2 Kings 15:35

My Notes

What Does 2 Kings 15:35 Mean?

"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 RECURRING REFRAIN of Judah's good-but-incomplete kings: Jotham does what is right (verse 34), builds the upper gate of the temple, and yet — the high places REMAIN. The local shrines persist. The reform is real but limited. The king's personal faithfulness doesn't extend to the nation's worship-practices.

The phrase "the high places were not removed" (raq habamot lo saru — only the high places were not removed) appears for NEARLY EVERY good king of Judah: Asa (1 Kings 15:14), Jehoshaphat (1 Kings 22:43), Joash (2 Kings 12:3), Amaziah (2 Kings 14:4), Azariah/Uzziah (2 Kings 15:4), and now Jotham. The refrain is a DRUMBEAT — the same unresolved problem repeated across generations. The high places that Asa didn't remove still stand under Jotham, six kings later.

The contrast — building the temple gate WHILE leaving the high places — shows SELECTIVE reform: Jotham invests in the CENTRAL sanctuary (building the higher gate) but doesn't address the DISTRIBUTED problem (village high places throughout the countryside). The capital improves. The countryside doesn't. The visible reforms happen at the center. The invisible compromises persist at the periphery.

Reflection Questions

• 1.What compromise have you been passing to the next season instead of addressing?
• 2.What does the SAME refrain appearing for six consecutive kings teach about systemic failure across generations?
• 3.How does building the temple gate WHILE leaving high places describe selective reform — impressive at the center, compromised at the edges?
• 4.What distributed, unglamorous, politically costly reform are you avoiding while doing visible improvements?

Devotional

The REFRAIN again: 'the high places were not removed.' Six good kings now. Same sentence. Same unresolved problem. The high places that were supposed to be removed under Asa are STILL STANDING under Jotham. Generations pass. The problem persists. The reform that should have happened ages ago still hasn't happened.

Jotham BUILDS the upper gate of the temple — a significant architectural achievement at the center of worship. The investment in the central sanctuary is REAL. The king cares about God's house. He improves it, expands it, beautifies it. And the village shrines across the countryside remain untouched. The CENTER looks great. The PERIPHERY stays compromised.

This is the pattern of SELECTIVE reform: doing the visible, impressive, central work while leaving the distributed, unglamorous, widespread problem alone. Building a temple gate is a PUBLIC achievement. Removing village shrines across the countryside is TEDIOUS, politically costly, and invisible. The gate gets praise. The high-place removal gets resistance. So the gate gets built and the high places stay.

The ACCUMULATION of the refrain across six kings is the narrator's critique: the problem isn't one king's failure. It's a SYSTEMIC failure. The high places persist because no king is willing to pay the political cost of removing them. Each generation inherits the problem and passes it to the next. The responsibility shifts generation by generation. The high places remain generation by generation.

What 'high places' — what distributed, unglamorous compromise — have you been passing to the next season instead of removing?

Commentary

Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.

Cross References

Related passages throughout Scripture