347. The King's Place
• 1 min. read • grade level: 8
2 Kings 11: 14. The king stood by a pillar as the manner was.
This “pillar” was some prominent place which the king was in the habit of occupying in the temple. It is also referred to in 2 Kings 23:33And the king stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all their heart and all their soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people stood to the covenant. (2 Kings 23:3). It is said in 2 Chronicles 34:3131And the king stood in his place, and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies, and his statutes, with all his heart, and with all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant which are written in this book. (2 Chronicles 34:31), that king Josiah “stood in his place.” The same word is there used that is here rendered “pillar.” It is supposed to have been an elevated stand or platform, and some commentators think it identical with the brazen scaffold which Solomon built in the center of the temple court. See 2 Chronicles 6:13; 23:1313For Solomon had made a brazen scaffold, of five cubits long, and five cubits broad, and three cubits high, and had set it in the midst of the court: and upon it he stood, and kneeled down upon his knees before all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven, (2 Chronicles 6:13)
13And she looked, and, behold, the king stood at his pillar at the entering in, and the princes and the trumpets by the king: and all the people of the land rejoiced, and sounded with trumpets, also the singers with instruments of music, and such as taught to sing praise. Then Athaliah rent her clothes, and said, Treason, Treason. (2 Chronicles 23:13).