1Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. 2And he did what was right in the eyes of Jehovah, and walked in the ways of his father David; he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. 3For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the groves, the graven images, and the molten images. 4They broke down the altars of the Baals in his presence, and the incense altars which were above them he cut down; and the groves, the graven images, and the molten images he broke in pieces, and pulverized them and scattered them on the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. 5He also burned the bones of the priests on their altars, and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem; 6and also in the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, as far as Naphtali and all around; with chopping tools. 7When he had broken down the altars and the groves, had beaten the carved images into powder, and cut down all the incense altars throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem. 8In the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair the house of Jehovah his God. 9And when they came to Hilkiah the high priest, they delivered the money that was brought into the house of God, which the Levites who kept the doors had gathered from the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim, from all the remnant of Israel, from all Judah and Benjamin, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 10And they gave it into the hand of the workmen who had the oversight of the house of Jehovah; and they gave it to the workmen who worked in the house of Jehovah, to repair and restore the house. 11They gave it to the craftsmen and builders to buy hewn stone and timber for couplings, and to make beams for the houses which the kings of Judah had destroyed. 12And the men did the work faithfully. Their overseers were Jahath and Obadiah the Levites, of the sons of Merari, and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the sons of the Kohathites, to supervise. Others of the Levites were teaching the instruments of song, 13were over the burden bearers, and were overseers of all who did work in any kind of service. And some of the Levites were scribes, officers, and gatekeepers. 14Now when they brought out the money that was brought into the house of Jehovah, Hilkiah the priest found the Book of the Law of Jehovah given by the hand of Moses. 15And Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the Book of the Law in the house of Jehovah. And Hilkiah gave the Book to Shaphan. 16So Shaphan carried the Book to the king, bringing the king word, saying, All that was committed to your servants they are doing. 17And they have gathered the money that was found in the house of Jehovah, and have given it into the hand of the overseers and the workmen. 18Then Shaphan the scribe reported to the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest has given me a Book. And Shaphan read it before the king. 19And it came about, when the king heard the Words of the Law, that he tore his clothes. 20And the king commanded Hilkiah, Ahikam the son of Shaphan, Abdon the son of Micah, Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah a servant of the king, saying, 21Go, inquire of Jehovah for me, and for those who are left in Israel and Judah, concerning the Words of the Book that has been found; for great is the wrath of Jehovah that has been poured out upon us, because our fathers have not kept the Word of Jehovah, to do according to all that is written in this Book. 22So Hilkiah and those from the king went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tokhath, the son of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe. (She was living in Jerusalem in the Second Quarter.) And they spoke to her regarding this. 23And she answered them, Thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, Tell the man who has sent you to Me, 24Thus says Jehovah: Behold, I am bringing evil upon this place and upon its inhabitants, all the curses that are written in the Book which they have read before the king of Judah, 25because they have forsaken Me and burned incense to other gods, to 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. 26But as for the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of Jehovah, thus you shall speak to him, Thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, whose Words you have heard: 27Because your heart has been tender, and you humbled yourself before God when you heard His Words against this place and against its inhabitants, and you humbled yourself before Me, and you tore your clothes and wept before Me, I also have heard you, says Jehovah. 28Behold, I am gathering you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace; and your eyes shall not see all the evil which I am bringing upon this place and its inhabitants. So they brought back word to the king. 29Then the king sent and gathered all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. 30And the king went up to the house of Jehovah, with all the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; 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 which had been found in the house of Jehovah. 31And the king stood in his place and made a covenant before Jehovah, to walk after Jehovah, and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to do the Words of the covenant that were written in this Book. 32And he caused all who were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand to it. So the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers. 33And Josiah removed all the abominations from all the land of the children of Israel, and caused all who were found in Israel to serve, being subject unto Jehovah their God. All his days they did not depart from following Jehovah the God of their fathers.
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary 1 Concerning Josiah we are here told, 1. That he came to the crown when he was very young, only eight years old (yet his infancy did not debar him from his right), and he reigned
thirty-one years (
2Chr 34:1), a considerable time. I fear, however, that in the beginning of his reign things went much as they had done in his father's time, because, being a child, he must have left the management of them to others; so that it was not till his twelfth year, which goes far in the number of his years, that the reformation began,
2Chr 34:3. He could not, as Hezekiah did, fall about it immediately. 2. That he reigned very well (
2Chr 34:2), approved himself to God, trod in the steps of David, and did not decline either
to the right hand of to the left: for there are errors on both hands. 3. That while he was young, about sixteen years old, he
began to seek after God, 2Chr 34:3. We have reason to think he had not so good an education as Manasseh had (it is well if those about him did not endeavour to corrupt and debauch him); yet he thus sought God when he was young. It is the duty and interest of young people, and will particularly be the honour of young gentlemen, as soon as they come to years of understanding, to
begin to seek God; for those that seek him early shall find him. 4. That in the twelfth year of his reign, when it is probable he took the administration of the government entirely into his own hands, he
began to purge his kingdom from the remains of idolatry; he destroyed the high places, groves, images, altars, all the utensils of idolatry, v. 3, 4. He not only cast them out as Manasseh did, but broke them to pieces, and made dust of them. This destruction of idolatry is here said to be in his twelfth year, but it was said (
2Kgs 23:23) to be in his eighteenth year. Something was probably done towards it in his twelfth year; then he began to purge out idolatry, but that good work met with opposition, so that it was not thoroughly done till they had found the book of the law six years afterwards. But here the whole work is laid together briefly which was much more largely and particularly related in the
Kings. His zeal carried him out to do this, not only in Judah and Jerusalem, but in the cities of Israel too, as far as he had any influence upon them.
8 Here, 1. Orders are given by the king for the repair of the temple,
2Chr 34:8. When he had purged the house of the corruptions of it he began to fit it up for the services that were to be performed in it. Thus we must do by the spiritual temple of the heart, get it cleansed from the pollutions of sin, and then renewed, so as to be transformed into the image of God. Josiah, in this order, calls God
the Lord his God. Those that truly love God will
love the habitation of his house. 2. Care is taken about it, effectual care. The Levites went about the country and gathered money towards it, which was returned to the three trustees mentioned,
2Chr 34:8. They brought it to Hilkiah the high priest (
2Chr 34:9), and he and they put it into the hands of workmen, both overseers and labourers, who undertook to do it by the great, as we say, or
in the gross, 2Chr 34:10,
2Chr 34:11. It is observed that the workmen were industrious and honest: They
did the work faithfully (
2Chr 34:12); and workmen are not completely faithful if they are not both careful and diligent, for a confidence is reposed in them that they will be so. It is also intimated that the overseers were ingenious; for it is said that all those were employed to inspect this work who were skilful in
instruments of music; not that their skill in music could be of any use in architecture, but it was an evidence that they were men of sense and ingenuity, and particularly that their genius lay towards the mathematics, which qualified them very much for this trust. Witty men are then wise men when they employ their wit in doing good, in helping their friends, and, as they have opportunity, in serving the public. Observe, in this work, how God dispenses his gifts variously; here were some that were
bearers of burdens, cut out for bodily labour and fit to work. Here were others (made
meliori luto -
of finer materials ) that had skill in music, and they were
overseers of those that laboured, and scribes and officers. The former were the hands: these were the heads. They had need of one another, and the work needed both. Let not the overseers of the work despise the bearers of burdens, nor let those that work in the service grudge at those whose office it is to direct; but let each esteem and serve the other in love, and let God have the glory and the church the benefit of the different gifts and dispositions of both.
14 This whole paragraph we had, just as it is here related, (2Kgs:22:8-20), and have nothing to add here to what was there observed. But, 1. We may hence take occasion to bless God that we have plenty of Bibles, and that they are, or may be, in all hands, - that the book of the law and gospel is not lost, is not scarce, - that, in this sense, the
word of the Lord is not
precious. Bibles are jewels, but, thanks be to God, they are not rarities. The fountain of the waters of life is not a spring shut up or a fountain sealed, but the streams of it, in all places,
make glad the city of our God. Usus communis aquarum -
These waters flow for general use. What a great deal shall we have to answer for if the great things of God's law, being thus made common, should be accounted by us as strange things! 2. We may hence learn, whenever we read or hear the word of God, to affect our hearts with it, and to get them possessed with a holy fear of that wrath of God which is there revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, as Josiah's tender heart was. When he heard the words of the law he
rent his clothes (
2Chr 34:19), and God was well pleased with his doing so,
2Chr 34:27. Were the things contained in the scripture new to us, as they were here to Josiah, surely they would make deeper impressions upon us than commonly they do; but they are not the less weighty, and therefore should not be the less considered by us, for their being well known. Rend the heart therefore, not the garments. 3. We are here directed when we are under convictions of sin, and apprehensions of divine wrath, to enquire of the Lord; so Josiah did,
2Chr 34:21. It concerns us to ask (as they did,
Acts 2:37),
Men and brethren, what shall we do? and more particularly (as the jailor),
What must I do to be saved? Acts 16:30.
If you will thus
enquire, enquire (
Isa 21:12); and, blessed be God, we have the lively oracles to which to apply with these enquiries. 4. We are here warned of the ruin that sin brings upon nations and kingdoms. Those that forsake God bring evil upon themselves (
2Chr 34:24,
2Chr 34:25), and kindle a fire
which shall not be quenched. Such will the fire of God's wrath be when the decree has gone forth against those that obstinately and impenitently persist in their wicked ways. 5. We are here encouraged to humble ourselves before God and seek unto him, as Josiah did. If we cannot prevail thereby to turn away God's wrath from our land, yet we shall deliver our own souls,
2Chr 34:27,
2Chr 34:28. And good people are here taught to be so far from fearing death as to welcome it rather when it
takes them away from the evil to come. See how the property of it is altered by making it the matter of a promise:
Thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace, housed in that ark, as Noah, when a deluge is coming.
29 We have here an account of the further advances which Josiah made towards the reformation of his kingdom upon the hearing of the law read and the receipt of the message God sent him by the prophetess. Happy the people that had such a king; for here we find that, 1. They were well taught. He did not go about to force them to do their duty, till he had first instructed them in it. He called all the people together, great and small, young and old, rich and poor, high and low.
He that hath ears to hear, let him hear the words of
the book of the covenant; for they are all concerned in those words. To put an honour upon the service, and to engage attention the more, though there were priests and Levites present, the king himself read the book to the people (
2Chr 34:30), and he read it, no doubt, in such a manner as to show that he was himself affected with it, which would be a means of affecting the hearers. 2. They were well fixed. The articles of agreement between God and Israel being read, that they might intelligently covenant with God, both king and people with great solemnity did as it were subscribe the articles. The king in his place covenanted to keep God's commandments with all his heart and soul, according to what was
written in the book (
2Chr 34:31), and urged the people to declare their consent likewise to this covenant, and solemnly to promise that they would faithfully perform, fulfil, and keep, all and every thing that was on their part to be done, according to this covenant: this they did; they could not for shame do otherwise. He caused
all that were present to
stand to it (
2Chr 34:32), and made them all
to serve, even to serve the Lord their God (
2Chr 34:33), to do it and to
make a business of it. he did all he could to bring them to it -
to serve, even to serve; the repetition denotes that this was the only thing his heart was set on; he aimed at nothing else in what he did but to engage them to God and their duty. 3. They were well tended, were honest with good looking to.
All his days they departed not from following the Lord; he kept them, with much ado, from running into idolatry again.
All his days were days of restraint upon them; but this intimated that there was in them a
bent to backslide, a strong inclination to idolatry. Many of them wanted nothing but to have him out of the way, and then they would have their high places and their images up again. And therefore we find that
in the days of Josiah (
Jer 3:6) God charged it upon treacherous Judah that she
had not returned to him with all her heart, but feignedly (
2Chr 34:10), nay, had
played the harlot (
2Chr 34:8) and thereby had even
justified backsliding Israel, 2Chr 34:11. In the twenty-third year of this reign, four or five years after this, they had
gone on to provoke God to anger with the works of their hands (
Jer 25:3-
Jer 25:7); and, which is very observable, it is from the beginning of Josiah's reformation, his twelfth or thirteenth year, that
the iniquity of the house of Judah, which brought ruin upon them, and which the prophet was to bear lying on his right side, was dated (
Ezek 4:6), for thence to the destruction of Jerusalem was just forty years. Josiah was sincere in what he did, but the generality of the people were averse to it and hankered after their idols still; so that the reformation, though well designed and well prosecuted by the prince, had little or no effect upon the people. It was with reluctancy that they parted with their idols; still they were in heart joined to them, and wished for them again. This God saw, and therefore from that time, when one would have thought the foundations had been laid for a perpetual security and peace, from that very time did the decree go forth for their destruction. Nothing hastens the ruin of a people nor ripens them for it more than the baffling of hopeful attempts for reformation and a hypocritical return to God.
Be not deceived, God is not mocked.