Matthew Henry on 2 Chronicles 34:1-7
Concerning Josiah we are here told, 1. That he came to the crown when he was very young, only eight years old (yet his infancy did not debar him from his right), and he reigned thirty-one years (Ch2 34:1), a considerable time. I fear, however, that in the beginning of his reign things went much as they had done in his father's time, because, being a child, he must have left the management of them to others; so that it was not till his twelfth year, which goes far in the number of his years, that the reformation began, Ch2 34:3. He could not, as Hezekiah did, fall about it immediately. 2. That he reigned very well (Ch2 34:2), approved himself to God, trod in the steps of David, and did not de…
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He declined neither to the right hand, nor to the left - He never swerved from God and truth; he never omitted what he knew to be his duty to God and his kingdom; he carried on his reformation with a steady hand; timidity did not prevent him from going far enough; and zeal did not lead him beyond due bounds. He walked in the golden mean, and his moderation was known unto all men. He went neither to the right nor to the left, he looked inward, looked forward, and looked upward. Reader, let the conduct of this pious youth be thy exemplar through life.
John Gill on 2 Chronicles 34:1
Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign,.... Of these two verses; see Gill on 2 Kings 22:1; see Gill on 2 Kings 22:2.
Keil & Delitzsch on 2 Chronicles 34:1-2
Duration and spirit of Josiah's reign; agreeing with Kg2 22:1, Kg2 22:2, only the note as to Josiah's mother being here omitted.
Tyndale Open Study Notes on 2 Chronicles 34:1
Josiah’s reign of thirty-one years was from 640 to 609 BC.
Henry, Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, Clarke, Gill, Calvin and Keil & Delitzsch are in the public domain; Tyndale Open Study Notes © Tyndale House Publishers, CC BY-SA 4.0 — all from the Free Use Bible API (bible.helloao.org). Rashi: the Rosenbaum & Silbermann Pentateuch (public domain) and the Judaica Press and Metsudah Tanakh (CC BY), via Sefaria. Spurgeon's Treasury of David: public domain (lyteword's markdown edition, CC0).
