旧约 - 列王记下(2 Kings)第23章

Then the king called together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem.
He went up to the temple of the LORD with the men of Judah, the people of Jerusalem, the priests and the prophets--all the people from the least to the greatest. He read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant, which had been found in the temple of the LORD.
The king stood by the pillar and renewed the covenant in the presence of the LORD--to follow the LORD and keep his commands, regulations and decrees with all his heart and all his soul, thus confirming the words of the covenant written in this book. Then all the people pledged themselves to the covenant.
The king ordered Hilkiah the high priest, the priests next in rank and the doorkeepers to remove from the temple of the LORD all the articles made for Baal and Asherah and all the starry hosts. He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron Valley and took the ashes to Bethel.
He did away with the pagan priests appointed by the kings of Judah to burn incense on the high places of the towns of Judah and on those around Jerusalem--those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun and moon, to the constellations and to all the starry hosts.
He took the Asherah pole from the temple of the LORD to the Kidron Valley outside Jerusalem and burned it there. He ground it to powder and scattered the dust over the graves of the common people.
He also tore down the quarters of the male shrine prostitutes, which were in the temple of the LORD and where women did weaving for Asherah.
Josiah brought all the priests from the towns of Judah and desecrated the high places, from Geba to Beersheba, where the priests had burned incense. He broke down the shrines at the gates--at the entrance to the Gate of Joshua, the city governor, which is on the left of the city gate.
Although the priests of the high places did not serve at the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, they ate unleavened bread with their fellow priests.
He desecrated Topheth, which was in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, so no one could use it to sacrifice his son or daughter in the fire to Molech.
He removed from the entrance to the temple of the LORD the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun. They were in the court near the room of an official named Nathan-Melech. Josiah then burned the chariots dedicated to the sun.
He pulled down the altars the kings of Judah had erected on the roof near the upper room of Ahaz, and the altars Manasseh had built in the two courts of the temple of the LORD. He removed them from there, smashed them to pieces and threw the rubble into the Kidron Valley.
The king also desecrated the high places that were east of Jerusalem on the south of the Hill of Corruption--the ones Solomon king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the vile goddess of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the vile god of Moab, and for Molech the detestable god of the people of Ammon.
Josiah smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles and covered the sites with human bones.
Even the altar at Bethel, the high place made by Jeroboam son of Nebat, who had caused Israel to sin--even that altar and high place he demolished. He burned the high place and ground it to powder, and burned the Asherah pole also.
Then Josiah looked around, and when he saw the tombs that were there on the hillside, he had the bones removed from them and burned on the altar to defile it, in accordance with the word of the LORD proclaimed by the man of God who foretold these things.
The king asked, "What is that tombstone I see?" The men of the city said, "It marks the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and pronounced against the altar of Bethel the very things you have done to it."
"Leave it alone," he said. "Don't let anyone disturb his bones." So they spared his bones and those of the prophet who had come from Samaria.
Just as he had done at Bethel, Josiah removed and defiled all the shrines at the high places that the kings of Israel had built in the towns of Samaria that had provoked the LORD to anger.
Josiah slaughtered all the priests of those high places on the altars and burned human bones on them. Then he went back to Jerusalem.
The king gave this order to all the people: "Celebrate the Passover to the LORD your God, as it is written in this Book of the Covenant."
Not since the days of the judges who led Israel, nor throughout the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah, had any such Passover been observed.
But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover was celebrated to the LORD in Jerusalem.
Furthermore, Josiah got rid of the mediums and spiritists, the household gods, the idols and all the other detestable things seen in Judah and Jerusalem. This he did to fulfill the requirements of the law written in the book that Hilkiah the priest had discovered in the temple of the LORD.
Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to the LORD as he did--with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, in accordance with all the Law of Moses.
Nevertheless, the LORD did not turn away from the heat of his fierce anger, which burned against Judah because of all that Manasseh had done to provoke him to anger.
So the LORD said, "I will remove Judah also from my presence as I removed Israel, and I will reject Jerusalem, the city I chose, and this temple, about which I said, 'There shall my Name be.'"
As for the other events of Josiah's reign, and all he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah?
While Josiah was king, Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt went up to the Euphrates River to help the king of Assyria. King Josiah marched out to meet him in battle, but Neco faced him and killed him at Megiddo.
Josiah's servants brought his body in a chariot from Megiddo to Jerusalem and buried him in his own tomb. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz son of Josiah and anointed him and made him king in place of his father.
Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months. His mother's name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah; she was from Libnah.
He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, just as his fathers had done.
Pharaoh Neco put him in chains at Riblah in the land of Hamath so that he might not reign in Jerusalem, and he imposed on Judah a levy of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.
Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim son of Josiah king in place of his father Josiah and changed Eliakim's name to Jehoiakim. But he took Jehoahaz and carried him off to Egypt, and there he died.
Jehoiakim paid Pharaoh Neco the silver and gold he demanded. In order to do so, he taxed the land and exacted the silver and gold from the people of the land according to their assessments.
Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years. His mother's name was Zebidah daughter of Pedaiah; she was from Rumah.
And he did evil in the eyes of the LORD, just as his fathers had done.
列王纪下第廿三章   第 23 章 

  王下 23:1-2> 23:1-2 关于圣殿的重要性及其中日常运作的详情、敬拜和礼仪等,请参看列王纪上 5 章至 8 章,历代志下 2 至 7 章。 

  王下 23:4-8> 什么样的顺服行动才和痛悔的心相称? 

  23:4-8 约西亚一看到犹大人宗教生活的败坏就加以纠正。单单说什么是对的并不足够,我们必须用行动作回应来表明信心。这正是雅各在他的书信之中所强调的,“没有行为的信心是死的”(雅 2:20 )。这是指在家庭、学校、工作岗位和教会之中,都要表现出与不信者有明显差异的行为。单单讲顺服神并不足够。 

  王下 23:6> 耶和华的殿里竟有偶像,怎么回事? 

  23:6 可憎的亚舍拉柱像是恶王玛拿西立在耶和华殿中的( 21:7 )。居民常将她看作海上女神,又是巴力的妻子。她是迦南人的主要女神,敬拜她的人以性与战争为夸耀,并且有娈童,就是男妓,供敬拜之人行污秽的事。 

  王下 23:11> 23:11 这些马是供游行之用,表示尊敬太阳。 

  王下 23:13> 橄榄山在以色列的历史中有何特别之处? 

  23:13 这节经文称橄榄山为邪僻山,因为古人喜欢在那山上建筑异教的庙宇。所罗门建造了一座异教的庙宇,其他君王也在那里建造拜偶像之处。但敬畏神的君王,像希西家与约西亚等人,则将这些异教敬拜中心拆毁。在新约时代,主耶稣常坐在橄榄山上教导门徒单单要事奉独一的神(参太 24:3 )。(关于亚斯她录、基抹与摩洛的详情,请参王上 11:5-8 的注释。) 

  王下 23:16-18> 23:16-18 这段经文所提到的预言,记载在列王纪上 13 章 20 至 32 节。 

  王下 23:21-23> 神要人守节的目的是什么?怎样在今日也守神的吩咐呢? 

  23:21-23 约西亚从约书之中看到神吩咐人民守逾越节,就下令全国要完全照律法书的规定守这节期。这个节日,是以色列人一年一度的假日,以纪念全族蒙神拯救、脱离在埃及受奴役的日子(参出 12 );但是他们已经多年没有守这节期了,其结果是,“自从士师治理以色列人和以色列王、犹大王的时候,直到如今,实在没有守过这样的逾越节。”人有普遍的错误观念,以为神反对人庆祝节期,不要人享受欢喜快活。实际上,神赐下丰盛的生命(参约 10:10 ),凡爱祂的人皆充满喜乐,有数说不尽的恩典。 

  王下 23:25> 约西亚尽心、尽性、尽力归向神,我──在,哪些方面仍需努力? 

  23:25 以色列人纪念约西亚,因他是犹大国最顺服神的君王。他的顺服方式是:( 1 )认识罪的可怕;( 2 )清除了带罪的习俗;( 3 )消除犯罪的肇因。这些对付罪的方式,在现代也是有效的。我们不但要除去罪行,也要除去罪的源头──就是一切可能带来试探的情势、关系、工作、行为和生活方式。 

  王下 23:25> 要像两位王那样依靠、顺服神,太难?不太难? 

  23:25 约西亚与希西家( 18:5 )都因为敬畏神而受称赞。圣经说希西家对神有最大的倚靠(表明信心),约西亚则极力遵行神的律法(表明顺服)。我们可以效法他们的榜样,信靠神并有顺服祂的行为。 

  约西亚 

  王下 23:29> 约西亚壮志未酬身先死…… 

  23:29 埃及王法老尼哥取道犹大,前往救援被攻的亚述(“攻击”依原文亦可译为“帮助”)。他们二国联盟,要与巴比伦争战,因巴比伦有成为超级强国的趋势,将来会成为他们的威胁。约西亚想到这联军与巴比伦争战以后可能再攻击他,所以想阻止埃及军队经他国境前往亚述。不幸,他本人被杀,军队被打败,犹大国变成埃及的附庸(公元前 609 年)。历代志下 35 章 20 至 25 节有更详细的记载。 

  王下 23:31-34> 皮之不存,毛将焉附?国既破,王又如何…… 

  23:31-34 犹大人立约西亚的一个儿子约哈斯接续王位。但埃及王法老尼哥不满意,把约哈斯带到埃及,他也死在那里。尼哥又立约西亚的另一个儿子以利亚敬作犹大王,为他改名为约雅敬,约雅敬差不多也是傀儡君王。埃及在公元前 605 年被巴比伦打败,于是犹大又变成巴比伦的附庸( 24:1 )。 

  王下 23:36-37> 昏君的下场可以让世人明白── 

  23:36-37 约西亚顺服神,但儿子约雅敬则是个昏君。他杀死先知乌利亚(参耶 26:20-23 ),他不诚实、贪婪、欺压人民(参耶 22:13-19 )、背叛巴比伦转向埃及效忠,这些都是严重的错误。巴比伦王尼布甲尼撒粉碎了他的叛变,把他带到巴比伦(参代下 36:6 ),后来容许他回耶路撒冷,最后死在那里,死因不详。 

  王下 23:37> 两个儿子与约西亚成为鲜明对比,身为父母的有何感受? 

  23:37 许多贤明君王的儿女并不能自然而然地信靠神。也许由于父辈忽略了这件事,或全身心投入于政治军事上的事务,或由于君王多委派别人教自己的儿女,不亲自在信仰上进行教导。无怪乎许多儿女长大后,违背了父辈信仰的正道。父母的信心坚强,并不保证儿女会承受他们的信仰。所以父母必须亲自教导他们信靠神,不可叫别人去代劳。你必须把你所讲之道付诸实行、解释并教导儿女。──《灵修版圣经注释》