2 Chronicles 34:3 - Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Book Notes

2 Chronicles 34:3

Josiah Reigns in Judah

1 Josiah ^awas eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem.

2 And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the ways of his father David; he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.

3 For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was still ^ayoung, he began to ^bseek the God of his father David; and in the twelfth year he began ^cto purge Judah and Jerusalem ^dof the high places, the wooden images, the carved images, and the molded images.

4 ^aThey broke down the altars of the Baals in his presence, and the incense altars which were above them he cut down; and the wooden images, the carved images, and the molded images he broke in pieces, and made dust of them ^band scattered it on the graves of those who had sacrificed to them.

5 He also ^aburned the bones of the priests on their ^baltars, and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem.

6 And so he did in the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, as far as Naphtali and all around, with axes.

7 When he had broken down the altars and the wooden images, had ^abeaten the carved images into powder, and cut down all the incense altars throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem.

Book Notes:

Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Book Notes

I & II Chronicles

THE FIRST AND SECOND BOOKS OF CHRONICLES were also considered as one by the ancient Jews, who called them "words of days," that is, diaries or journals, being probably compiled from those registers that were kept by the king's historiographers of passing occurrences. In the Septuagint the title given them is Paraleipomenon, "of things omitted," that is, the books are supplementary because many things unnoticed in the former books are here recorded; and not only the omissions are supplied, but some narratives extended while others are added. The authorship is commonly ascribed to Ezra, whose leading object seems to have been to show the division of families, possessions, etc., before the captivity, with a view to the exact restoration of the same order after the return from Babylon. Although many things are restated and others are exact repetitions of what is contained in Kings, there is so much new and important information that, as JEROME has well said, the Chronicles furnish the means of comprehending parts of the New Testament, which must have been unintelligible without them. They are frequently referred to by Christ and the Apostles as forming part of "the Word of God" (see the genealogies in Mat. 1:1-16; Luk. 3:23-38; compare II Chronicles 19:7 with I Peter 1:17; II Chronicles 24:19-21 with Matthew 23:32-35).