MPV Commentary

4. The king ordered Hilkiah and other priests to gather all the temple vessels used for idol worship and burn them outside Jerusalem in the Kidron Valley fields. This was in accordance with the law (Deuteronomy 7:25).

The Kidron Valley is a level, spacious area where the brook flows east and south of the city. It's where the impurities from the temple and city were emptied (2 Chronicles 29:15-16). Josiah's predecessors had thrown the remnants of idolatry into this valley, but Josiah took it further by collecting the ashes of the burnt wood and metal fragments and sending them to Beth-el to associate that place with horror and aversion.

5. The king removed the priests who served idols and those who burned incense to Baal, the sun, and the moon. He also targeted all the host of heaven worshipers.

6. Josiah brought out the Asherah tree from the temple, which Manasseh had placed there (2 Kings 21:5; 2 Chronicles 33:5). After his conversion, Manasseh removed it, but Amon replaced it in the sanctuary (2 Kings 21:20-21). Josiah took the tree to Kidron, burned the wood, ground the metal into powder, and scattered the ashes on the graves of those who had sacrificed.

7. The king tore down the booths of the young women who served Asherah, where they made embroidered hangings and engaged in unbridled revelry and lust.

8-9. Josiah brought all the priests from the cities of Judah to Jerusalem and defiled the high places where they had been officiating. He prohibited them from serving in the temple but gave them an allowance from the temple revenues, just like the lame and disabled members of the priesthood (Leviticus 21:21-22). This included all parts of the kingdom, from Geba to Beer-sheba.

The high places near the gate of Joshua were also defiled. These public altars might have been dedicated to the true God but were contrary to His own ordinance of worship (Isaiah 57:8).

10. Josiah destroyed Topheth, a place where children were sacrificed by fire, and its sound was drowned out by drums.

11. The king took away the horses given to the sun by the kings of Judah. These horses were dedicated to the sun god, who was believed to ride in a chariot drawn by horses.

12. Josiah demolished the altars on the upper chamber of Ahaz's palace and those on the roof of the temple built by Manasseh.

13-14. The king destroyed the high places built by Solomon (1 Kings 11:5) and defiled the hill of corruption, which was a hilly range east of Jerusalem. Josiah likely didn't destroy the idolatrous temples but instead defiled them by scattering dead men's bones on the sites.

15-20. Josiah went beyond his own kingdom to destroy altars and temples in Samaria and the territory of the ten tribes. He put to death the priests of the high places, ransacked the sepulchers of idolatrous priests, and scattered their ashes on the altars before demolishing them.

16. In carrying out these actions, Josiah was motivated by his intense hatred of idolatry. However, this act was predicted 326 years earlier (1 Kings 13:2), where Josiah's name and the place were specifically mentioned.

17. The king noticed a tombstone with an inscription that caught his attention, prompting him to ask about it.

18-19. The men of the city told him about the prophet who had been buried there, and the king ordered them to dig up the bones and reburied them in a proper place.

20-23. Josiah commanded all the people to keep the Passover to the Lord their God as written in the law (2 Chronicles 35:1-19). Many Israelites from the north joined them in Jerusalem, where they heard the law read and possibly obtained copies of it.

24-25. Despite this national reformation, the Lord did not turn away from His fierce wrath against Judah due to their secret hankering for idolatry (2 Kings 21:12-15).

26. In his days, Pharaoh-nechoh king of Egypt marched against Jerusalem and killed Josiah at Megiddo (2 Chronicles 35:20-27).