Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign; and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Jedidah, daughter of Adaiah of Bozcath.
A boy of eight takes the throne of Judah, and he holds it for thirty-one years. The verse raises two simple questions: what could a child do with such a kingdom, and where did his goodness come from?
Josiah did not start with a clean slate. The corruption around him was old, and much of it came from his own family line.
So Josiah, a child of eight years, found himself on the throne of David. Around him were the piled-up evils and errors of his father and his grandfather — yes, and forms of corruption brought in by no less a person than Solomon himself.
A child on the throne was not the ideal. One writer calls the situation alarming, then finds God's answer in the boy's name.
It is startling to read: "Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign." This was surely not as it should be. Every nation needs strong and sound leadership to hold evil down and let righteousness prevail. What could a child of eight do with a turbulent people? They were far advanced in wickedness, and near to overwhelming judgment. What follows will show that the Lord had mercy on the child, and also on the nation. His name means "Given of Jehovah." Such a devoted and conscientious king was a priceless gift to the people of Judah at a critical moment. Through him the Lord made one last tender appeal to His straying people before He drove them out of the land.
The verse names his mother and her home town. One writer looks at those names, and links the boy to an old prophecy about a coming son of David named Josiah.
Scoffers may long have asked, "Where is the promise of the coming of this prince, this child of the house of David, named Josiah?" Generation after generation passed, and no prince of that name appeared. Even the righteous may have questioned in their minds. They may have wondered whether God had forgotten, or doubted whether the prophecy was really true. Did Jedidah (beloved) know of this prophecy when she named her firstborn? Or Adaiah (Jah has adorned)? They were from the town of Bozkath, a swell of ground. At last the time had come for the one the prophet had spoken of to arise. The prophecy was now fulfilled — as all God's word must be.
Commentators differ over where Josiah's early faith came from. One writer traces it to his grandfather Manasseh.
The early sign of godliness in Josiah makes us stop. His father, as we have seen, was a very wicked man. Of his mother we know nothing except that she was "Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath." So where did the child Josiah get spiritual instruction? From his grandfather Manasseh, undoubtedly.
Another writer weighs the same family influences and finds them insufficient — because later kings had godly mothers too, and turned out badly.
Whatever may have been the case with these favourable or unfavourable influences, grace alone explains the characters of Hezekiah and of Josiah. The last kings of Judah prove this: they were ungodly despite their Jewish mothers and their godly father.
One writer sets Josiah beside the kings just before him. He was younger than them, and he was godly.
After him comes a truly godly prince — Josiah — younger, too, than either. He was not too young to serve the Lord.
One writer names three reasons this reign did so much good. He says the same three things still work today.
Josiah did wonderful things for God in a very hard time. Why? (1) He sought the Lord with all his heart. (2) He was determined to obey the written Word of God in every detail. (3) He worked hard to throw away everything that clashed with God's law, both from himself and from everyone he could influence. Given these conditions in any place, we might see great things yet, so gracious is our God.
- Young. At eight, Josiah inherited the piled-up evils of his father and his grandfather. He was still not too young to serve the Lord.
- Given. His name means "Given of Jehovah." God gave Judah this king at a critical moment, as one last tender appeal before they lost the land.
- Kept. God had named him in prophecy generations before he was born. The promise looked forgotten, but all God's word must come true.
- Grace. Family influence cannot explain him; later kings had godly mothers and turned out badly. Grace alone explains a Josiah.
- Fruit. He sought the Lord with all his heart, obeyed the written Word in every detail, and threw away everything that clashed with it. On those terms, God may still do great things.
And he did what was right in the sight of Jehovah, and walked in all the way of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand nor to the left.
Judah's last good king came to the throne as a boy of eight. Two questions run through this verse: whose eyes decide what is "right," and how far back a person must look to find the standard.
One writer reads the king's age as a symptom of national collapse — and as the setting for something better.
"Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign." This tells a tale about the condition and ways of God's people... Such things ought not to have been. They were the sad fruit of sin and folly — the humbling proof of Judah's departure from the LORD. But God was above it all. We would never have expected to find a child of eight on the throne of David. Yet that child could find his sure resource in the God of his fathers... His youth and inexperience only gave an occasion to display divine grace, and to show the value and the power of the Word of God.
The words "in the eyes of the LORD" rule out three other courts of opinion.
It is a great matter, while the heart is still tender, to have it impressed with the fear of the LORD. That fear taught this young man to know what was "right," and to hold to it with unswerving purpose. There is great force and value in the words, "He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD." It was not what was right in his own eyes, nor in the eyes of the people, nor in the eyes of those who had gone before him. It was simply what was right in the eyes of the LORD. This is the solid foundation of all right action... We may do many things out of fear of man, many things by force of habit, many things because of the influences around us. But we can never do what is truly right in the eyes of the LORD until our hearts are brought to understand the fear of His holy name.
Kings in this book usually get their grade from the man who reigned just before them. Josiah and Hezekiah did not.
God traces Hezekiah's faithfulness back to the example given by David. That is all the more remarkable because it is not said of the kings before him. Jotham did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, following all that his father Uzziah had done. Uzziah followed all that his father Amaziah had done. Amaziah followed all that Joash his father had done. The Word of God makes the same remarks about Josiah as about Hezekiah. This confirms that these two kings returned to what was there at the beginning. You cannot today call a revival a true revival if it does not have this character.
One writer turns that principle on the reader:
He walked in the ways of David, the first of Israel's godly kings (v.2). In the same way, we today should take our instructions from the first days of Christianity, not from men who have followed through the years.
The second half of the verse describes settled decision. One writer sets it against the alternative.
How we long for this plain decision! It is priceless at all times, but especially in a day of laxity and easy tolerance... It brings great peace of mind. A wavering man is never peaceful; he is always tossed about. "A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways." He tries to please everybody, and in the end pleases nobody. The decided man, by contrast, is the one who feels he has "only One to please."
Josiah grew up with no mentor on record, and one writer will not credit Josiah's own character either.
There is no mention of any spiritual helper for Josiah, as there was for Joash more than a century earlier. Joash had his godly uncle Jehoiada with him for many years. With Josiah there was probably more direct dealing with God. This would account for his sturdy faith and his amazing energy in service for God. But whether it were Joash or Josiah, or the present writer and his readers, all is grace. Every scrap of good that has ever been seen in any of us is the work of the Holy Spirit.
Josiah's faithfulness came late, when the nation as a whole had sunk low.
He was the last king in Judah to have a good record. This shows us that even when the condition of the people has sunk to a low ebb, there may still be bright exceptions to the general trend.
- Standard. "Right in the eyes of the LORD" excludes his own eyes, the people's eyes, and the eyes of the kings before him.
- Source. No mentor appears in the record; grace produced the good in Josiah, not upbringing or temperament.
- Backwards. God measures him against David, not his father — a return to the beginning, which marks any real recovery.
- Straight. Refusing to turn either way is decision, and decision brings peace. The double-minded man pleases everybody and nobody.
- Late. At the nation's lowest ebb, one life could still run true — the last good record in Judah.
And it came to pass in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, [that] the king sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, son of Meshullam, the scribe, to the house of Jehovah, saying,
Eighteen years into his reign, Josiah sends his secretary Shaphan to the temple to settle the money and start the repairs. Commentators treat this routine errand as the turning point of the whole story.
Josiah's reign falls into dated stages.
The various periods in Josiah's life are very strongly marked. In the eighth year of his reign, he began to seek the God of David his father. In the twelfth year he began to cleanse Judah and Jerusalem. And in the eighteenth year, when he had cleansed the land and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, with the governor of the city and the recorder, to repair the house of the Lord his God.
The same writer turns this progress into a lesson for the reader.
In all this we can see the progress that always comes from a real purpose of heart to serve the Lord... We may be surrounded by the most hostile influences, as Josiah was in his day. But a devoted heart, an earnest spirit, and a fixed purpose will, through grace, lift us above it all. They will enable us to press on from stage to stage along the path of true discipleship.
Josiah had spent years smashing idols. Now he turns his energy the other way.
Until now the work had been destroying idols and clearing away everything connected with idolatry. Now he had time to repair the damage done to the house of God. It was not enough to destroy what was false. The worship of the LORD had to be set up again, and that meant restoring His house. What pleasure it must have given the Lord to see this son of David so full of zeal for His house! Here was a faint foreshadowing of Him who could say, "Zeal for your house will consume me."
One commentator sees the king's first recorded act as a mark of real revival.
The first thing we are told about him here is that he began by caring for the Lord's house. He repaired its broken places, counting on the men put in charge of the work to be faithful. This is one of the distinctive signs of a revival in the last times. God's house takes on an entirely new importance to believers, and its ruined state draws out their concern... This is not a matter of rebuilding the ruined temple from scratch. It is a matter of repairing its broken places, faithfully bringing the material needed, and adding cedar wood and cut stone that please the God who built the house.
Josiah did not carry this work alone. He drew in the leaders, and they drew in the people.
In this great work of recovery the king had the governor of the city and the recorder with him. They in turn brought the people in. Manasseh, Ephraim, and all the remnant of Israel joined with all Judah and Benjamin in providing the means to repair God's house. How good it is today, as it was then, when all God's people care about the house of God and have the privilege of giving to it.
The repairs led to a discovery nobody was looking for.
This zeal for the house of God has an immediate and most important result. Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, "I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the LORD" (v. 8). If Josiah had not set his heart on restoring the temple, the book of the law kept there (2 Chr. 34:15) would never have come to light again. This is the special character of Josiah's revival... During the reigns before his, the Holy Scriptures had been neglected and as good as forgotten. In this revival they suddenly take their place of importance again.
Another writer notes where blessing is found, and marvels that the book was ever lost.
But when we are in the path of duty, we are in the place of blessing... How strange that the book of the law of the LORD had to be found! So it was. And people wonder how men in Christendom could have departed from the word of God, and forgotten it, for so long.
- Purpose. Josiah sought God in his eighth year, cleansed the land in his twelfth, and repaired the house in his eighteenth. A real purpose of heart shows itself as steady progress, not one burst of energy.
- Order. Clearing away what was false came first. But that was not enough. True worship had to be set up again, and that meant restoring God's house.
- Care. Fresh concern for God's house, and grief over its ruined state, mark a real revival in days of decline.
- Share. People from Israel as well as Judah gave the silver Shaphan went to count. Every one of God's people had a part in the repair.
- Discovery. Because the king had the house on his heart, the lost Book of the Law came to light. In the path of duty he stood in the place of blessing.
Go up to Hilkijah the high priest, that he may sum up the money which is brought into the house of Jehovah, which the doorkeepers have gathered of the people,
Josiah is eighteen years into his reign. He sends his scribe to the high priest with what looks like a simple errand about money — yet commentators read it as the first move of a national revival, and as the errand that uncovered the lost book of the law.
The record of Josiah's reform starts with the temple and its broken-down state.
Here the first thing we are told about him is that he began by taking care of the Lord's house. He repaired its broken parts, and he counted on the faithfulness of the men given this work. This is one of the distinctive signs of a revival in the last times. God's house takes on a completely new importance to believers. Its ruined state draws out their concern.
The collection reached well beyond Jerusalem. The reason the house needed repair went back two reigns.
Josiah set about repairing the house of God in his 18th year, at the age of 26 (v.3). He had sent messengers to Manasseh and Ephraim, as well as to Judah and Benjamin, to collect money for repairing the house. The house had fallen into a degraded state through the abuse of Josiah's father and grandfather.
The counting had a purpose. One writer traces where the money went, and what the workmen were never asked to give.
The money went to those doing the work, the overseers in the house of the Lord — carpenters, builders and masons — to buy timber and cut stone to repair the house (vv. 4-6). No one required them to give any accounting of how the money was spent, for they were trusted to deal faithfully. This is a lovely characteristic of a true revival among the people of God, not a humanly planned revival, though it did begin with the godly exercise of the young king, whose faith proved an effective example to others.
Commentators differ over whether we should copy this. Another writer asks the question and answers no:
A question will arise here. Is this how God wants things done all the time? Should the example of these people of long ago be our pattern today? The answer is no. The times of Joash and of Josiah were exceptional. In each reign a great spiritual revival was in progress. After many years of grave sin the people — or at least a remnant of them — were turning back to their God. Their hearts and consciences were alive to His holy will. So precautions against fraud were hardly necessary.
Four verses later, Hilkiah finds the book of the law while handling this money. The link between the two is not accidental.
This zeal for the house of God has an immediate and most important result. Hilkiah the high priest tells Shaphan the scribe that he has found the book of the law in the house of the LORD (v. 8). If Josiah had not set his heart on restoring the temple, the book of the law kept there (2 Chron. 34:15) would never have come to light again... In this revival the Holy Scriptures take their place of importance again. The earlier reigns had neglected them and all but forgotten them.
Another writer puts the principle in a single line:
But when we are in the path of duty we are in the place of blessing.
The temple Josiah repaired is long gone. One writer explains what God's house is now.
Concern for His house and its due order is always precious in the eyes of God. Ever since Pentecost in Acts 2, when the Holy Spirit came down from heaven, the house of God has not been a physical building like the temple in Jerusalem. It is a spiritual building, made up of living stones — men and women who share in eternal life through grace. Paul tells Timothy plainly what the house of God is now: the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. God delights to live among the people He has redeemed, whether Israel or Christians. But He insists on purity and order. Oh, that we all may be as zealous as the young king Josiah, that God may be glorified in His own house!
- Start: Josiah's reform begins with repairs, not with a sermon. The ruined state of God's house drew out his concern first.
- Gather: the money came from the people, and from tribes far beyond Judah. Earlier kings had let the house fall into ruin.
- Trust: the workmen bought timber and stone with no audit, because they dealt faithfully. One writer calls that a mark of revival God Himself begins; another warns that such trust suited exceptional times, not normal practice.
- Uncover: if the king had not cared for the temple, the lost book would never have surfaced. Care for the house led straight to the Word.
- Today: God's house is now the church of the living God, built of living stones. The zeal Josiah showed for a building is what God looks for in His people.
and let them give it into the hand of them that do the work, that have the oversight of the house of Jehovah; and let them give it to those that do the work in the house of Jehovah, to repair the breaches of the house,
Josiah's order sends money down a chain: the people give it, the high priest counts it, and overseers pay the workmen. Two questions follow — why God's own house needed repair, and why no one checked the spending.
The damage was not accidental. Earlier kings had caused it, and Josiah collected money from a wide area to pay for the repairs.
Chapter 22 of 2 Kings begins with Josiah's initiative in repairing the house of God. This took place in his 18th year, when he was 26 (v.3). He had sent messengers to Manasseh and Ephraim, as well as Judah and Benjamin, to collect money to repair the house. It had fallen into a degraded state through the abuse of Josiah's father and grandfather.
Josiah worked in a deliberate order, and one writer finds it instructive.
The order Josiah followed teaches us something. First, he cleansed the land and the temple. Next, he "repaired the house of the LORD his God." Then he felt ready to call the people together to keep the feast.
The money passes through two sets of hands before it reaches the workmen.
Now Josiah sends Shaphan the scribe to ask Hilkiah the high priest to count the money they had received. The high priest is to give it to those doing the work, who were overseers in the house of the LORD. It goes on to carpenters, builders and masons, to buy timber and hewn stone to repair the house (vv.4-6). But no one required them to account for the way the money was spent. They were trusted to deal faithfully. This is a lovely characteristic of a true revival among the people of God.
The word "faithfully" covers both the work and the money.
The Holy Spirit's record impresses us. In Josiah's day the men were so conscientious that no one kept account of the money spent, and the amount must have been considerable. Scripture uses the word "faithfully" in two ways. First, "the men did the work faithfully" (2 Chronicles 34:12). Second, no one audited the money handed to them, "because they dealt faithfully" (2 Kings 22:7). Such men are worthy of imitation. They gave no mere "eye-service as people-pleasers." They worked "in singleness of heart, fearing God" (Colossians 3:22).
One writer asks whether this way of handling money is the pattern for today.
Let us return to the statement that no one audited the men who handled the money, "because they dealt faithfully." ... A question will arise here. Is this how God wants things done all the time? Should these people of long ago be the pattern for us to follow today? The answer is "No." The times of Joash and of Josiah were exceptional. In each reign a great spiritual revival was going on. After many years of grave wrongdoing the people — or at least a remnant of them — were turning back to their God. Their hearts and consciences were engaged with His holy will. So guards against fraud were hardly needed.
Josiah does not order a new temple. He mends the one already standing, and one writer draws a lesson from that for believers.
The first thing we are told of him here is that he began by caring for the Lord's house. He repaired its breaches, counting on the faithfulness of the men charged with this work. This is one of the distinctive signs of a revival in the last times. God's house takes on an entirely new importance to believers, and its ruined state draws out their concern. ... The work is not to rebuild the ruined temple from scratch. It is to repair its breaches and faithfully bring the material needed.
The building project is not the climax of the chapter. It is the doorway to it.
This zeal for the house of God has an immediate and most important result. "And Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the LORD" (v. 8). The book of the law was kept in the temple (2 Chronicles 34:15). If Josiah had not had the restoration of the temple at heart, it would not have come to light again.
- Ruin — Earlier kings had abused God's house. Josiah inherited the damage and paid to mend it.
- Order — He purged first, repaired next, and only then gathered the people to keep the feast.
- Trust — The word "faithfully" covers both the work and the money. No one audited the workmen, because they dealt faithfully. Such men are worth imitating, but their unchecked accounts belonged to exceptional times of revival.
- Reward — Mending the breaches brought the lost book of the law to light. Care for God's house is where His Word is found again.
to the carpenters and the builders and the masons, and to buy timber and hewn stone to repair the house.
This verse tells us where the money collected for God's house went: to carpenters, builders and masons, and to timber and cut stone. Two questions follow — why did the house need such repair, and why did the money change hands with no accounts kept?
The verse is not about building a new temple. It is about filling the gaps in a house that already stood. One writer draws a lesson from the materials it names.
This is in no way a matter of rebuilding the ruined temple from scratch. It is a matter of repairing its broken places, of faithfully bringing the material needed, of adding to this building cedar wood and cut stone that please God, who had built the house. In the same way, at this time of the end, the Christian who knows his calling will not add wood, hay, and stubble to the house. He will bring to it what is suitable for the house of God — living stones, shaped by the Holy Spirit in the quarry of the world, cut by the Master.
Three trades were needed because the damage ran deep. One writer also notes how well those workers got on together.
The condition of the temple was deplorable when Josiah moved to fit it out again for the worship of God. The wicked kings before him despised everything that belonged to God, and they had done great damage to the sacred building. But willing hands and devoted hearts soon put things right. We learn from 2 Chronicles 34:8-13 that the carpenters, the masons and their overseers worked together warmly and in harmony.
Another writer explains why the job was so large.
This was clearly a large project. The godless kings before Josiah were guilty of destroying a great deal of what was not their own property, but God's.
The money passed straight into the workmen's hands. Nobody kept books. One writer reads that trust as a sign the revival was not man-made.
No one required them to give any account of how the money was spent, because they were trusted to deal faithfully. This is a lovely mark of a true revival among the people of God. It was not a revival planned by men, though it did begin with the young king's godly concern, and his faith proved an effective example to others.
Another writer asks whether this freedom from accounts is the pattern for us today.
Should the example of these people of long ago be the pattern for us to follow today? The answer is No. The times of Joash and of Josiah were exceptional. In each reign a great spiritual revival was going on. After many years of grave sin the people, or at least a remnant of them, were turning back to their God. Their hearts and consciences were stirred about His holy will. Since that was so, precautions against fraud were hardly necessary.
One writer finds a hidden measure of the workmen's heart in the calendar.
The repair of the temple went ahead quickly. The work seems to have begun in the eighteenth year of Josiah's reign, and the Passover was kept the same year. Yet the Passover was a spring feast, fixed to the month Abib. In Hezekiah's time the feast had to be put off for a month, because neither the temple nor the people were ready. But Josiah and his people "slaughtered the Passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the first month" (2 Chronicles 35:1), following the original divine order. This proves that the workmen put their hearts into the work of getting the house ready for the LORD their God. It is written in Ecclesiastes 9:10, "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might." In Colossians 3:23 even slaves are told, "Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men."
The building work had a result no one was looking for.
If Josiah had not had the restoration of the temple at heart, the book of the law, which was kept there (2 Chronicles 34:15), would not have come to light again. This is the special character of Josiah's revival... During the reigns before him the Holy Scriptures had been neglected and forgotten. In this revival they suddenly take their place of importance again.
- Neglect — the temple was in a terrible state. Earlier kings had damaged what was never theirs, but God's.
- Repair — Josiah did not start a new building. He mended the old one with timber and cut stone fit for the house God Himself had built.
- Trust — no one asked the workmen for accounts. That trust marks a real revival, though one writer warns such days were exceptional.
- Might — the Passover was kept on its appointed day that same year. The workmen had put their hearts into the job.
- Discovery — the king cared for the house, so the book stored inside it came to light. Care for God's house brought His Word back.
But no reckoning was made with them of the money that was given into their hand, because they dealt faithfully.
Josiah ordered the temple repaired. His order ends with a striking instruction: no one was to audit the men who handled the money. The reason was their character. Is that trust a model for handling money among God's people today?
(Note: the ESV says "they deal honestly." Older translations say "they dealt faithfully." The commentators below build on that older wording.)
The money passes from king to high priest to overseers, and on to carpenters and masons. At the end of that chain, the paperwork stops. One writer traces the sequence:
Now Josiah sends Shaphan the scribe to ask Hilkiah the high priest to count the money they had received. Hilkiah is to give it to those doing the work, the overseers in the house of the Lord — to carpenters, builders and masons — to buy timber and hewn stone to repair the house. But, interestingly, no one required them to give any accounting of how the money was spent. They were depended on to deal faithfully. This is a lovely mark of a true revival among the people of God. It was not a revival planned by men, though it did begin with the godly exercise of the young king. His faith proved an effective example to others.
The same arrangement appears generations earlier under Joash. One commentator asks whether it is a pattern for us:
We return to the statement that there was no reckoning with the men who handled the money "because they dealt faithfully." … It is noticeable that the same thing is said of the workmen in the days of Joash and Jehoiada (2 Kings 12:15; 2 Kings 22:7). The question naturally arises: "Is this how God would have things done all the time? Should the example of these people of long ago be the pattern for us to follow today?" The answer is "No." The times of Joash and of Josiah were exceptional. In each reign a great spiritual revival was in progress. After many years of serious sin, the people — or at least some of them — were turning back to their God. Their hearts and consciences were awake to His holy will. So guards against fraud were hardly necessary.
Scripture uses the word "faithfully" of these men in two ways:
The Holy Spirit's record impresses us. In Josiah's day the men were so conscientious that no one kept an account of the money spent. The amount must have been considerable. The word "faithfully" is used in two ways: (1) "the men did the work faithfully" (2 Chron. 34:12); and (2) "there was no reckoning made with them of the money that was delivered into their hand, because they dealt faithfully" (2 Kings 22:7). Such men are worthy of imitation. Theirs was no mere "eye-service, as people-pleasers"; they worked "with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord" (Col. 3:22). … Perhaps in nothing are God's children so often unfaithful as in the stewardship of money.
Where did this trust come from? One writer points to what Josiah did first:
The first thing we are told of him here is that he began by taking care of the Lord's house. He repaired its breaches, counting on the faithfulness of those charged with this work. This is one of the distinctive signs of a revival in the last times. God's house takes on an entirely new importance to believers, and its ruined state draws out their concern. … This is in no way a matter of rebuilding the ruined temple from scratch. It means repairing its breaches and faithfully bringing the material needed.
Does this verse excuse keeping no records? One writer draws the opposite conclusion:
So we conclude that God wants His people to keep orderly accounts, both on their own and together. We should keep our own books so that the tax inspector, if he has to examine them, can see at a glance that we are honourable people. The books of believers who gather together should be so ordered that everything is above reproach. Once more we remind ourselves that Josiah's labourers "dealt faithfully" — both in their work and in their handling of the people's money. The Holy Spirit says in 1 Cor. 4:2, "it is required of stewards that they be found faithful."
- Faithful in work. The same men who "did the work faithfully" were trusted with the money. Character showed first in the job itself.
- Faithful with money. Because they dealt faithfully, no one demanded an account of the money they handled.
- Faithful times. Both here and under Joash, revival had stirred hearts and consciences. Guards against fraud were hardly needed.
- Faithful priority. Josiah began with the Lord's house and repaired its breaches. He counted on the faithfulness of the workers — one of the distinctive signs of revival.
- Faithful today. The exception is not the rule. God wants His people to keep orderly accounts, since "it is required of stewards that they be found faithful."
And Hilkijah the high priest said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of Jehovah. And Hilkijah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it.
Josiah sent workmen to repair a neglected temple. While the work went on, the high priest found what no one had gone looking for: the book of the law, unread, in God's own house. How does a nation lose the very words God gave it? And what happens when it hears them again?
Josiah set out to repair the temple, not to find a book. One writer ties the two together, and sees the same thing happen again at the Reformation.
Josiah had the restoration of the temple at heart. Without that, the book of the law, which was kept there, would never have come to light again. In this revival the Holy Scriptures, neglected and forgotten during the reigns before him, suddenly take their place of importance again. This was the great blessing of the revival called the Reformation. God's providence brought the Bible out of hiding and put it before everyone, and it shone out at once with the brightest light.
The priest is surprised by a book he should have known. So was the king, though the law had told every king of Israel to write out his own copy.
God had commanded in Deuteronomy 17:18-19 that the king of Israel was to write out a copy of the law for himself and learn it well. Yet Josiah did not even know that such a book existed. Manasseh and Amon had no doubt ignored God's Word completely. So when Hilkiah the high priest found the book of the law in the house of God, it was a total surprise to him and to Josiah. The high priest should have known the law, but it took Josiah's faith to wake him up.
Why had it vanished? The reason was moral, not accidental. Evil rulers had every reason to let it be forgotten.
The fact that it had been lost was a sad sign of Israel's condition. But wicked people see nothing attractive in the word of God, and we can well understand that it was not wanted in the days of Manasseh and Amon. These kings who ruled before Josiah were wicked men, and no doubt they were glad to have the law of the LORD forgotten.
Some say the scroll was only Deuteronomy. One writer answers from the reply that Huldah the prophetess later gave to Josiah.
Huldah's answer makes it plain that the book found was not only Deuteronomy, which some ask us to believe was written at about that time. It contained more than we have in that last book of the five books of Moses. It really was what it was called: "the Book of the Law of the LORD given through Moses" (2 Chronicles 34:14).
Hilkiah handed the scroll over, and Shaphan read it. One writer weighs that small act — and the sad turn in Shaphan's own family.
Shaphan did the wise thing, for a Bible left unread is useless to anyone. This man's son became a leader in idolatry (Ezekiel 8:11). It is clear that the Word of God had no power over him.
One writer traces the discovery to God's faithfulness, then draws a lesson from how the king took it.
God was faithful. The man whose heart was set on keeping the word of the LORD found the law through His servant Hilkiah, the high priest. "When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes." He had a tender conscience. There is nothing more important in its place. What is the good of knowledge if there is no conscience? It seems to me that to grow in knowledge of the truth, without simplicity in carrying it out, turns knowledge into a curse, not a blessing... Far better to be simple and use rightly the little that we know than to grow in knowledge without matching faithfulness.
The revival that followed traced back to this one discovery.
Notice that the marvellous increase to the revival came from the word of the LORD being discovered, read, received and acted on... So it is safe to say that there cannot be any revival of lasting benefit which is not controlled by the Word of God.
The point comes close to home for anyone who owns several Bibles.
Bibles are plentiful and cheap. Yet in some homes they may sit only on the top shelf, as dusty as the precious book that Hilkiah found in the Temple!
- Lost. A book can sit in God's own house and still be forgotten. Wicked kings were glad to have the law out of sight. Its loss showed the state the nation was really in.
- Found. Josiah cared about repairing the temple, and the scroll came to light. Care for God's house brings His Word back into view.
- Read. Hilkiah found it, Shaphan read it. A Bible unread helps no one, as Shaphan's own idolatrous son proved.
- Felt. Josiah's torn clothes show a tender conscience. Knowledge without a conscience to obey it turns into a curse, not a blessing.
- Followed. The revival flowed straight from that reading. No revival lasts unless God's Word governs it.
And Shaphan the scribe came to the king, and brought the king word again and said, Thy servants have emptied out the money that was found in the house, and have delivered it into the hand of them that do the work, that have the oversight of the house of Jehovah.
Shaphan the secretary brings the young king a progress report. The temple money has gone straight to the men overseeing the repairs. Commentators fix on two things here: the trust placed in those workmen, and the one thing Shaphan leaves until last.
The repairs Shaphan reports on started with the king himself. Josiah's first act was to care for the temple, and he trusted the men who did the work.
The first thing we learn of him here is that he began by taking care of the Lord's house. He repaired its broken places, counting on the faithfulness of the men given this work. This is one of the distinctive signs of a revival in the last times. God's house takes on a whole new importance to believers, and its ruined state draws out their concern.
The money goes straight into the workmen's hands, and no one asks for receipts.
Interestingly, no one required them to account for the way they spent the money. People simply relied on them to deal faithfully. This is a lovely mark of a true revival among the people of God. Men did not plan it, though it did begin with the godly concern of the young king. His faith proved an effective example to others.
One word covers two things: the work itself and the money it passed through. Scripture holds up such workers as an example.
The Holy Spirit's record impresses us. In Josiah's day the men were so careful that no one kept any account of the money spent, and the amount must have been considerable. The word "faithfully" appears in two ways: (1) "the men did the work faithfully" (2 Chron. 34:12); and (2) "there was no reckoning made with them of the money that was delivered into their hand, because they dealt faithfully" (2 Kings 22:7). Such men are worthy of imitation. Theirs was no mere "eye-service as men pleasers"; they worked "in singleness of heart fearing God" (Col. 3:22).
Is this missing paperwork a pattern for us? One writer asks that question and answers it.
The question will arise: "Is this how God wants things done all the time? Should the example of these people of long ago be the pattern for us to follow today?" The answer is "No." The times of Joash and of Josiah were exceptional. In each reign a great spiritual revival was going on. After many years of serious sin the people — or at least a remnant of them — were turning back to their God. Their hearts and consciences were deeply stirred about His holy will. So precautions against fraud were hardly necessary.
The same writer then applies the lesson to money today, personal and shared:
We should keep our own books so that the tax inspector, if he ever examines them, can see at a glance that we are honourable men. And believers who gather together should order their books so that everything is above reproach.
Shaphan has the lost book of the law in his hands while he speaks these words — and he saves it for last.
He says nothing of the newly found treasure yet. It may not have been a treasure in his eyes. Like many today, he was more taken up with "workmen" and "money" than with God's book. God has "magnified" that book, not merely above all Christian work or missionary enterprise (though these have their place), but "above all His name." Shaphan did not despise the book. Yet, like many a modern scribe, he had not yet realized the importance of that blessed book. Money, overseers and workmen all come first. Then at last: "Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest has given me a book" — only a book!
The repair work had a result no one planned.
If Josiah had not had the restoration of the temple at heart, the book of the law, which was kept there (2 Chr. 34:15), would not have come to light again. This is the special character of Josiah's revival... Earlier reigns had neglected the Holy Scriptures and all but forgotten them. In this revival they suddenly take their place of importance again.
- Care — Josiah's reign begins with concern for the Lord's house. This report is the answer to that concern.
- Trust — the money passes to the workmen with no audit, because a real work of God produces men who can be trusted with it.
- Faithfully — one word covers their work and their handling of money. Such workers serve God, not the watching eye of an employer.
- Order — commentators call this an exceptional time, not a pattern. In normal times God wants clear accounts, so that everything is above reproach.
- Priority — Shaphan names money, overseers and workmen first, and God's book last. Yet those repairs are the very reason the book came to light.
And Shaphan the scribe informed the king saying, Hilkijah the priest has given me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king.
The temple repairs were underway when a long-lost scroll surfaced, and this verse is the moment it reached the throne. Why did the book come to light just then, what was it, and what happens when Scripture is read aloud in a place of power?
Shaphan reported on the building fund first. Only after all the business detail did he mention what Hilkiah had handed him:
He says nothing about the new-found treasure yet. Perhaps it was not a treasure in his eyes. Like many people today, he was more taken up with "workmen" and "money" than with God's book. God has "magnified" that book, not just above all Christian work or missionary effort (though these have their place), but "above all His name." Shaphan did not despise the book. But like many a scribe today, he had not yet realized how important that precious book is. Then — after "money," and "overseers," and "workmen," have all been mentioned — comes the report: "Hilkiah the priest has given me a book" — only a book!
Whatever his priorities, Shaphan did not leave the scroll on a shelf:
Hilkiah reported his great discovery to Shaphan the scribe: "I have found the book of the law in the house of the LORD. And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it" (2 Kings 22:8). Shaphan did wisely, for a Bible no one reads is useless to anybody.
One writer traces the find back to the king's care for the temple, and sees the same pattern much later in history:
If Josiah had not cared about restoring the temple, the book of the law, which was kept there (2 Chr. 34:15), would not have come to light again. This is the special character of Josiah's revival... In this revival the Holy Scriptures suddenly take their place of importance again, after being neglected and forgotten during the reigns before him. This was the great blessing attached to the revival called the Reformation. God's providence brought the Bible out of hiding and put it within reach of everyone, and at once it shone out with the brightest splendour.
Some have claimed the scroll was a new document, written for the occasion. One writer answers that from the way Josiah himself speaks of it:
Josiah heard the words of the book of the law, and his heart was tender; but he had no idea of a new book or a new law. It was the book of the law that was found. In the long reign of Manasseh it had been utterly neglected; but he speaks of it as no new thing.
Whether the physical scroll was Moses' own manuscript, commentators leave open — one calls it "an interesting question, but difficult to answer."
The "secretary" of the verse was Josiah's chief officer of state. This was the king's first encounter with the words themselves:
It was a great moment in the spiritual history of Josiah when his Secretary of State brought in the book of the law and read it before him... Josiah had never seen the sacred scroll before, and he had never heard it read. How different from us! We have the complete Word of God, and we may read it as often as we wish!
That advantage can turn into the same neglect:
Bibles are plentiful and cheap. But in some homes they may sit only on the top shelf, as dusty as the precious book Hilkiah found in the temple!
The words did more than inform the king. They cut into him:
"The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart." (Heb. 4:12.) That is what it proved to be for Josiah... We commend him to present-day critics, who, alas! rend the Bible instead of their clothes... If we treat it as an ordinary book, an ordinary book it will remain to us.
Shaphan read the book aloud to the king. His own family did not follow him in it:
The prophet gives special mention to Jaazaniah, the son of Shaphan. Shaphan was the scribe who received the book of the law from Hilkiah the high priest and read it before King Josiah (2 Kings 22:8-11; Jer. 39:14). The son of this God-fearing scribe was the leader of the idol worshippers.
- Hidden — the scroll lay neglected through the reigns before Josiah. It came to light because a king cared about God's house.
- Handed over — Shaphan mentioned it last, after money and workmen, as though it were "only a book."
- Read — he still read it aloud, and a Bible unread helps no one.
- Heard — the words cut into a king who had never heard them. Our own Bibles are cheap and plentiful, and can still sit unopened.
- Owned — Josiah received it as the old law long ignored, not a new one. Shaphan's son shows that handling Scripture is no substitute for obeying it.
And it came to pass when the king heard the words of the book of the law, that he rent his garments.
Josiah had set his heart on restoring the neglected temple, and while the work went on the high priest found the book of the law inside it. Hearing it read aloud broke the king, and his torn clothes raise a question for every reader of Scripture: do we judge the Word, or does it judge us?
The nation had drifted so far that its own law had gone missing. One commentator points to God's faithfulness here, and to what the king had that mattered more than knowledge:
Even here the law had been lost all this time, and it was a great discovery to find it. God was faithful, and the man who had a heart to observe the word of Jehovah found the law through His servant Hilkiah, the high priest. "When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes." He had a tender conscience. There is nothing more important in its place; for what is the good of knowledge if there is not a conscience? ... The moment you divorce the truth from conscience, the state of the soul is even worse. It is far better to use the little we know simply and rightly than to grow in knowledge without matching faithfulness.
Some read this find as a new book written in Josiah's own day. One commentator answers from the way Josiah himself spoke of it:
Josiah heard the words of the book of the law, and his heart was tender; but he had no idea of a new book or a new law. It was the book of the law that was found. In the long reign of Manasseh it had been utterly neglected; but he speaks of it as no new thing.
Yet familiar words can land with the force of a first hearing when a person is already obeying:
When zeal for God's house and obedience to the Scriptures go together, the Scriptures become, as it were, a completely new revelation. Things already known to be of God certainly do not lose their importance. But a light bursts out that astonishes and impresses people, as if it had been completely unknown until then. And it touches consciences most deeply.
Josiah never asked whether the scroll was authentic. He simply took the blow:
Josiah had no question at all in his mind about whether the words Shaphan had read in his hearing were genuine. We do not read of his asking, "How am I to know that this is the Word of God?" No. He trembled at it. He bowed before it. It struck him down. He tore his garments. He did not presume to sit in judgement on the Word of God, but, as was right, he allowed the Word to judge him.
The order of his actions matters. He did not begin by attacking the sins around him:
It is one thing to judge our surroundings by the Word, and quite another to judge ourselves. Now Josiah began with himself. He tore his own clothes before he ever called others to listen to the weighty words of the law. That was true self-judgment under their searching power.
Softness towards God is not where anyone starts. One writer records what God said about Josiah's torn clothes, and where such a heart comes from:
God valued Josiah's attitude. In answer to his anxious question He said: "because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before God when you heard His words ... and you have humbled yourself before Me and have torn your clothes and wept before Me, I also have heard you, declares the LORD" (2 Chronicles 34:26-27). The heart of man is naturally hard towards God. ... In contrast with this, Josiah's heart was impressionable — a gracious work of the Holy Spirit of God, without doubt. Jeremiah 23:29 compares the divine Word to a hammer: "Is not my word like fire, declares the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?" ... His heart was already tender.
Torn clothes are not the only way to react to bad news from God. Josiah's own son later showed the other option:
Josiah had good reason to tear his clothes when he read what lay in store for Israel if they forsook their God and turned to idols. Yet how great the contrast between Josiah's attitude and that of his son Jehoiakim. When Jehoiakim heard the words written on Jeremiah's scroll, he cut it with his penknife and threw it into the fire.
- Neglected. Years of drift lost the law. Finding it again was a great discovery — yet Josiah treated it as the old book, not a new one.
- Read. When a person is already obeying, familiar words come with new light and reach the conscience.
- Torn. He did not test the Word's credentials; he trembled, bowed, and let it judge him.
- Ordered. Self-judgment came before reform of anyone else — his own clothes first, then the call to others.
- Given. A tender heart is not natural. It is the Spirit's gracious work. The hard heart needs the hammer — and God says He hears the tender heart.
And the king commanded Hilkijah the priest, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Achbor the son of Micaiah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah a servant of the king, saying,
Someone has found the book of the law, and Josiah has just heard it read aloud. He tore his clothes at what he heard. Now he acts: he names five men and sends them out on his behalf. Two questions follow. Why would a king need a delegation to learn God's mind? And what does it say about him that his first move was to ask for more of the Word that had just cut him?
Before Josiah gave any order, the book had already done its work inside him. One commentator draws the line between two very different uses of Scripture:
It is a very serious thing for anyone — man, woman or child — to stand in the searching light of God's Word. That Word judges everything. It makes no terms with the flesh or the world. It cuts up by the root everything within us and around us that is not according to God... It is one thing to judge our surroundings by the Word, and it is quite another thing to judge ourselves. Now Josiah began with himself. Before he ever called on others to listen to the weighty words of the law, he tore his own clothes, in true self-judgment beneath their searching power.
The order in this verse comes from a man who did not soften what he had heard:
How profoundly serious was the effect on the godly king Josiah when he heard the Word of God! In a spirit of deep self-judgment he tore his clothes. Then he commanded five men, including Hilkiah and Shaphan, to go and inquire of the Lord for him and for the small number left in Israel and Judah. For he recognised that Israel was under the great wrath of God because their fathers had not kept the Word of the Lord. He did not try to explain it away. He faced the truth of Scripture head on. He wanted to know just how God was now going to deal with his nation.
The five men carry the question; they do not answer it. One commentator asks who can:
And now who will interpret this Word for us? This Word says we have brought His displeasure on ourselves. So how are we to "inquire of Jehovah" about what we should do? The prophet alone, the representative of the Spirit of Christ, can interpret it for us. Josiah does not turn to Shaphan the secretary for this, or even to Hilkiah the high priest. He seeks to be brought into direct relationship with the Word.
Hilkiah the high priest heads the list of messengers. One commentator stops at that:
But the course Josiah adopted arrests our attention. He sent a delegation of five leading men in his realm to consult Huldah the prophetess as to what Jehovah wanted done. The leader of the delegation was Hilkiah the High Priest! The religious head of the nation sent by the king to a woman for counsel! Why was this?... At a much later date it was said, "The priest's lips should keep knowledge and they should seek the law at his mouth, for he is the messenger of Jehovah of Hosts" (Mal. 2:7). Here the high privileges and the spiritual distinction of the priesthood stand out clearly. Their special nearness to God should fit them to be His mouthpiece to the people.
Two of the five appear again later. Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, stood by God's prophet when that was dangerous:
Son of Shaphan the scribe, and one of those sent by Josiah to Huldah the prophetess to inquire of the Lord about the book of the law that had been found. He also served under Jehoiakim and shielded Jeremiah from death when he prophesied against the nation.
Shaphan handled the book himself. That was no guarantee inside his own house:
Shaphan did wisely, for a Bible unread is useless to anybody. This man's son became a leader in idolatry (Ezek. 8:11). Over him the Word of God evidently had no power.
- Read — a Bible nobody opens helps nobody. Everything here starts with Shaphan reading the book to the king.
- Received — Josiah did not argue with the hard words. He took the truth as it stood and asked God what came next.
- Repented first — he tore his own clothes before he gave any order. He judged himself before he judged the nation.
- Referred upward — he passed over his own secretary and high priest. He wanted God's Word direct, not official comfort.
- Results vary — the same scroll passed through Shaphan's hands and Ahikam's. One family gave Jeremiah a protector; it also gave the nation a leader in idolatry. The Word's power is not inherited.
Go, inquire of Jehovah for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book which is found; for great is the wrath of Jehovah that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened to the words of this book, to do according to all that is written [there] for us.
The repair of the temple brought the long-neglected book of the law back to light. When Josiah heard its words he tore his clothes and sent five men to inquire of the LORD. His order raises three questions. What was this book? Why did the king count the sins of long-dead generations as his own? And what good is repentance after God has already announced judgment?
Josiah speaks of "this book" as something his fathers should have obeyed long ago. One writer answers the idea that this was a newly written law:
Josiah heard the words of the book of the law, and his heart was tender; but he had no idea of a new book or a new law. What they found was the book of the law. During Manasseh's long reign it lay completely neglected, but he speaks of it as nothing new. "Great is the wrath of the LORD that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book."
The book had sat in the temple, ignored. Another writer traces its discovery back to Josiah's care for God's house, and describes how the recovered Word struck that generation:
If Josiah had not had the restoration of the temple at heart, the book of the law, which was kept there, would not have come to light again. This is the special character of Josiah's revival... under Josiah we find what amounts to a totally new revelation of the written Word.
The king could have softened what he heard. The disobedience named in the book was his fathers', not his own. He did nothing of the kind:
In deep self-judgment he tore his clothes. Then he commanded five men, including Hilkiah and Shaphan, to go and inquire of the Lord for him and for the small number left in Israel and Judah. For he recognized that Israel was under the great wrath of God because their fathers had not kept the Word of the Lord. He did not try to explain it away. He faced the truth that Scripture declared, and he wanted to know how God would now deal with his nation.
His own family shows the other way to take such words:
No wonder Josiah tore his clothes when he read what lay in store for Israel if they abandoned their God and turned to idols. Yet how great the contrast between Josiah's attitude and that of his son Jehoiakim. When Jehoiakim heard the words written in Jeremiah's scroll, he cut it with his penknife and threw it into the fire.
He had the book, yet he still sent men to inquire. It had shown him the verdict, not what to do next:
And now who will interpret this Word for us? How are we to "inquire of the LORD" about what we should do? This Word shows that we have brought His displeasure on ourselves. Only the prophet, the representative of the Spirit of Christ, can interpret it for us. Josiah does not turn to Shaphan the scribe for this, or even to Hilkiah the high priest. He seeks direct contact with the Word itself... In Josiah's time, in these days of revival but of deep weakness, we find a prophetess in Jerusalem. The Spirit of Christ speaks through her to confirm all the words of the book the king had read.
The errand covers all Judah, not Josiah alone. He had every reason to treat the case as closed; the book had already passed sentence:
Josiah might have thought the case hopeless. Nothing, he might have reasoned, could hold back the flood of wrath and judgment about to roll over Jerusalem and the land of Israel. Any move of his must prove useless. The divine purpose was settled, the decree had gone out, and he had only to stand by and let things run their course. But Josiah did not reason like that... He did not give himself up to a destructive fatalism. With a broken spirit and an earnest heart he threw himself on God, confessing his own sins and the sins of his people. Then, sure of his own deliverance, he set himself to seek the deliverance of others too.
Josiah grieved over disobedience that began long before his birth. One writer turns that on the reader:
Josiah felt Israel's grievous disobedience over nine centuries so deeply. How should we feel as we look back over our own history in the nineteen centuries since Pentecost? What a record of departure from the Word of God! Are our hearts tender? Do we know anything of holy trembling at the Word of God?
- Found — Josiah cared for God's house, and that zeal brought the neglected Word back to light.
- Faced — He did not rationalize the warning away, but took the declared wrath as true and about himself.
- Asked — He knew the verdict, yet still sent men to inquire. He wanted God's own word, not a comforting opinion.
- Widened — His plea covered the people as well as himself; assured of his own deliverance, he went on to seek theirs.
- Contrasted — His son heard such words and burned them. A tender heart or a penknife: every reader picks one.
And Hilkijah the priest, and Ahikam, and Achbor, and Shaphan, and Asaiah, went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah, son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the second quarter [of the town]; and they spoke with her.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And she said to them, Thus saith Jehovah the God of Israel Tell the man that sent you to me,
Josiah has just heard the book of the law read aloud, torn his clothes, and sent his officials to ask God what it means for him and his people. Verse 15 opens the answer they brought back. Two things stand out: who delivers it, and how God names the king who sent for it.
Josiah wanted more than a report from his priest or his secretary. He wanted the word itself. But the only person who could give it showed how far things had fallen.
And now, who will interpret this Word for us? This Word shows that we have brought God's displeasure on ourselves. How then are we to "inquire of the LORD" about what we should do? Only the prophet can interpret it for us, for he represents the Spirit of Christ (1 Peter 1:11). Josiah does not turn to Shaphan the scribe for this, or even to Hilkiah the high priest. He seeks direct contact with the Word. There were many prophets in the days of wicked Manasseh. In Josiah's time, days of revival but of deep weakness, we find a prophetess at Jerusalem. Prophets were not lacking in Judah, but work handed to a woman marks decline, just as with Deborah in the book of Judges. Like Deborah, Huldah does not seek a public ministry, as the false prophetesses of our day do. She uses her gift in the place appointed to her.
For a king, going to a woman for counsel looked humbling. Josiah's broken heart made the channel irrelevant.
Things were low. But the grace of God was unfailing and abundant. Josiah was so broken down that he was ready to take God's mind from whatever channel brought it to him. This was morally lovely. To nature's eye, it might seem very humiliating for a king of Judah to turn to a woman for counsel. But that woman held the mind of God, and for a humble and contrite spirit like Josiah's that was quite enough.
Huldah speaks in God's name, not her own. She does not soften the book or add to it.
Huldah was a faithful woman. She told Josiah's servants the plain, uncompromising truth from God. She confirmed what Josiah had read in scripture: a dreadful judgment would fall on Jerusalem. It expressed the fierce anger of the Lord against their wickedness.
Josiah had already heard these words read. Hearing them a second time, addressed to him by name, landed differently.
All this only repeated and confirmed what the king of Judah had already heard with an open and attentive ear. But now it came with fresh force, emphasis, and interest, as a direct personal message to himself. That earnest sentence gave it added weight: "Tell the man who sent you to me."
The reply then comes in two parts. Each part names the same man differently.
The message comes in two parts. The first part opens with 'tell the man'. It says the judgment will come and can no longer be turned aside. The second part speaks to 'the king of Judah'. It reassures Josiah that God had accepted his humbling of himself and would not bring the judgment in Josiah's day.
Jeremiah was already prophesying in Judah at this time. God passed him over here, and the writers do not pretend to explain it.
But although the above is true, we must never lose sight of the sovereignty of God. He works as He pleases, and gives no account of His matters. This is even more so when everything is in confusion among His people. Why the LORD chose to speak through Huldah to the king and to the high priest is known to Himself alone. Jeremiah was already in His service, for he began his prophetic ministry in the thirteenth year of Josiah's reign (Jer. 1:2), and the book of the law was not found until five years later. Yet the LORD spoke through Huldah on this occasion, and not through Jeremiah!
The judgment stood. Josiah could have decided there was nothing left to do.
Josiah might have thought the case hopeless. He might have thought that nothing could turn back the mighty tide of wrath and judgment about to roll over Jerusalem and the land of Israel. He might have thought that any move of his was useless — that God's purpose was settled, the decree gone out, and that he had only to stand by and let things take their course. But Josiah did not reason this way. He bowed before the divine testimony. He humbled himself, tore his clothes, and wept. God took notice of this.
- Sent — Josiah would not settle for a second-hand report. He sought direct contact with God's word.
- Channel — a woman in the prophet's place showed how low things had sunk. A broken king still took the word, whatever channel God used.
- Sovereign — Jeremiah was already prophesying. God chose Huldah instead, and gives no account of why.
- Confirmed — the message added nothing to the book. It drove home what Josiah had already heard.
- Answered — the judgment still stood, yet God noticed Josiah's tears. "Tell the man" became a personal word for "the king of Judah."
Thus saith Jehovah Behold, I will bring evil upon this place and upon the inhabitants thereof, all the words of the book that the king of Judah hath read.
Josiah has just heard the newly found book of the law read aloud, and he sends men to ask God what it means. Huldah's reply softens nothing: disaster is coming on Jerusalem, and that raises the hard question — why could a real revival not cancel it?
Josiah asked God about the words he had already read. The answer matched the book in front of him.
Huldah was a faithful woman who told Josiah's servants the plain, uncompromising truth from God: the Lord would bring disaster on this place and on its people, "because they have forsaken Me and have made offerings to other gods, that they might provoke Me to anger with all the work of their hands. Therefore my wrath will be kindled against this place, and it will not be quenched" (vv.16-17). Huldah confirmed what Josiah had read in scripture, that a dreadful judgment would fall on Jerusalem.
The sentence was not sudden. It answered a guilt that had been building for centuries.
Ruin was waiting for the nation. Its cup of sin had been filling up for centuries. Manasseh's defiance of Jehovah's Word and his extreme evil made the cup overflow… They had provoked their God to anger "since the day their fathers came out of Egypt." So the evil was persistent and beyond remedy… Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 are two of the most terrible chapters in the Word of God. In them God set out, before Israel entered the land, what must follow if they rebelled against Him. It was probably those very chapters that so alarmed Josiah and made him tear his clothes and weep before God.
The messenger God chose says something about the state of the nation.
In Josiah's time, in these days of revival but of deep weakness, we find a prophetess at Jerusalem. Prophets were not lacking in Judah (2 Kings 23:2). But work given to a woman marks decline, just as with Deborah in the book of Judges. Like Deborah, Huldah is a servant of Jehovah. She does not try to exercise a public ministry like the false prophetesses of our day. She uses her gift in the place appointed to her… But the Spirit of Christ speaks through this woman, to confirm "all the words of the book that the king of Judah has read" (v. 16).
Josiah never objected to who brought him the message.
To human eyes it might seem very humbling for a king of Judah to turn to a woman for counsel. But that woman was the keeper of the mind of God, and this was quite enough for a humble and contrite spirit like Josiah's… It did not matter how the voice of God reached his ear. He was ready to hear and obey.
That leaves one question: could the king's own godliness have saved the nation?
Did the piety of Josiah turn away the wrath of God from Judah? No. Josiah "turned to the LORD with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might" (2 Kings 23:25). Yet verse 26 adds: "Still the LORD did not turn from the burning of His great wrath, by which His anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked Him."
The threat stood, yet God had a separate word for the king himself.
Because his heart was tender, he had humbled himself before the Lord when he heard the Word of God. He had torn his clothes in self-judgment and had wept before the Lord. So the Lord took full account of his repentance (vv.18-20). For this reason the Lord assured Josiah that he himself would die before Judah's solemn calamity came. This may remind us of Isaiah 57:1: "The righteous man perishes, and no one lays it to heart; devout men are taken away, while no one understands. For the righteous man is taken away from calamity."
The next generation heard a written warning too.
Josiah had good reason to tear his clothes when he read what was in store for Israel if they forsook their God and turned to idols. Yet what a contrast between Josiah and his son Jehoiakim! When Jehoiakim heard the words written in Jeremiah's scroll, he cut it with his penknife and threw it into the fire (Jer. 36:23).
- Book read — The law was read aloud, and it told Judah what was coming. Josiah's first move was to ask God about those words.
- Book confirmed — Huldah added nothing new. Everything written in the book would happen, because the nation had left the Lord for other gods.
- Book vindicated — Sin piled up for centuries and overflowed under Manasseh. Nothing would quench that wrath, not even Josiah's wholehearted reform.
- Book received — God answered the one man whose heart was tender. Josiah humbled himself, tore his clothes and wept, and God promised he would die before the disaster came.
- Book refused — Josiah's son heard the same kind of warning and cut the scroll to pieces. The same words either break a heart or harden it.
Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the work of their hands, therefore my fury is kindled against this place, and shall not be quenched.
Josiah sent his men to ask God about the book found in the temple. The answer came back through Huldah the prophetess. This verse gives the reason for the sentence: Judah had left God for other gods. It also gives its measure — an anger nothing will put out.
Josiah had already heard the book read aloud. Huldah gave him no new information. She confirmed that the judgment he had read about would really fall.
Huldah was a faithful woman who told Josiah's servants the plain, uncompromising truth from God... She only confirmed what Josiah had read in Scripture: a dreadful judgment would fall on Jerusalem. It would express the fierce anger of the Lord against their wickedness.
Josiah had a scribe and a high priest close at hand. He took his question somewhere else:
Josiah does not turn to Shaphan the scribe for this, or even to Hilkijah the high priest. He seeks to be put into direct relationship with the Word... But the Spirit of Christ speaks through this woman. She confirms "all the words of the book that the king of Judah has read" (v. 16), and at the same time reassures Josiah about his own future.
The charge is specific: they forsook God and made offerings to other gods. The sentence matches the charge. Josiah's own goodness could not cancel it.
Yet God had told Josiah that His wrath was aroused against Judah because of all their iniquity, and that wrath would not be quenched... Josiah's faithfulness had only delayed the judgment during his own reign. Manasseh turned to God in his later years, but the evil he had done was enormous, and it had defiled Judah deeply. God's grace may triumph over man's sin and save him from eternal judgment. Yet God's government still calls for the judgment of whatever evil has been done... Jerusalem, God's centre, and God's house there would be cast off, even though God had established His name in it.
Josiah's reform changed the whole country, yet the wrath stood. One writer asks why God was not satisfied.
Royal power had brought about a great reformation. But it left the hearts of most of the people untouched... So why could God not rest in the improved outward state of the kingdom of Judah in Josiah's day? He looked beneath the surface. He looked for reality, for tenderness of conscience, for a heart subject to His word. He did not find them... God will never be satisfied with anything less than thoroughness.
Huldah's reply comes in two halves. The change of address marks the break. The first half is for the man who sent them. The second is for the king of Judah.
The first part starts with "tell the man". It states that the judgement will come and can no longer be turned aside. The second part speaks to "the king of Judah". It reassures Josiah that God had accepted his humiliation and would not bring the judgement in Josiah's day.
The comfort for the king was personal. It came in a form that looks at first like loss:
So the Lord assured Josiah that death would take him away before Judah's solemn calamity came. This may remind us of Isaiah 57:1: "The righteous man perishes, and no one lays it to heart; devout men are taken away, while no one understands. For the righteous man is taken away from calamity." How often God takes a godly person away before some great trouble that would be most painful for him to watch!
Josiah's revival did not cancel the judgment. One writer draws a warning from that for later ages.
And here is an important lesson for our own times. Reformations and revivals cannot keep back the decreed judgments of God. Many think that great waves of reformation and revival prove the world is getting better, and that only good lies ahead for this age... Reformation-revival movements are evidences, too, that the threatened judgment is not far away. As the end approaches God warns us and His Spirit presses home the truth once more to awaken the consciences of men.
- Cause. The wrath has a stated reason. Judah left God and gave His worship to idols they had made themselves.
- Confirmation. Huldah added nothing to the book. She confirmed that its words now rested on this place and these people.
- Unquenchable. Grace may save a person from eternal judgment. God's government still deals with the evil done. The wrath was delayed, not cancelled.
- Surface. The reform was royal and outward. God looked beneath it for a tender conscience and a heart subject to His word. He did not find it.
- Shelter. Wrath that nothing could quench still made room for one tender heart. God took Josiah away in peace before the trouble he would have had to watch.
But to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of Jehovah, thus shall ye say to him Thus saith Jehovah the God of Israel touching the words which thou hast heard
Huldah's reply to Josiah's messengers came in two halves. The first announced judgment on the nation; this verse turns to the king who had sent to ask.
Josiah's response to the book had two sides. So did the answer that came back.
The reading of "the book" prompted a deep twofold reaction. Josiah tore his clothes and he inquired of the Lord. The word of God brings about repentance and dependence. The message comes in two parts. The first part begins with "tell the man" and states that the judgement will come and nothing can turn it aside any more. The second part speaks to "the king of Judah" and reassures Josiah that God had accepted his humiliation and would not bring the judgement in Josiah's day.
Hearing the words was one thing. Knowing what to do about them was another.
And now who will interpret this Word for us? How are we to "inquire of the LORD" about what we should do? This Word shows that we have brought His displeasure on ourselves. Only the prophet, the representative of the Spirit of Christ (1 Peter 1:11), can interpret it for us. Josiah does not turn to Shaphan the scribe for this, or even to Hilkiah the high priest; he seeks direct contact with the Word itself... But the Spirit of Christ speaks through Huldah, this servant of Jehovah, to confirm "all the words of the book that the king of Judah has read" (v. 16), and at the same time to reassure Josiah about his own future.
One man's devotion mattered to God, and it mattered for a whole nation.
God greatly valued the devotion of individual souls, above all in days of abounding evil. Should not both writer and reader aim to have a heart always tender and humble before God? Josiah's personal devotion was of immeasurable value to the nation. God had promised him that the judgements would not fall while he lived.
One thing in Josiah drew this answer from God.
God had regard to the king's deep humiliation... To humble himself was, in fact, the only thing needed. This marked Josiah, and it always marks the faithful remnant in the middle of evil... Today you can recognize the hearts of the faithful by the humiliation they feel at the state of things. Josiah's heart was very sensitive to this; he tore his clothes and wept.
The sentence on the nation still stood. That news did not stop Josiah; it moved him to act.
Josiah learned that nothing could revoke the sentence pronounced against Jerusalem and Judah. God did promise him personal exemption. It was then that he humbled himself still further before the Lord, and set about promoting a reformation with no parallel until then in the nation's history. The judgments could not be averted, and they were not. But God fully owned Josiah's repentance. The reformation God used him to bring about was a bright testimony for God on the very eve of the nation's overthrow. Oh for something of his spirit!
A man told that ruin is fixed could decide there is nothing left to do. Josiah reasoned the other way.
It teaches us the immense value, in God's estimation, of deep personal exercise of soul and a broken heart. Josiah might have thought the case hopeless. He might have said that nothing could turn back the great tide of wrath and judgement about to roll over the city of Jerusalem and the land of Israel. He might have said that any movement of his must prove useless, that God's purpose was settled, the decree had gone out, and that he had only to stand by and let things take their course. But Josiah did not reason like that. He bowed before God's testimony. He humbled himself, tore his clothes, and wept. God took notice of this. Josiah's tears of repentance were precious to Jehovah. The dreadful judgement had to run its course, yet the penitent escaped. And not only did he escape himself, he became the honoured instrument in the Lord's hand of delivering others too.
- Sent. Josiah did not argue with the book he heard. He sent to inquire of the Lord, past the scribe and the high priest, to get God's own mind.
- Split. The answer came in two parts. "The man" hears that judgment is fixed; "the king of Judah" hears that God has heard him.
- Tender. God valued the king's broken, humbled heart; writers call that the one quality to cultivate in days of abounding evil.
- Spared, not cancelled. Being heard did not revoke the sentence on the nation; it gave one man exemption and postponement.
- Stirred. Josiah knew the ruin was fixed. Still he humbled himself further and led the greatest reform in the nation's history, and God used him to deliver others.
Because thy heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before Jehovah, when thou heardest what I spoke against this place and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and didst rend thy garments and weep before me, I also have heard [thee], saith Jehovah.
Josiah tears his clothes and weeps. He is not mourning a personal loss. He has just heard God's words read aloud against Jerusalem — words warning that the city and its people faced ruin. God's answer names one reason He listened: the king's heart was tender.
A tender heart is not how anyone starts out. Commentators trace Josiah's to God's own work in him.
The heart of man is naturally hard in relation to God. Note the Apostle's words in Eph. 4:18: "They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart." In His parable of the Sower, the Lord Jesus spoke of the good seed of the Word falling on the hard path (Matt. 13:4). What ground could be harder, or less likely to bear fruit? Josiah's heart was different: it could be moved. That was surely a gracious work of the Holy Spirit of God. Jer. 23:29 compares God's Word to a hammer: "Is not My word like fire, declares the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?" The Philippian jailer needed that hammer when Paul and Silas first dealt with him. King Josiah did not. His heart was already tender.
The verse turns on what Josiah did when the words were read to him. He did not judge them. They judged him.
Josiah had no doubt at all that the words Shaphan read aloud to him were genuine and true. We do not read of him asking, "How am I to know that this is the Word of God?" No. He trembled at it. He bowed before it. It struck him down. He tore his clothes. He did not dare to sit in judgement on the Word of God. As was right and proper, he let the Word judge him.
Commentators say this is why people push Scripture away. It has that power over them.
If man is to judge Scripture, then Scripture is not the Word of God at all. But if Scripture really is the Word of God, then it must judge man. And so it is, and so it does… It holds up the only true mirror, and in it a man sees himself exactly as he is. This is why man does not like Scripture. He cannot bear it. He tries to set it aside… Men do not trouble themselves so much to discover and point out flaws and discrepancies in Homer or Herodotus, Aristotle or Shakespeare.
Josiah is remembered for clearing away the wrongs of his day. But the order matters: he judged himself first.
He did not rush out first to attack the errors of other people. No. He first tore his own clothes, as a man fully humbled and self-judged. Then he called his people together, so that they too might hear the same powerful testimony and take the same ground of self-judgment and brokenness. This, he felt, was the only true road to blessing.
Josiah had every excuse to do nothing. The judgement was already settled and the sentence had gone out. What he did instead shows what God makes of a broken heart.
Josiah might have thought the case hopeless. Nothing could stop the great tide of wrath and judgement about to roll over Jerusalem and the land of Israel. Any move of his must prove useless. God's purpose was settled, the sentence had gone out, and he had only to stand by and let things take their course. But Josiah did not reason like this… God took notice. Josiah's tears of repentance were precious to the LORD. The dreadful judgement still had to run its course, yet the man who repented escaped. And he did not only escape himself. He became the honoured instrument in the Lord's hand for delivering others too.
One king's godliness held back judgement from a whole nation. That put a weight on his life which Josiah later failed to guard.
God valued the godliness of individual people, above all in days when evil was everywhere. Should not both writer and reader aim to keep a heart that is always tender and humble before God? Josiah's own godliness was worth more to the nation than anyone could measure. God had promised him that the judgements would not fall while he lived… Oh, why did he not walk with care, knowing that so much depended on his life?
- Tender — no one is born with a soft heart toward God. Commentators read Josiah's as the Spirit's work. He needed no hammer to break him.
- Trembling — he never asked whether the book was genuine. He let it judge him. Men resist Scripture because it does exactly that, as no other book does.
- Torn — he tore his own clothes before he attacked anyone else's errors. Self-judgment came first. Then he called others to the same ground.
- Heard — the sentence on Jerusalem still stood, yet God answered the tears. Repentance is never wasted, even when it cannot change the outcome.
- Held back — one man's broken heart delayed a nation's ruin. So writers press the question home: is our heart tender?
Therefore, behold, I will gather thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace; and thine eyes shall not see all the evil that I will bring upon this place. And they brought the king word again.
Huldah's reply to Josiah's messengers has two halves: doom on Jerusalem, and a personal word for the king who wept over the book. This verse is the personal half. It raises two hard questions: why did one man's grief change anything, and how could a king promised burial "in peace" die in battle?
The promise rests on what came just before: Josiah's tender heart and his humbling of himself. One writer notes how easily Josiah could have judged mourning pointless once the sentence had gone out:
Josiah might have thought the case hopeless. He could have said that nothing would turn back the great tide of wrath and judgment about to roll over the city of Jerusalem and the land of Israel. He could have said that any move of his must prove useless, that God's purpose was settled and the decree gone out, and that he had only to stand by and let things take their course. But Josiah did not reason this way. No; he bowed before God's testimony. He humbled himself, tore his clothes, and wept. God took knowledge of this. Josiah's penitential tears were precious to the Lord, and though the dreadful judgment had to take its course, the penitent escaped.
The verse spares Josiah's eyes, not the city. His repentance bought time. What happened when that time ran out is plain:
The piety of Josiah had delayed the divine judgment, but the sin of his sons brought it on swiftly.
Neglect does not weaken what Scripture says:
People may neglect Scripture, but no one can break it. The Lord answers Josiah that he himself, because his heart was tender and he trembled at the word, will be gathered to his fathers in peace and will not see the evil. But the curses read out of the book will certainly take hold.
"Your eyes shall not see all the disaster" turns an early death into a mercy. Commentators see a pattern here:
Because the Lord had taken full account of his repentance, He assured Josiah that death would take him away before Judah's solemn calamity... How often God takes away a godly person before some great trouble that would be most painful for him to witness!
Turned around, the removal of the godly warns those left behind:
If the godly are taken away it is a solemn sign that judgment is about to fall... So it has always been in the history of the world. As one has said: "When Lots are taken out of Sodom, it signals a shower of wrath. Methuselah was taken away a year before the flood. When Noahs are taken into their arks, we may conclude that a deluge is coming. God gathers His harvest before the world's storm. He calls labourers home before the dark night comes on."
Josiah fell in battle against Pharaoh Neco. Commentators do not smooth this over. They treat it as a lesson in how God governs His servants in detail:
As to further detail of God's government, look at the case of Josiah. He fell by the hand of Pharaoh Neco, although the Lord had said, "You shall be gathered to your grave in peace." But God took him away from the evil to come. The circumstances were painful, for it seems he should have listened to Pharaoh. Josiah was chastened personally, but he did not see, as Daniel did, all that came upon Jerusalem: what a sparing from sorrow that was!
The same hand is seen in both the kindness and the wound:
Mercy took him away from the evil to come; but there was judgment in the way it happened, while the judgment that fell on the guilty city was unmixed.
The messengers carried the word back to the king. What Josiah did with it cuts both ways. Knowing the end was fixed did not slow him down:
Josiah, warned by the Lord, knew perfectly well that his work would not stop the course of judgment. He also knew that he would be gathered to his fathers before the evil came, and that his eyes would not see it. But he had only one thought... he was pressed to honour Him in the ruin of Israel, in the very place where He had been so dishonoured.
Yet he threw away the life that so much depended on:
He had God's promise that the judgments would not be poured out while he lived. He was twenty-six when Huldah spoke... Oh, why did he not walk carefully, knowing that so much depended on his life? Why did he, at thirty-nine, plunge into a quarrel that did not concern him, and risk — yes, sacrifice — his precious life?
- Tenderness counted. God had already settled the sentence on Judah. Yet He answered the one man who trembled at His word, and took knowledge of his tears.
- Delay, not escape. Josiah's repentance postponed the judgment but did not cancel it. His sons brought it down swiftly.
- Shelter in death. Not seeing the disaster was the gift; God often takes a godly person home before a trouble too painful to watch.
- Peace with a wound. He died fighting a war he should have avoided. God chastened him in the way he died, yet still spared him the sight of Jerusalem's ruin.
- No fatalism. Certainty about coming judgment left Josiah working harder, not less. The same promise should have made him walk with more care.