And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the door, to bring forth out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the host of heaven: and he burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of them unto Bethel.
The king commanded Hilkiah ... - i:e., the high priest and other priests, because there was no greater variety of official gradations in the temple.
All the vessels ... - the whole apparatus of idol worship.
Burned them without Jerusalem. The law required them to be consigned to the flames (Deuteronomy 7:25).
In the fields of Kidron - most probably that part of the Valley of Kidron where lies Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives. It is a level, spacious basin, abounding at present with plantations (Robinson, 'Biblical Researches,'
i., pp. 342, 396, 402; 2:, p. 249). The brook winds along the east and south of the city, the channel of which is throughout a large portion of the year almost or wholly dry, except after heavy rains, when it suddenly swells and overflows. There was emptied all the impurities of the temple (2 Chronicles 29:15-16) and the city. His reforming predecessors had ordered the mutilated relics of idolatry to be thrown into that place of graves and receptacle of filth (1 Kings 15:13; 2 Chronicles 15:16; 2 Chronicles 30:14); but Josiah, while he imitated their piety, far outstripped them in zeal; because he caused the ashes of the burnt wood and the fragments of the broken metal to be collected and conveyed to Beth-el, in order thenceforth to associate ideas of horror and aversion with that place, as odious for the worst pollutions.