1105 – 1871 5 witnesses
“And yet for all this that they saw the misfortune of the retribution of their companions. but falsely Josiah’s generation would show themselves as righteous although they were wicked. They would make forms of pagan deities on the inside of their doors, half on this door and half on this one, and when the destroyers of idols would inspect, the door would be open, and they would not notice it.”
“Here he calls them back by the example of the ten tribes; and concerning this he does three things. First, he sets forth the example with respect to the fault of idolatry: "she went away by herself" — following her own impulses, not my precepts; and of disobedience: "and I said." 4 Kings 17: "they made for themselves statues and groves on every high hill and under every leafy tree, and they burned incense there upon altars after the manner of the nations." And as to the punishment, which became known to them: "and the treacherous sister saw" — because they arose from the same fathers. "I would have given her a bill": it preserves the likeness of the harlot, in whom foulness is found. But on the contrary, Isaiah 50: "what is this bill of divorce?" And it must be said that God does not send anyone away, so far as it pertains to himself; but man, sinning, sends him away: hence in the same place: "you were sold for your iniquities, and for your crimes I sent away your mother." Second, he sets forth the contempt: "and her treacherous sister Judah did not fear." "With the stone" — that is, with the stone idol. 4 Kings 17: "but neither did Judah himself keep the commandments of the Lord his God; but he erred, and walked in the errors of Israel which he had wrought." Third, he aggravates the guilt: "and the Lord said to me: she has justified" — comparatively, because the ten tribes had not seen the punishment of the others, nor were they corrected. Ezekiel 16: "you have justified your sisters in all your abominations which you have wrought."”
“And yet for all this,.... Though the two tribes saw the lightness and filthiness of the sin Israel was guilty of, and how the land was defiled with it, the stupidity of it, and the punishment inflicted on account of it: her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the Lord; there was a show of reformation in Josiah's time, but it was but a show; there was no true, hearty cordial repentance for the sin of idolatry, only a feigned one; there was an outward removal of it, and reformation from it, but inwardly the desires of the heart were to it; the good king, with some few others, were hearty in it, but the greater part played the hypocrite; the following reigns proved the truth of this.”
“Falsehood. Their reform was only apparent, under Joas, &c. (Calmet)”
“yet--notwithstanding the lesson given in Israel's case of the fatal results of apostasy. not . . . whole heart--The reformation in the eighteenth year of Josiah was not thorough on the part of the people, for at his death they relapsed into idolatry (Ch2 34:33; Hos 7:14).”
The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.