What does 2 Kings 23:21 Mean?

Context Summary

Josiah carried his drastic reforms even to Samaria, thus fulfilling a prophecy uttered 350 years before. See 1 Kings 13:2-3. The old leaven having now been cleared out, the Passover could be celebrated. We cannot keep the feast of joy and worship till the work of self-purgation has been undertaken. See 1 Corinthians 5:7. In that great feast some of the ten tribes also joined. There was therefore an affirmation of the spiritual unity of the entire nation, though, like the professing Church of today, it was outwardly in fragments. We must never let go of our belief in the Holy Universal Church, however distracted and divided to outward seeming it may be.

Though these reforms were carried through by the king's strong hand, the generality of the nation remained idolatrous and corrupt, and yielded a feigned rather than a felt repentance. See Jeremiah 3:10; Jeremiah 4:3-4; Jeremiah 4:14; Jeremiah 5:1-3, etc. Therefore judgment could not be averted. External reformation is not enough to secure the permanence of national life. We must rend our hearts rather than our garments, Joel 2:13. There is a sorrow that needs not to be repented of, and a sorrow which "worketh death," 2 Corinthians 7:10. [source]

Chapter Summary: 2 Kings 23

¹  Josiah causes the book to be read in a solemn assembly
³  He renews the covenant of the Lord
⁴  He destroys idolatry
¹⁵  He burns dead men's bones upon the altar of Bethel, as was prophesied
²¹  He keeps a most solemn Passover
²⁴  He puts away witches and all abomination
²⁶  God's final wrath against Judah
²⁹  Josiah, provoking Pharaoh Neco, is slain at Megiddo
³¹  Jehoahaz, succeeding him,
³³  is imprisoned by Pharaoh Neco, who makes Jehoiakim king
³⁶  Jehoiakim's wicked reign