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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comJamieson Fausset Brown Commentary - 2 King 23:4 - 23:4
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2Ki 23:4-28. He destroys idolatry.
the king commanded Hilkiah, etc. - that is, the high priest and other priests, for there was not a variety of official gradations in the temple.
all the vessels, etc. - the whole apparatus of idol-worship.
burned them without Jerusalem - The law required them to be consigned to the flames (Deu 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]. 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 were emptied all the impurities of the temple (2Ch 29:15, 2Ch 29:16) and the city. His reforming predecessors had ordered the mutilated relics of idolatry to be thrown into that receptacle of filth (1Ki 15:13; 2Ch 15:16; 2Ch 30:14); but Josiah, while he imitated their piety, far outstripped them in zeal; for 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.