nay, it
should seem, he read it himself (v. 2), as one much affected with it
and desirous that they should be so too. Josiah thinks it not below him to be
a reader, any more than Solomon did to be a preacher, nay, and David himself
to be a door-keeper in the house of God. Besides the convention of the great
men, he had a congregation of the men of Judah and the inhabitants of
Jerusalem to hear the law read. It is really the interest of princes to
promote the knowledge of the scriptures in their dominions. If the people be
but as stedfastly resolved to obey by law as he is to govern by law, the
kingdom will be happy. All people are concerned to know the scripture, and all
in authority to spread the knowledge of it. 3. Instead of proposing laws for
the confirming of them in their duty, he proposed an association by which they
should all jointly engage themselves to God, v. 3. The book of the law
was the book of the covenant, that, if they would be to God a people, he would
be to them a God; they here engage themselves to do their part, not doubting
but that then God would do his. (1.) The covenant was that they should walk
after the Lord, in compliance with his will, in his ordinances and his
providences, should answer all his calls and attend all his motions--that they
should make conscience of all his commandments, moral, ceremonial, and
judicial, and should carefully observe them with all their heart and all
their soul, with all possible care and caution, sincerity, vigour,
courage, and resolution, and so fulfil the conditions of this covenant, in
dependence upon the promises of it. (2.) The covenanters were, in the first
place, the king himself, who stood by his pillar (ch. xi. 14) and
publicly declared his consent to this covenant, to set them an example, and to
assure them not only of his protection but of his presidency and all the
furtherance his power could give them in their obedience. It is no abridgment
of the liberty even of princes themselves to be in bonds to God. All the
people likewise stood to the covenant, that is, they signified
their consent to it and promised to abide by it. It is of good use to oblige
ourselves to our duty with all possible solemnity, and this is especially
seasonable after notorious backslidings to sin and decays in that which is
good. He that bears an honest mind does not shrink from positive engagements:
fast bind, fast find.
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Josiah
Reforms Judah.
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B.
C. 623.
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4 And the king commanded Hilkiah the high
priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the door, to
bring forth out of the temple of the LORD
all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the
host of heaven: and he burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron,
and carried the ashes of them unto Beth-el. 5 And he put down the
idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in
the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about
Jerusalem; them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the
moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven. 6 And he
brought out the grove from the house of the LORD,
without Jerusalem, unto the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron,
and stamped it small to powder, and cast the powder thereof upon the
graves of the children of the people. 7 And he brake down the
houses of the sodomites, that were by the house of the LORD,
where the women wove hangings for the grove. 8 And he brought all
the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the
priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beer-sheba, and brake down the high
places of the gates that were in the entering in of the gate of Joshua
the governor of the city, which were on a man's left hand at the gate
of the city. 9 Nevertheless the priests of the high places came
not up to the altar of the LORD
in Jerusalem, but they did eat of the unleavened bread among their
brethren. 10 And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley
of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to
pass through the fire to Molech. 11 And he took away the horses
that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entering in of the house
of the LORD,
by the chamber of Nathan-melech the chamberlain, which was in the
suburbs, and burned the chariots of the sun with fire. 12 And the
altars that were on the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the
kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two
courts of the house of the LORD,
did the king beat down, and brake them down from thence, and cast the
dust of them into the brook Kidron. 13 And the high places that were
before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mount of
corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had builded for Ashtoreth the
abomination of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites,
and for Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon, did the king
defile. 14 And he brake in pieces the images, and cut down the
groves, and filled their places with the bones of men. 15 Moreover
the altar that was at Beth-el, and the high place which Jeroboam
the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, both that altar and the
high place he brake down, and burned the high place, and stamped it
small to powder, and burned the grove. 16 And as Josiah turned
himself, he spied the sepulchres that were there in the mount, and
sent, and took the bones out of the sepulchres, and burned them upon
the altar, and polluted it, according to the word of the LORD which the man of God
proclaimed, who proclaimed these words. 17 Then he said, What
title is that that I see? And the men of the city told him, It is
the sepulchre of the man of God, which came from Judah, and proclaimed these
things that thou hast done against the altar of Beth-el. 18 And he
said, Let him alone; let no man move his bones. So they let his bones alone,
with the bones of the prophet that came out of Samaria. 19 And all
the houses also of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria,
which the kings of Israel had made to provoke the LORD
to anger, Josiah took away, and did to them according to all the acts that he
had done in Beth-el. 20 And he slew all the priests of the high
places that were there upon the altars, and burned men's bones upon
them, and returned to Jerusalem. 21 And the king commanded all the
people, saying, Keep the passover unto the LORD
your God, as it is written in the book of this covenant. 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; 23 But in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, wherein
this passover was holden to the LORD
in Jerusalem. 24 Moreover the workers with familiar
spirits, and the wizards, and the images, and the idols, and all the
abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah
put away, that he might perform the words of the law which were written in the
book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the LORD.
We have here an account of such a reformation as we have not met with in all
the history of the kings of Judah, such thorough riddance made of all the
abominable things and such foundations laid of a glorious good work; and here
I cannot but wonder at two things:-- 1. That so many wicked things should have
got in, and kept standing so long, as we find here removed. 2. That
notwithstanding the removal of these wicked things, and the hopeful prospects
here given of a happy settlement, yet within a few years Jerusalem was utterly
destroyed, and even this did not save it; for the generality of the people,
after all, hated to be reformed. The founder melteth in vain, and
therefore reprobate silver shall men call them, Jer. vi. 29, 30. Let us
here observe,
I. What abundance of wickedness there was, and had been, in Judah and
Jerusalem. One would not have believed it possible that in Judah, where God
was known--in Israel, where his name was great--in Salem, in Sion, where his
dwelling place was, such abominations should be found as here we have an
account of. Josiah had now reigned eighteen years, and had himself set the
people a good example, and kept up religion according to law; and yet, when he
came to make inquisition for idolatry, the depth and extent of the dunghill he
had to carry away appeared almost incredible. 1. Even in the house of the
Lord, that sacred temple which Solomon built, and dedicated to the honour and
for the worship of the God of Israel, there were found vessels, all manner of
utensils, for the worship of Baal, and of the grove (or Ashtaroth),
and of all the host of heaven, v. 4. Though Josiah had
suppressed the worship of idols, yet the utensils made for that worship were
all carefully preserved, even in the temple itself, to be used again whenever
the present restraint should be taken off; nay, even the grove itself, the
image of it, was yet standing in the temple (v. 6); some make it the
image of Venus, the same with Ashtaroth. 2. Just at the entering in of the
house of the Lord was a stable for horses kept (would you think it?) for a
religious use; they were holy horses, given to the sun (v. 11),
as if he needed them who rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race (Ps.
xix. 5), or rather they would thus represent to themselves the swiftness of
his motion, which they much admired, making their religion to conform to the
poetical fictions of the chariot of the sun, the follies of which even a
little philosophy, without any divinity, would have exposed and made them
ashamed of. Some say that those horses were to be led forth in pomp every
morning to meet the rising sun, others that the worshippers of the sun rode
out upon them to adore the rising sun; it should seem that they drew the
chariots of the sun, which the people worshipped. Strange that ever men who
had the written word of God among them should be thus vain in their
imaginations! 3. Hard by the house of the Lord there were houses
of the Sodomites, where all manner of lewdness and filthiness, even that
which was most unnatural, was practised, and under pretence of religion too,
in honour of their impure deities. Corporal and spiritual whoredom went
together, and the vile affections to which the people were given up were the
punishment of their vain imaginations. Those that dishonoured their God were
justly left thus to dishonour themselves, Rom. i. 24, &c. There were women
that wove hangings for the grove (v. 7), tents which encompassed
the image of Venus, where the worshippers committed all manner of lewdness,
and this in the house of the Lord. Those did ill that made our Father's
house a house of merchandise; those did worse that made it a den of thieves;
but those did worst of all that made it (Horrendum dictu!--Horrible
to relate!) a brothel, in an impudent defiance of the holiness of God and
of his temple. Well might the apostle call them abominable idolatries.
4. There were many idolatrous altars found (v. 12), some in the palace,
on the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz. The roofs of their houses
being flat, they made them their high places, and set up altars upon them
(Jer. xix. 13; Zeph. i. 5), domestic altars. The kings of Judah did so: and,
though Josiah never used them, yet to this time they remained there. Manasseh
had built altars for his idols in the house of the Lord. When he repented he
removed them, and cast them out of the city (2 Chron. xxxiii. 15), but,
not destroying them, his son Amon, it seems, had brought them again into the
courts of the temple; there Josiah found them, and thence he broke them
down, v. 12. 5. There was Tophet, in the valley of the son of
Hinnom, very near Jerusalem, where the image of Moloch (that god of
unnatural cruelty, as others were of unnatural uncleanness) was kept, to which
some sacrificed their children, burning them in the fire, others dedicated
them, making them to pass through the fire (v. 10), labouring in the
very fire, Hab. ii. 13. It is supposed to have been called Tophet
from toph, a drum, because they beat drums at the burning of the
children, that their shrieks might not be heard. 6. There were high places
before Jerusalem, which Solomon had built, v. 13. The altars
and images on those high places, we may suppose, had been taken away by some
of the preceding godly kings, or perhaps Solomon himself had removed them when
he became a penitent; but the buildings, or some parts of them, remained, with
other high places, till Josiah's time. Those that introduce corruptions into
religion know not how far they will reach nor how long they will last.
Antiquity is no certain proof of verity. There were also high places all the
kingdom over, from Geba to Beer-sheba (v. 8), and high places
of the gates, in the entering in of the gate of the governor. In these
high places (bishop Patrick thinks) they burnt incense to those tutelar gods
to whom their idolatrous kings had committed the protection of their city; and
probably the governor of the city had a private altar for his penates--his
household-gods. 7. There were idolatrous priests, that officiated at all
those idolatrous altars (v. 5), chemarim, black men, or that wore
black. See Zeph. i. 4. Those that sacrificed to Osiris, or that wept for
Tammuz (Ezek. viii. 14), or that worshipped the infernal deities, put on black
garments as mourners. These idolatrous priests the kings of Judah had
ordained to burn incense in the high places; they were, it should seem,
priests of the house of Aaron, who thus profaned their dignity, and there were
others also who had no right at all to the priesthood, who burnt incense to
Baal. 8. There were conjurers and wizards, and such as dealt with familiar
spirits, v. 24. When they worshipped the devil as their god no
marvel that they consulted him as their oracle.
II. What a full destruction good Josiah made of all those relics of idolatry.
Such is his zeal for the Lord of hosts, and his holy indignation against all
that is displeasing to him, that nothing shall stand before him. The law was
that the monuments of the Canaanites' idolatry must be all destroyed (Deut.
vii. 5), much more those of the idolatry of the Israelites, in whom it was
much more impious, profane, and perfidious. 1. He ordered Hilkiah, and the
other priests, to clear the temple. This was their province, v. 4. Away
with all the vessels that were made for Baal. They must never be employed in
the service of God, no, nor reserved for any common use; they must all be
burnt, and the ashes of them carried to Bethel. That place had been the common
source of idolatry, for there was set up one of the calves, and, that lying
next to Judah, the infection had thence spread into that kingdom, and
therefore Josiah made it the lay-stall of idolatry, the dunghill to which he
carried the filth and offscouring of all things, that, if possible, it might
be made loathsome to those that had been fond of it. 2. The idolatrous priests
were all put down. Those of them that were not of the house of Aaron, or had
sacrificed to Baal or other false gods, he put to death, according to the law,
v. 20. He slew them upon their own altars, the most acceptable
sacrifice that ever had been offered upon them, a sacrifice to the justice of
God. Those that were descendants from Aaron, and yet had burnt incense in the
high places, but to the true God only, he forbade ever to approach the altar
of the Lord; they had forfeited that honour (v. 9): He brought them
out of the cities of Judah (v. 8), that they might not do mischief
in the country by secretly keeping up their old idolatrous usages; but he
allowed them to eat of the unleavened bread (the bread of the
meat-offering, Lev. ii. 4, 5) among their brethren, with whom they were
to reside, that being under their eye they might be kept from doing hurt and
taught to do well; that bread, that unleavened bread (heavy and unpleasant as
it was), was better than they deserved, and that would serve to keep them
alive. But whether they were permitted to eat of all the sacrifices, as
blemished priests were (Lev. xxi. 22), which is called, in general, the
bread of their God, may be justly questioned. 3. All the images were
broken to pieces and burnt. The image of the grove (v. 6), some goddess
or other, was reduced to ashes, and the ashes cast upon the graves of the
common people (v. 6), the common burying-place of the city. By the
law a ceremonial uncleanness was contracted by the touch of a grave, so that
in casting them here he declared them most impure, and none could touch them
without thereby making themselves unclean. He cast it into the graves
(so the Chaldee), intimating that he would have all idolatry buried out of his
sight, as a loathsome thing, and forgotten, as dead men are out of mind, v.
14. He filled the places of the groves with the bones of men; as he
carried the ashes of the images to the graves, to mingle them with dead men's
bones, so he carried dead men's bones to the places where the images had been,
and put them in the room of them, that, both ways, idolatry might be rendered
loathsome, and the people kept both from the dust of the images and from the
ruins of the places where they had been worshipped. Dead men and dead gods
were much alike and fittest to go together. 4. All the wicked houses were
suppressed, those nests of impiety that harboured idolaters, the houses of the
Sodomites, v. 7. "Down with them, down with them, rase them to the
foundations." The high places were in like manner broken down and
levelled with the ground (v. 8), even that which belonged to the
governor of the city; for no man's greatness or power may protect him in
idolatry or profaneness. Let governors be obliged, in the first place, to
reform, and then the governed will be the sooner influenced. He defiled the
high places (v. 8 and again v. 13), did all he could to render
them abominable, and put the people out of conceit with them, as Jehu did when
he made the house of Baal a draught-house, 2 Kings x. 27. Tophet, which,
contrary to other places of idolatry, was in a valley, whereas they were on
hills or high places, was likewise defiled (v. 10), was made the
burying-place of the city. Concerning this we have a whole sermon, Jer. xix.
1, 2, &c., where it is said, They shall bury in Tophet, and the
whole city is threatened to be made like Tophet. 5. The horses that had been
given to the sun were taken away and put to common use, and so were delivered
from the vanity to which they were made subject; and the chariots of the sun
(what a pity was it that those horses and chariots should be kept as the
chariots and horsemen of Israel!) he burnt with fire; and, if the sun be a
flame, they never resembled him so much as they did when they were chariots of
fire. 6. The workers with familiar spirits and the wizards were put away, v.
24. Those of them that were convicted of witchcraft, it is likely, he put to
death, and so deterred others from those diabolical practices. In all this he
had a sincere regard to the words of the law which were written in the book
lately found, v. 24. He made that law his rule and kept that in his eye
throughout this reformation.
III. How his zeal extended itself to the cities of Israel that were within his
reach. The ten tribes were carried captive and the Assyrian colonies did not
fully people the country, so that, it is likely, many cities had put
themselves under the protection of the kings of Judah, 2 Chron. xxx. 1; xxxiv.
6. These he here visits, to carry on his reformation. As far as our influence
goes our endeavours should go to do good and bring the wickedness of the
wicked to an end.
1. He defiled and demolished Jeroboam's altar at Bethel, with the high place
and the grove that belonged to it, v. 15, 16. The golden calf, it
should seem, was gone (thy calf, O Samaria! has cast thee off), but the
altar was there, which those that were wedded to their old idolatries made use
of still. This was, (1.) Defiled, v. 16. Josiah, in his pious zeal, was
ransacking the old seats of idolatry, and spied the sepulchres in the mount,
in which probably the idolatrous priests were buried, not far from the altar
at which they had officiated, and which they were so fond of that they were
desirous to lay their bones by it; these he opened, took out the bones, and burnt
them upon the altar, to show that thus he would have done by the priests
themselves if they had been alive, as he did by those whom he found alive, v.
20. Thus he polluted the altar, desecrated it, and made it odious. It is
threatened against idolaters (Jer. viii. 1, 2) that their bones shall be
spread before the sun; that which is there threatened and this which is
here executed (bespeaking their iniquity to be upon their bones, Ezek.
xxxii. 27) are an intimation of a punishment after death, reserved for those
that live and die impenitent in that or any other sin; the burning of the
bones, if that were all, is a small matter, but, if it signify the torment of
the soul in a worse flame (Luke xvi. 24), it is very dreadful. This, as it was
Josiah's act, seems to have been the result of a very sudden resolve; he would
not have done it but that he happened to turn himself, and spy the sepulchres;
and yet it was foretold above 350 years before, when this altar was first
built by Jeroboam, 1 Kings xiii. 2. God always foresees, and has sometimes
foretold as certain, that which yet to us seems most contingent. The king's
heart is in the hand of the Lord; king Josiah's was so, and he turned it
(or ever he himself was aware, Cant. vi. 12) to do this. No work of God shall
fall to the ground. (2.) It was demolished. He broke down the altar and all
its appurtenances (v. 15), burnt what was combustible, and, since an
idol is nothing in the world, he went as far towards the annihilating of it as
he could; for he stamped it small to powder and made it as dust
before the wind.
2. He destroyed all the houses of the high places, all those synagogues of
Satan that were in the cities of Samaria, v. 19. These the kings
of Israel built, and God raised up this king of Judah to pull them down, for
the honour of the ancient house of David, from which the ten tribes had
revolted; the priests he justly made sacrifices upon their own altars, v.
20.
3. He carefully preserved the sepulchre of that man of God who came from Judah
to foretel this, which now a king who came from Judah executed. This was that
good prophet who proclaimed these things against the altar of Bethel,
and yet was himself slain by a lion for disobeying the word of the Lord; but
to show that God's displeasure against him went no further than his death, but
ended there, God so ordered it that when all the graves about his were
disturbed his was safe (v. 17, 18) and no man moved his bones. He had
entered into peace, and therefore should rest in his bed, Isa. lvii. 2. The
old lying prophet, who desired to be buried as near him as might be, it should
seem, knew what he did; for his dust also, being mingled with that of the good
prophet, was preserved for his sake; see Num. xxiii. 10.
IV. We are here told what a solemn passover Josiah and his people kept after
all this. When they had cleared the country of the old leaven they then
applied themselves to the keeping of the feast. When Jehu had destroyed the
worship of Baal, yet he took no heed to walk in the commandments and
ordinances of God; but Josiah considered that we must learn to do well, and no
only cease to do evil, and that the way to keep out all abominable
customs is to keep up all instituted ordinances (see Lev. xviii. 30), and
therefore he commanded all the people to keep the passover, which was not only
a memorial of their deliverance out of Egypt, but a token of their dedication
to him that brought them out and their communion with him. This he found
written in the book of the law, here called the book of the
covenant; for, though the divine authority may deal with us in a way of
absolute command, divine grace condescends to federal transactions, and
therefore he observed it. We have not such a particular account of this
passover as of that in Hezekiah's time, 2 Chron. xxx. But, in general, we are
told that there was not holden such a passover in any of the foregoing
reigns, no, not from the days of the judges (v. 22), which, by
the way, intimates that, though the account which the book of Judges gives of
the state of Israel under that dynasty looks but melancholy, yet there were
then some golden days. This passover, it seems, was extraordinary for the
number and devotion of the communicants, their sacrifices and offerings, and
their exact observance of the laws of the feast; and it was not now as in
Hezekiah's passover, when many communicated that were not cleansed according
to the purification of the sanctuary, and the Levites were permitted to do the
priests' work. We have reason to think that during all the remainder of
Josiah's reign religion flourished and the feasts of the Lord were very
carefully observed; but in this passover the satisfaction they took in the
covenant lately renewed, the reformation in pursuance of it, and the revival
of an ordinance of which they had lately found the divine original in the book
of the law, and which had long been neglected or carelessly kept, put them
into great transports of holy joy; and God was pleased to recompense their
zeal in destroying idolatry with uncommon tokens of his presence and favour.
All this concurred to make it a distinguished passover.
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The
Death of Josiah.
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B.
C. 610.
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25 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 all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like
him. 26 Notwithstanding the LORD
turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath, wherewith his anger was
kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations that Manasseh had
provoked him withal. 27 And the LORD
said, I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and
will cast off this city Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the house of which
I said, My name shall be there. 28 Now the rest of the acts of
Josiah, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the
chronicles of the kings of Judah? 29 In his days Pharaoh-nechoh
king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates: and
king Josiah went against him; and he slew him at Megiddo, when he had seen
him. 30 And his servants carried him in a chariot dead from
Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own sepulchre.
And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and anointed him,
and made him king in his father's stead.
Upon the reading of these verses we must say, Lord, though thy
righteousness be as the great mountains--evident, conspicuous, and
past dispute, yet thy judgments are a great deep, unfathomable and past
finding out, Ps. xxxvi. 6. What shall we say to this?
I. It is here owned that Josiah was one of the best kings that ever sat upon
the throne of David, v. 25. As Hezekiah was a non-such for faith and
dependence upon God in straits (ch. xviii. 5), so Josiah was a non-such
for sincerity and zeal in carrying on a work of reformation. For this there
was none like him, 1. That he turned to the Lord from whom his fathers
had revolted. It is true religion to turn to God as one we have chosen and
love. He did what he could to turn his kingdom also to the Lord. 2. That he
did this with his heart and soul; his affections and aims were right in
what he did. Those make nothing of their religion that do not make heart-work
of it. 3. That he did it with all his heart, and all his soul,
and all his might--with vigour, and courage, and resolution: he could
not otherwise have broken through the difficulties he had to grapple with.
What great things may we bring to pass in the service of God if we be but
lively and hearty in it! 4. That he did this according to all the law of
Moses, in an exact observance of that law and with an actual regard to it.
His zeal did not transport him into any irregularities, but, in all he did, he
walked by rule.
II. Notwithstanding this he was cut off by a violent death in the midst of his
days, and his kingdom was ruined within a few years after. Consequent upon
such a reformation as this, one would have expected nothing but the prosperity
and glory both of king and kingdom; but, quite contrary, we find both under a
cloud. 1. Even the reformed kingdom continues marked for ruin. For all this (v.
26) the Lord turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath. That is
certainly true, which God spoke by the prophet (Jer. xviii. 7, 8), that if a
nation, doomed to destruction, turn from the evil of sin, God will repent
of the evil of punishment; and therefore we must conclude that Josiah's
people, though they submitted to Josiah's power, did not heartily imbibe
Josiah's principles. They were turned by force, and did not voluntarily turn
from their evil way, but still continued their affection for their idols;
and therefore he that knows men's hearts would not recall the sentence, which
was, That Judah should be removed, as Israel had been, and Jerusalem itself
cast off, v. 27. Yet even this destruction was intended to be their
effectual reformation; so that we must say, not only that the criminals had
filled their measure and were ripe for ruin, but also that the disease had
come to a crisis, and was ready for a cure; and this shall be all the fruit,
even the taking away of sin. 2. As an evidence of this, even the reforming
king is cut off in the midst of his usefulness--in mercy to him, that he might
not see the evil which was coming upon his kingdom, but in wrath to his
people, for his death was an inlet to their desolations. The king of Egypt
waged war, it seems, with the king of Assyria: so the king of Babylon is now
called. Josiah's kingdom lay between them. He therefore thought himself
concerned to oppose the king of Egypt, and check the growing, threatening,
greatness of his power; for though, at this time, he protested that he had no
design against Josiah, yet, if he should prevail to unite the river of Egypt
and the river Euphrates, the land of Judah would soon be overflowed between
them. Therefore Josiah went against him, and was killed in the first
engagement, v. 29, 30. Here, (1.) We cannot justify Josiah's conduct.
He had no clear call to engage in this war, nor do we find that he asked
counsel of God by urim or prophets concerning it. What had he to do to appear
and act as a friend and ally to the king of Assyria? Should he help the
ungodly and love those that hate the Lord? If the kings of Egypt and
Assyria quarrelled, he had reason to think God would bring good out of it to
him and his people, by making them instrumental to weaken one another. Some
understand the promise made to him that he should come to his grave in
peace in a sense in which it was not performed because, by his miscarriage
in this matter, he forfeited the benefit of it. God has promised to keep us in
all our ways; but, if we go out of our way, we throw ourselves out of his
protection. I understand the promise so as that I believe it was fulfilled,
for he died in peace with God and his own conscience, and saw not, nor
had any immediate prospect of, the destruction of Judah and Jerusalem by the
Chaldeans; yet I understand the providence to be a rebuke to him for his
rashness. (2.) We must adore God's righteousness in taking away such a jewel
from an unthankful people that knew not how to value it. They greatly lamented
his death (2 Chron. xxxv. 25), urged to it by Jeremiah, who told them the
meaning of it, and what a threatening omen it was; but they had not made a due
improvement of the mercies they enjoyed by his life, of which God taught them
the worth by the want.
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Reigns
of Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim.
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B.
C. 610.
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31 Jehoahaz was twenty and three years
old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. And his
mother's name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.
32 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD,
according to all that his fathers had done. 33 And Pharaoh-nechoh
put him in bands at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in
Jerusalem; and put the land to a tribute of a hundred talents of silver, and a
talent of gold. 34 And Pharaoh-nechoh made Eliakim the son of
Josiah king in the room of Josiah his father, and turned his name to Jehoiakim,
and took Jehoahaz away: and he came to Egypt, and died there. 35
And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh; but he taxed the land
to give the money according to the commandment of Pharaoh: he exacted the
silver and the gold of the people of the land, of every one according to his
taxation, to give it unto Pharaoh-nechoh. 36 Jehoiakim was
twenty and five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years
in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Zebudah, the daughter of
Pedaiah of Rumah. 37 And he did that which was evil in the
sight of the LORD,
according to all that his fathers had done.
Jerusalem saw not a good day after Josiah was laid in his grave, but one
trouble came after another, till within twenty-two years it was quite
destroyed. Of the reign of two of his sons here is a short account; the former
we find here a prisoner and the latter a tributary to the king of Egypt, and
both so in the very beginning of their reign. This king of Egypt having slain
Josiah, though he had not had any design upon Judah, yet, being provoked by
the opposition which Josiah gave him, now, it should seem, he bent all his
force against his family and kingdom. If Josiah's sons had trodden in his
steps, they would have fared the better for his piety; but, deviating from
them, they fared the worse for his rashness.
I. Jehoahaz, a younger son, was first made king by the people of the land,
probably because he was observed to be of a more active warlike genius than
his elder brother, and likely to make head against the king of Egypt and to
avenge his father's death, which perhaps the people were more solicitous
about, in point of honour, than the keeping up and carrying on of his father's
reformation; and the issue was accordingly. 1. He did ill, v. 32.
Though he had a good education and a good example given him, and many a good
prayer, we may suppose, put up for him, yet he did that which was evil in
the sight of the Lord, and, it is to be feared, began to do so in his
father's lifetime, for his reign was so short that he could not, in that, show
much of his character. He did according to all that his wicked fathers
had done. Though he had not time to do much, yet he had chosen his
patterns, and showed whom he intended to follow and whose steps he resolved to
tread in; and, having done this, he is here reckoned to have done according to
all the evil which those did whom he proposed to imitate. It is of great
consequence to young people whom they choose to take for their patterns and
whom they emulate. An error in this choice is fatal. Phil. iii. 17, 18. 2.
Doing ill, no wonder that he fared ill. He was but three months a prince, and
was then made a prisoner, and lived and died so. The king of Egypt seized him,
and put him in bands (v. 33), fearing lest he should give him
disturbance, and carried him to Egypt, where he died soon after, v. 34.
This Jehoahaz is that young lion whom Ezekiel speaks of in his lamentation
for the princes of Israel, that learnt to catch the prey and devour men
(that was the evil which he did in the sight of the Lord); but the nations
heard of him, he was taken in their pit, and they brought him with chains into
the land of Egypt, Ezek. xix. 1-4. See Jer. xxii. 10-12.
II. Eliakim, another son of Josiah, was made king by the king of Egypt, it is
not said in the room of Jehoahaz (his reign was so short that it was
scarcely worth taking notice of), but in the room of Josiah. The crown
of Judah had hitherto always descended from a father to a son, and never, till
now, from one brother to another; once the succession had so happened in the
house of Ahab, but never, till now, in the house of David. The king of Egypt,
having used his power in making him king, further showed it in changing his
name; he called him Jehoiakim, a name that has reference to Jehovah,
for he had no design to make him renounce or forget the religion of his
country. "All people will walk in the name of their God, and let him do
so." The king of Babylon did not do so by those whose names he changed,
Dan. i. 7. Of this Jehoiakim we are here told, 1. That the king of Egypt made
him poor, exacted from him a vast tribute of 100 talents of silver and a
talent of gold (v. 33), which, with much difficulty, he squeezed
out of his subjects and gave to Pharaoh, v. 35. Formerly the Israelites
had spoiled the Egyptians; now the Egyptians spoil Israel. See what woeful
changes sin makes. 2. That which made him poor, yet did not make him good.
Notwithstanding the rebukes of Providence he was under, by which he should
have been convinced, humbled, and reformed, he did that which was evil in
the sight of the Lord (v. 37), and so prepared against himself
greater judgments; for such God will send if less do not do the work for which
they are sent.
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