And as Josiah turned, he saw the tombs there on the hillside, and he sent someone to take the bones out of the tombs, and he burned them on the altar to defile it, according to the word of the LORD proclaimed by the man of God who had foretold these things.
What strikes me is the corruption that had festered in the very temple of God for so long, right under the king's own watch. Josiah himself had reigned eighteen years in piety, yet when he searched out idolatry, the filth he found was almost beyond belief. But here is the hard truth: all this thorough cleansing, all these hopeful reforms, could not save Jerusalem from utter ruin a few years after, for the people hated to be reformed.
AI summary
Commenting on 2 Kings 23:4-24
The inscription on that grave was plain enough for Josiah to mark it among all the rest, and the men of the city told him at once it was the sepulcher of the man of God from Judah who had proclaimed judgment against Bethel's altar centuries before. By preserving the man of God's burial with honor, the people ensured his bones were spared from burning, though the old prophet's were not.
AI summary
Josiah burned all the idolatry apparatus in the fields of Kidron, where Jerusalem cast her filth, but then went further than his reforming forebears: he collected the ashes and fragments and had them carried to Bethel itself, making that accursed place a living monument of horror and aversion. His zeal far outstripped the piety of those who came before him.
AI summary
Commenting on 2 Kings 23:4-28