concerning the words of this book that is found: for great [is] the wrath of the LORD that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book, to da 14 according unto all that which is written concerning us.

Sa

Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam, and Achbor, and Shaphan, and Asahiah, went unto Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum, the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe; (now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the college ;) and they communed with her,

15 And she said unto them: Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, 16 Tell the man that sent you to me, Thus saith the LORD, Be hold, I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, [even] all the words of the book which the king of Judah 17 hath read: 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 18 kindled against this place, and shall not be quenched. But to the king of Judah which sent you to inquire of the LORD, thus shall ye say to him, Thus saith the Lord GOD of Israel, [As 19 touching] the words which thou hast heard; Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the LORD, when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before 20 me; I also have heard [thee,] saith the LORD. Behold therefore, I will gather thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace; and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place. And they brought the king word again.

CHAP. XXIII. 1-25.

Josiah having received such a comfortable message in the last chapter, set himself to do all he could to promote the reformation, arguing, from the encouragement which he had received, that if the people humbled themselves with tenderness of heart, though judgments were determined against Judah, yet they would not come in that generation.

1

2

A

ND the king sent, and they gathered unto him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem. And the king went up into the house of the LORD, and all the men of Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests, and the prophets, Jeremiah, Zephaniah, and others, and all the people, both small and great, that it might be a national act: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of the LORD; he read the law himself, to convince them of the miserable state of the nation, in consequence of so long a course of impiety.

And the king stood by a pillar, where his throne was, and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD, 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 the people stood to the covenant; cheerfully declared their consent to it, and their concurrence with the king, probably by standing up. And the king commanded, a second time, Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, who were assistants to the high priest, or heads of courses, and the keepers of the door, to bring forth out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the host of heaven, all the garments and instruments used in sacrifice and burning incense; and he burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of them unto Bethel : thus making that place, which was the source and fountain of idolatry, the dunghill for these shameful instruments. And he put down, caused to cease, and probably slew 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 grove from the house of the LORD, rather, an image called by that name, because among the heathen it was worshipped in groves; probably it was Astarte or Venus, with the representation of a grove about her, in carving or painting; 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, in detestation of such practices; being thus rendered unclean, would prevent any of it being taken away as a relick. And he brake down the houses of the sodomites, that [were] by the house of the LORD, an impurity with which the worship of these idols was attended; where the women wove hangings for the grove, or tents which were put about the image, in which the worshippers used to commit all manner of lewdness, And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, that they might not corrupt the people, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense to the tutelar gods, to whom they committed the protection of the city, 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; to show his resolution, he did not spare even those of Joshua the governor, that the greatest 9 might see his impartial zeął against idolatry. Nevertheless the priests of the high places came not up to the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, but they did eat of the unleavened bread among their brethren. Amidst these acts of justice he showed mercy ;

The Chemarim, Hosea x. 5. Zeph. 1. 4. who were clathed in black, while the priests of the Lord were clothed in white.

for while the priests who had offered to Jehovah in the high places were deposed from their office, he still allowed them to share with to their brethren in the provision that the law made for them. Anď he defiled Topheth, the place where they sacrificed their children to Molech, or the sun; a place which, as Jeremiah says, was filled with the blood of the innocent which [is] in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech. And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, to draw the chariot of 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; chariots in which the image of the sun was drawn in solemn procession; a common practice to this day among the idola12 ters in the East Indies. And the altars that [were] on the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz, at the top of the house, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the LORD, did the king beat down, and brake [them] down from thence, and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron. Manasseh in his better days removed them, but Amon set them up again, Zeph. i. 5. 13 And the high places that [were] before Jerusalem, which [were] on the right hand of the mount of corruption, that is, the mount of Olives, (called the mount of corruption, because there they had defiled themselves with idolatry ;) all those high places 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 14 Ammon, did the king defile. And he brake in pieces the ima ges, and cut down the groves; to express his contempt of them, and that being thus defiled they might never be used any more; and filled their places with the bones of men.

15

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; the calf was destroyed before, but now all that 16 belonged to it was utterly consumed. And as Josiah turned himself, he spied the sepulchres that [were] there in the mount: this seems an accidental thing, a thought which came suddenly into his mind; and he sent and took the bones out of the sepulcltres, and burned [them] upon the altar, and polluted it, according to the word of the LORD which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words. See Kings xiik 1. where this was 17 foretold, above three hundred years before. Then seeing a large remarkable inscription, 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, which came from Judah, and proclaimed these 18 things that thou hast done against the altar of Bethel.* And

• Perhaps some worshippers of the true God, in the firm belief of the truth of his predic tion, had repaired the monument, and renewed the inscription,

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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. 1 Kings xiii. 11.

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 [the LORD] to anger, Josiah took away, and did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Bethel. This may probably refer to some parts of Samaria which might have been conquer ed by Judah, during the late distractions of the kingdom of Babylon; or the governor might allow of his coming on this errand. 20 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.

21

And the king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the passover unto the LORD your God, as [it is] written in the book 22 of this covenant. Surely there was not holden such a passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah; a passover.celebrated with such solemn care, great preparation, numerous sacrifices, (2 Chron. xxxv. 7—9:) and universal joy of all good 23 men; But in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, [wherein] this passover was holden to the LORD in Jerusalem. 24 Moreover the [workers with] familiar spirits, and the 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; all the secret idolatry that he could discover, was entirely removed and destroyed; that he might perform the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found 25 in the house of the LORD. And like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the LORD 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; this was a glorious character indeed.*

1.

REFLECTIONS.

WHEN times are ever so bad and discouraging, we

should not give way to despair, but stir up ourselves the more in endeavours to promote reformation. In v. 17. of the former chapter we find that wrath was gone out against Judah. Nevertheless Josiah was willing to do what he could to lighten and protract the judgment, and therefore set about reformation vigorously. When iniquity abounds, the love of many waxes cold. Good men are too ready to be discouraged, and think it vain to make any attempts to stem the tide and do good. But duties are our's, and events are God's. We know not what services he may make us the instruments of; and whether we are successful or not, it will

It will he proper next to read the thirty fifth chapter of 2 Chronicles, where the history of Josial is continued.

give us peaceable reflections; we know that God is not unrighteous to forget any work or labour of love.

2. When entering into covenant with God, we here see how it is to be done, v. 3. with resolutions to walk after the Lord, in the way he has marked out; to be followers of him, and obey all his com mands, moral and ceremonial, and to walk agreeable to the law. It is to be done with all our heart and soul; with care, sincerity, and vigorous resolutions. The best of men need, like Josiah, to bind themselves to this work, considering the treachery of the human heart, and the many ill examples which surround them. In this view sacramental solemnities should be considered and improved.

3. Let us lament these instances of the degeneracy of human nature, and the corruptions of God's professing people. They had adopted the idolatry of all their neighbours: like the Egyptians, they worshipped calves; like the Persians, the sun and fire; like the Babylonians, the hosts of heaven; like the Phenicians and their neighbours, Astarte or Venus. Let us lament that the world should be so corrupt, so lost to reason, as to worship the creature more than the Creator. No wonder God gave them up to vile affections, to all manner of folly, lewdness, and lasciviousness. But that Israel should be so corrupt and abandoned, and commit all these irregularities, was most infamous; especially that the image of Venus should be put up in the most holy place, and sodomites and prostitutes be admitted there. That the house of God should be turned into a brothel, in defiance of his holiness and justice, was shocking indeed. No wonder his wrath was kindled. How lamentable is it to reflect, that this is a description of the greatest part of the world; that such idolatries are yet practised in many nations. How should we wish and pray for the propagation of the glorious gospel through the whole earth, that the nations may turn from these vanities to the living God. How thankful should we be for the light of the gospel, and how careful to show forth the praises of him who hath called us out of darkness into this marvellous light, and to walk as children of the light, and of the day.

CHAP. XXIII. 26, to the end, and CHAP. XXIV.

but

From the thirty first verse of this, to the end of the twenty fourth chapter, we have a short account of the reign of four kings; there was no good after Josiah's death.

OTWITHSTANDING, the LORD turned not

anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations 27 that Manasseh had provoked him withal. And the LORD said, I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and will cast off this city Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there.