2 Kings 15:34 MEANING

Verse 34. - And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord: he did according to all that his father Uzziah had done. The author of Chronicles says the same, but adds, very pertinently, "Howbeit he entered not into the temple of the Lord" - i.e. he did not repeat his father's act of impiety. Josephus is still warmer in his praises. "This king," he says (l.s.c.), "was deficient in no manner of virtue; but was at once pious in things pertaining to God, and just in those pertaining to men. He was careful and watchful over the city; whatever needed reparation or adornment, he labored to supply strenuously, as the porticoes in the temple and the gates thereof; and where any part of the wall had gone to ruin, he raised it up again, and built towers of vast size and difficult to capture. And in all other matters pertaining to the kingdom, where there had been neglect, he applied great care and attention."

15:32-38 Jotham showed great respect to the temple. If magistrates cannot do all they would, for the suppressing of vice and profaneness, let them do the more to support and advance piety and virtue.And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord,.... Jarchi, in 2 Chronicles 27:2, observes, from a writer of theirs, that in all the kings of Judah before him, even in the best, some sins were found; but in Jotham there was nothing scandalous and reproachful; and it is a high character Josephus (i) gives of him, that there was no virtue wanting in him; he was pious towards God, just towards men, and careful of the public good; but the inspired historian chiefly respects matters of religious worship; he did not give into idolatry:

he did according to all that his father Uzziah had done; that is, according to what was well done by him; he did not imitate him in going into the temple to burn incense, which is particularly excepted. 2 Chronicles 27:2.

(i) Antiqu. l. 9. c. 11. sect. 2.