2 Kings 23:21-35 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

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Bible Comments

Celebration of the Passover. The mention of the eighteenth year (2 Kings 23:23; cf. 2 Kings 22:3) shows that the reforms of Josiah occupied six months. The book was discovered in the first month of the civil year, in autumn. It was read (cf. Deuteronomy 31:10-12) at the Feast of Tabernacles. The Passover contemplated in Deuteronomy 16:6 was celebrated in the central sanctuary. It was not the domestic feast of the Priestly Code (Exodus 12), but a general assembly of the nation. In 2 Chronicles 30 Hezekiah is said to have kept a similar feast, but this is denied in 2 Kings 23:22.

2 Kings 23:29 f. Death of Josiah. Pharaoh-necoh (pp. 60, 72) is the first Pharaoh in the Bible whose name is given. He belonged to the 26th Dynasty. Apparently, when he advanced to occupy a position on the Euphrates, Josiah, prompted either by loyalty to his former masters, the Assyrians, or confident that his reforms had secured him Divine support, tried to stop the progress of the Egyptians at Megiddo. His defeat sealed Judah's ruin (Jeremiah 22:10). Megiddo is the Armageddon (Har-magedon) of the Apocalypse (Revelation 16:16). The date of Josiah's defeat is about 608 B.C.

2 Kings 23:31 to 2 Kings 25:21. Fall and Captivity of Judah. The last kings of Judah were Jehoahaz and Eliakim (Jehoiakim), sons of Josiah; Jehoiachin, son of Jehoiakim; and Zedekiah (Mattaniah), another son of Josiah. The history of this period is related or alluded to throughout the Book of Jeremiah. Its most important feature is the rise of the Babylonian or Chaldean empire under Nabopolassar and his son Nebuchadrezzar (pp. 60, 72f.).

2 Kings 23:31-35. Jehoahaz. This king was also called Shallum (Jeremiah 22:11). His captivity in Egypt is the subject of an elegy by Ezekiel (Ezekiel 19:1-4). The scene of his first imprisonment, Riblah in the land of Hamath, was also that of Zedekiah's humiliation (2 Kings 25:21; Jeremiah 39:5).

Related Commentaries of 2 Kings 23:21

2 Kings 23:21-35

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,h 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.

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 provocationsi 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 Pharaohnechoh 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.

31 Jehoahazj 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 Pharaohnechoh 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 an hundred talents of silver, and a talent of gold.

34 And Pharaohnechoh 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 Pharaohnechoh.