2 Chronicles 34:4

4 And they destroyed before him the altars of Baalim, and they destroyed the simulacra, that were put above (them). Also he hewed down the maumet woods, and the graven images, and brake to small gobbets; and scattered abroad the small gobbets on the burials of them, that were wont to offer to those. (And they destroyed before him the altars of the Baalim, and they destroyed the idols, that were put upon them. And he cut down the idol groves, or the sacred poles, and the carved idols, and broke them into small pieces; and he scattered those small pieces all over the burials of those, who were wont to offer to those idols.)

2 Chronicles 34:4 Meaning and Commentary

2 Chronicles 34:4

And they broke down the altars of Baalim in his presence
He not only ordered them to be broke down, but he went in person, and saw it done; these were the altars Manasseh had reared up to the idols; and though upon his humiliation he cast them out, they were rebuilt by Amon his son, see ( 2 Chronicles 33:3 2 Chronicles 33:15 2 Chronicles 33:22 ) ,

and the images that were above them he cut down;
sun images, as the word signifies; these Chamanim might be representatives of Cham or Ham, the son of Noah, the same with Jupiter Ammon; and there was another Heathen deity, Amanus, Strabo ^F23 speaks of, supposed to be the sun, (See Gill on Leviticus 26:30), these, as Jarchi says, were in the form of the sun, and were set above the altars, over against the sun, to whom worship was paid; though some think this respects not place, but time, and that these were images in times past; in the preceding age, as the Tigurine version:

and the groves, and the carved images and the molten images, he brake
in pieces;
ordered them to be broken; the groves were statues, or images in groves, and thereby distinguished from those made of wood, and were carved, and from those that were of molten metal, and were placed elsewhere:

and made dust of them, and strewed it upon the graves of them that
had sacrificed unto them,
see ( 2 Kings 23:6 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F23 Geograph l. 11. p. 352.

2 Chronicles 34:4 In-Context

2 And he did that, that was rightful in the sight of the Lord; and went in the ways of David, his father, and bowed not to the right side, neither to the left side.

3 And in the eighth year of the realm of his empire, when he was yet a boy, (that is, sixteen years of age,) he began to seek the God of his father David; and in the twelfth year after that he began, he cleansed Judah and Jerusalem from high places, and woods, and simulacra, and graven images (and in the twelfth year after that he began to reign, he cleansed Judah and Jerusalem from the hill shrines, and the idol groves/and the sacred poles, and the idols, and the carved images).

4 And they destroyed before him the altars of Baalim, and they destroyed the simulacra, that were put above (them). Also he hewed down the maumet woods, and the graven images, and brake to small gobbets; and scattered abroad the small gobbets on the burials of them, that were wont to offer to those. (And they destroyed before him the altars of the Baalim, and they destroyed the idols, that were put upon them. And he cut down the idol groves, or the sacred poles, and the carved idols, and broke them into small pieces; and he scattered those small pieces all over the burials of those, who were wont to offer to those idols.)

5 Furthermore the king burnt the bones of (the) priests upon the altars of (the) idols, and (so) he cleansed Judah and Jerusalem of idolatry.

6 But also he destroyed all the idols in the cities of Manasseh, and of Ephraim, and of Simeon, unto Naphtali.