(2) Repair of the Temple and Finding of the Law; xxxiv. 8–28.
(3) Renewal of the Covenant with Jehovah; xxxiv. 29–33.
(4) Great Passover kept; xxxv. 1–19.
(5) Death of Josiah; xxxv. 20–27.
In 2 Kings on the other hand (2) and (3) precede (1), and the reforming activity of the king is accordingly placed subsequent to the finding of the Law in the eighteenth year of his reign. There can be little doubt that the order in Kings is correct. The Chronicler thought it desirable that the piety of the king should be displayed earlier, and he has therefore dated its commencement from the eighth and twelfth years. [This is preferable to the suggestion that “eighth” (bishĕmōneh) and “twelfth” (bishtēym ‘esreh) may be due to a transcriptional error of “eighteenth” (bishĕmōneh ‘esreh).]
while he was yet young] There is no clause corresponding to this in 2 Kings, and the statement is probably due to the motive indicated in the previous note. There is, of course, no reason to question the piety of Josiah in his early years, for though in 2 Kings his reformation is dated in the eighteenth year of his reign, i.e. when he was 25 years of age (hardly “young” for a king), the favourable judgement passed on him (2 Kings xxii. 2) is unqualified by any suggestion that he was tardy in turning to Jehovah, and the prophetic activity of Jeremiah is dated from the thirteenth year of Josiah’s reign (Jeremiah xxv. 3).
in the twelfth year he began] The Chronicler spreads the cleansing of the land over six years, i.e. from the twelfth to the eighteenth; compare verse 8.
to purge] Josiah’s measures are more fully enumerated and described in 2 Kings xxiii.; notice e.g. the removal of the Asherah from the Temple (verse 6), the destruction of the houses of the Ḳĕdēshim (compare Deuteronomy xxiii. 17, 18) which were in the house of the Lord (verse 7), the deportation of priests from the cities of Judah into Jerusalem (verses 8, 9), and the defiling of Topheth and of Beth-el (verses 10, 15, 16). The Chronicler not unnaturally prefers to avoid these details and employs the usual general terms here, partly because he has already credited the penitent Manasseh with a reform of this character (xxxiii. 15), partly also because he may have been unwilling to suppose that such flagrant abuses in the Temple as are mentioned in Kings had continued to this date.
the Asherim] compare xiv. 3 (note).
⁴And they brake down the altars of the Baalim in his presence; and the sun-images, that were on high above them, he hewed down; and the Asherim, and the graven images, and the molten images, he brake in pieces, and made dust of them, and strowed it upon the graves of them that had sacrificed unto them.