2 Chronicles 34:1

THE DISCOVERY OF THE BOOK OF MOSES IN THE TEMPLE

XV. JOSIAH (640-609 B.C.)

With the exception of 2Chr. 34:3-7,2 Chronicles 36:22,23, all of the events in these three concluding chapters of Second Chronicles we have already discussed in the parallel accounts in 2 Kings 22:1-25:12, where we have devoted pages 273 to 330 to our comments. We shall be content here, in the principal part, to refer the reader to our Commentary on Second Kings. There are variations, to be sure; but there are no irreconcilable differences.

THE REFORMS OF JOSIAH

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

This paragraph, of course, contains material not mentioned in the parallel accounts; but all that is stated here is fully in keeping with the character and purpose of this zealous young king who was intent on turning Israel back to their true worship. All of those images, pillars, high places, Asherim, etc., were specifically condemned, not only in the Decalogue, but in the commandment of God through Moses that all such things were to be destroyed by the Israelites when they came into the land of Canaan. The shame of all Israel was that they not only disobeyed God's commandments in these particulars, but they adopted the licentious pagan worship of their predecessors in Canaan; and even sinned worse than the people whom God had driven out before Israel (2 Chronicles 33:9).