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 Yahweh his God’s house. They came to Hilkiah the high priest, and delivered the money that was brought into God’s house, which the Levites, the keepers of the threshold, had gathered from the hands of Manasseh, Ephraim, of all the remnant of Israel, of all Judah and Benjamin, and of the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They delivered it into the hands of the workmen who had the oversight of Yahweh’s house; and the workmen who labored in Yahweh’s house gave it to mend and repair the house. They gave it to the carpenters and to the builders, to buy cut stone and timber for couplings, and to make beams for the houses which the kings of Judah had destroyed. 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 give direction; and others of the Levites, who were all skillful with musical instruments. Also they were over the bearers of burdens, and directed all who did the work in every kind of service. Of the Levites, there were scribes, officials, and gatekeepers.
When they brought out the money that was brought into Yahweh’s house, Hilkiah the priest found the book of Yahweh’s law given by Moses. Hilkiah answered Shaphan the scribe, “I have found the book of the law in Yahweh’s house.” So Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan.
Shaphan carried the book to the king, and moreover brought back word to the king, saying, “All that was committed to your servants, they are doing. They have emptied out the money that was found in Yahweh’s house, and have delivered it into the hand of the overseers, and into the hand of the workmen.” Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, “Hilkiah the priest has delivered me a book.” Shaphan read from it to the king.
When the king had heard the words of the law, he tore his clothes. The king commanded Hilkiah, Ahikam the son of Shaphan, Abdon the son of Micah, Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah the king’s servant, saying,
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 19 2 Kings 33:5
2 Kings 33:5
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17 2Ch 34:8 Now in the eighteenth year of his…
2Ch 34:8 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.
Ver. 8. Now in the eighteenth year.] See on 2Ki 22:3.
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To repair the house of the Lord.] This had been done before by Joash, {2Ki 12:5} but that was two hundred and thirty-four years since: so that now there was need of new reparations. Tempus edax rerum.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv8, 9, 11, 12 The land and the house; the house of God,…
The land and the house; the house of God, called the house by way of eminency.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv8, 14 Here, 1. Orders are given by the king for…
Here, 1. Orders are given by the king for the repair of the temple, Ch2 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, Ch2 34:8. They brought it to Hilkiah the high priest (Ch2 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, Ch2 34:10, Ch2 34:11. It is observed that the workmen were industrious and honest: They did the work faithfully (Ch2 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.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv8–14 And when they came to Hilkiah the high priest,....…
And when they came to Hilkiah the high priest,.... To whom they were sent to advise with about the repair of the temple:
they delivered the money that was brought into the house of God; that is, the high priest, and the Levites the doorkeepers, gave it to the king's ministers; which money was either brought to the temple voluntarily, as the free gifts of the people, for the repairs; or rather what was collected by the Levites, sent throughout the land for that purpose, or it may be both:
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which the Levites that kept the doors; of the temple; and received the money as the people brought it:
and also had gathered of the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim, and of all the remnant of Israel, and of all Judah, and Benjamin; they went throughout all the land of Israel and Judah, and collected money for the above purpose:
and they returned to Jerusalem; with it, which the high priest took the sum of, see Kg2 22:4 of whom the king's ministers now received it.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv8, 11, 12, 19 The house - The house of God, called the…
The house - The house of God, called the house by way of eminency.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv9, 12, 14 Verse 9. And they returned to Jerusalem.] Instead of…
Verse 9. And they returned to Jerusalem.] Instead of וישבו vaiyashubu, "they returned," we should read יושבי yoshebey, "the inhabitants;" a reading which is supported by many MSS., printed editions, and all the versions, as well as by necessity and common sense. 2Ch 19:8, where a similar mistake is rectified.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv8, 12, 19 2Ch 34:8-11. When he had purged the land and…
2Ch 34:8-11. When he had purged the land and the house — The house of God, called the house, by way of eminence. And they returned to Jerusalem — That is, the Levites, who had gone abroad through all Josiah’s kingdom to gather money for this use, and now came with it to Jerusalem to lodge it in the treasuries of the Lord’s house. To floor the houses which the kings of Judah had destroyed — The chambers adjoining to the temple, or within the courts.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv11, 13 The “houses” intended are either the “chambers” which surrounded…
The “houses” intended are either the “chambers” which surrounded the temple on three sides 1Ki 6:5, or out-buildings attached to the courts. The “kings of Judah” intended are, no doubt, Manasseh and Amon.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv8, 11, 12, 13, 17 Eselias, or Assia. This man is alone mentioned, 4…
Eselias, or Assia. This man is alone mentioned, 4 K. xxii. 3. C.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv8, 19 HE REPAIRS THE TEMPLE. (Ch2 34:8-18)
HE REPAIRS THE TEMPLE. (Ch2 34:8-18)
in the eighteenth year of his reign . . . he sent Shaphan--(See on Kg2 22:3-9).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv11–13 11. To floor — Margin, to rafter. Gesenius, to…
11. To floor — Margin, to rafter. Gesenius, to furnish with beams. Furst, to build up. Our version, to floor, probably expresses the sense as nearly as any. The houses which the kings of Judah (Amon and Manasseh) had destroyed are to be understood of the houses and chambers of the priests in the temple and its courts.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv8–20 8–28 (= 2Ki_22:3-20). Repair of the Temple. Discovery of…
8–28 (= 2Ki_22:3-20). Repair of the Temple. Discovery of the Book of the Law
8. Shaphan] According to 2 Kin. he was Scribe. See 1Ch_18:16 (note).
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the governor of the city] Render, a ruler of the city; cp. 2Ch_29:20.
the recorder] R.V. mg. the chronicler; cp. 1Ch_18:15 (note). Neither Maaseiah nor Joah is mentioned in 2 Kin.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 20 (8-13) The cleansing and repair of the Temple. (Comp.…
(8-13) The cleansing and repair of the Temple. (Comp. 2Ki_22:3-7; and the similar account of the restoration by Joash in 2Ch_24:11-13).
When he had purged.—Omit had. (Lĕtahçr is apparently co-ordinate with lĕmolkû, “in the eighteenth year to his reigning, to purging the land “; as if the work of purification had been co-extensive with the reign. The LXX., however, has, “in order to purge the land,” which may be right.)
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He sent Shaphan.—Who was secretary of state (2Ki_22:3, “the scribe”).
Maaseiah . . . Joah.—Kings mentions Shaphan only.
The governor of the city.—Sar ha’îr; praefectus urois. (Conp. 1Ch_11:6.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 18, 19, 20 It is in some sense as though the work…
It is in some sense as though the work of purification, atoning, penitence, must precede that of practical repentance, of repairing, restoring, rebuilding. The original, however, does not warrant the laying of any stress on the when, found again in the Authorized Version. Shaphau. In the parallel (2Ki_22:3) Shaphan is designated "the scribe." His descendants, to the second generation, at all events, did him honor. (Jer_26:24 Jer_29:3 Jer_36:10, Jer_36:12, Jer_36:25; Eze_8:11; see also 2Ki_25:22) The names of Masseiah (Jer_35:4) and Joah (2Ki_18:18) are known, but not marking the present persons.
Vers. 8-13.
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The repairing of the temple by Josiah.
I THE COMMISSIONERS.
1. Their names. Shaphan the son of Azaliah, the king"s secretary (ver. 15); Maaseiah the governor of the city; and Josh the son of Joahaz, the recorder or chronicler.
2. Their business. To repair the house of the Lord. This had been done two centuries before by Joash, (2Ch_24:12) and nearly one century before by Hezekiah. (2Ch_29:12-19) During the reigns of Manasseh and Amon it had fallen into such disorder that it a third time demanded renovation. In this respect the temple was a melancholy symbol of all human institutions not excepting such as are religious which constantly exhibit a tendency as they grow old to become degenerate, and, as a consequence stand in need of periodic reformation and rejuvenescence.
3. Their procedure. Along with Hilkiah the priest as Joash had acted in concert with Jehoiada, and the king"s scribe had co-operated with the high priest"s officer (2Ch_24:11, 2Ch_24:12) they received the money which the Levites that kept the temple doors had collected from the people of Manasseh and Ephraim, and of all the remnant of Israel, and from the inhabitants of all Judah and Benjamin, who, following the plan in vogue since the days of Joash and Jehoiada, cast in their free-will offerings into a box placed in the temple court for the purpose of receiving the voluntary contributions of the faithful towards the good end the king had in view, the repairing of the temple. Having received this money, the three commissioners, along with the high priest, paid it over to the superintendents who had the oversight of the house of the Lord.
II THE OVERSEERS.
1. Their names.
(1) Jahath and Obadiah, two Levites of the family of Merari;
(2) Zechariah and Meshullam, two Levites of the house of Kohath: and
(3) others unnamed, but specified as "Levites, all that could skill of instruments of music" (ver. 12).
2. Their duties.
(1) To exercise supervision over the workmen, over the bearers of burdens, and all that wrought in any manner of service (ver. 13), over the carpenters, builders, and other artisans engaged in the undertaking (ver. 11).
(2) To set forward the work (ver. 12), or "to preside over it" (margin).
(3) Perhaps also to do both, i.e. incite and cheer the workmen, and so prosper the work, by music and song (Bertheau). "Orpheus and Amphion, by their music, moved the workmen to diligence and activity, and lessened and alleviated their toil. May we not suppose, then, that skilful musicians among the Levites did exercise their art among the workmen who were employed in the repairs of the house of the Lord? "(Adam Clarke).
(4) To distribute the moneys received from the commissioners to the different tradesmen that these might procure the necessary materials for the building (vers. 10, 11).
III THE ARTISANS.
1. Carpenters, or workers in wood, whose business was to prepare timber for couplings and to make beams for the houses, i.e. for the temple and its courts, which the kings of Judah had permitted to fall into decay.
2. Masons, or workers in stone; not to hew, since the stones were already hewn when purchased, but to build in this perhaps designedly following the example given in the building of the temple. (1Ki_6:7)
IV THE ASSISTANTS.
1. Scribes, who kept a record of the progress of, as well as the necessary accounts connected with, the work.
2. Officers, who served in different capacities under superiors.
3. Porters, who watched at the several gates of the temple while the work was going on.
LESSONS.
1. The beauty of order,
2. The efficiency secured by division of labour.
3. The value of co-operation. W.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v14 And when they brought out the money that was…
2Ch_34:14-33
And when they brought out the money that was brought into the house of the Lord.
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Restoring Gods house
I. Spiritual desolation.
1. The negligent priesthood (2Ch_34:5).
2. The dilapidated temple (2Ch_34:7).
3. The perverted utensils (2Ch_34:7).
II. Abundant offerings.
1. Opportunity to give (2Ch_34:8).
2. Called to give (2Ch_34:9).
3. Giving cheerfully (2Ch_34:10).
III. Effective work.
1. Skilled workmen (2Ch_34:12).
2. Diligent service (2Ch_34:13).
3. Renewed devotion (2Ch_34:14). (Sunday School Times.)
The book of the law found
1. We to-day are in some danger of losing the Scriptures. Not as a volume of literature.
(1) It is possible for the Word of God to sink out of our consciousness through our indifference.
(2) We may also make so much of prayer-books and creeds, of systems of doctrine and religious treatises, that the Scriptures themselves are seen only by a reflected light.
(3) Because we have been acquainted with the Scriptures from childhood, as we grow older we may fancy that we know what they contain, and leave them unstudied and unread.
(4) It is not unusual in public worship for the devotional services and the sermon to come between the soul and Gods Word.
(5) It is not unusual to find men so wedded to traditional interpretations, having origin in some theological theory, that when they read the Bible they are like one looking upon a landscape through coloured spectacles. When this tendency rules we are in danger of losing the Bible.
2. The discovery of the book of the law gave Josiah a new basis for faith. He must have felt when he read it, that he was supernaturally strengthened in his great task of reformation. There are few of us who do not desire to have our various undertakings approved by those in whose sagacity and moral discernment we trust. Josiah undertook his work with a new heart, for he felt that the Lord was with him.
3. We have here suggested the broad distinction between our certainty of what seems to be true and our certainty of what is vouched for as true by the Word of God.
4. This discovery of the law enlarged Josiahs conception of duty. The knowledge that came to him and to the nation, through this book, was what a flash of light is to a ship on a dangerous coast; the light reveals the rocks upon which she nearly struck; it also reveals the safe channel and the course to the harbour. The Bible performs this double office for all to whom it comes. It reveals sin; and it discloses the path to a better life. Gods prohibitions are not restrictions upon life, but protections to it. Gods calls to men are calls to blessedness.
5. This narrative illustrates the way truth enters a human life and recreates it.
6. Two reflections.
(1) The large importance to each one of us of our finding the truth of God.
(2) The chief blessing we can confer on others is to give them the truth God has given us. The men who went to the temple treasury came back with more than money. (G. E. Horr.)
The book of the law found
I. The results of losing the law.
1. Knowledge of the truth was lost.
2. True religion passed away.
3. The services of the temple ceased.
4. The sanctuary was polluted.
5. False religion came in like a flood. The land was full of idols.
6. Crimes of violence and deeds of oppression abounded everywhere. When man ceases to fear God he begins to hate his fellow-man.
7. Immorality was rampant. Morality does not live without religion.
8. Misery and final destruction followed.
II. The results of finding the law.
1. False religion was put away.
2. The people repented and turned to God.
3. The truth was learned.
4. The temple was beautified and opened for services.
5. A measure of mercy was found.
6. The truth was handed down to other ages.
Miscellaneous lessons:
1. Temple and services are vain without the truth.
2. Those who seek to serve God discover his will
3. When men desire to do wrong they hate the Word of God.
4. The Bible will survive all efforts of man to destroy it.
5. Where leaders set an example of piety the people follow.
6. Sin, vice, misery, and destruction come where the truth is not possessed.
7. If the times are bad we should hold up the law of God.
8. The Bible is a lost book to those who
(a) neglect it;
(b) disbelieve it;
(c) disobey it.
9. Every child should own, read, and love the Bible.
10. One can be loyal to God amid the most opposing surroundings.
11. Ones course in childhood generally determines what the youth and manhood will be.
12. The world greatly needs the services of children and men and women of righteousness. (J. E. Jacklin.)
Josiah and the newly found law
I. The discovery of the book of the law. We see here--
1. A striking instance of the indestructibleness of Gods Word. It has a charmed life.
2. That honest efforts after reformation are usually rewarded by clearer knowledge of Gods will. If Hilkiah had not been busy in setting wrong things right, he would not have found the book in its dark hiding-place. We are told that the coincidence of the discovery at the nick of time is suspicious. So it is, if you do not believe in Providence. If you do, the coincidence is but one instance of his sending gifts of the right sort at the right moment.
3. That the true basis of all religious reform is the Word of God. The nearest parallel is Luthers finding the dusty Latin Bible among the neglected convent books. Faded flowers will lift up their heads when plunged into water. The old Bible, discovered and applied anew, must underlie all real renovation of dead or moribund Christianity.
II. The effect of the rediscovered law. If a man will give Gods Word a fair hearing, and be honest with himself, it will bring him to his knees. No man rightly uses Gods law who is not convinced by it of his sin, and impelled to that self-abased sorrow of which the rent royal robes were the passionate expression. The first function of the law is to arouse the knowledge of sin, as Paul profoundly teaches. Without that penitential knowledge religion is superficial, and reformation merely external.
III. The double-eyed message of the prophetess. Josiah does not seem to have told his messengers where to go; but they knew, and went to a very unlikely person, the wife of an obscure man, only known as his fathers son. Where was Jeremiah of Anathoth? Perhaps not in the city at the time. This embassy to Huldah is in full accord with the high position which women held in that state, of which the framework was shaped by God Himself. In Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female, and Judaism approximated much more closely to that ideal than other lands did. Huldahs message has two parts.
1. The confirmation of the threatenings of the law.
2. The assurance to Josiah of the acceptance of his repentance and gracious promise of escape from the coming storm.
These two are precisely equivalent to the double aspect of the gospel, which completes the law, endorsing its sentence and pointing the way of escape. (A. Maclaren, D.D.)
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The Scriptures found and searched
I. The bible lost.
1. It is lost to nations. Sometimes kings and governments forbid its circulation.
2. In communities where it freely circulates in the vernacular of the people--by misconstruction, false teaching and disregard.
3. It is lost to individuals by the way they treat it. How many a man suffers the Bible to lie in his home unused, dust-covered, like the sacred roll in the Temple, until it be almost forgotten! How many cast it away because it reproves them as it reproved the wicked kings of Judah!
II. Degeneracy inevitable without it. The Word of God is the great source and conservator of moral life and health. It is sunlight to the moral world. It is the invigorating element in the moral atmosphere. No more surely do plants grow pale without sunlight, or animal life grow feeble without oxygen, than all that makes a worthy life in man, individual or collective, wanes and fails when deprived of the Word of God. How true was this of Judah! When the Word of God was lost, the nation sunk rapidly into wickedness and consequent weakness. False religion ran riot. The smoke of incense to heathen gods filled the land. The consciences of the people were debauched. And whenever the Word of God has been lost by prohibition or neglect, the downward tendency of national life has been marked. Other elements of strength may have withstood it, and, for a time, upheld with seeming success the fabric of state. But, the best elements being wanting, degeneracy and feebleness sooner or later inevitably appear. But illustrations of the matter under consideration are more open to observation in regard to communities. Whenever the Word of God is not set on high, and honoured as the arbiter in morals, the teacher in religion, and the guide in life, there wickedness and vice will prevail. But individual life furnishes the best illustration. Without the word of God abiding in the mind and regnant in the life, deterioration in all things good certainly supervenes. Take out of a mans life the distinctive truths of the Divine revelation, and he is utterly exposed. Every avenue of his being is open to temptation. He will surely run down, sink to a lower plane, and ordinarily to a plane lower and lower the longer he lives. How many parents weep over sons and daughters tarnished, degraded, lost, because they would not heed the voice of God!
III. Its effect when found.
1. In the case of Josiah, it was astonishment. That such a book should have existed, stating so clearly the Divine will, so full of denunciations against the sins of the land, filled him with amazement. This is natural and legitimate. Only let men to whom the Bible has been lost wake to the solemn reality that its statements are everlasting truth, and that they will hold with unrelaxing energy in life, in death, and in eternity, and amazement must overwhelm them. Is it possible that these things are true and I have not realised them?
2. Another effect was to set him to earnest study. God was speaking. It was necessary for him to know what was said that he might order his conduct accordingly. Investigation of the Bible follows naturally a realisation of its nature.
3. Another result was to awaken anxiety. Study of the book of the law revealed his true condition. And so it is always. The Bible does not create the facts of our existence, but it does reveal them. In it we see our necessities and our danger. The past is marked with sin, the present full of corruption; the future forbidding, through fear of coming doom.
4. Again, the Bible found leads to repentance and reformation. How thorough was it in the case of Josiah! How deeply he deplored the sins of the land, how strenuously put them away! So it is always. It shows men what they are, and what they have done. It reveals the intensity of their sinfulness and the multitude of their sins. New thoughts, new desires, new affections, new purposes dwell within; new conduct, new habits mark the external life. And the same thing occurs in a wider field. Communities are waked to newness of life by finding the Bible. All this is true of tribes and nations. Many are the nations which have been revolutionised by it in the past, and it is doing the same to-day. Freedom of conscience attends the Bible, and civil liberty follows close behind. The Bible is the charter of the worlds hope and the mainspring of its reformation. How sad is the thought that to so many of our race there is no Bible! (Monday Club Sermons.)
Finding the book of the law
1. Many precious things are found when we set to work at repairs. Try to remove the dust from old sanctuaries of life and memory, and see what you will light upon.
2. How one good thing leads to another. First walking in the way of the Lord; then interest in the house of the Lord; then the book found.
3. The connection between pecuniary integrity and the Divine blessing. When they brought the money they found the book.
4. How many old things are new to us when we are in trouble and distress of mind.
5. The age of sixteen is a time of his life which no man ever forgets.
6. Devotedness to God at sixteen is so great a step in the life of a youth that it cannot be alone; you must make another onward into the sphere of spirit and of life.
7. God always finds some work to do for those who are His.
8. There is no deeper distress possible to us than that which pierces us in the discovery of our enmity to God. (B. Kent, M.A.)
The loss of the Scriptures
Consider what we should lose if we were to part with the Christian Scriptures, and with all the institutions and blessings for which we are indebted to them.
I. We should lose the knowledge of the true god. Mankind needs a book to keep alive in the earth the knowledge of a spiritual and personal God.
II. We should lose sooner or later our institutions of benevolence.
III. We should lose our institutions for popular education. Popular education is of Bible origin. Other than Christian religions build themselves on the ignorance of the masses.
IV. We should lose sooner or later our institutions of civil liberty. History shows that the great charter of freedom in the world is the Word of God. The great free nations of the earth are the great Christian nations. (A. Phelps.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v14 2 Chronicles
2 Chronicles
JOSIAH AND THE NEWLY FOUND LAW
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2Ch 34:14 - 2Ch 34:18.
About one hundred years separated Hezekiah’s restoration from Josiah’ s. Neither was more than a momentary arrest of the strong tide running in the opposite direction; and Josiah’s was too near the edge of the cataract to last, or to avert the plunge. There is nothing more tragical than the working of the law which often sets the children’s teeth on edge by reason of the fathers’ eating of sour grapes.
I. The first point in this passage is the discovery of the book of the Law.
The book had been lost before it was found. For how long we do not know, but the fact that it had been so carelessly kept is eloquent of the indifference of priests and kings, its appointed guardians. Lawbreakers have a direct interest in getting rid of lawbooks, just as shopkeepers who use short yardsticks and light weights are not anxious the standards should be easily accessible. If we do not make God’s law our guide, we shall wish to put it out of sight, that it may not be our accuser. What more sad or certain sign of evil can there be than that we had rather not ‘hear what God the Lord will speak’?
The straightforward story of our passage gives a most natural explanation of the find. Hilkiah was likely to have had dark corners cleared out in preparation for repairs and in storing the subscriptions, and many a mislaid thing would turn up. If it be possible that the book of the Law should have been neglected {and the religious corruption of the last hundred years makes that only too certain}, its discovery in some dusty recess is very intelligible, and would not have been doubted but for the exigencies of a theory. ‘Reading between the lines’ is fascinating, but risky; for the reader is very likely unconsciously to do what Hilkiah is said to have done-namely, to invent what he thinks he finds.
Accepting the narrative as it stands, we may see in it a striking instance of the indestructibleness of God’s Word. His law is imperishable, and its written embodiment seems as if it, too, had a charmed life. When we consider the perils attending the transmission of ancient manuscripts, the necessary scarcity of copies before the invention of printing, the scattering of the Jewish people, it does appear as if a divine hand had guarded the venerable book. How came this strange people, who never kept their Law, to swim through all their troubles, like Caesar with his commentaries between his teeth, bearing aloft and dry, the Word which they obeyed so badly? ‘Write it . . . in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever.’ The permanence of the written Word, the providence that has watched over it, the romantic history of its preservation through ages of neglect, and the imperishable gift to the world of an objective standard of duty, remaining the same from age to age, are all suggested by this reappearance of the forgotten Law.
It may suggest, too, that honest efforts after reformation are usually rewarded by clearer knowledge of God’s will. If Hilkiah had not been busy in setting wrong things right, he would not have found the book in its dark hiding-place. We are told that the coincidence of the discovery at the nick of time is suspicious. So it is, if you do not believe in Providence. If you do, the coincidence is but one instance of His sending gifts of the right sort at the right moment. It is not the first time nor the last that the attempt to keep God’s law has led to larger knowledge of the law. It is not the first time nor the last that God has sent to His faithful servants an opportune gift. What the world calls accidental coincidence deeper wisdom discerns to be the touch of God’s hand.
Again, the discovery reminds us that the true basis of all religious reform is the Word of God. Josiah had begun to restore the Temple, but he did not know till he heard the Law read how great the task was which he had taken in hand. That recovered book gave impulse and direction to his efforts. The nearest parallel is the rediscovery of the Bible in the sixteenth century, or, if we may take one incident as a symbol of the whole, Luther’s finding the dusty Latin Bible among the neglected convent books. The only reformation for an effete or secularised church is in its return to the Bible. Faded flowers will lift up their heads when plunged in water. The old Bible, discovered and applied anew, must underlie all real renovation of dead or moribund Christianity.
II. The next point here is the effect of the rediscovered Law. Shaphan was closely connected with Josiah, as his office made him a confidant. It is ordinarily taken for granted that he and the other persons named in this lesson formed a little knot of earnest Jehovah worshippers, fully sympathising with the Reformation, and that among them lay the authorship of the book. But we know nothing about them except what is told here and in the parallel in Kings. One of them, Ahikam, was a friend and protector of Jeremiah, and Shaphan the scribe was the father of another of Jeremiah’s friends. They may all have been in accord with the king, or they may not.
At all events, Shaphan took the book to Josiah. We can picture the scene-the deepening awe of both men as the whole extent of the nation’s departure from God became clearer and clearer, the tremulous tones of the reader, and the silent, fixed attention of the listener as the solemn threatenings came from Shaphan’s reluctant, pallid lips. There was enough in them to touch a harder heart than Josiah’ s. We cannot suppose that, knowing the history of the past, and being sufficiently enlightened to ‘seek after the God of David his father,’ he did not know in a general way that sin meant sorrow, and national disobedience national death. But we all have the faculty of blunting the cutting edge of truth, especially if it has been familiar, so that some novelty in the manner of its presentation, or even its repetition without novelty sometimes, may turn commonplace and impotent truth into a mighty instrument to shake and melt.
So it seems to have been with Josiah. Whether new or old, the Word found him as it had never done before. The venerable copy from which Shaphan read, the coincidence of its discovery just then, the dishonour done to it for so long, may all have helped the impression. However it arose, it was made. If a man will give God’s Word a fair hearing, and be honest with himself, it will bring him to his knees. No man rightly uses God’s law who is not convinced by it of his sin, and impelled to that self-abased sorrow of which the rent royal robes were the passionate expression. Josiah was wise when he did not turn his thoughts to other people’s sins, but began with his own, even whilst he included others. The first function of the law is to arouse the knowledge of sin, as Paul profoundly teaches. Without that penitent knowledge religion is superficial, and reformation merely external. Unless we ‘abhor ourselves, and repent in dust and ashes,’ Scripture has not done its work on us, and all our reading of it is in vain. Nor is there any good reason why familiarity with it should weaken its power. But, alas! it too often does. How many of us would stand in awe of God’s judgments if we heard them for the first time, but listen to them unmoved, as to thunder without lightning, merely because wo know them so well! That is a reason for attending to them, not for neglecting.
Josiah’s sense of sin led him to long for a further word from God; and so he called these attendants named in 2Ch 34:20, and sent them to ‘enquire of the Lord . . . concerning the words of the book.’ What more did he wish to know? The words were plain enough, and their application to Israel and him indubitable. Clearly, he could only wish to know whether there was any possibility of averting the judgments, and, if so, what was the means. The awakened conscience instinctively feels that threatenings cannot be God’s last words to it, but must have been given that they might not need to be fulfilled. We do not rightly sorrow for sin unless it quickens in us a desire for a word from God to tell us how to escape. The Law prepares for the Gospel, and is incomplete without it. ‘The soul that sinneth, it shall die,’ cannot be all which a God of pity and love has to say. A faint promise of life lies in the very fact of threatening death, faint indeed, but sufficient to awaken earnest desire for yet another word from the Lord. We rightly use the solemn revelations of God’s law when we are driven by them to cry, ‘What must I do to be saved?’ III. So we come to the last point, the double-edged message of the prophetess. Josiah does not seem to have told his messengers where to go; but they knew, and went straight to a very unlikely person, the wife of an obscure man, only known as his father’s son. Where was Jeremiah of Anathoth? Perhaps not in the city at the time. There had been prophetesses in Israel before. Miriam, Deborah, the wife of Isaiah, are instances of ‘your daughters’ prophesying; and this embassy to Huldah is in full accord with the high position which women held in that state, of which the framework was shaped by God Himself. In Christ Jesus ‘there is neither male nor female,’ and Judaism approximated much more closely to that ideal than other lands did.
Huldah’s message has two parts: one the confirmation of the threatenings of the Law; one the assurance to Josiah of acceptance of his repentance and gracious promise of escape from the coming storm. These two are precisely equivalent to the double aspect of the Gospel, which completes the Law, endorsing its sentence and pointing the way of escape.
Note that the former part addresses Josiah as ‘the man that sent you,’ but the latter names him. The embassy had probably not disclosed his name, and Huldah at first keeps up the veil, since the personality of the sender had nothing to do with her answer; but when she comes to speak of pardon and God’s favour, there must be no vagueness in the destination of the message, and the penitent heart must be tenderly bound up by a word from God straight to itself. The threatenings are general, but each single soul that is sorry for sin may take as its very own the promise of forgiveness. God’s great ‘Whosoever’ is for me as certainly as if my name stood on the page.
The terrible message of the inevitableness of the destruction hanging over Jerusalem is precisely parallel with the burden of all Jeremiah’s teaching. It was too late to avert the fall. The external judgments must come now, for the emphasis of the prophecy is in its last words, it ‘shall not be quenched.’ But that did not mean that repentance was too late to alter the whole character of the punishment, which would be fatherly chastisement if meekly accepted. So, too, Jeremiah taught, when he exhorted submission to the ‘Chaldees.’ It is never too late to seek mercy, though it may be too late to hope for averting the outward consequences of sin.
As for Josiah, his penitence was accepted, and he was assured that he would be gathered to his fathers. That expression, as is clear from the places where it occurs, is not a synonym for either death or burial, from both of which it is distinguished, but is a dim promise of being united, beyond the grave, with the fathers, who, in some one condition, which we may call a place, are gathered into a restful company, and wander no more as pilgrims and sojourners in this lonely and changeful life.
Josiah died in battle. Was that going to his grave in peace? Surely yes! if, dying, he felt God’s presence, and in the darkness saw a great light. He who thus dies, though it be in the thick of battle, and with his heart’s blood pouring from an arrow-wound down on the floor of the chariot, dies in peace, and into peace.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v14 The Finding of the Book of the Law and…
The Finding of the Book of the Law and its Effects
v. 14. And when they brought out the money that was brought into the house of the Lord, and when the Temple itself had thoroughly been searched in order to estimate the extent of the damage, Hilkiah, the priest, found a Book of the Law of the Lord given by Moses, very likely the Temple copy, the authentic copy by the hand of Moses, which had been lost during the profanation of the Temple under Manasseh.
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v. 15. And Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan, the scribe, the king’s secretary, I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord, all the books of Moses being included in this designation. And Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan, this being in the form of a roll, as books were then written.
v. 16. And Shaphan carried the book to the king and brought the king word back again, saying, All that is committed to thy servants, they do it. he was able to report that the king’s orders were being executed with proper care.
v. 17. And they have gathered together, poured out, weighed out 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.
v. 18. Then Shaphan, the scribe, told the king, saying, Hilkiah, the priest, hath given me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king, that is, certain sections of it, probably Deuteronomy 28-30.
v. 19. And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the Law, that he rent his clothes, not that he was unfamiliar with the sacred book, which had certainly been copied frequently, but because the words of the original made a much greater impression upon him, that his heart was affected more deeply than ever before. He showed the great grief and sorrow of his heart by his act of tearing open his garments at the breast.
v. 20. And the king commanded Hilkiah and Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, who later was the father of Gedaliah and the protector of Jeremiah, and Abdon (or Achbor), the son of Micah, and Shaphan, the scribe, and Asaiah, a servant of the king’s, his faithful body-guard, saying,
v. 21. Go, inquire of the Lord for me and for them that are left in Israel and in Judah, all the members of the Jewish Church and of the southern nation in particular, concerning the words of the book that is found; for great is the wrath of the Lord that is poured out upon us, having been kindled by the many acts of idolatry and wickedness, because our fathers have not kept the word of the Lord to do after all that is written in this book.
v. 22. And Hilkiah, and they that the king had appointed, went to Huldah, the prophetess, the wife of Shallum, the son of Tikvath (or Tokehath), the son of Hasrah (or Harhas), keeper of the wardrobe, either the royal vestments or those of the Temple; (now she dwelt in Jerusalem, in the college, the second quarter, or district, of the lower city;) and they spake to her to that effect, as Josiah had commanded them.
v. 23. And she answered them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Tell ye the man that sent you to me,
v. 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, Leviticus 26; Deuteronomy 28,
v. 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, in their entire behavior; therefore My wrath shall be poured out upon this place, like a burning liquid from a vessel, and shall not be quenched.
v. 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:
v. 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, with all indications of true grief over the transgressions of Israel and Judah, I have even heard thee also, saith the Lord.
v. 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, Josiah was to be spared the sight of the punishment and sorrow which would come upon Judah-Jerusalem. So they brought the king word again.
v. 29. Then the king sent and gathered together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem, for a service of prayer and penitence.
v. 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, those of the rich and influential class together with the poor and unknown; and he read in their ears all the words of the Book of the Covenant that was found in the house of the Lord, in one of the most impressive services ever held in the Temple.
v. 31. And the king stood in his place, probably on the pulpit like platform used by Solomon, and made a covenant before the Lord to walk after the Lord, and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes, whether these precepts pertained to the covenant relation or to the general relation of the people to all men, with all his heart and with all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant which are written in this book.
v. 32. And he caused all that were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand to it, to arise in token of their agreement to this pledge. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers.
v. 33. And Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries that pertained to the children of Israel, removing all evidences of idolatry as far as his authority extended, and made all that were present in Israel to serve, even to serve the Lord, their God; he was very emphatic in binding them to serve the true God. And all his days they departed not from following the Lord, the God of their fathers. With Josiah’s example in mind, every Christian congregation will oppose all offenses, every abomination of ungodliness, every indication of worldliness, and strive to walk without blemish before the Lord.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv8, 10, 12, 14, 17, 20 the eighteenth year
the eighteenth year
"year 18" (See: Ordinal Numbers)
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Josiah had cleansed the land and the temple
This speaks of Josiah causing Judah and Jerusalem to be acceptable to Yahweh as if he made them physically clean. AT: "Josiah had caused the land and the temple to become acceptable again to Yahweh" (See: Metaphor)
Shaphan son of Azaliah, Maaseiah ... Joah son of Joahaz ... Hilkiah
These are the names of men. (See: How to Translate Names)
entrusted to him
"gave to him the responsibility of using the money"
that had been brought into the house of God, that the Levites, the guards of the doors, had gathered
This can be stated in active form. AT: "that the Levites who guarded the doors had brought into the house of God all that they had gathered" (See: Active or Passive)
translationWords
Josiah
temple
high priest
house of God
Levi
remnant
kingdom of Judah
Benjamin
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv12, 14 34:12-13 That musicians supervised the construction shows how important…
34:12-13 That musicians supervised the construction shows how important it was for Levites to be in charge of this work. Other ancient texts note that music was a common element of construction projects.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.