48443 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Thus saith the Lord, behold, I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants of it,.... Destruction to the place, and captivity to the inhabitants of it: even all the words of the book which the king of Judah hath read; particularly what is contained in Leviticus 26:14, even all the curses in it, as in 2 Chronicles 34:24.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Because they have forsaken me,.... My worship, as the Targum; his word and ordinances: and have burnt incense unto other gods; to Baal, to the host of heaven, and other Heathen deities: that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands: their idols of wood, stone, gold, and silver, which their hands had made, to worship; than...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
But to the king of Judah, which sent you to inquire of the Lord,.... That is, with respect to him, or what may concern him: thus shall ye say unto him; carry back this message to him as from the Lord he desired to inquire of: thus saith the Lord God of Israel, as touching the words which thou hast heard: read out of the law, concerning the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Because thine heart was tender,.... Soft like wax, and susceptible of impressions; or was "moved", or "trembled", as the Targum; for God has respect to such as are of contrite hearts, and tremble at his word, Isaiah 66:2, and thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord; external humiliation, such as in Ahab, was regarded by the Lord, much more...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Behold therefore, I will gather thee unto thy fathers,.... To his godly ancestors, to share with them in eternal life and happiness; otherwise it could be no peculiar favour to die in common, as his fathers did, and be buried in their sepulchres: and thou shall be gathered into thy grave in peace; in a time of public peace and tranquillity; for...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO 2 KINGS 23 This chapter treats of Josiah's reading the book of the law, and of him and the people renewing the covenant with God, 2 Kings 23:1, and of his removing idols and idolatry in every shape, and witchcraft, out of the land, which he did in the sincerity of his heart, 2 Kings 23:4, yet the wrath of God was still determined...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the king sent, and they gathered unto him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem. Josiah sent messengers throughout the land, and convened all the principal men in it at Jerusalem.
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
We have here, I. The happy continuance of the goodness of Josiah's reign, and the progress of the reformation he began, reading the law (ver. 1, 2), renewing the covenant (ver. 3), cleansing the temple (ver. 4), and rooting out idols and idolatry, with all the relics thereof, in all places, as far as his power reached (ver. 5-20), keeping a solemn...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the king went up into the house of the Lord,.... To the temple, from his palace: and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him: they met him there: and the priests, and the prophets; the prophets Jeremiah, Zephaniah, and Uriah, who, though they might not be at Jerusalem when the book of the law was found, yet, upon...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the king stood by a pillar,.... As the manner of kings was, 2 Kings 11:14 and is thought to be the brasen scaffold erected by Solomon, on which he stood at the dedication of the temple, and now Josiah at the reading of the law, 2 Chronicles 6:13, it is said to be his place, 2 Chronicles 34:31, [See comments on 2 Kings 11:14] and made a...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order,.... Or the second course of the priests; the course of Jedaiah, 1 Chronicles 24:7 as some think; or rather, the two chief priests next to the high priest, who were of the line both of Eleazar and Ithamar; though the Targum interprets it of the Sagan of the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And he put down the idolatrous priests,.... The Cemarim, so called, because they wore black clothes, as Kimchi and others, whereas the priests of the Lord were clothed in white linen, [See comments on Zephaniah 1:4]. whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places, in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And he brought out the grove from the house of the Lord,.... Not a real grove of trees, but a carved one, as some think; or rather the image of the grove, 2 Kings 21:7 that is, the idol Ashtoreth, or Astarte, which was set up there; so Theodoret says; some interpreters call it Astoreth, the name of Venus, whom they call Astarte: this Josiah...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And he brake down the houses of the Sodomites that were by the house of the Lord,.... Near the temple were apartments, in which men, the worshippers of idols, prostituted their bodies to each other; committing that unnatural sin with one another, which has its name from Sodom, and from which those are so called, and which sin they committed in...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah,.... Who were of the sons of Aaron, and had served in the high places there: and defiled the high places where the priests had burnt incense; by casting dead carcasses, or the bones of dead men, or dung, or anything that was unclean, into them, by way of contempt: from Geba to Beersheba;...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Nevertheless, the priests of the high places came not up to the altar of the Lord at Jerusalem,.... To sacrifice there, as the Targum; though they were removed from the high places, they were not admitted to officiate at the altar of the Lord, having offered in forbidden places: but they did eat of the unleavened bread with their brethren; the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And he defiled Topheth,.... A place so called, as is generally thought, from the beating of drums or timbrels in it, that the shrieks of the infants sacrificed here to Molech might not be heard by their parents, and they repent of delivering them to him, and take them away. So the Indians in India now, at the burning of wives with their deceased...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun,.... Consecrated to it; these were not images of horses, as some have thought, but real living ones; and the kings that gave them for the service of the sun, and for sacrifice to it, very probably were Manasseh and Amon: that horses were sacred to the sun with many Heathen...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the altars that were on the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made,.... Which were on the roof of the royal palace; the roofs of houses in Judah being flat, Deuteronomy 21:8 altars might be built upon them; so, in Arabia, altars were built on the tops of houses to offer incense thereon daily to the sun (p); as here...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the high places that were before Jerusalem,.... Not only that were within the city, and at the gates of it, but what were without it: which were on the right hand of the mount of corruption: the mount of Olives, so called from the idolatry and corrupt worship performed in it, by way of reproach, with a small alteration of the letters of the...