Bible Commentaries
2 Chronicles 34

Verses 1-33

2 Chronicles 34:1-33 Josiah’s Reforms 2 Chronicles 34:1-33 records the story of Josiah’s reforms for Judah. Josiah’s efforts in cleansing the Temple are similar to Hezekiah’s efforts to do the same (2 Chronicles 29:1 to 2 Chronicles 30:27) and similar to Jesus’ efforts to cleanse the Temple (Matthew 21:10-17, John 2:13-25).

A nation’s leaders have the responsibility to bring people back to God. Humility is a key element in such national reforms (James 4:7-10).

James 4:7-10, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.”

2 Chronicles 34:7 And when he had broken down the altars and the groves, and had beaten the graven images into powder, and cut down all the idols throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem.

2 Chronicles 34:7 Comments - A total cleansing in needed, and Josiah was willing to carry this out.

2 Chronicles 34:27 Because thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God, when thou heardest his words against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, and humbledst thyself before me, and didst rend thy clothes, and weep before me; I have even heard thee also, saith the LORD.

2 Chronicles 34:27 Comments - Humility.

Scripture Reference - Note:

1 Peter 5:5, “Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.”

2 Chronicles 34:28 Behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace, neither shall thine eyes see all the evil that I will bring upon this place, and upon the inhabitants of the same. So they brought the king word again.

2 Chronicles 34:30 And the king went up into the house of the LORD, and all the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests, and the Levites, and all the people, great and small: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant that was found in the house of the LORD.

2 Chronicles 34:30 Comments - This effort to teach the people is similar to how Jesus taught in the Temple (Luke 19:47).

Luke 19:47, “And he taught daily in the temple. But the chief priests and the scribes and the chief of the people sought to destroy him,”