2 Kings 23:15

JOSIAH EXTENDED HIS REFORMATION TO SAMARIA

"Moreover the altar that was at Bethel, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, even that altar and the high place he brake down; and he burned the high place and beat it to dust, and burned the Asherah. And as Josiah turned himself, he spied the sepulchres that were there in the mount; and he sent and took the bones out of the sepulchres, and burned them upon the altar, and defiled it, according to the word of Jehovah which the man of God proclaimed who proclaimed these things. Then he said, What monument is that which I see? And the men of the city told him, It is the sepulchre of the man of God who came from Judah, and proclaimed these things which thou hast done unto the altar of Bethel. And he said, Let him be; let no man move his bones. So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet who came out of Samaria. And all the houses of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke Jehovah to anger, Josiah took away, and did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Bethel. And he slew the priests of the high places that were there, upon the altars, and burned men's bones upon them; and he returned to Jerusalem."

"Even that altar he brake down ... burned the high place ... and burned the Asherah" (2 Kings 23:25). Thus there was rampant paganism in vogue at that altar in Bethel. The golden calf was only the half of it. His burning the high place is a reference to his burning all the buildings connected with it. "This extension of the reformation to what had been Northern Israel was due to the dissolution of the northern kingdom; so that Josiah then regarded himself as king over the entire covenant people,"[18] a fact also indicated by his inviting members of all the tribes to the Passover celebration.

"What monument is that which I see? ... It is the sepulchre of the man of God ... who proclaimed these things that thou hast done to the altar of Bethel" (2 Kings 23:17). Josiah was totally unaware of the fulfillment of the prophecy in 1 Kings 13:3 which his defilement of the altar of Bethel had accomplished, but the citizens of the place, who remembered it well, told him about it. "Josiah did not act as he did to fulfill the prophecy, but in thus acting he unconsciously fulfilled it."[19]

It is of very great significance that the prophecy of 1 Kings 13:2f gives the very name of the king of Judah who would defile the altar of Bethel. The passage reads: "O altar, altar, thus saith Jehovah: Behold a man shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he sacrifice the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men's bones shall they burn upon thee." Thus, we have another prophecy comparable to that of Isaiah who prophesied the name of the king who would terminate the captivity of Israel, namely Cyrus (Isaiah 44:28-45:1). Note also that Josiah's father Amon was a pagan and that he, in no sense, would have named a son as indicated in the prophecy, if he had been aware of it.

Radical and unbelieving critics can have a fit about such prophecies as these, but the ingenuity of all the infidels on earth can not get either one of them out of the Bible. There they are!

"He slew all the priests of the high places upon the altars" (2 Kings 23:20). The severity of this destruction of the priests of the high places in what had been Northern Israel was explained by Keil as being, "Because they were idolatrous priests,"[20] completely devoted to paganism.