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…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on 2 Kings 23:17
What title is that that I see?--The king's attention probably, had been arrested by a tombstone more conspicuous than the rest around it, bearing on an inscription the name of him that lay beneath; and this prompted his curiosity to make the inquiry.
the men of the city--not the Assyrian colonists--for they could know nothing about the ancient transactions of the place--but some of the old people who had been allowed to remain, and perhaps the tomb itself might not then have been discoverable, through the effects of time and neglect, had not some "Old Mortality" garnished the sepulcher of the righteous.
Adam Clarke on 2 Kings 23:20
Slew all the priests - The lives of these, as corrupters of the people, were forfeited to the law.
John Gill on 2 Kings 23:20
And he slew all the priests of the high places that were there,.... The idolatrous priests who sacrificed to Baal, and other Heathen deities; for as for others that burnt incense in high places, yet to the true God, those he spared, though they were not suffered to officiate at the altar of God: the others he slew
upon the altars; where they sacrificed:
and burnt men's bones upon them: the bones of the priests, and worshippers of idols, as he had done at Bethel:
and returned to Jerusalem; after he had gone through the land, both of Judah and Israel, and abolished idolatrous worship everywhere.
