1-2 Josiah Reigns over Judah (2 Chronicles 34:1-7)
- Reigns 31 years, beginning at the age of 8; son of Amon and Jedidah, daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath.
- Unlike his father, he does right before God, walking in David's way, and does not "turn aside to the right or to the left."
- In the 8th year of his reign, he begins to seek "the God of his ancestor David," and in the 12th year begins to purge Judah and Jerusalem of idolatry. This is from the Chronicles account. The Kings account makes it seem as though all the purging is done after the discovery of the law. But it makes sense that it begins earlier, which is why he orders the temple to be repaired, leading to the discovery of the law.
- In the 18th year of Josiah's reign, he sends his secretary - Shaphan - to Hilkiah the priest to ask him to count all the money in the temple so the carpenters who are repairing it can buy supplies.
- Chronicles: Shaphan son of Azaliah, Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah son of Joahaz, the recorder, bring the money to Hilkiah that the Levites have collected from Manasseh, Ephraim, the remnant of Israel, and from all Judah.
- Chronicles: The workers are named: Levites Jahath and Obadiah (sons of Merari), and Zechariah and Meshullan (sons of the Kohathites). Other Levites, musicians, direct every kind of service, and some of them are scribes, officials and gatekeepers. The Levites collect the money and bring it to Hilkiah.
- They won't have to give an accounting of what they spend, for "they deal honestly."
- While Hilkiah is in the temple, he finds the book of the law and gives it to Shaphan, who reads it and then takes it to the king and reads it to him. The people of God have had evil leadership for so long, they don't even seem to know of the existence of a book of the law. Before he finds the law, Josiah is good, I suppose, from personal choice – he prefers to follow in the steps of David rather than those of his father and grandfather.
- When Josiah hears it, he tears his clothes, for he realizes that God is going to punish Judah for the sins of their fathers.
- Then he commands Hilkiah, Shaphan's son Ahikam, Achbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan and the king's servant Asaiah to inquire of the LORD regarding the book.
- They go to the prophetess Huldah, wife of Shallum, who lives in Jerusalem.
- She confirms that the LORD will punish Judah because of their disobedience and idolatry.
- But because Josiah is penitent and humble, he will die in peace and will not see the disaster that will come upon his people.
- They take the message back to the king.
1-20 Josiah's Reformation (2 Chronicles 34:29-33)
- Josiah gathers all the elders, priests, and all the people "both great and small" and reads the book of the covenant to them.
- He makes a public promise to follow the LORD, "keeping his commandments, his decrees, and his statutes, with all his heart and all his soul.... All the people joined in the covenant."
- Josiah's cleanup campaign commandments:
- Bring the vessels out of the temples dedicated to Baal and Asherah and the hosts of heaven, burn them outside the city and carry their ashes to Bethel;
- Depose the idolatrous priests that make offerings in the high places and in Jerusalem;
- Bring the image of Asherah from the temple and burn it at the Wadi Kidron, beat it to dust and throw the dust on the graves of the common people;
- Break down the houses of the male temple prostitutes, where women weave for Asherah;
- Bring all the priests out of the towns of Judah and defile the high places where they make offerings, "from Geba to Beersheba";
- Defile Topheth in the valley of Ben-hinnom, so no one will make their children pass through the fires of Molech;
- Remove the horses that the kings has dedicated to the sun, and burn the chariots;
- Pull down the altars on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz, break them into pieces and throw the rubble into the Wadi Kidron;
- Defile the high places east of Jerusalem that King Solomon built for Astarte (abomination of the Sidonians); Chemosh (of Moab) and Milcom (of Ammon);
- Break down the pillars, cut down the sacred poles and cover the sites with human bones.
- Pull down the altar and high place at Bethel erected by Jeroboam, burn it and crush it to dust.
- Take the bones out of the tombs at Bethel and burn them.
1 These are the statutes and ordinances that you must diligently observe in the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has given you to occupy all the days that you live on the earth. 2 You must demolish completely all the places where the nations whom you are about to dispossess served their gods, on the mountain heights, on the hills, and under every leafy tree. 3 Break down their altars, smash their pillars, burn their sacred poles with fire, and hew down the idols of their gods, and thus blot out their name from their places. 4 You shall not worship the Lord your God in such ways.
- Josiah inquires about a monument he sees and is told it is the tomb of the man of God who predicted what Josiah is doing against the altar of Bethel, so Josiah instructs that it be left alone, as well as the bones of the prophet who came out of Samaria (buried with the young prophet). (See 1 Kings 13. Verse 2 mentions Josiah by name, before he was ever born.)
- He also removes all the shrines of high places in Samaria made by the kings of Israel.
- He slaughters the priests of the high places on the altars and burns human bones on them.
- Then he returns to Jerusalem.
- Josiah commands the people to keep the Passover (which had not been kept since the days of the judges, in the days of the kings of Judah or Israel). According to commentators, it was kept during the Divided Kingdom by King Hezekiah, but not to this extent.
- The Chronicles account words it this way: "No passover like it had been kept in Israel since the days of the prophet Samuel."
- Chronicles: Josiah appoints the priests to the offices and restores the ark to the temple.
- Chronicles: He supplies the animals for the sacrifices: 30,000 lambs and kids and 3,000 bulls.
- Chronicles: His officials – Hilkiah, Zechariah, and Jehiel – donate 2600 lams and kids and 300 hundred bulls.
- Chronicles: Also, Conaniah and his brothers Shemaiah and Nethanel; Hashabiah, Jeiel and Jozabad (chiefs of the Levites) donated\ 5000 lambs and kids and 500 bulls.
- Chronicles: Details of the Passover service, with some Levites doing the slaughtering, others doing the skinning, others doing the roasting, the singers and gatekeepers all doing their duties according to the designations assigned them by their ancestry.
- Josiah puts away all the abominations of Judah and Jerusalem and establishes God's law as the law of the land.
- "Before him there was no king like him, who turned to the LORD with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might...nor did any like him arise after him." There had been good kings before him in Judah, but none had both cleansed the nation and intently followed the covenant.
- However, God was still angry with his people for the sins of Manasseh and still promised to remove Judah from his sight as he had removed Israel. These makes it appear as though God is not merciful when his people repent, but he is merciful to Josiah. The people appear to follow Josiah's example, but they don't continue in faith to God. As soon as Josiah dies, the country reverts back to evil.
- Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt goes to the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates, and when King Josiah goes to meet him there, Pharaoh Neco kills him.
- Chronicles: Neco has gone to Carchemish to fight. When he sees Josiah, he tells him to go home, to "cease opposing God, who is with me, so that he will not destroy you." But Josiah doesn't listen. He disguises himself and joins the battle, and archers shoot him. He is badly wounded, and his servants take him back to Jerusalem, where he dies from the wounds.
- Kings: His servants carry his body from Megiddo back to Jerusalem and bury him in his own tomb.
- Chronicles: All Judah and Jerusalem mourn him; Jeremiah utters a lament for him, "and all the singing men and singing women have spoken of Josiah in their laments to this day."
- The people anoint his son Jehoahaz as king.
- Jehoahaz, son of Josiah and Hamutal, daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah, is 23 years old and reigns 3 months in Jerusalem
- He is an evil king; Phaoroh Neco captures and jails him at Riblah in Hamath and imposes tribute on Judah of 100 hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.
- Pharaoh Neco makes Eliakim son of Josiah king and changes his name to Jehoiakim.
- He takes Jehoahaz to Egypt, where he dies.
- Jehoiakim pays the tribute to Pharaoh and taxes Judah in order to pay for it.
Jehoiakim Reigns over Judah (2 Chronicles 36:5)
- Jehoiakim, son of Josiah and Zebidah, daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah, is 25 years old and reigns 11 years.
- He does evil in God's sight, following in the steps of his ancestors.
1-7 Judah Overrun by Enemies (2 Chronicles 36:6-8)
- King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon defeats Jehoiakim, who serves him for 3 years before Jehoiakim rebels.
- The LORD sends bands of Chaldeans, Arameans, Moabites and Ammonites against Judah, fulfilling his promise of punishment for the sins of Manasseh, who had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood.
- Jehoiakim is succeeded by his son Jehoiachin.
- Egypt is no longer a threat, for it has been taken over by Babylon.
- Son of Jehoiachim and Nehushia daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem, 18 years old, reigns 3 months, continues the evil of his father.
- King Nebuchadnezzar, in the 8th year of his reign, returns to Jerusalem and besieges the city and takes captive Jehoiachin, his mother, servants, officers and palace officials.
- Nebuchadnezzar carries off all the treasures from the temple and the palace, chops up the gold vessels made by King Solomon, and carries off all but the poorest people of Judah.
- Besides the king's family and his officials, he also captures 7000 men of valor and 1000 smiths and artisans -- all fit for war.
- He crowns Jehoiachin's uncle, Mattaniah, as king and changes his name to Zedekiah.
- Son of Hamutal, daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah, 21 years old, reigns 11 years and continues in Jehoichin's evil ways.
- Jerusalem and Judah "so angered the LORD that he expelled them from his presence." They are unable to learn from the punishment shown to other evil kings. It's a downward spiral of sin.
1-21 The Fall and Captivity of Judah (2 Chronicles 36:13-21)
- Chronicles - Not only is Zedekiah evil, but "all the leading priests and the people also were exceedingly unfaithful, following all the abominations of the nations; and they polluted the house of the LORD that he had consecrated in Jerusalem." All the good work of Josiah has been undone.
- Zedekiah rebels against Babylon, and in his 9th year, 10th month, 10th day, King Nebuchadnezzar brings his army and besieges it until Zedekiah's 11th year, 4th month, 9th day, when the city runs out of food.
- Zedekiah and soldiers make a break through the city wall at night, and flee toward Arabah.
- But the army catches up with him, and all his soldiers desert him.
- They bring Zedekiah to the king of Babylon and punish him by slaughtering all his sons in front of his eyes, then blinding him, then taking him in chains to Babylon.
- In the 5th month, 7th day - the 19th year of King Nebuchadnezzar's reign - his captain of the bodyguard, Nebuzaradan, comes to Jerusalem and burns the temple, the palace, and every great house.
- The Chaldean (Babylonian) army breaks down the walls of Jerusalem and carries away into exile everyone else, including those who had defected to Babylon, leaving only the poorest people to tend to the vineyards and till the soil.
- They break up the bronze pillars from the temple, and take away all the temple vessels, bronze, silver, and gold; the bronze from the pillars is beyond weighing because of their size.
- The captain takes the chief priest Seraiah, second priest Zephania, 3 threshold guardians, an army officer, 5 of the king's councilors, an army commander, and 60 men to the king of Babylon at Ribkah, and he executes them.
- "So Judah went into exile out of its land."
- Chronicles - This will be a captivity of 70 years, until the establishment of the kingdom of Persia.
22-26 Gedaliah Made Governor of Judah
- Nebuchadnezzar appoints as governor of Judah Gedaliah son of Ahikam son of Shaphan. So Gedaliah is the grandson of Shaphan, King Josiah's scribe.
- When the captains of the forces hear that Gedaliah has been made governor, they go to Mizpah, where Gedaliah tells them not to fear the Chaldean officials, but to serve the king of Babylon and live well.
- But 7 months later, Ishmael son of Nethaniah, son of Elishama, of the royal family, comes with 10 men, and they kill Gedaliah and all the Judeans and Chaldeans with him and flee to Egypt, "for they were afraid of the Chaldeans." I'm not sure of their motivation here, unless it is resentment because Gedaliah has been appointed by Nebuchadnezzar and is not of royal blood. Jeremiah recounts the details of the murder in Jeremiah 41:1-10. Jeremiah is herald and witness of all that will and does happen.
- After 37 years in exile, King Evil-merodach of Babylon (after the death of his father Nebuchadnezzar) releases Jehoiachin from prison and gives him an honored place in the palace.
- He eats at the king's table and is given an allowance for the rest of his life.
Cyrus Proclaims Liberty for the Exiles
- In the first year of Cyrus king od Persian, he sends an edict throughout his kingdom:
"Thus says King Cyrus of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the Lord his God be with him! Let him go up."
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