2 Kings 15:35

Howbeit the high places were not removed: the people sacrificed and burned incense still in the high places. He built the higher gate of the house of the LORD.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

He built the higher gate - Jotham followed the example of his father in military, no less than in religious, matters (compare the marginal reference with 2 Chronicles 26:9). The "higher" or "upper gate" of the temple is thought to have been that toward the north; and its fortification would seem to indicate fear of an attack from that quarter.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

35. the higher gate of the house of the Lord—not the temple itself, but one of its courts; probably that which led into the palace (2Ch 23:20).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Not of the temple, properly so called; but of one of the courts of the temple, probably that which led to the king’s palace, 2 Chronicles 23:20; called also the new gate, Jeremiah 26:10 36:10.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Howbeit the high places were not removed,.... As they were not by his father, and the same is observed of the best of kings before:

the people sacrificed and burnt incense still in the high places; from which they could not be brought off by prophets or kings:

he built the higher gate of the house of the Lord; which was between the temple and the king's palace, which led to it; this he repaired and beautified, or added something to it; or otherwise it was built by Solomon, and therefore called the new gate, Jeremiah 26:10 it is the same that was afterwards called the gate of Nicanor; the east gate, as say the Jewish writers (k).

(k) T. Bab. Sotah, fol. 7. 1. Gloss. in ib. Maimon. Cele Hamikdash, c. 7. sect. 6.

Geneva Study Bible

Howbeit the high places were not removed: the people sacrificed and burned incense still in the high places. He built the higher gate of the house of the LORD.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

35. Howbeit the high places] In 2 Chronicles it is merely said ‘the people did yet corruptly’.

He built the higher [R.V. upper] gate of the house of the Lord] By ‘build’ is only meant ‘restore’ or ‘beautify’. The gate existed before. The temple stood on a slope, of which the northern side was the highest and the gate on that side was the one of which Jotham made some restoration. The account of his buildings is somewhat fuller in 2 Chronicles. ‘On the wall of Ophel he built much. Moreover he built cities in the hill-country of Judah, and in the forests he built castles and towers’. His success in war, also unnoticed by the compiler of Kings, is dwelt on by the Chronicler. He fought with the Ammonites and conquered them, and the children of Ammon paid him in that year a hundred talents of silver, ten thousand measures of wheat, and the same quantity of barley, and they continued the payment for a second and a third year. ‘So Jotham became mighty because he prepared his ways before the Lord his God’.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 35. - Howbeit the high places were not removed: the people sacrificed and burned incense, still in the high places. He built the higher gate of the house of the Lord. The "higher gate "is thought to be that towards the north, and its fortification implied a fear of attack from that quarter. It must have become amply evident to the kings of Judah, at any rate from the time of the attack on Menahem (ver. 19), that the independence of both kingdoms was menaced by Assyria, and that it was of great importance that their principal fortresses should be placed in a state of efficient defense. Azariah had paid great attention to the fortifying and arming of Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 26:9, 15), and his son now followed in his footsteps. From 2 Chronicles 27:3 we learn that he not only built the high gate of the temple, but also "on the wall of Ophel built much," Nor was he content with fortifying the capital. He also "built cities in the mountains of Judah, and in the forests he built castles and towers." Tiglath-pileser had made war on his father ('Eponym Canon,' pp. 117, 118). He felt that any day his own turn might come. 2 Kings 15:35

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Reign of Jotham of Judah (cf. 2 Chronicles 27:1-9). - 2 Kings 15:32. "In the second year of Pekah Jotham began to reign." This agrees with the statement in 2 Kings 15:27, that Pekah became king in the last year of Uzziah, supposing that it occurred at the commencement of the year. Jotham's sixteen years therefore came to a close in the seventeenth year of Pekah's reign (2 Kings 16:1). His reign was like that of his father Uzziah (compare 2 Kings 15:34, 2 Kings 15:35 with 2 Kings 15:3, 2 Kings 15:4), except, as is added in Chr. 2 Kings 15:2, that he did not force himself into the temple of the Lord, as Uzziah had done (2 Chronicles 26:16). All that is mentioned of his enterprises in the account before us is that he built the upper gate of the house of Jehovah, that is to say, that he restored it, or perhaps added to its beauty. The upper gate, according to Ezekiel 9:2 compared with 2 Kings 8:3, 2 Kings 8:5,2 Kings 8:14 and 2 Kings 8:16, is the gate at the north side of the inner or upper court, where all the sacrifices were slaughtered, according to Ezekiel 40:38-43. We also find from 2 Chronicles 27:3. that he built against the wall of Ophel, and several cities in the mountains of Judah, and castles and towers in the forests, and subdued the Ammonites, so that they paid him tribute for three years. Jotham carried on with great vigour, therefore, the work which his father had began, to increase the material prosperity of his subjects.