Judah; because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore, my wrath shall be poured out upon this place, and shall not be quenched. And as for the king of Judah, who sent you to enquire of Jehovah, so shall ye say unto him; Thus saith Jehovah, God of Israel, concerning the words which thou hast heard; because thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God, when thou heardest his words against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, and humbledst thyself before me, and didst rend thy clothes, and weep before me; I have even heard thee also, saith Jehovah. Behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace; neither shall thine eyes see all the evil that I will bring upon this place, and upon the inhabitants of the same. So they brought the king word again.*

Under the influence of the feelings produced by this awful, though merciful message, Josiah proceeded to celebrate a solemn renewal of the covenant with God, and a dedication of himself and the whole of the people to Jehovah. For having gathered unto him all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem, he went up into the house of Jehovah, and all the men of Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with him, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, both small and great; and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant, which was found in the house of Jehovah.

And the king stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before Jehovah, to walk after Jehovah, and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies, and his statutes, with all their heart, and all their soul, to perform the words of this covenant, that were written in this book. And all

2 Chron. xxxiv. 23-28. 2 Kings, xxii. 15-20.

the people stood to the covenant.* And the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers.

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 Jehovah 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. And he put down the idolatrous priests, 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 Jerusalem; them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven. And he brought out the idol from the house of Jehovah, without Jerusalem, unto the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and stamped it small to powder, and cast the powder thereof upon the graves of the children of the people. And he brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were by the house of Jehovah, where the women wove hangings for the grove. And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beersheba, and brake down the high places of the gates that were in the entering in of the gate of Joshua, the governor of the city, which were on a man's left hand at the gate of the city. Nevertheless, the priests of the high places came not up to the altar of Jehovah in Jerusalem, but they did eat of the unleavened bread among their brethren. And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter

2 Kings, xxiii. 1-4. 2 Chron. xxxiv. 29-32. + But feignedly, and not with their whole hearts. Jer, iii. 10.

to pass through the fire to Moloch. And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entering in of the house of Jehovah, by the chamber of Nathan-melech, the chamberlain, which was in the suburbs, and burned the chariots of the sun with fire.* And the altars that were on the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of Jehovah, did the king beat down, and brake them down from thence, and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron. And the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mount of corruption,† which Solomon, the king of Israel, had builded, for Ashtoreth, the abomination of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh, the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom, the abomination of the children of Ammon, did the king defile.‡ And he brake in pieces the images, and cut down the groves, and filled their places with the bones of men.§

Moreover, the altar that was at Bethel, and the high place which Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he brake down, and burned the high place, and stamped it small to powder, and burned the grove. And as Josiah turned him

"To receive intimations of future events is the peculiar credulity of the country. For this purpose, a number of milk white steeds, unprophaned by mortal labour, is constantly maintained at the public expense; and placed to pasture in the religious groves. When occasion requires, they are harnessed to a sacred chariot (viz. of the sun); and the priest, accompanied by the king, or chief of the state, attends to watch the motions and neighings of the horses." Tac. Germ. ch. 10. and Herodotus, apud Burder, O. L. 609. who also gives a long note from Rosenmuller, Sir William Jones, &c. as to the pagan worship of the sun. See also S. Clarke. + Mount of Olives. S. Clarke. See Fuller's Pisgah, pp. 118–123.

self, he spied the sepulchres that were there in the mount, and sent, and took the bones out of the sepulchres, and burned them upon the altar, and polluted it, according to the word of Jehovah, which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words. Then he said, what title is that that I see? And the men of the city told him, It is the sepulchre of the man of God, who came from Judah, and proclaimed these things that thou hast done against the altar of Bethel. And he said, let him alone; let no man move his bones. So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet, that came out of Samaria.

And all the houses also of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria,† which the kings of Israel had made to provoke Jehovah to anger, Josiah took away, and did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Bethel. And he slew all the priests of the high places, that were there, upon the altars, and burned men's bones upon them, and returned to Jerusalem.+

Moreover the workers with familiar spirits, and the

• Namely, the man of God, out of Judah, who was sent to Jeroboam, king of Israel, and who then foretold (340 years before the event) the actual destruction of the idolatrous altars and priests, which Josiah now literally accomplished. And during all that period, the sepulchre, as well of the man of God, as of the old prophet, had been preserved till the days of Josiah, who discerned it by the superscription, but paid honour and respect to his bones, by ordering them to remain undisturbed. Compare 1 Kings, xiii. with 2 Kings, xxiii, and A. Clarke's notes in locis. And see post, in the reign of Jeroboam, king of Israel. Josephus says the prophet's name was Jadon. Vol. ii. 55.

+ The kingdom of Israel being now extinct, Josiah, as of the blood royal of Judah, resumed his hereditary rights; and, by the especial commission of God, uprooted idolatry throughout the cities of Samaria. A. CLARKE.

2 Kings, xxiii. 15-20.

wizards, and the images, and the idols, and all the abominations that were spied in the land of Judah, and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he might perform the words of the law which were written in the book, that Hilkiah, the priest, found in the house of Jehovah. And like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to Jehovah with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him.*

In the same year also, this monarch celebrated a grand passover at Jerusalem, and commanded all the people, saying; Keep the passover unto Jehovah, your God, as it is written in the book of this covenant;† and they killed the passover on the fourteenth day of the first month, and the priests sprinkled the blood from their hands, and the Levites slayed them, and they removed the burnt offerings, that they might give according to the divisions of the families of the people, to offer unto Jehovah, as it is written in the book of Moses. And so did they with the oxen. And they roasted the passover with fire according to the ordinance: but the other holy offerings sod they in pots, and in caldrons, and in pans, and divided them speedily among all the people. And afterward they made ready for themselves, and for the priests: because the priests, the sons of Aaron, were busied in offering of burnt offerings, and the fat until night, therefore the Levites prepared for themselves, and for the priests, the sons of Aaron. And the singers, the sons of Asaph, were in their places, according to the commandment of David, and Asaph, and Heman, and Jeduthun, the king's seer; and the porters waited at every gate; they might not depart from their service; for their brethren the Levites prepared for them. So all the service of Jehovah was prepared the same day, to