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2Ki_23:11 And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entering in of the house of the LORD, by the chamber of Nathanmelech the chamberlain, which [was] in the suburbs, and burned the chariots of the sun with fire.
Ver. 11. And he took away the horses.] Not statues of horses and chariots dedicated to the sun, as some interpret it; sed equos veros et vivos, living and light horses dedicated to the sun, after the Persian mode, ùóðåñ ôï ôá÷éóôïí ôù ôá÷ïôáôù èåù , as the swiftest creature to the swiftest god. {a} These Josiah caused to be killed. Macrobius telleth us that the Syrians called God Adad (Achad, he should have said); that is, One, quia unus est sol - sic dictus quasi Solus - aeque ac Deus in mundo: because, as there is but one sun in the world, so but one God. But how many gods they worshipped, see learned Mr Selden, De diis Syris.
Nathanmelech the chamberlain.] Qui fuit imberbis, qualis est sol, saith Villapandus; {b} a beardless officer for a beardless god. The Persians called the sun Mithras and Apollo. This Nathanmelech, though a courtier, thought it an honour to be groom of the sun’s stable.
And burnt the chariots of the sun with fire.] Chrysostom saith that Peter, for his zeal, was like a man made all of fire walking among stubble. Josiah was surely so. Angelomus saith, that herein he represented Christ, who, by the fire of the last day, shall destroy all impiety, and not suffer any defiled one to enter into his kingdom.
{a} Pausan. Herodot. Xenoph.
{b} Lib iii. cap. 32, in Ezech., cap. 40, p. 221.