1 Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign; and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath. 2 He did that which was right in the eyes of Yahweh, and walked in all the way of David his father, and didn't turn aside to the right hand or to the left. 3 It happened in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, that the king sent Shaphan, the son of Azaliah the son of Meshullam, the scribe, to the house of Yahweh, saying, 4 "Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, that he may sum the money which is brought into the house of Yahweh, which the keepers of the threshold have gathered of the people. 5 Let them deliver it into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of Yahweh; and let them give it to the workmen who are in the house of Yahweh, to repair the breaches of the house, 6 to the carpenters, and to the builders, and to the masons, and for buying timber and cut stone to repair the house. 7 However there was no accounting made with them of the money that was delivered into their hand; for they dealt faithfully." 8 Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the scribe, "I have found the book of the law in the house of Yahweh." Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan, and he read it. 9 Shaphan the scribe came to the king, and brought the king word again, and said, "Your servants have emptied out the money that was found in the house, and have delivered it into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of Yahweh." 10 Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, "Hilkiah the priest has delivered a book to me." Shaphan read it before the king. 11 It happened, when the king had heard the words of the book of the law, that he tore his clothes. 12 The king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Achbor the son of Micaiah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah the king's servant, saying, 13 "Go inquire of Yahweh for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found; for great is the wrath of Yahweh that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not listened to the words of this book, to do according to all that which is written concerning us." 14 So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam, and Achbor, and Shaphan, and Asaiah, went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe (now she lived in Jerusalem in the second quarter); and they talked with her. 15 She said to them, "Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: 'Tell the man who sent you to me, 16 "Thus says Yahweh, 'Behold, I will bring evil on this place, and on its inhabitants, even all the words of the book which the king of Judah has read. 17 Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the work of their hands, therefore my wrath shall be kindled against this place, and it shall not be quenched.'" 18 But to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of Yahweh, thus you shall tell him, "Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: 'Concerning the words which you have heard, 19 because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before Yahweh, when you heard what I spoke against this place, and against its inhabitants, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and have torn your clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard you,' says Yahweh. 20 'Therefore, behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, neither shall your eyes see all the evil which I will bring on this place.'"'" They brought back this message to the king.
Josiah succeeds Amon his father, and reigns thirty-one years, 2-Kings 22:1, 2-Kings 22:2. He repairs the breaches of the temple, 2-Kings 22:3-7. Hilkiah finds the book of the law in the temple, 2-Kings 22:8. It is read by Shaphan the scribe, before the king and his servants, 2-Kings 22:9, 2-Kings 22:10. The king, greatly affected, sends to inquire of Huldah the prophetess, 2-Kings 22:11-13. She delivers an afflictive prophecy concerning the evils that were coming upon the land, 2-Kings 22:14-17. But promises Josiah that these evils shall not come in his time, 2-Kings 22:18-20.
INTRODUCTION TO 2 KINGS 22
This chapter begins with the age and character of Josiah king of Judah, 2-Kings 22:1, relates his orders for repairing the temple, 2-Kings 22:3, his attention to the book of the law, which was found, and read to him, and the effect it had upon him, 2-Kings 22:8, the command he gave to certain persons to inquire of the Lord about it, who applied to Huldah the prophetess, 2-Kings 22:12, who returned an answer by them to the king, foretelling the destruction of Jerusalem, and giving the reason of it, and at the same time assuring the king it should not be in his days, 2-Kings 22:15.
(2-Kings 22:1-10) Josiah's good reign, His care for repairing the temple, The book of the law found.
(2-Kings 22:11-20) Josiah consults Huldah the prophetess.
Reign of King Josiah - 2 Kings 22:1-23:30
After a brief account of the length and spirit of the reign of the pious Josiah (2-Kings 22:1, 2-Kings 22:2), we have a closely connected narrative, in v. 3-23:24, of what he did for the restoration of idolatry; and the whole of the reform effected by him is placed in the eighteenth year of his reign, because it was in this year that the book of the law was discovered, through which the reformation of worship was carried to completion. It is evident that it was the historian's intention to combine together everything that Josiah did to this end, so as to form one grand picture, from the circumstance that he has not merely placed the chronological datum, "it came to pass in the eighteenth year of king Josiah," at the beginning, but has repeated it at the close (2-Kings 23:23). If we run over the several facts which are brought before us in this section-the repairing of the temple (2-Kings 22:3-7); the discovery of the book of the law; the reading of the book to the king; the inquiry made of the prophetess Huldah, and her prophecy (2-Kings 23:8-20); the reading of the law to the assembled people in the temple, with the renewal of the covenant (2-Kings 23:1-3); the eradication of idolatry not only from Jerusalem and Judah, but from Bethel also, and all the cities of Samaria (vv. 4-20); and, lastly, the passover (2-Kings 23:21-23), - there is hardly any need to remark, that all this cannot have taken place in the one eighteenth year of his reign, even if, with Usher (Annales ad a.m. 3381), we were to place the solemn passover at the close of the eighteenth year of Josiah's reign, which is hardly suitable, and by no means follows from the circumstance that the chronological datum, "in the eighteenth year," stands at the commencement of the complete account of the reform of worship introduced by that king. For we may clearly infer that the several details of this account are not arranged chronologically, but according to the subject-matter, and that the historian has embraced the efforts of Josiah to restore the legal worship of Jehovah, which spread over several years, under the one point of view of a discovery of the law, and therefore within the eighteenth year of his reign, from the fact that he introduces the account of the repairing of the temple (2-Kings 22:3-7) in a period by itself, and makes it subordinate to the account of the discovery of the book of the law, and indeed only mentions it in a general manner, because it led to the finding of the book of the law. It is true that the other facts are attached to one another in the narrative by Vav consec.; but, on a closer inspection of the several details, there cannot be any doubt whatever that the intention is not to arrange them in their chronological order. The repairing of the temple must have commenced before the eighteenth year of Josiah's reign, inasmuch as in that year, in which the incident occurred which led to the discovery of the book of the law (2-Kings 22:3-7), not only were the builders occupied with the repairs of the temple, but money had been brought by all the people to the house of God to carry on this work, and had been collected by the Levites who kept the door. Moreover, from the very nature of the case, we cannot conceive of the restoration of the temple, that had fallen to decay, without the removal of the idolatrous abominations found in the temple. And the assumption is an equally inconceivable one, that all the people entered into covenant with the Lord (2-Kings 23:3), before any commencement had been made towards the abolition of the prevailing idolatry, or that the pious king had the book of the law read in the temple and entered into covenant with the Lord, so long as the Ashera was standing in the temple, and the idolatrous altars erected by Manasseh in the courts, together with the horses and chariots dedicated to the sun. If the conclusion of a covenant in consequence of the public reading of the book of the law was to be an act in accordance with the law, the public memorials of idolatry must be destroyed at all events in the neighbourhood of the temple. And is it likely that the king, who had been so deeply moved by the curses of the law, would have undertaken so solemn a transaction in sight of the idolatrous altars and other abominations of idolatry in the house of Jehovah, and not rather have seen that this would be only a daring insult to Jehovah? These reasons are quite sufficient to prove that the extermination of idolatry had commenced before the eighteenth year of Josiah's reign, and had simply been carried out with greater zeal throughout the whole kingdom after the discovery of the book of the law.
This view of our account is simply confirmed by a comparison with the parallel history in 2 Chron 34 and 35. According to 2-Chronicles 34:3., Josiah began to seek the God of his father David in the eighth year of his reign, when he was still a youth, that is to say, not more than sixteen years old, and in the twelfth year of his reign began to purify Judah and Jerusalem from idolatry; and, according to 2-Chronicles 34:8., in the eighteenth year of his reign, at the purification of the land and temple, and the renovation of the temple, the book of the law was found by the high priest, and handed over to the king and read before him (vv. 8-28), after which the renewal of the covenant took place, and all the abominations of idolatry that still remained in the land were swept away (2-Chronicles 34:29-33), and, lastly, a solemn passover was celebrated, of which we have an elaborate account in 2 Chron. 35:1-19. Consequently the account given in the Chronicles is, on the whole, arranged with greater chronological precision, although even there, after the commencement of the extermination of idolatry has been mentioned, we have a brief and comprehensive statement of all that Josiah did to accomplish that results; so that after the renewal of the covenant (2-Chronicles 34:33) we have nothing more than a passing allusion, by way of summary, to the complete abolition of the abominations of idolatry throughout the whole land.
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