2 Kings 23:11 - Exposition

And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun. The custom of dedicating horses to the sun was practiced by many ancient nations; but it is only in Persia that we find horses and chariots so dedicated (Xen; 'Cyrop.,' 2 Kings 8:3 . § 12). The idea of the sun-god as a charioteer, who drove his horses daily across the sky, is one common to several of the Aryan nations, as the Greeks, the Romans, the Hindoos, and others;but we do not find it either in Egypt or among the Semitic peoples. The sacrifice of the horse to the sun was more general, but does not seem to have been adopted by the Hebrews. It is not at all clear whence the "kings of Judah"— i.e. Ahaz, Manasseh, and Amon—derived the idea of maintaining sacred chariots and horses to be used in their sun-worship. They certainly could not have received it, as Keil thinks, "through the Assyrians." At the entering in of the house of the Lord— the horses, i.e; were kept near one of the entrances to the temple, to be ready for use in sacred processions— by the chamber of Nathan-melech the chamberlain, which was in the suburbs. There were many "chambers" attached to the temple, which were sometimes used as store-rooms for different materials ( 1 Chronicles 9:26 ; 2 Chronicles 31:11 , 2 Chronicles 31:12 ; Nehemiah 10:38 ; Nehemiah 13:5 ), sometimes as residences ( Nehemiah 13:7 ). In Josiah's time, "Nathan-melech the chamberlain," or rather "the eunuch ," o ccupied one of these. It was situated בַפַדְוָרִים —"in the outskirts" or "purlieus" of the temple. And burned the chariots of the sun with fire (comp. verses 4, 6, 15, etc.). Josiah burnt all the material objects that had been desecrated by the idolatries; the persons and animals so desecrated he "removed," or deprived of their functions.