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2 Chronicles 34

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Josiah Begins His Righteous Reign 1–2

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. ​

Josiah Purges Idolatry from the Land 3–7

3
For in the eighth year of his reign, 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. ​
4
And they brake down the altars of Baalim in his presence; and the images, that were on high above them, he cut down; and the groves, 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
And he burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars, and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem. ​
6
And so did he in the cities of Manasseh, and Ephraim, and Simeon, even unto Naphtali, with their mattocks round about. ​
7
And when he had broken down the altars and the groves, and had beaten the graven images into powder, and cut down all the idols throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem.

Temple Repair Initiated 8–13

8
Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, 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 repair the house of the LORD his God. ​
9
And when they came to Hilkiah the high priest, they delivered 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.
10
And they put it in the 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 floor the houses which the kings of Judah had destroyed.
12
And the men did the work faithfully: 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, all that could skill of instruments of musick. ​
13
Also they were over the bearers of burdens, and were overseers of all that wrought the work in any manner of service: and of the Levites there were scribes, and officers, and porters.

Discovery of the Book of the Law 14–21

14
And when they brought out the money that was brought into the house of the LORD, Hilkiah the priest found a book of the law of the LORD given by Moses. ​
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 to thy servants, they do it.
17
And they have gathered 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.
18
Then Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest hath given me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king.
19
And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the law, that he rent his clothes. ​
20
And the king commanded Hilkiah, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Abdon the son of Micah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah a servant of the king's, saying,
21
Go, enquire of the LORD for me, and for them that are left in Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book that is found: for great 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. ​

Consultation with Huldah the Prophetess 22–28

22
And Hilkiah, and they that the king had appointed, went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvath, the son of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe; (now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the college:) and they spake to her to that effect. ​
23
And she answered them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Tell ye the man that sent you to me,
24
Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I 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:
25
Because they 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.
26
And as for the king of Judah, who sent you to enquire 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 tender, 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. ​
28
Behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in 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. ​

Renewal of the Covenant 29–33

29
Then the king sent and gathered together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. ​
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: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant that was found in the house of the LORD. ​
31
And the king stood in his place, and made 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 caused all that were present 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 took away all the abominations out of all the countries that pertained to the children of Israel, and made all that were present in Israel to serve, even to serve the LORD their God. And all his days they departed not from following the LORD, the God of their fathers. ​

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

Study Notes for 2 Chronicles 34

Verse 1

eight years old … one and thirty years — Josiah began as a child and reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. 2 Kgs 22:1 gives the same figures and names his mother, Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah. Jeremiah’s word came ‘in the days of Josiah … in the thirteenth year of his reign’ (Jer 1:2), and Zephaniah prophesied in his days (Zeph 1:1).

Verse 2

declined neither to the right hand, nor to the left — The Law’s measure for a king is ‘that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left’ (Deut 17:20). ‘Walked in the ways of David his father’ is the standard also given to Hezekiah, ‘according to all that David his father had done’ (29:2), and 2 Kgs 22:2 closely parallels this verse.

Verse 3

he began to seek after the God of David his father — ‘Seek’ is darash, the verb of 31:21, ‘to seek his God’. This was in the eighth year, ‘while he was yet young’; the purge began four years later. The words of Prov 8:17 fit it, ‘those that seek me early shall find me’, as does 2 Chr 15:2, ‘if ye seek him, he will be found of you’.

Verse 4

made dust of them, and strowed it upon the graves — The ‘images’ on high are chammanim, sun-pillars, named with the idols in Lev 26:30, ‘I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images’. Grinding to powder echoes Ex 32:20, where the calf was ‘ground … to powder’. 2 Kgs 23:6 records the powder cast ‘upon the graves of the children of the people’.

Verse 5

burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars — A man of God had foretold this at Bethel: ‘a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high places … and men’s bones shall be burnt upon thee’ (1 Kgs 13:2). 2 Kgs 23:16, 20 record the burning. ‘Cleansed’ is taher, as in 29:15.

Verse 6

the cities of Manasseh, and Ephraim, and Simeon, even unto Naphtali — Simeon’s inheritance lay ‘within the inheritance of the children of Judah’ (Josh 19:1) in the south, Naphtali in the far north, so the sweep covered the land. 2 Kgs 23:15 names the altar at Bethel. ‘Mattocks’ translates chereb, a cutting instrument, the word usually rendered ‘sword’.

Verse 8

in the eighteenth year of his reign — The purge of ‘the land, and the house’ (taher, to cleanse) came before the repair, which uses chazaq, the verb of 29:3 and 32:5. 2 Kgs 22:3 calls Shaphan ‘the scribe’. ‘Recorder’ is mazkir, one who reminds; Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud held that office under David (2 Sam 8:16).

Verse 12

the men did the work faithfully — ‘Faithfully’ is emunah, as of the workmen under Jehoash, ‘they dealt faithfully’ (2 Kgs 12:15). The Levite overseers were from Merari and Kohath, and ‘all that could skill of instruments of musick’ were Levites too. David had appointed four thousand Levites to praise the LORD ‘with the instruments which I made’ (1 Chr 23:5).

Verse 14

a book of the law of the LORD given by Moses — Literally ‘by the hand of Moses’, the phrase of Lev 10:11 and 2 Chr 35:6. Moses had told the Levites, ‘Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee’ (Deut 31:26). 2 Kgs 22:8 names Hilkiah ‘the high priest’.

Verse 19

he rent his clothes — Josiah’s act is that of Joshua after Ai, who ‘rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face’ (Josh 7:6). The LORD later says to him, ‘didst rend thy clothes, and weep before me’ (v.27; compare 2 Kgs 22:19). The verse gives the cause only as hearing ‘the words of the law’, which v.21 describes as what ‘is written in this book’.

Verse 21

enquire of the LORD — ‘Enquire’ is darash, the verb of ‘seek’ in v.3. The king asks ‘for them that are left in Israel and in Judah’; sha’ar, to be left, is the ‘remnant’ of 30:6. His reason echoes the Law: ‘the anger of the LORD was kindled against this land, to bring upon it all the curses that are written in this book’ (Deut 29:27).

Verse 22

Huldah the prophetess — She is the wife of Shallum, keeper of the wardrobe, and dwelt ‘in the college’ (mishneh, ‘the second’, a part of Jerusalem; Zeph 1:10 uses the same word). Miriam is called ‘the prophetess’ (Ex 15:20) and Deborah (Judg 4:4). Jeremiah and Zephaniah also prophesied in Josiah’s days (Jer 1:2; Zeph 1:1).

Verse 27

thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself — ‘Humble’ is kana’, used twice here and of Hezekiah (32:26) and Manasseh (33:12). ‘Tender’ is rakak, soft. The LORD’S answer is ‘I have even heard thee also’, in line with ‘The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart’ (Ps 34:18). Rending and weeping are the signs named in v.19.

Verse 28

gathered to thy grave in peace — ‘Gather’ is asaph, the verb of v.29, ‘gathered together all the elders’. The promise is that Josiah’s eyes will not ‘see all the evil’ coming on the place; he was wounded in the valley of Megiddo, died, and was buried in Jerusalem (2 Chr 35:22–24). Isa 57:1 says ‘the righteous is taken away from the evil to come’.

Verse 29

gathered together all the elders — The verb is asaph, ‘gather’, the verb of the LORD’S promise in v.28, ‘I will gather thee to thy fathers’. The elders of ‘Judah and Jerusalem’ are the same body the king gathers in 2 Kgs 23:1. The king acts on Huldah’s word by calling the leaders of the people to hear the book.

Verse 30

he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant — ‘The book of the covenant’ is the name used when Moses ‘read in the audience of the people’ at Sinai, and they answered, ‘All that the LORD hath said will we do’ (Ex 24:7). All the people came, ‘great and small’, along with the priests and Levites; 2 Kgs 23:2 adds the prophets.

Verse 31

made a covenant before the LORD — Karath, literally ‘cut’, as in 29:10. The terms are ‘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’, the measure of Deut 6:5. The king ‘stood in his place’, as 2 Kgs 11:14 says it was the manner for the king to stand by a pillar.

Verse 32

caused all that were present … to stand to it — Amad, to stand, here made causative. 2 Kgs 23:3 says ‘all the people stood to the covenant’. The inhabitants ‘did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers’, which matches what the LORD said of Abraham, ‘he will command his children … and they shall keep the way of the LORD’ (Gen 18:19).

Verse 33

took away all the abominations — To’evah is the word of 33:2, the abominations of the nations. Josiah ‘made all that were present in Israel to serve’ (abad) the LORD, and ‘all his days they departed not’. Jeremiah, in the same reign, says Judah ‘hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly’ (Jer 3:10), while 2 Kgs 23:25 says no king before him turned ‘with all his heart’.