(11) He took away.--The same word as "put down" (2Kings 23:5). Here, as there, the Syriac and Arabic render, "he killed," which is possibly a correct gloss.

The horses . . . the sun.--These horses drew "the chariots of the sun" in solemn processions held in honour of that deity. (See Herod, i. 189; Xenoph. Anab. iv. 5. 34, seq.; Quint. Curt. iii 3. 11.) Horses were also sacrificed to the sun. The sun's apparent course through the heavens, poetically conceived as the progress of a fiery chariot and steeds, explains these usages.

Had given--i.e., had dedicated.

At the entering in of the house of the Lord.--This appears right. Along with the next clause it states where the sacred horses were kept; viz., in the outer court of the Temple, near the entrance. (So the LXX. and Vulgate. This rendering involves a different pointing of the Hebrew text--m?bo for mibbo. The latter, which is the ordinary reading, gives the sense, "so that they should not come into the house, &c.")

By the chamber.--Rather, towards the cell; further defining the position of the stalls. As to the cells in the outer court, see the Note on 1Chronicles 9:26; Ezekiel 40:45 seq.

Nathan-melech the chamberiain, or, eunuch, is otherwise unknown. He may have been charged with the care of the sacred horses and chariots. Meleck was a title of the sun-god in one of his aspects (2Kings 23:10.)

Which was in the suburbs.--Rather, which was in the cloisters or portico. Parw?rim is a Persian word explained in the Note on 1Chronicles 26:18.

Burned the chariots . . .--Literally, and the chariots of the sun he burnt. The treatment of the chariots is thus contrasted with that of the horses. If the whole had been, as some expositors have thought, a work of art in bronze or other material, placed over the gateway, no such difference would have been made.

Verse 11. - 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.,' 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 (Herod., 1:216; Xen., 'Cyrop.,' 8:3. § 24; 'Anab.,' 4:5. § 35; Rig Veda, vol. 2. pp. 112, et seqq., etc.), 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, 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," occupied 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. vers. 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.

23:4-14 What abundance of wickedness in Judah and Jerusalem! One would not have believed it possible, that in Judah, where God was known, in Israel, where his name was great, in Salem, in Zion, where his dwelling-place was, such abominations should be found. Josiah had reigned eighteen years, and had himself set the people a good example, and kept up religion according to the Divine law; yet, when he came to search for idolatry, the depth and extent were very great. Both common history, and the records of God's word, teach, that all the real godliness or goodness ever found on earth, is derived from the new-creating Spirit of Jesus Christ.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 Heathen nations, as the Massagetae, a people in Scythia, and the Persians, and Babylonians, and Ethiopians, is affirmed by various writers (c): and from them the Jews received this notion. According to the Jewish commentators, these were horses provided for the worshippers of the sun to ride upon, and meet the sun in the morning at its rising, and pay their homage to it; but certain it is that the Heathen nations before mentioned slew the horses, and sacrificed them as burnt offerings to the sun, as is asserted by Herodotus (d), Xenophon (e), Strabo (f), Pausanias (g), Philostratus (h), and other writers (i); and so the Indians of India (k) sacrificed them to Apollo, the same with the sun; these being the swiftest of creatures, they offered them to the swiftest of their gods, as Herodotus and Heliodorus observe, in the places before referred to. The stables in which these horses were kept were

at the entering of the house of the Lord, by the chamber of Nathanmelech the chamberlain, which was in the suburbs; so that they reached from the temple to the suburbs of Jerusalem, to that part of them where this officer had a chamber, or lodgings, being in some place of power and authority there; though, according to L'Empereur (l), it is the same with Parbar, 1 Chronicles 26:18 and should not be rendered "suburbs", it being between the compass or wall of the temple, and the court:

and burnt the chariots of the sun with fire; these were either chariots, in which the king and his nobles rode, when they went to meet and worship the rising sun; or rather such as were sacred to the sun, as well as the horses, or Josiah would not have burnt them; they seem to be such in which the images of the sun were carried. Herodotus (m) makes mention as of sacred horses, so of a sacred chariot. Xenophon (n) speaks of the chariot of the sun as being of a white colour, and drawn in procession at the worship of the sun; as does also Pausanias (o) of a chariot, in which were the sun, Jupiter, and Juno, and near them other deities; which notion of sacred chariots the Heathens might take from the chariot of the cherubim Jehovah sat and rode in, 1 Chronicles 28:18.

(c) Justin e Trogo, l. 1. c. 10. Curt. Hist. l. 3. c. 3. Ovid. Fast. l. 1. Alex. ab Alex. Genial. Dier. l. 6. c. 26. Heliodor. Ethiop. l. 10. c. 6. 28. (d) Clio, sive, l. 1. c. 216. (e) Cyropaed. l. 8. c. 23, 24. (f) Geograph. l. 11. p. 353. (g) Laconica, sive, l. 3. p. 201. (h) Vit. Apollon. l. 1. c. 20. (i) Vid. Lactant. de fals. Relig. l. 1. c. 21. (k) Laon. Chalcondyl. de Rebus Turc. l. 3. p. 108. (l) Not. in Misn. Middot, c. 2. sect. 3. No. 3. So Boehart. Hierozoic. par. 1. l. 2. c. 10. col. 177. (m) Polymnia, sive, l. 7. c. 55. (n) Ut supra, (Cyropaed. l. 8.) c. 23. (o) Eliac. 1. sive, l. 5. p, 307.