2 Kings 22King James Version
Josiah becomes king at eight years old. In the eighteenth year of his reign, while repairing the temple, the high priest finds a book of the law. Josiah reads it and tears his clothes in grief. A prophetess named Huldah confirms the judgment but promises Josiah will not live to see it. He gathers the people and renews the covenant.
Josiah becomes king of Judah at eight years old and does right all his days. At age twenty-six, he begins repairing the temple. During the repairs, the priest Hilkiah finds the book of the law. When it is read to Josiah he tears his clothes: the nation has not been keeping what is written. He sends to the prophetess Huldah, who delivers a two-part message: judgment on Judah is certain and coming, but Josiah personally will not see it because of his tender heart toward God. He will die in peace.
The book of the law had been lost so long that when it is found and read, the king's response is grief: he does not recognize how far the nation has drifted from what God actually commanded.
13: "Go ye, enquire of the LORD for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found: for great is the wrath of the LORD that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book." Josiah's first instinct is not defense but grief.
Around 621 BC. The temple Josiah is repairing had been desecrated by Manasseh and then more superficially by Amon. Finding a scroll in the walls or storage during renovation is archaeologically plausible: texts were sometimes stored in buildings for safekeeping. Whether this scroll had always been there, was placed there recently, or was the original Mosaic document is debated. The text treats it as authentic and as producing an authentic response.
Josiah, eight years old at coronation, twenty-six at the discovery; Hilkiah the high priest, who finds the scroll; Shaphan the scribe, who reads it to the king; Huldah the prophetess, whose oracle is the chapter's pivot.
The discovery of the book of the law during temple repairs is one of the most significant moments in the Hebrew scriptures. Most scholars identify it as Deuteronomy or a core of it. That it had been lost, that it was found during construction, that reading it produced tears in the king: all of this says the people had been worshipping without the text that defined what worship meant.
For when you realize you have been missing something essential and did not even know it was missing. Josiah's grief is not performance. He hears the scroll read and immediately knows how far off course everything has gone.
1Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty and one years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah of Boscath.
2And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in all the way of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left.
3And it came to pass in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, that the king sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, the scribe, to the house of the LORD, saying,
4Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, that he may sum the silver which is brought into the house of the LORD, which the keepers of the door have gathered of the people:
5And let them deliver it into the hand of the doers of the work, that have the oversight of the house of the LORD: and let them give it to the doers of the work which is in the house of the LORD, to repair the breaches of the house,
6Unto carpenters, and builders, and masons, and to buy timber and hewn stone to repair the house.
7Howbeit there was no reckoning made with them of the money that was delivered into their hand, because they dealt faithfully.
8And Hilkiah the high priest said unto 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.
9And Shaphan the scribe came to the king, and brought the king word again, and said, Thy servants have gathered 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 the LORD.
10And Shaphan the scribe shewed the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest hath delivered me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king.
11And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the book of the law, that he rent his clothes.
12And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Achbor the son of Michaiah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asahiah a servant of the king's, saying,
13Go ye, enquire of the LORD for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found: for great is the wrath of the LORD that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book, to do according unto all that which is written concerning us.
14So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam, and Achbor, and Shaphan, and Asahiah, went unto Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe; (now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the college;) and they communed with her.
15And she said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Tell the man that sent you to me,
16Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the words of the book which the king of Judah hath read:
17Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore my wrath shall be kindled against this place, and shall not be quenched.
18But to the king of Judah which sent you to enquire of the LORD, thus shall ye say to him, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, As touching the words which thou hast heard;
19Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the LORD, when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard thee, saith the LORD.
20Behold therefore, I will gather thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace; and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place. And they brought the king word again.