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From: 2 Kings 22:8-13; 23:1-3

The book of the Law is discovered

[8] And Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, “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. [9] And Shaphan the secretary came to the king, and reported
to the king, “Your servants have emptied out the money that was found in the
house, and have delivered it into the hand of the workmen who have the over-
sight of the house of the Lord.” [10] Then Shaphan the secretary told the king,
“Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read it before the king.

Huldah the prophetess is consulted

[11] And when the king heard the words of the book of the law, he rent his
clothes. [12] And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam the son
of Shephan, and Achbor the son of Micaiah, and Shephan the secretary, and
Assiah the king’s servant, saying, [13] “Go, inquire of the Lord for me, and for
the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been
found; for great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our
fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do according to all that is
written concerning us.”

A solemn reading of the Book of the Covenant

Then the king sent, and all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem were gathered to
him. [2] And the king went up to the house of the Lord, and with him all the men
of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests and the prophets,
all the people, both small and great; and he read in their hearing all the words
of the book of the covenant which had been found in the house of the Lord. [3]
And the king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk
after the Lord and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his
statutes, with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this cove-
nant that were written in this book; and all the people joined in the covenant.

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Commentary:

22:1-23-23:30. Much space is given to the account of Josiah’s reign, but the fo-
cus is entirely on its religious aspects.

The text gives the impression that Josiah’s reform took place in a single year,
after the finding of the book of the covenant; but it must have been the fruit of
a long process, and Jeremiah’s prophetical activity (cf. Jer 1:2; 22:15-16) must
have been a strong influence from the very start. Neither Jeremiah nor Zepha-
niah (cf. Zeph 1:1) is mentioned in this book.

The Assyrian empire began to decline at this time and the power of the Medes
and the Babylonians was growing apace (Nineveh, the Assyrian capital, was
destroyed in 621 BC). All this allowed Josiah to free himself from Assyria and
try to build up the kingdom of Judah. But the Lord had already decided the fate
of Judah and Jerusalem (cf. 23:26-27).

22:1-23:3. Josiah’s reform was based on the words of a book found in the tem-
ple. This book is thought to have been a part of the present book of Deuterono-
my, perhaps Deuteronomy 12:1-26:19, given that the reform embarked on by
the king is in line with the rules given there about having only one place of wor-
ship (cf. Deut 12:2-7). Deuteronomy refers to itself as the “book of the law”
(Deut 29:20; 31:26).

22:3-10. As befitting a pious king, Josiah’s first concern is to repair the temple
in which the Lord dwells. To carry out that restoration (much needed, for two
hundred years had passed since the previous restoration, and the excesses of
Manasseh had done much damage), Josiah applies the dispositions laid down
by Jehoash (cf. 12:10-16).

22:11-20. This is all we know of the prophetess Huldah. She may well have been
consulted because she was living in Jerusalem (v. 14). The justification given for
God’s decision is the evil conduct of Josiah’s predecessors. As regards Josiah
himself, he is not told that he will die a natural death, but that the catastrophe
which looms will not happen in his lifetime (v. 20).

The New Vulgate interprets that the king’s heart repented on hearing the words
“of the book” (”voluminis”: v. 18-19; cf. 2 Chron 34:27).

23:1-3. Josiah and his people renew the Covenant on the basis of the book con-
taining the decrees and rulings of the Lord. That book becomes, thereby, the
“Book of the Covenant”, and it acquires a sacred and normative status for all fu-
ture generations. When Jesus institutes the new Covenant sealed with and
based on his blood (cf. Mk 14:22-25; 1 Cor 11:23-25), that book, together with
others which completed it, will continue to bear witness to the Old Covenant,
and the Church will in due course call it the Old Testament.

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.