Then the king sent and gathered,.... From hence, to the end of 2-Chronicles 34:32, the same account is given of the reading of the law to the people, and of the covenant the king and they made to serve the Lord, as in 2-Kings 23:1.

The reading of the book of the law in the temple, and the solemn renewal of the covenant, to which the king assembled the elders of Judah and Jerusalem, with all the people, after the saying of the prophetess Huldah had been reported to him, are recorded in 2-Kings 23:1-3 as they are in the Chronicle, and have been commented upon at the former passage. Only 2-Chronicles 34:32, the contents of which correspond to the words, "And the whole people entered into the covenant" (2-Kings 23:3), will need explanation. ויּעמד is usually translated, "he caused the people to enter into the covenant" (after 2 Kings). This is in substance correct, but exegetically cannot be defended, since בּבּרית does not precede, so as to allow of its here being supplied from the context. ויּעמד only signifies, he caused all who were in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand, and they did according to the covenant of God; whence we can easily supply in the first clause, "and to do according to the covenant." The collocation, "in Jerusalem and in Benjamin," is an abbreviation of the complete formula, "in Jerusalem and Judah and Benjamin;" then in the following clause only the inhabitants of Jerusalem are named as representatives of the inhabitants of the whole kingdom.