2 Kings 22

2Ki 22:1, 2.

JOSIAH'S

GOOD

REIGN.

1, 2. Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign--Happier than

his grandfather Manasseh, he seems to have fallen during his minority

under the care of better guardians, who trained him in the principles

and practice of piety; and so strongly had his young affections been

enlisted on the side of true and undefiled religion, that he continued

to adhere all his life, with undeviating perseverance, to the cause of

God and righteousness.

2Ki 22:3-7.

HE

PROVIDES FOR THE

REPAIR OF THE

TEMPLE.

3, 4. in the eighteenth year of king Josiah--Previous to this period,

he had commenced the work of national reformation. The preliminary

steps had been already taken; not only the builders were employed, but

money had been brought by all the people and received by the Levites at

the door, and various other preparations had been made. But the course

of this narrative turns on one interesting incident which happened in

the eighteenth year of Josiah's reign, and hence that date is

specified. In fact the whole land was thoroughly purified from every

object and all traces of idolatry. The king now addressed himself to

the repair and embellishment of the temple and gave directions to

Hilkiah the high priest to take a general survey, in order to ascertain

what was necessary to be done

(see on

2Ch 34:8-15).

2Ki 22:8-15.

HILKIAH

FINDS THE

BOOK OF THE

LAW.

8-11. Hilkiah said . . . I have found the book of the law in the house

of the Lord, &c.--that is, the law of Moses, the Pentateuch. It

was the temple copy which, had been laid

(De 31:25, 26)

beside the ark in the most holy place. During the ungodly reigns of

Manasseh and Amon--or perhaps under Ahaz, when the temple itself had

been profaned by idols, and the ark also

(2Ch 35:3)

removed from its site; it was somehow lost, and was now found again

during the repair of the temple [KEIL]. Delivered

[2Ki 22:8],

it was by the latter shown and read to the king. It is thought, with

great probability, that the passage read to the king, and by which the

royal mind was so greatly excited, was a portion of Deuteronomy, the

twenty-eighth, twenty-ninth, and thirtieth chapters, in which is

recorded a renewal of the national covenant, and an enumeration of the

terrible threats and curses denounced against all who violated the law,

whether prince or people. The impressions of grief and terror which the

reading produced on the mind of Josiah have seemed to many

unaccountable. But, as it is certain from the extensive and familiar

knowledge displayed by the prophets, that there were numbers of other

copies in popular circulation, the king must have known its sacred

contents in some degree. But he might have been a stranger to the

passage read him, or the reading of it might, in the peculiar

circumstances, have found a way to his heart in a manner that he never

felt before. His strong faith in the divine word, and his painful

consciousness that the woeful and long-continued apostasies of the

nation had exposed them to the infliction of the judgments denounced,

must have come with overwhelming force on the heart of so pious a

prince.

12-15. the king commanded . . . Go, inquire of the Lord for me,

&c.--The agitated feelings of the king prompted him to ask immediate

counsel how to avert those curses under which his kingdom lay; and

forthwith a deputation of his principal officers was sent to one

endowed with the prophetic spirit.

Ahikam--a friend of Jeremiah

(Jer 26:24).

14. Achbor--or Abdon

(2Ch 34:20),

a man of influence at court

(Jer 26:22).

The occasion was urgent, and therefore they were sent--not to Zephaniah

(Zep 1:1),

who was perhaps young--nor to Jeremiah, who was probably absent at his

house in Anathoth, but to one who was at hand and known for her

prophetic gifts--to Huldah, who was probably at this time a widow. Her

husband Shallum was grandson of one Harhas, "keeper of the wardrobe."

If this means the priestly wardrobe, [Harhas] must have been a Levite.

But it probably refers to the royal wardrobe.

she dwelt . . . in the college--rather, "in the Misnah," taking

the original word as a proper name, not a school or college, but a

particular suburb of Jerusalem. She was held in such veneration that

Jewish writers say she and Jehoiada the priest were the only persons

not of the house of David

(2Ch 24:15, 16)

who were ever buried in Jerusalem.

15-20. she said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Tell the

man that sent you to me--On being consulted, she delivered an oracular

response in which judgment was blended with mercy; for it announced the

impending calamities that at no distant period were to overtake the

city and its inhabitants. But at the same time the king was consoled

with an assurance that this season of punishment and sorrow should not

be during his lifetime, on account of the faith, penitence, and pious

zeal for the divine glory and worship which, in his public capacity and

with his royal influence, he had displayed.