2 Kingschapter 22
20 verses · Jeremiah, by tradition · 6th century BC · History
Key verse
And 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.
It stands in I have found the book of the law: and the king rends his clothes, verses 8 to 13.
The chapter
Chapter summary
Josiah comes to the throne at eight years old and walks in the way of David his father, turning aside neither to right hand nor left. In his eighteenth year he sends Shaphan the scribe to Hilkiah the high priest to reckon the temple-repair money, and Hilkiah says, 'I have found the book of the law in the house of Jehovah.' Shaphan reads it before the king, and Josiah rends his clothes: great is the wrath kindled against a people whose fathers did not hearken. The inquiry goes to Huldah the prophetess, whose answer is both halves of the truth: all the words of the book will come upon this place, but Josiah will be gathered to his grave in peace.
Context
History · Jeremiah · 2 Kings overview
The world behind this chapter
2 Kings 22The history
The chapter is Josiah's, a king who came to the throne at eight after his father was murdered in the palace. The men around him are named: Hilkiah the high priest, Shaphan the scribe, and Huldah, a prophetess married to the keeper of the wardrobe.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
The time is the eighteenth year of the reign, about 622 BC. 2 Chronicles 34:3 to 8 places the start of his seeking in his eighth year and the purging of idols in his twelfth. So this chapter marks the finding of the book rather than the beginning of the work.
The place is the temple during building repairs, and then a house in the Second District of Jerusalem. The occasion is an audit, with silver collected at the temple door being counted and handed to the men repairing the building.
A first hearer knew how a temple repair was run and would have caught the repetition, since the chain of hands here is the one Joash set up a century earlier at 12:9. He also knew what tearing clothes meant, since Scripture uses it both for grief and for repentance.
The identity of the scroll is the one thing the chapter withholds, and the text says only that it was the Book of the Law.
What it meant to them
For Judah this chapter said that a book could stop a kingdom in its place. The king hears words read aloud and tears his clothes, and everything in the next chapter follows from that moment.
It also set the limit of what repentance could do, since Huldah gives the place a sentence that nothing lifts and the king an answer to his own weeping. And it put a woman at the centre of the kingdom's most serious hour, consulted by the king's own high priest.
Sources cited
- K. A. Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament
- Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews and Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
Where the chapter sits
2 Kings 22 falls in Manasseh, Josiah, and the fall of Jerusalem (chapters 21–25). Manasseh's long and evil reign; Josiah's reform and the Book of the Law rediscovered; Jehoiakim's rebellion; the 586 BC fall in three deportations; the burning of the temple; Jehoiachin released from prison (25:27–30).
The Book of the Law found. Hilkiah, Shaphan, Huldah; Josiah rends his clothes; the covenant renewed.
Before it: Hezekiah and the Assyrian crisis, chapters 18–20.
The whole shape of 2 Kings→The structure of this chapter
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A. Josiah at eight; money counted out to the workmen
1. (vv. 1-2)
2 Kings 22:1
“Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign,.... And must be born when his father was but sixteen, for Amon lived but twenty four years, 2Ki 21:19, and he reigned thirty and one years in Jerusalem; and so must die at thirty nine years of age: and his mother's name was Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah of Boscath; a city of the tribe of Judah; see Gill on Jos 15:39.”
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
2 Kings 22:1
“Solomon says, Woe unto thee, O land! when thy king is a child; but happy art thou, O land! when thy king is such a child. Our English Israel had once a king that was such a child, Edward VI. Josiah, being young, had not received any bad impressions from the example of his father and grandfather, but soon saw their errors, and God gave his grace to take warning by them.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 Kings 22:2
“And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord,.... In the affair of religious worship especially, as well as in other things: and walked in all the ways of David his father; in his religious ways, in which he never departed from his God: and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left; but kept an even, constant, path of worship and duty, according to the law of God.”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Kings 22:2
“Nothing is too hard for that grace to do. He walked in a good way, and turned not aside (as some of his predecessors had done who began well) to the right hand nor to the left. There are errors on both hands, but God kept him in the right way; he fell neither into superstition nor profaneness.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Josiah was eight years old: Josiah takes the throne as a child, third in line after two of Judah's most idolatrous kings, and the text gives no regent or teacher credit for what follows. He is the king named by the man of God from Judah three centuries earlier at 1 Ki 13:2, a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name, and that fulfillment thread stays open until chapter 23 closes it. Verse 2 measures him against David rather than against his own father Amon or grandfather Manasseh, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left is Deuteronomy's own phrase for covenant loyalty kept whole.
2. (vv. 3-5)
2 Kings 22:3
“In the eighteenth year - This is the date of the finding of the Book of the Law and of the Passover (marginal reference, and 2Ki 23:23), but is not meant to apply to all the various reforms of Josiah as related in 2 Kings 23:4-20. The true chronology of Josiah’s reign is to be learned from 2Ch 34:3-8; 2Ch 35:1. From these places it appear that at least the greater part of his reforms preceded the finding of the Book of the Law.”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Kings 22:3
“He began much sooner to seek the Lord (as appears, 2 Chron. xxxiv. 3 ), but it is to be feared the work of reformation went slowly on and met with much opposition, so that he could not effect what he desired and designed, till his power was thoroughly confirmed.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 Kings 22:4
“That he may sum the silver - As Josiah began to seek the Lord as soon as he began to reign, we may naturally conclude that the worship of God that was neglected and suppressed by his father, was immediately restored; and the people began their accustomed offerings to the temple. Ten years therefore had elapsed since these offerings began; no one had, as yet, taken account of them; nor were they applied to the use for which they were given, viz., the repairing the breaches of the temple.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Kings 22:5
“And let them deliver it into the hand of the doers of the work, that have the oversight of the house of the Lord,....”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Kings 22:5
“See the marginal reference. The “doers” of the first part of the verse are the contractors, or overseers, who undertook the general superintendence; they are to be distinguished from a lower class of “doers,” the actual laborers, carpenters, and masons of the latter portion of the verse. Which is in the house of the Lord - Rather, “who are,” etc.; i. e., the persons who were actually employed in the temple.”
sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah: In the eighteenth year of his reign, with the throne finally secure, Josiah sends his scribe Shaphan to Hilkiah the high priest to settle the silver gathered at the temple door by the keepers, the same collection method used two centuries earlier at 2 Ki 12:9. The fuller chronology of 2 Chr 34:3-8 places the start of his seeking in his eighth year and the purging of idols in his twelfth, so the eighteenth year marks the finding of the book, not the beginning of the reform. The silver goes straight from the priest's hand to the men who oversee the work, the same chain Joash set up for the same purpose a century before.
3. (vv. 6-7)
2 Kings 22:6
“Unto carpenters, and builders, and masons,.... Who were employed, some in mending the woodwork, and others in repairing the stone walls and to buy timber and hewn stone to repair the house; not only money was to be given them for their workmanship, but to buy timber and stone to work with.”
2 Kings 22:7
“They dealt faithfully - Compare the marginal reference. The names of these honest overseers are given in Chronicles 2Ch 34:12.”
carpenters, and builders, and masons: The silver funds three trades and two materials, carpenters, builders and masons, timber and hewn stone, the ordinary business of a temple gone to disrepair under Manasseh and Amon. Verse 7 closes the account with no audit at all: there was no reckoning made with them, because they dealt faithfully, the identical phrase used of Joash's overseers at 2 Ki 12:15. The repeated formula marks faithful stewardship as the standing rule for temple work across two very different reigns, and the narrator trusts it enough to name it rather than itemize the books.
B. I have found the book of the law: and the king rends his clothes
1. (vv. 8-9)
2 Kings 22:8
“I have found the book of the law - Was this the autograph of Moses? It is very probable that it was, for in the parallel place; 2Ch 34:14, it is said to be the book of the law of the Lord by Moses.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
2 Kings 22:8
“It was the temple copy which, had been laid (De 31:25, 26) beside the ark in the most holy place. During the ungodly reigns of Manasseh and Amon--or perhaps under Ahaz, when the temple itself had been profaned by idols, and the ark also (2Ch 35:3) removed from its site; it was somehow lost, and was now found again during the repair of the temple [KEIL].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 Kings 22:9
“Have gathered - Rather, “have poured out” or “emptied out.” The allusion probably is to the emptying of the chest in which all the money collected had been placed 2Ki 12:9.”
I have found the book of the law: Hilkiah's report lands inside a routine financial errand, the book found rather than sought, surfacing in the middle of an audit and not a search. The commentators differ on what scroll this is, an autograph of Moses to some, the temple copy laid beside the ark at Deut 31:25-26 and lost sometime under Ahaz, Manasseh, or Amon to others, and the text itself does not say which. Shaphan reads it before he ever carries word of it to the king, so the scribe hears Deuteronomy before Josiah does.
2. (vv. 10-11)
2 Kings 22:10
“And Shaphan showed the king,.... Further related to him what follows: saying, Hilkiah the high priest hath delivered me a book; but did not say what book it was: and Shaphan read it before the king; part of it; and it is thought by Kimchi and Ben Gersom that he particularly read the reproofs and threatenings in the book of Deuteronomy; they suppose that Hilkiah read those to Shaphan, and directed him to read them to the king, that he might take into consideration a further reformation.”
2 Kings 22:11
“He rent his clothes - Partly grief and horror, like Reuben Gen 37:29 and Job Job 1:20, partly in repentance, like Ahab 1Ki 21:27.”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Kings 22:11
“If Josiah had seen and read it before, which seems more probable, yet the great reverence which he justly bare to the original book, and the strange, and remarkable, and seasonable finding of it, had awakened and quickened him to a more serious and diligent consideration of all the passages contained in it. And what a providence was this, that it was still preserved!”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
hath delivered me a book: Shaphan reads the book before the king exactly as Hilkiah had read it before him, and the king's clothes tear at what he hears rather than at who found it. Rending garments answers grief and horror elsewhere in Scripture, as it did for Reuben over Joseph and Job at his loss, and it answers repentance, as it did for Ahab at 1 Ki 21:27, and both senses sit together here. Wesley notes that Josiah may already have known parts of the law, yet the scroll's discovery and its reading in his own hearing strike him with a force his prior knowledge had not carried.
3. (vv. 12-13)
2 Kings 22:12
“And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest,.... The high priest, as he is called, 2Ki 22:4. and Ahikam the son of Shaphan; whether the same with Shaphan the scribe, before mentioned, or another of the same name, is not certain: and Achbor the son of Michaiah; who is called Abdon, the son of Micah, 2Ch 34:20. and Shaphan the scribe; who brought and read the book to the king: and Asahiah, a servant of the king's; that waited on him constantly: saying; as follows.”
2 Kings 22:13
“Go ye, inquire of the Lord,.... Of some of his prophets, as Jeremiah, who began to prophesy in the thirteenth year of Josiah's reign, and had been a prophet five years, Jer 1:1, for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found; for he observed that this book threatened and foretold not only the captivity of the ten tribes, but of Judah, and of their king; and Jarchi thinks, he had a particular respect to that passage: the Lord shall bring thee and thy king, &c.”
2 more voices on this verse
2 Kings 22:13
“Enquire of the Lord - As inquiry by Urim and Thummim had ceased - apparently because superseded by prophecy - this order was equivalent to an injunction to seek the presence of a prophet (compare 2Ki 3:11; 1Ki 22:5). Because our fathers have not hearkened - Josiah, it will be observed, assumes that preceding generations had had full opportunity of hearing and knowing the Law. He thus regards the loss as comparatively recent (compare 2Ki 22:8 note).”
2 Kings 22:13
“It is a sign that God has mercy in store for a people when he magnifies his law among them and makes that honourable, and furnishes them with means for the increase of scripture-knowledge. The translating of the scriptures into vulgar tongues was the glory, strength, and joy of the Reformation from Popery.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 Kings 22:12-14
the king commanded Hilkiah the priest: The king sends five men, not one, a delegation heavy enough to carry the weight of what was found: Hilkiah the priest, two of Shaphan's own circle in Ahikam and Achbor, Shaphan himself, and a royal servant. They go to Huldah the prophetess rather than to Jeremiah, already five years in his calling by Jer 1:1-2, or to Zephaniah, and the text gives no reason for the choice; Clarke notes only that Jeremiah likely dwelt at Anathoth and was not readily at hand. Huldah is named with her husband's office, keeper of the wardrobe, and her address, in Jerusalem in the college, details the text bothers to record about the woman a king's own priest was sent to consult.
C. Huldah's word: thine eyes shall not see all the evil
1. (v. 14)
2 Kings 22:14
“Her husband Shallum was grandson of one Harhas, "keeper of the wardrobe." If this means the priestly wardrobe, [Harhas] must have been a Levite. But it probably refers to the royal wardrobe. she dwelt . . . in the college--rather, "in the Misnah," taking the original word as a proper name, not a school or college, but a particular suburb of Jerusalem.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
2 Kings 22:14
“We need not wonder that Huldah, the prophet and wife of Shallum, was consulted by Josiah, king of Judah, when the captivity was approaching and the wrath of the Lord was falling on Jerusalem: since it is the rule of Scripture, when holy men fail, to praise women to the reproach of men.”
Jerome· written before 420· Against Jovinianus 1.25patristic
2 Kings 22:14
“Went unto Huldah the prophetess - This is a most singular circumstance: At this time Jeremiah was certainly a prophet in Israel, but it is likely he now dwelt at Anathoth and could not be readily consulted; Zephaniah also prophesied under this reign, but probably he had not yet begun; Hilkiah was high priest, and the priest’s lips should retain knowledge.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2. (vv. 15-17)
2 Kings 22:15
“And she said unto them,.... The king's messengers: thus saith the Lord God of Israel; being immediately inspired by him, she spake in his name, as prophets did: tell the man that sent you to me; which may seem somewhat rude and unmannerly to say of a king; but when it is considered she spake not of herself, but representing the King of kings and Lord of lords, it will be seen and judged of in another light.”
2 Kings 22:16
“Thus saith the Lord, behold, I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants of it,.... Destruction to the place, and captivity to the inhabitants of it: even all the words of the book which the king of Judah hath read; particularly what is contained in Lev 26:14, even all the curses in it, as in 2Ch 34:24.”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Kings 22:16
“All the words of the book - The “words” here intended are no doubt the threatenings of the Law, particularly those of Lev. 26:16-39 and Deut. 28:15-68. Josiah had probably only heard a portion of the Book of the Law; but that portion had contained those awful denunciations of coming woe. Hence, Josiah’s rending of his clothes 2Ki 22:11, and his hurried message to Huldah.”
2 Kings 22:17
“Have burned incense - In the marginal reference the corresponding phrase is: “have served other gods, and worshipped them.” Its alteration to “have bnrned incense” points to the fact that the favorite existing idolatry was burning incense on the housetops to Baal Jer 19:13; Jer 32:29 and to the host of heaven 2Ki 21:3.”
Tell the man that sent you: Huldah answers as a prophet and not as a courtier: tell the man that sent you, no royal title used for a king whose own priest stands in her house. Her oracle's first half is unconditional, evil is coming, all the words of the book which the king of Judah hath read, because the nation forsook the Lord and burned incense to other gods; the wrath is kindled against this place and shall not be quenched. Nothing Josiah does afterward reverses this half of the word; 23:26-27 states plainly that the Lord turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath even after the reform.
3. (vv. 18-20)
2 Kings 22:18
“But to the king of Judah, which sent you to inquire of the Lord,.... That is, with respect to him, or what may concern him: thus shall ye say unto him; carry back this message to him as from the Lord he desired to inquire of: thus saith the Lord God of Israel, as touching the words which thou hast heard: read out of the law, concerning the destruction of the land, and its inhabitants therein threatened.”
1 more voice on this verse
2 Kings 22:18
“7 Howbeit there was no reckoning made with them of the money that was delivered into their hand, because they dealt faithfully. 8 And Hilkiah the high priest said unto Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the L ORD .”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 Kings 22:19
“Because thine heart was tender - Because thou hast feared the Lord, and trembled at his word and hast wept before me, I have heard thee, so far that these evils shall not come upon the land in thy lifetime.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Kings 22:20
“Thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace - During thy life none of these calamities shall fall upon the people, and no adversary shall be permitted to disturb the peace of Judea, and thou shalt die in peace with God. But was Josiah gathered to the grave in peace? Is it not said, 2Ki 23:29, that Pharaoh-nechoh slew him at Megiddo?”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
2 Kings 22:20
“This is promised to Josiah here: Thou shalt go to thy grave in peace, which refers not to the manner of his death (for he was killed in a battle), but to the time of it; it was a little before the captivity in Babylon, that great trouble, in comparison with which the rest were as nothing, so that he might be truly said to die in peace that did not live to share in that.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
As touching the words which thou hast heard: The oracle's second half turns and addresses Josiah by his own act rather than his nation's: because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord. He is promised that he shall be gathered into thy grave in peace and that his eyes shall not see the evil coming on the place, a peace that sits beside 23:29's plain report that Pharaoh-nechoh killed him in battle at Megiddo. The bench reads peace of the time rather than the manner of death, before the Babylonian captivity that dwarfed every earlier trouble, not a peaceful deathbed, and both the promise and the battle report stand as written.
This page carries no textual note on 2 Kings 22. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil, The Books of the Kings and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.