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John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 2 Kings 23:15

Moreover, the altar that was at Bethel, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made. For the worship of the calf there: both that altar, and the high place, he brake down ; according to an ancient prophecy of the man of God, 1 Kings 13:3 and of Amos in later times, Amos 9:1 . and burnt the high place, and stamped it small to powder ; that there might be no remains of it: and burnt the grove ; either the grove of trees on it, or the... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 2 Kings 23:16

And as Josiah turned himself ,.... From the high place, and the altar at Bethel; for he not only gave orders for the destroying of idolatrous places and idols, but he saw them executed himself: he spied the sepulchres that were there in the mount ; the graves of idolatrous priests and worshippers, who chose to be buried near those places of idolatry; nor was it unusual for persons to be buried on hills and mountains, see Joshua 24:30 and this was a custom in other nations formerly ... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 2 Kings 23:17

Then he said, what title is that that I see ?.... A high and large monument over a grave, with an inscription on it, more remarkable than any of the rest, which made Josiah take notice of it; and the Jews have a tradition, as Kimchi observes, that on one side of the grave grew nettles and thistles, and on the other side odoriferous herbs; which is not to be depended on; but what he further observes may be right, that the old prophet, as he gave orders to his sons to lay his body in the same... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 2 Kings 23:18

And he said, let him alone, let no man move his bones ,.... Not take them out of the grave, as they had done the rest: so they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet that came out of Samaria ; the old prophet, whereby his end was answered in being buried with him, 1 Kings 13:31 . read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 2 Kings 23:19

And all the houses also of the high places ,.... The temples of the idols there, and the houses for the priests to dwell in: that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke the Lord to anger, Josiah took away ; particularly in the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, unto Naphtali, 2 Chronicles 34:6 the Israelites that remained there acknowledging Josiah as their king; and perhaps, after the defeat of Sennacherib, many of the cities of Israel might... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 2 Kings 23:20

And he slew all the priests of the high places that were there ,.... The idolatrous priests who sacrificed to Baal, and other Heathen deities; for as for others that burnt incense in high places, yet to the true God, those he spared, though they were not suffered to officiate at the altar of God: the others he slew upon the altars ; where they sacrificed: and burnt men's bones upon them : the bones of the priests, and worshippers of idols, as he had done at Bethel: and returned to... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 2 Kings 23:21

And the king commanded all the people ,.... Not at Jerusalem only, but throughout the whole kingdom: saying: keep the passover unto the Lord your God, as it is written in this book of the covenant ; which had been lately found and read, and they had agreed to observe, and in which this ordinance was strictly enjoined, and was a commemoration of their deliverance out of Egypt, and a direction of their faith to the Messiah, the antitype of the passover. read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 2 Kings 23:22

Surely there was not holden such a passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel ,.... As the king commanded; the people obeyed and kept the passover, according to the law of the Lord; the manner of its being kept is not here recorded, but is at large in 2 Chronicles 35:1 where it is observed there had not been such an one from the days of Samuel, the last of the judges; so that the days of the judges here mean the last days of them: nor in all the days of the kings of Israel,... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 2 Kings 23:23

But in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, wherein this passover was holden to the Lord in Jerusalem. This shows that Josiah must begin the reformation very early that year, since he did all that is before recorded in this and the preceding chapter by the fourteenth of Nisan, the day on which the passover was kept, which month answers to part of our March and part of April, see 2 Kings 22:3 and was the same year the repairs of the temple were finished. read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 2 Kings 23:24

Moreover, the workers with familiar spirits, and the wizards ,.... Who were not to be allowed among the Israelites, Deuteronomy 18:10 . and the images; or teraphim: and the idols, and all the abominations ; which were worshipped by the Heathens, and introduced among the Jews, and forbidden by the word of God: that were spied in the land of Judah, and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away ; for which, it seems, diligent search was made, and wherever they were discovered were removed: ... read more

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