By a pillar. — On the stand or dais (2 Kings 11:14).
A covenant. — The covenant, which had so often been broken. Josiah pledged himself “to walk after the Lord,” and imposed a similar pledge on the people.
Stood to the covenant — i.e., entered it; took the same pledge as the king. (Comp. 2 Kings 18:28.)
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.