2 Kings 23:25-35

25 Before him there was no king ¹like him who 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; nor did any like him arise after him.

26 However, the LORD did not turn from the fierceness of His great wrath with which His anger burned against Judah, ²because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked Him.

27 The LORD said, "I will remove Judah also from My sight, ³as I have removed Israel. And ⁴I will cast off Jerusalem, this city which I have chosen, and the temple of which I said, 'My name shall be there.' "

Jehoahaz Succeeds Josiah

28 Now the rest of the acts of Josiah and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles * of the Kings of Judah?

29 ⁵In his days ⁶Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt went up to the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates. And King Josiah went to meet him, and when Pharaoh Neco saw him he killed him at ⁷Megiddo.

30 ⁸His servants drove his body in a chariot from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem and buried him in his own tomb. ⁹Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah and anointed him and made him king in place of his father.

31 ¹⁰Jehoahaz was twenty-three * years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was ¹¹Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.

32 He did evil in the sight of the LORD, ¹²according to all that his fathers had done.

33 ¹³Pharaoh Neco imprisoned him at ¹⁴Riblah in the land of ¹⁵Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem; and he imposed on the land a fine of one hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.

Jehoiakim Made King by Pharaoh

34 Pharaoh Neco made ¹⁶Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the place of Josiah his father, and ¹⁷changed his name to Jehoiakim. But he took Jehoahaz away and ¹⁸brought him to Egypt, and he died there.

35 So Jehoiakim ¹⁹gave the silver and gold to Pharaoh, but he taxed the land in order to give the money at the command of Pharaoh. He exacted the silver and gold from the people of the land, each according to his valuation, to give it to Pharaoh Neco.

Read Chapter Compare

2 Kings 23:25-35 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 2 KINGS 23

This chapter treats of Josiah's reading the book of the law, and of him and the people renewing the covenant with God, 2Ki 23:1-3, and of his removing idols and idolatry in every shape, and witchcraft, out of the land, which he did in the sincerity of his heart, 2Ki 23:4-25, yet the wrath of God was still determined upon the land, 2Ki 23:26-28 and Josiah was taken away by an untimely death, 2Ki 23:29,30 and was succeeded by two sons of his, one after another, whose reigns were wicked, 2Ki 23:31-37.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 19

1. 2 Kings 18:5
2. 2 Kings 21:11-13; Jeremiah 15:4
3. 2 Kings 18:11
4. 2 Kings 21:13, 14
5. 2 Chronicles 35:20-24
6. Jeremiah 46:2
7. Judges 5:19
8. 2 Kings 9:28
9. 2 Chronicles 36:1-4
10. 1 Chronicles 3:15; Jeremiah 22:11
11. 2 Kings 24:18
12. 2 Kings 21:2-7
13. 2 Kings 23:29
14. 2 Kings 25:6
15. 1 Kings 8:65
16. 1 Chronicles 3:15
17. 2 Kings 24:17; 2 Chronicles 36:4
18. Jeremiah 22:11, 12; Ezekiel 19:3, 4
19. 2 Kings 23:33

Footnotes 4

[a]. Lit "house"
[b]. Lit "him, dead"
[c]. So with Gr; Heb "he came"
[d]. Lit "mouth"