2 Kings 23:11 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
2 Kings 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.
to repose · conjunction + verb, hiphil sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
horses
הַסּוּסִ֗יםha.su.Sim
H5483
a horse (as leaping) · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
kings
מַלְכֵ֨יmal.Khei
H4428
a king · noun, common masculine plural construct
Judah
יְהוּדָ֤הye.hu.Dah
H3063
Jehudah (or Judah) · proper noun, a place name
given
נָתְנוּ֩na.te.Nu
H5414
to give · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
sun
לַשֶּׁ֙מֶשׁ֙la.She.mesh
H8121
the sun · preposition with the article + noun, common both genders singular absolute
in
מִבֹּ֣אmi.Bo'
H935
to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
house
בֵיתveit-
H1004
a house (in the greatest variation of applications · noun, common masculine singular construct
LORD
יְהוָ֔הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
chamber
לִשְׁכַּת֙lish.Kat
H3957
a room in a building (whether for storage · noun, common feminine singular construct
Nathan-melech
נְתַןne.tan-
H5419
Nethan-Melek · proper noun, a man's name
chamberlain
הַסָּרִ֔יסha.sa.Ris
H5631
a eunuch · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
suburbs
בַּפַּרְוָרִ֑יםba.par.va.Rim
H6503
Parbar or Parvar · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
burned
שָׂרַ֥ףsa.Raf
H8313
to be (causatively · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
chariots
מַרְכְּב֥וֹתmar.ke.Vot
H4818
a chariot · noun, common feminine plural construct
sun
הַשֶּׁ֖מֶשׁha.She.mesh
H8121
the sun · definite article + noun, common both genders singular absolute
fire
בָּאֵֽשׁba.'Esh
H784
fire (literally or figuratively) · preposition with the article + noun, common both genders singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Ezekiel 8:16 And he brought me into the inner court of the LORD’s house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the al…
Deuteronomy 4:19 And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shoulde…
2 Kings 23:5 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…
2 Chronicles 14:5 Also he took away out of all the cities of Judah the high places and the images: and the kingdom was quiet before him.
2 Chronicles 34:4 And they brake down the altars of Baalim in his presence; and the images, that were on high above them, he cut down; and the groves, and the…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 2 Kings 23:4-24
We have here an account of such a reformation as we have not met with in all the history of the kings of Judah, such thorough riddance made of all the abominable things and such foundations laid of a glorious good work; and here I cannot but wonder at two things: - 1. That so many wicked things should have got in, and kept standing so long, as we find here removed. 2. That notwithstanding the removal of these wicked things, and the hopeful prospects here given of a happy settlement, yet within a few years Jerusalem was utterly destroyed, and even this did not save it; for the generality of the people, after all, hated to be reformed. The founder melteth in vain, and therefore reprobate silve…
took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun--Among the people who anciently worshipped the sun, horses were usually dedicated to that divinity, from the supposed idea that the sun himself was drawn in a chariot by horses. In some cases these horses were sacrificed; but more commonly they were employed either in the sacred processions to carry the images of the sun, or for the worshippers to ride in every morning to welcome his rise. It seems that the idolatrous kings, Ahaz, Manasseh, and Amon, or their great officers, proceeded on these horses early on each day from the east gate of the temple to salute and worship the sun at his appearing above the horizon.
Adam Clarke on 2 Kings 23:11
The horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun - Jarchi says that those who adored the sun had horses which they mounted every morning to go out to meet the sun at his rising. Throughout the East the horse, because of his swiftness and utility, was dedicated to the sun; and the Greeks and Romans feigned that the chariot of the sun was drawn by four horses - Pyroeis, Eous, Aethon, and Phlegon. See the note on Kg2 2:11.
Whether these were living or sculptured horses, we cannot tell; the latter is the more reasonable supposition.
John Gill on 2 Kings 23:11
The Church Fathers
"He also removed the horses that the kings of Judah had given, etc." [2 Kings 23:11] What follows about the same king Josiah, he also removed the horses which the kings of Judah had given to the sun at the entrance of the temple of the Lord; and shortly after: He burned the chariots of the sun with fire; this shows that the Jews at all times were devoted to all kinds of idolatry and superstition, so much so that in adoration of the sun, which they believed to be a god after the manner of the Gentiles, they attached his image which they had made to horses and chariots, and this in the courts of the temple of the Lord. For the Gentiles are accustomed to depict or make an image of the sun in this way, placing a young boy in a chariot, and attaching horses to him as if rushing towards the sky. They represent him as a boy because the sun, as if born anew each day with its rise, never falls into old age through the ages. But that they attribute chariots and horses to him is believed to have been taken from the miracle of the prophet Elijah, who was taken to heaven in a fiery chariot with fiery horses, as John, the bishop of Constantinople, estimates. For that which is called Helios in Greek means the sun (as even Sedulius shows, when he sang about Elijah's ascent, saying: How well the fiery path of heaven suits Elijah, who glows rightly even by name. He was worthy of this aid: for if one letter of the Greek word is changed by accent, it means the sun. Hearing from the Israelites, reputed to have divine letters, that Elijah was transported to the heavens by a fiery chariot and fiery horses, or certainly seeing this depicted among other things on the wall, the Greeks, deceived by the similarity of the name, believed this to signify the sun's passage through the heavens, and transformed a divinely performed miracle into a testimony of error, conceived by human folly; the Jews themselves, imitating them, strove not to be less foolish than the most foolish of the Gentiles in any matter.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Esdraelon — The Greek form of the Hebrew “Jezreel,” the name of the great plain (called by the natives Merj Ibn Amer; i.e., “the meadow of the son of Amer”) which stretches across Central Palestine from the…
Horse — Always referred to in the Bible in connection with warlike operations, except Isa. 28:28. The war-horse is described Job 39:19-25. For a long period after their settlement in Canaan the Israelites…
Jeremiah — Raised up or appointed by Jehovah. (1.) A Gadite who joined David in the wilderness (1 Chr. 12:10). (2.) A Gadite warrior (1 Chr. 12:13). (3.) A Benjamite slinger who joined David at Ziklag (1 Chr.…
Josiah — Healed by Jehovah, or Jehovah will support. The son of Amon, and his successor on the throne of Judah (2 Kings 22:1; 2 Chr. 34:1). His history is contained in 2 Kings 22, 23. He stands foremost among…
Nathanmelech — (the gift of the king), a eunuch (Authorized Version “chamberlain”) in the court of Josiah. (2 Kings 23:11) (B.C. 628.)
Parbar — (1 Chr. 26:18), a place apparently connected with the temple, probably a “suburb” (q.v.), as the word is rendered in 2 Kings 23:11; a space between the temple wall and the wall of the court; an open…
Pentateuch — The five-fold volume, consisting of the first five books of the Old Testament. This word does not occur in Scripture, nor is it certainly known when the roll was thus divided into five portions…
Suburbs — The immediate vicinity of a city or town (Num. 35:3, 7; Ezek. 45:2). In 2 Kings 23:11 the Hebrew word there used (parvarim) occurs nowhere else. The Revised Version renders it “precincts.” The…
Sun — (Heb. shemesh), first mentioned along with the moon as the two great luminaries of heaven (Gen. 1:14-18). By their motions and influence they were intended to mark and divide times and seasons. The…
Chamberlain · An officer of a king — An officer of a king
And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun,.... Consecrated to it; these were not images of horses, as some have thought, but real living ones; and the kings that gave them for the service of the sun, and for sacrifice to it, very probably were Manasseh and Amon: that horses were sacred to the sun with many Heathen nations, as the Massagetae, a people in Scythia, and the Persians, and Babylonians, and Ethiopians, is affirmed by various writers (c): and from them the Jews received this notion. According to the Jewish commentators, these were horses provided for the worshippers of the sun to ride upon, and meet the sun in the morning at its rising, and pay their h…
Instead of resting content with the fact that he was promised deliverance from the approaching judgment, Josiah did everything that was in his power to lead the whole nation to true conversion to the Lord, and thereby avert as far as possible the threatened curse of rejection, since the Lord in His word had promised forgiveness and mercy to the penitent. He therefore gathered together the elders of the nation, and went with them, with the priests and prophets and the assembled people, into the temple, and there had the book of the law read to those who were assembled, and concluded a covenant with the Lord, into which the people also entered. After this he had all the remnants of idolatry er…
The horse was used in sun worship in the ancient Near East. The Assyrian sun-god Shamash and other deities were depicted riding across the sky in horse-drawn chariots. Archaeological evidence suggests that a solar cult existed in Israel as early as the 800s BC. The cult’s popularity likely increased during the reigns of Manasseh and Amon, when it was sponsored by the crown (21:3-5, 21-22). Despite Josiah’s reforms, shortly after his death Ezekiel denounced the sun worshipers again for performing their rituals within the inner court of the Temple (Ezek 8:16). • the eunuch, an officer of the court: The term translated eunuch can refer not only to those who were physically eunuchs but also to h…
The horses. Those [people] who prostrated themselves to the sun, had horses ready in the morning to go out toward the sun.11The idolatrous kings of Yehudah would ride these horses from the entrance of the Beis Hamikdosh to the chamber of Nesan Melech which was located to the east of the city.—Ralbag and Metzudas Dovid
Nesan Melech. That was its name.
In the outskirts. I do not know what they are.12”רורים are the open space areas located outside the city. In Yechezkeil 27:28 the verse states, “the surrounding areas [=מגרשות] will tremble,” and Targum renders “פרורים” for מגרשות.—Radak
Chariots · Consecrated to the sun — Consecrated to the sun
Church · HOUSE OF THE LOR — HOUSE OF THE LOR
Horse · General references — General references
Horse, The · Dedicated to the sun by idolaters — Dedicated to the sun by idolaters
Iconoclasm · .Josiah — .Josiah
Nathan-Melech · An idolatrous chamberlain — An idolatrous chamberlain
Sun · Kings of — Kings of
Sun, The · The Jews: Consecrated chariots and horses, as symbols of — The Jews: Consecrated chariots and horses, as symbols of
Temple, The First · Historical notices of: Purified by Josiah — Historical notices of: Purified by Josiah
Zeal · Should be exhibited: Against idolatry — Should be exhibited: Against idolatry
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
