2 Chronicles 31:1

When all this was finished. When the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which followed it, were over.

All Israel. The entire body of worshipers who were present, including those from the territory of the northern kingdom as well as Judah.

The images. Literally, “pillars,” common among the native Canaanite cults (see on Gen. 28:18).

The groves. The Asherim, or sacred trees. They were emblematic of physical fertility (see on chs. 14:3; 33:7).

In Ephraim. This blow against idolatry was struck in “all Judah and Benjamin,” and in addition, “in Ephraim also and Manasseh,” probably not as completely in the latter, inasmuch as the word “all” is used in connection with the territories of Judah. The question may be raised as to why such strong measures against the idolatrous system of religion were permitted in the apostate nation of Israel. These measures no doubt would have been impossible some years earlier. But Israel was now only a shadow of its former greatness. The major part of its territory had already been overrun by Assyria and multitudes of its people taken away captive; and now the weakened remnant of the nation was facing its final doom.

The judgments that had already fallen and the messages of the prophets had made their impression, even though the people had not been weaned from their idolatry (see PK 287, 336). But under these conditions there was possibly enough fear or apathy in the population to weaken their opposition to the zealous minority who returned from Jerusalem, destroying altars and images wherever they went.

Another possibility is that “all Israel that were present,” including the hosts of Judah and Benjamin, after going through the cities of the southern kingdom, were invited by the Israelite minority in attendance to extend the crusade to Israel. If groups from such a spontaneous popular rising had made flying raids on a number of high places in Ephraim and Manasseh, their success would not be surprising under the conditions existing at that time in the northern kingdom. Details are lacking, however, as to how the destruction of the Israelite idolatrous shrines was accomplished, and there is no indication that Hezekiah actually took any official action outside of his own kingdom, for “thus did Hezekiah throughout all Judah” (v. 20).