Matthew Poole and continuators on 2 Kings 23:15

15 ¶ Moreover, the altar that was at Beth[illegible: 1+ letters]el ▪ and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, both that altar, and the high place he brake down, and burnt the high place, and stampt it small to powder, and burnt the grove.

Quest. How could he rightly do this, seeing Bethel was a part of the Kingdom of Israel, not of Iudah? Ans. Either, First, This City was now under the Kingdom of Iudah, to which it was added by Abijah long since, 2 Chron. 13. 19. Or, Secondly, He did this by vertue of that ancient right which David and his posterity had to the Kingdom of Israel, which though suspended for a time by God's grant of the Ten Tribes to Ieroboam, and the succeeding Kings of Israel; yet these being all extinct, it might seem to return to him, at least so far as to pluck up Idolatry out of the Land of Israel, as he had opportunity, and especially out of those parts of it which bordered upon Iudah. Or, Thirdly, The King of Babylon having ingaged in a War with the Assyrian, Hezekiah's great enemy, and having thereupon occasion for Hezekiah's friendship, did (as some suppose) enlarge his Dominion, and give him some power over the Kingdom of Israel, at least as to matters of Religion: Which▪may seem not improbable from 2 Chron. 30. 1, 4, 5, 6. And the same power seems to have been continued, and some kind of League made between the King of Babylon and Manasseh (who thereupon was restored to his Kingdom, 2 Chron▪ 33. 13.) and after him Iosiah, who therefore was so zealous in his quarrel against the King o[illegible: 1+ letters] Egypt, 2 Chron. 35. 20, &c. Or, Fourthly, He did it in purseance of God's prediction concerning this action, 1 King. 13. 2. which (in a matter so good, and so agreeable to God's wi[illegible: 1+ letters] and word, as the extirpation of Idolatry unquestionably was) had the force of a warrant or command upon him to do it, as God's prediction of the Conversion of the Gentiles by the Messias, was a command to his Apostles to Preach to them, Act. 13. 47.

Which seems to have been some little Temple or House erected for that Worship, or for the Priests attending upon it.

Marginal references: 1 [illegible: 1 word].