2 Kings 22

2 KINGS CHAPTER 22

Josiah’s Reign in Judah (22:1-23:30)

Josiah Repairs the Temple

• • • Josiah was 8 years old when he became king and he reigned for 31 years in Jerusalem. His mother, whose name was Jedidah, was from Bozkath, and her father’s name was Adaiah. He did what was right in Yahweh’s eyes and followed all the ways of his ancestor David, not turning aside to the right or the left.

• • • • HCSB writes, “Josiah reigned ’31 years’ from 640-609 BC…’To the right or to the left’ is an allusion to Dt 17:20, where the ideal king perfectly obeys the law. Josiah joined the exalted company of David and Hezekiah, serving the Lord with his whole heart.”

• • • In the 18^th year of King Josiah’s reign, he sent the court secretary Shaphan, who was Azaliah’s son and Meshullam’s grandson, to the house of Yahweh with the following instructions: “Go up to the high priest Hilkiah and have him count the silver that the gatekeepers have collected from the people at the house of Yahweh. Entrust it to the men assigned to supervise the work on Yahweh’s house. Have those men pay the workers who repair Yahweh’s house- the carpenters, the builders, and the masons. Also have them buy the wood and chiseled stone for the repairs. But don’t require them to keep an accounting of the money they receive because they are honest and trustworthy in their dealings.

• • • • NLT Illustrated Study Bible says, “By the eighteenth year of his reign (621 BC), Josiah had been devoted to the Lord for ten years (see 2 Chr 34:3-7). Hilkiah the high priest was from the line of Zadok (1 Chr 9:10-11). Some scholars suggest that this Hilkiah was Jeremiah’s father (Jer 1:1)…”

• • • • ESV Study Bible notes, “Josiah’s initial concern is simply to repair the temple, like Joash in 12:1-16, not to reform its worship. In fact, the reforms introduced by Joash some 200 years previously are still in place: it is still the task of the doorkeepers to collect the money for temple repairs, and it is the task of the secretary to oversee, with the high priest, the counting and distribution of the money to the men in charge of the work.”

Hilkiah Finds the Book of Law

• • • Hilkiah the high priest told Shaphan the court secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the house of Yahweh.” Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan and he read it. Shaphan the court secretary went and reported to the king, “Your servants have turned over the silver collected at Yahweh’s house to the workers and supervisors assigned to Yahweh’s house.” Then Shaphan the court secretary told the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” Then he read from it in the king’s presence. When the king heard the words in the Book of Law he tore his clothes. Then the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, Shaphan’s son Ahikam, Micaiah’s son Akbor, Shaphan the court secretary, and Asaiah the king’s servant, “Go and inquire of Yahweh for me, and for the people, and for all of Judah concerning what is written in this book that has been found. The wrath of Yahweh that has been kindled against us is great because our ancestors have not obeyed the words of this book by doing all that it instructs us to do.”

• • • • Guzik writes, “According to Deuteronomy 31:24-27, there was to be a copy of this Book of the Law beside the ark of the covenant, beginning in the days of Moses. The word of God was with Israel, but it was greatly neglected in those days…Deuteronomy 17:18-20 tells us that each king was to have a personal copy of the law, and he was to read it. Deuteronomy 31:9-13 tells us that the entire law was to be read to an assembly of the nation once every 7 years at the Feast of Tabernacles to keep the law before the people. The Levites, scattered among the country, also had the implied responsibility to teach the law to the people of Israel. The first we know of a public reading of the law is in Joshua 8:30. The next we hear of it is during the reign of Jehoshaphat (2 Chronicles 17:7), more than 500 years later. Then, in the reign of Josiah there was another public reading of the law (2 Chronicles 34:30), more than 250 years after Jehoshaphat. Of course, there might have been public readings of the law as commanded here which are not recorded; but the fact that some are recorded probably means they were unusual, not typical.”

• • • • NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible says, “The Hebrew word translated ‘book’ in 2 Ki 22:10 refers generally to a document, which could have been composed of various materials (clay tablet, parchment, papyrus, wax tablet). Bound books had not yet been invented, and written material tended to be used for official documents stored in archives. Temples had archives as well as foundation deposits, and this document could have been found in such locations…”

• • • • There is a lot of debate regarding what content is referenced by the “Book of Law.” Pulpit Commentary has this to say:

• • • • • “There has been great difference of opinion as to what it was which Hilkiah had found. Ewald believes it to have been the Book of Deuteronomy, which had, he thinks, been composed some thirty or forty years before in Egypt by a Jewish exile, and had found its way, by a sort of chance, into Palestine, where ‘some priest’ had placed a copy of it in the temple (‘History of Israel,’ vol. 4. pp. 233-235). Thenius suggests ‘a collection of the laws and ordinances of Moses, which was afterwards worked up into the Pentateuch;’ Bertheau, ‘the three middle books of the Pentateuch, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers;’ Gramberg, ‘Exodus by itself.’ But there seem to be no sufficient grounds for questioning the ancient opinion – that of Josephus, and of the Jews generally – that it was a copy of the entire Pentateuch. (So De Wette, ‘Einleitung in das Alt. Test.,’ § 162 a; Keil, ‘Commentary on Kings,’ pp. 477, 478; Bahr, ‘Commentary,’ vol. 6. p. 257; and others). The words…’the book of the Law,’ are really sufficient to decide the point; since, as Keil says, they ‘cannot mean anything else, either grammatically or historically, than the Mosaic book of the Law (the Pentateuch), which is so designated, as is generally admitted, in the Chronicles and the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah.’ The same conclusion follows from the expression, ‘the book of the covenant’…in 2 Kings 23:2, and also from 2 Kings 23:24, 25, and 2 Chronicles 34:14. Whether or no the copy was the actual original deposited in the ark of the covenant by Moses (Deuteronomy 31:26), as Keil believes, is doubtful. As Egyptian manuscripts which are from three to four thousand years old still exist in good condition, there can be no reason why a manuscript of Moses’ time should not have been found and have been legible in Josiah’s. But, if not the actual handwriting of Moses, it was probably its lineal descendant – the copy made for the temple service, and kept ordinarily ‘in the side of the ark’ – which may well have been lost in the time of Manasseh or Amen, and which was now happily ‘found.’ We need not suppose that Shaphan read the whole. But he read enough to show him how important the work was, and how necessary it was to make it known to the king.”

Huldah’s Prophecy of Judgment

• • • So Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Akbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went to the Second Quarter of Jerusalem to speak with Huldah the prophetess. Her husband’s name was Shallum, and he was Tikvah’s son and Harhas’s grandson. Shallum was the keeper of the wardrobe. Huldah told them, “This is what Yahweh, the God of Israel says: ‘Tell the man who sent you to Me: “This is what Yahweh has said: ‘I am about to bring disaster on this place and its inhabitants in accordance with everything written in the book the king of Judah has read. Because they have abandoned Me and offered sacrifices to other gods in order to provoke Me to anger with all the work of their hands, therefore My anger will burn against this place and will not be quenched.’” Say this to the king of Judah who sent you to inquire of Yahweh: “This is what Yahweh, the God of Israel has said, ‘As for the words that you heard, because your heart was penitent and you humbled yourself before Yahweh when you heard how I spoke against this place and its inhabitants- that they would become an object of horror and an example of a curse- and because you have torn your clothes and wept before Me, I have also heard you,’ says Yahweh. ‘Therefore, I will indeed gather you to your ancestors, and you will be buried in peace. You will not have to witness all the disaster that I will bring upon this place.’”’” Then they brought her report back to the king.

• • • • ESV Study Bible writes, “It was not Jeremiah or Zepheniah (Jer 1:2; Zeph 1:1) who was confused, but an obscure prophetess who was the wife of a court official or perhaps of one of the temple personnel (it is not clear whether Shallum was in charge of the wardrobe of the king or of the priests). Huldah lived in the Second Quarter of Jerusalem, probably a residential area on the western hill. Her words confirm what is already known from the unnamed prophets of 2 Kings 21: the Lord is going to bring disaster on Jerusalem and its people. Because Josiah humbled himself before the Lord, he will not personally see all the disaster that is to fall on Jerusalem. He will die before the terrible events prophesied in 21:12-14 and 22:15-17 come to pass.”

• • • Guzik lists 3 ways in which God’s promise to Josiah was fulfilled, “Though Josiah died in battle, there are at least three ways that this was true. He died before the great spiritual disaster and exile came to Judah. He was gathered to the spirits of his fathers, who were in peace. He died in God’s favor, though by the hand of an enemy.”

• • • • Guzik continues, “This was God’s mercy to Josiah. His own godliness and tender heart could not stop the eventual judgment of God, but it could delay it. Inevitable judgment is sometimes delayed because of the tender hearts of the people of God. God delayed judgment even in the case of Ahab, who responded to a word of warning with a kind of repentance (1 Kings 21:25-29).”

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