The Second Book of the Chronicles
2 Chronicles 34
Chapter XXXIV · Vol. II, pp. 885–887
1 Josiah's good reign. 3 He destroyeth idolatry. 8 He provideth for the repairs of the temple. 14 Hilkiah having found the book of the law, Josiah sendeth to Huldah to inquire of the Lord. 23 Huldah prophesieth the destruction of Jerusalem, but respite thereof in Josiah's time. 29 Josiah, causing it to be read in a solemn assembly, reneweth the covenant with God.
1 Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign; and he reigned in Jerusalem one and thirty years.
2 And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the ways of David his father, and declined neither to the right hand nor to the left.1
1 He carried on his reformation with a steady hand; timidity did not prevent him from going far enough, and zeal did not lead him beyond due bounds. He walked in the golden mean, and his moderation was known unto all men. He looked not to the right hand or the left, but inward, forward, and upward. Reader, let the conduct of this pious youth be thy example through life.—I.
3 For in the eighth year of his 2reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father: and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images.
2 No limit of age can be prescribed to the spirit and grace of God. The call to the vineyard may be not only in the eleventh hour of a nation, but of an individual, Mat. 20. 6. Lu. 23. 43. Still, early conversions are the most common and the most hopeful. A young king, surrounded by all the fascinations of a court, yet fixing his heart on heaven; beset by flatterers, yet listening only to the word of truth, the Spirit of God, and his own conscience; tempted by the example of paternal idolatry, yet steadily determined upon a godly reformation;—such was Josiah—such is the beauty of early piety.—C.
4 And they brake down the altars of Baalim in his presence; and the images3 that were on high above them he cut down; and the 4groves, and the carved images, and the molten images, he brake in pieces, and made dust of them, and strowed it upon the graves of them that had sacrificed unto them.5
3 Or, sun images.
4 The Hebrew word translated 'groves,' both here and in ver. 7, is asherim, which means 'images of Astarte.'—P.
A.M. 3363. B.C. 641.
5 There has been in all ages a desire amongst superstitious people of being buried in places of imaginary sanctity. The sun-worshippers seem to have prepared their tombs near their temples, and thus to have furnished a ready means for polluting the relics of their abominable idolatry.—C.
6 And so bdid he in the cities of Manasseh, and Ephraim, and Simeon even unto Naphtali with their mattocks6 round about.7
b ch.30.1,10,11.
6 Or, mauls. By his friendship with the Assyrians, or through their weakness, he had power over these places.
7 Hammers, pick-axes, crowbars, and such instruments as could be employed to demolish idolatrous images and altars.—C.
7 And when he had broken down the altars and the groves, and had beaten the graven images cinto powder, and cut down all the idols throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem.
8 Now, din the eighteenth year of his reign,8 when he had purged the land, and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder, to erepair the house of the LORD his God.
9 And when they came to Hilkiah the high priest, they fdelivered the money that was brought into the house of God, which the Levites that kept the doors had gathered of the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim, and of all the remnant of Israel, and of all Judah and Benjamin; and they returned to Jerusalem.9
10 And they put it in gthe hand of the workmen that had the oversight of the house of the LORD, and they gave it to the workmen that wrought in the house of the LORD, to repair and amend the house;
11 Even to the artificers and builders gave they it, to buy hewn stone, and timber for couplings, and to floor1 the houses which the kingsh of Judah had destroyed.2
1 Or, to rafter.
h ch.33.2,22.
2 The ruin of the temple must have been nearly complete, as walls, roofs, and floors alike require to be repaired. The walls had probably been partially pulled down, as is common in similar cases, for the erection of other buildings. The flat roofs would suffer for want of repairs more speedily than those of angular form; and the destruction of the floors, independently of depredation, would soon follow from the free access of the rain.—Note, This is a sad picture of the ruin of the house of God. How much more sad the state of a soul which pride, or 'covetousness, which is idolatry,' or deceitful lusts, have destroyed!—C.
12 And the men did the work ifaithfully: and the overseers of them were Jahath and Obadiah, the Levites, of the sons of Merari; and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the sons of the Kohathites, to set it forward; and other of the Levites, kall that could skill of instruments of music.3
i 2 Ki.22.7; 12.15. Ne.7.2. Pr.28.20. 2 Ti.2.2. 1 Co.4.2.
k 2 Sa.23.1,2. 1 Ch.6.31-48; xv. xxv.
3 Why the sacred musicians were the overseers is not declared, yet there must have been some reason for the selection. May it not have had reference to the fact, that as in the building of the temple 'there was no sound of hammer nor axe, nor any tool of iron heard,' 1 Ki. 6. 7, so it should be in the repairing, and that the 'bearers of burdens' should march, and the other artificers work, to the sound of music and the voice of praise? See Zec.4.7.—C.
13 Also they were lover the bearers of burdens, and were overseers of all that wrought the work in any manner of service: and mof the Levites there were scribes, and officers, and porters.
l ch.2.18,8.10.
m 1 Ch.23.4,5; xxv. xxvi.
14 And when they brought out the money that was brought into the house of the LORD, Hilkiah the priest nfound a book of the law of the LORD given by4 Moses.5
4 Heb. by the hand of.
5 See note on 2 Ki.22.8. There is every reason to conclude that this book was the autograph of Moses, for though there are fifteen places in the Old Testament where the 'law of Moses' and 'book of Moses' are mentioned, yet in this place alone is it called 'the book of the law, in, or by, the hand of Moses.' C.——This should be translated 'The Book of the Law of Jehovah by the hand of Moses,' and any unprejudiced reader would infer from the words that it was the original copy, which by the command of Moses had been laid up beside the ark. Kennicott says regarding the words of this verse:—"'Tis scarce possible for words more naturally to describe a book written by Moses himself, or to vouch more fully that the MS. of the law then found was in the handwriting of Moses. And perhaps all doubt will be removed when 'tis considered farther that, though there are fifteen places in the Old Testament which mention the words law of Moses and book of Moses, yet this one place only mentions the book of the law in the hand of Moses.'—P.
15 And Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the LORD. And Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan.
16 And Shaphan carried the book to the king, and brought the king word back again, saying, All that was committed to6 thy servants, they do it.
A.M. 3381. B.C. 623.
6 Heb. to the hand of.
17 And they have tgathered together the money that was found in the house of the LORD, and have delivered it into the hand of the overseers, and to the hand of the workmen.
t Heb. poured out or melted, 2 Ki.22.9.
18 Then Shaphan7 the scribe told the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest hath given me a book. And Shaphan read it8 beforeu the king.
7 Both priests and people omitting the reading of the law, publicly and privately (for the public omission caused a private neglect), no wonder that upon finding the book of the law, and hearing it read, they were startled at it, as if one were risen from the dead.—Capellus in Patrick.
8 Heb. in it.
19 And it came to pass, when the king had heard the xwords of the law, that he yrent his clothes.9
x De.17.19; 28.3-68. Le.26.3-39.
y Ge.37.34. Ps.119.120. Joel 2.13.
9 The Hebrew books being written on long rolls, the prophetic threatenings of Deuteronomy would, most probably, be unfolded first, and if so, they were well calculated to produce the deep emotion of the king. See ver. 24.—C.
20 And the king commanded Hilkiah, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and zAbdon the son of Micah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah a servant of the king's, saying,
z Or, Achbor, 2 Ki.22.12.
21 Go, inquire of the LORD for me, and for them that are aleft in Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book that is found: for bgreat is the wrath of the LORD that is poured out upon us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the LORD, to do after all that is written in this book.
b De.xxviii.-xxxii. Le.xxvi.
22 And Hilkiah, and they that the king had appointed, went to Huldah the cprophetess, the wife of Shallum, the son of Tikvath, the son of dHasrah, keeper of the wardrobe;1 (now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the 2college;3 and they spake to her to that effect.
d Or, Harhas, 2 Ki.22.14.
1 Heb. garments.
2 Or, in the school or in the second part.
3 Literally, 'in the second,' viz. city, a phrase nearly akin to the English New-town so frequently applied to a part of ancient cities. C.——See note on 2 Ki. 22. 14.—P.
24 Thus saith the LORD, Behold, fI will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the curses that are written in the book which they have read before the king of Judah:
f ch.36.6,17. Is.5.5. De.xxviii.-xxxii.; 4.25-28; 6.14,15; 8.19,20. Da.9.12. Le.xxvi.
25 Because gthey have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore my wrath shall be poured out upon this place, and shall not be quenched.
g ch.12.2; 15.2; 33.3-9,22,23. Is.2.8. Mi.5.13. 2 Ki.23.26,27; 24.4. Je.15.4.
26 And as for the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the LORD, so shall ye say unto him, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel concerning the words which thou hast heard;
27 Because thine heart was htender,4 and thou didst humble thyself before God, when thou heardest his words against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, and humbledst thyself before me, and didst rend thy clothes, and weep before me; I have even heard thee also, saith the LORD.
h De.20.3. 2 Ki.22.19. Ps.51.16,17; 34.4,6. Le.26.40,41. Pr.28.13. 1 Ki.21.27,29.
4 Tender in receiving instruction as a little child; tender in trembling at the voice of an offended God; tender in acknowledging the justice of his sentence; tender in commiserating the self-induced evils of his country. See Mat. 18. 3. Lu. 19. 41.—C.
28 Behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave iin peace, neither shall thine eyes see all the evil that I will bring upon this place, and upon the inhabitants of the same. So they brought the king word again.
A.M. 3381. B.C. 623.
i Is.57.1,2. 2 Ki.22.20. Ps.37.37. Je.34.5. ch.35.24. He died in peace with God and his own conscience.
29 Thenk the king sent and gathered together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem.3
k 2 Ki.23.1-3. ch.30.1. Jos.23.2; 24.1, &c.
3 B.C. 623.
30 And the king went up into the house of the LORD, and all the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests, and the Levites, and all the people, great and small;4 and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant that was found5 in the house of the LORD.
4 Heb. from great, even to small.
5 Undoubtedly there were many copies of the law of God in Israel, as reference is so familiarly made to it in the reign of Hezekiah, see ch.30.16,18,19,22; 31.3,4,21; yet we need not be surprised at the excited attention now directed to it; as a similar relic of antiquity, even in a land the most familiarized with books, would still be found an object calling forth intense curiosity in all, and make a new and deepened impression upon minds piously disposed.—C.
31 And the king stood in lhis place, and madem a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD, and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies, and his statutes, with all his heart, and with all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant which are written in this book.
32 And he ncaused all that were present6 in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand to it. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers.
33 And Josiah otook away all the abominations out of all the countries that pertained to the children of Israel, and made7 all that were present in Israel to serve, even to serve the LORD their God. And pall his days they departed not from following8 the LORD, the God of their fathers.9
o 2 Ki.23.4-20. ver.3-7.
7 By the instrumentality of his exhortations, his example, and his piety, whereby the Spirit of God wrought this blessed reformation.—C.
8 Heb. from after.
9 Josiah's reign was an exact counterpart to that of Manasseh. The latter tolerated and established every form of worship except the true: Josiah established the true religion, and proscribed all others. He uprooted idolatry in the whole land. He was as thorough an iconoclast as John Knox. He shattered all images to pieces; he overthrew all altars; he desecrated all idol sanctuaries, and he summarily punished all idolatrous priests and people. He did not stop here. He was more than a mere destroyer of false systems. He was a reformer. He rebuilt the temple, re-established the national religion, reorganized the priesthood, and adopted all possible means for the instruction of the whole body of the people in the law of the Lord.—P.
Notes
[Ver. 7. Josiah was the most thorough and successful reformer of Old Testament history. His piety and zeal were, under God, mainly owing to the wise and holy men who had charge of his early training. Never had there been in the Jewish court such a noble band of high-minded and God-fearing men. Shaphan, the scribe, was chief. He had charge of the finances, and trained the young prince in political economy. Hilkiah, the high-priest, had charge of his religious education. Huldah, the prophetess, with her husband Shallum, were in close attendance as guides and advisers. The prince had a young companion, who for early piety, devoted patriotism, and clear insight into divine truth, had no superior in that or any other age—Jeremiah the prophet. Under such training, and in such society, Josiah could scarcely have failed to reform a corrupt church, and regenerate a degraded kingdom. P.]
Reflections.—Happy are they who hear and obey God's calls in the days of their youth! and indeed there are but few aged conversions. Happy is the nation whose sovereign sets before them the best example; zealously purges his dominion from temptations to destructive impieties; reforms the church in his nation; trembles at the words of the God of Israel; and under the apprehensions of his denounced wrath humbles himself; and labours to have all his subjects taught divine truths, fixed in them, and preserved from wickedness. And it is pleasant, after great prevailing impiety, to behold kings, ministers, and people harmoniously and heartily zealous for the instituted purity of God's worship, and solemnly devoting themselves, upon a new-covenant footing, to his service.