The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Kings — Section 406

By eetting up an altar at Bethel, Jero- groand, whloh are very conepiououe (eee boam constituted Bethel a "high plaoe." Renr.n's • Mission de 'Ph~nicie,' pls. xi., eC Which Jeroboam the 10n of Nebat, who aeqq. ). And proolaimed theae things that thou made Israel to Bin, had made (oomp. 1 hast done against the altar of Bethel (see I Kings xii. 88; xiii. 2), both that altar and Kings xiii. 2). According to the present the high place he brake down. " The high text of Kings, Josiah was prophesied of place" is her~ equivalent to the "house of by na,M, ae the king who would defile the high plsoos" in I Kings xii. 81, and desig- altar; but it is r,ossible that the worda, nates "the buildings of this sanctuary'' "Josiah by name ' (\Ofi' 1,i;~ti•), have crept (Keil). At suoh a national centre as Bethel in from the margin. a temple would, of course, aooompany the Ver. 18.-And he said, Let him alone; altar. Whether the temple and altar were let no man move hia bones. J osie.h re- in use or not at the time when Josiah membered the oiroumstnnces when they destroyed them, is uncertain. The mixed were recalled to him, and, in order to show :raoe which had superseded the Israelites honour to the "man of God" (I Kings xiii., in tile country (oh. xvii. 24--41) may have passim), commanded that his tomb should continued the worship, or may have set it be undisturbed. So they let hia bones aside. And burned the high plaoo, and alone, with the bones of the prophet that stamped it small to powder. It is not clear oe.me out of Se.maria; i.e. with the bones that this latter clause applies to the high of the Israelite prophet, who had taken care place. Perhaps we should translate-And to be buried with him. The reference is to .tamped nna1l to powder, and burned, the I Kings xiii. 81. grove. It is for the most part only com- Ver. 19.-And all the houses also of the pa.rati vely small objects that are " stamped high plaoes that were in the oities of Se.- small to powder" (see vers. 6, 12, and maria. The writer of Chronicles enters into comp. 2 Chron. xv. 21). more detail. Josiah, he says, carried out Ver. 16.-And as Josiah turned himself, his destruction of the high places, the he spied the sepulchres that were there in groves, and the images " in the cities of Ma- the mount. The Israelite sepulchres, exca- nasseh, and Ephraim, and Simeon, even unto vated in the rocky sides of hills, are every- Naphtali" (2 Chron. ::u:xiv. 6)-i.e. to the where oenspicuous. Those of Bethel may northern limit of the Holy Land, which wae have been in the low hill on which the occupied by Naphtali and Asher. By what town stands, or in the sides of the Wady right Josiah exercised eovereign authority Suweinit, a little further to the south. His in the old kingdom of Samaria, which the accidentally " spying the sepulchres" gave Assyrians had conquered and attached to Josiah the thought of completing his dese- their empire, oan only be conjectured. cration of Bethel by having bones brought Some have supposed that the Assyrie.ns had from them and burnt upon the altar- enlarged his sovereignty, and placed Sa- whereby he exactly accomplished the old maria under his rule ; othere rega1·d him as prophecy (I Kings xiii 2), which was not at having transferred his allegiance to Nabo- all in his mind. And sent, and took the polassar, and having been made by him bones out of the sepulchres, and burned viceroy over Palestine. But it is, perhaps, them upon the altar, and polluted it (see the most probable that he merely took ad- comment on ver. 14), acoording to the word vantage of the political commotions of the of the Lord which the man of God proclaimed, time to extend his dominion so far as it who proclaimed these words ; rather, who aeemed se.fe to do so. Asshur-bani-pe.l, the prophesied these things. The reference is to last energetic King of Assyria, appears to l Kings xiii 2, and the meaning is, not have ceased to reign in Josiah's fourteenth that Josiah acted as he did in order to fulfil year, when he was succeeded by a weak the prophecy, but that in thu.e acting he monarch,Asshur-ebil-ili. Gree.t troubles now unconsciously fulfilled it. broke out. The Scythians ravaged Western Ver. 17.-Then he said, Whe.t title is that Asia far and wide. Assyria was attacked that I eee 1 rather, What pill.ar u that that by the Medes and Bab1lonie.ns in combi!1e.- I 8eef Josiab's eye caught sight of a tion. Under these c1rcumst11nces, Josiah "pillar" or obelisk (Ji'f) among the tombs, found himself practically independent, and or in t!Jeir neighbourhood, and he had the began to entertain ambitious projects. He curiosity to ask what it was. And the men "extended his dominion from Jerusalem of the city told him, It is the sepulchre of over Snme.ria" (Ewald). Assyria. was too the man of God, which came from Judah much occupied to take any notice. Bo.by- (8'i;e l Kings xiii l). The "pillar" could lonia was in the thick of the struggle. Jo- not have been the actual" sepulchre," but siah found himself able to reunite under wu no doubt a monument connected with his own headship all the scattered portioDB it. Many of the Phamician excavated of the old Israelite kingdom, except, per- Mimbs aze accor,npanied b;y monumer.ts above haps, the trans-Jordauio district. He levied oa. xxrn. 1-37.) THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS. 457