Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
HE DESTROYS IDOLATRY. (2Ki. 23:4-28)
the king commanded Hilkiah, etc.—that is, the high priest and other priests, for there was not a variety of official gradations in the temple.
all the vessels, etc.—the whole apparatus of idol-worship.
burned them without Jerusalem—The law required them to be consigned to the flames (Deuteronomy 7:25).
in the fields of Kidron—most probably that part of the valley of Kidron, where lies Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives. It is a level, spacious basin, abounding at present with plantations [ROBINSON]. The brook winds along the east and south of the city, the channel of which is throughout a large portion of the year almost or wholly dry, except after heavy rains, when it suddenly swells and overflows. There were emptied all the impurities of the temple (II Chronicles 29:15-16) and the city. His reforming predecessors had ordered the mutilated relics of idolatry to be thrown into that receptacle of filth (I Kings 15:13; II Chronicles 15:16; II Chronicles 30:14); but Josiah, while he imitated their piety, far outstripped them in zeal; for he caused the ashes of the burnt wood and the fragments of the broken metal to be collected and conveyed to Beth-el, in order thenceforth to associate ideas of horror and aversion with that place, as odious for the worst pollutions.
Other Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown entries containing 2 Kings 23:4:
Deuteronomy 16:21
Jeremiah 7:30
Jeremiah 31:40
Ezekiel 8:3
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