And he defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, that no one might burn his son or his daughter as an offering to Molech.
We have here an account of such a reformation as we have not met with in all the history of the kings of Judah, such thorough riddance made of all the abominable things and such foundations laid of a glorious good work; and here I cannot but wonder at two things: - 1.
Commenting on 2 Kings 23:4-24
And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun,.... Consecrated to it; these were not images of horses, as some have thought, but real living ones; and the kings that gave them for the service of the sun, and for sacrifice to it, very probably were Manasseh and Amon: that horses were sacred to the sun with many...
HE DESTROYS IDOLATRY. (2Ki. 23:4-28) the king commanded Hilkiah, &c.--that is, the high priest and other priests, for there was not a variety of official gradations in the temple. all the vessels, &c.--the whole apparatus of idol-worship. burned them without Jerusalem--The law required them to be consigned to the flames (Deu 7:25).
Commenting on 2 Kings 23:4-28