2 Kings 22

2 turned not aside. A strong commendation given to none but Josiah: cp. 1 Kings xv. 5.

3 in the eighteenth year. Probably the eighteenth year is here mentioned as the date of the most prominent event in this reformation, which must have occupied a considerable period. It may have been the time when the Book of the Law was brought to the king.

8 the book of the law. This may have been the original copy of the law of Moses (see 2 Chron. xxxiv, 14), or of the covenant which was renewed with the people in the plains of Moab; for they were laid up beside the ark (see Deut. xxxi. 24-26). It is probable that during the reigns of Manasseh and Amon the reading of the Scriptures had been prohibited, and generally given up. “The suggestion that Hilkiah forged the book and pretended to discover it is unworthy of consideration” (Dr. Foakes Jackson in Peake’s Commentary). The narrative plainly shows that the existence of the book was known, and its character at once recognised.

11 he rent his clothes. The passages read to the king were probably, among others, the threatenings and curses of the law against its transgressors (Lev. xxvi., or Deut. xxviii.). It would seem that Josiah had never before heard them, though many copies of the law had been made under the direction of Hezekiah. To account for this, it is supposed that the people generally at that time were satisfied with abstracts, containing only a sort of ritual directing them in the outward observances of religion.

14 in the college. Literally, “in the second.” R.V., “in the second quarter”: i.e. of the city.

17 they have forsaken Me. From the whole tenor of the history, as well as from the testimony of the prophets JEREMIAH and ZEPHANIAH, who lived at this period, it is evident that the zealous reformation of Josiah had not been heartily complied with by the people, especially by the chief men, and that the nation generally were impenitent, and ripening fast for judgement. The earlier prophecies of Jeremiah, which were probably delivered during the time of Josiah, give us much insight into the moral and religious state of the kingdom of Judah at a time when the worship of God was maintained by the authority of the crown, and idolatry was punishable with death.

20 in peace. That is, before the destruction of Jerusalem and the overthrow of the kingdom. None of Josiah’s successors had a royal funeral in Jerusalem. These predictions seem to have further quickened the king’s zeal: see xxiii.