2 Chronicles 34:1-33
1 Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem one and thirty years.
2 And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the ways of David his father, and declined neither to the right hand, nor to the left.
3 For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father: and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images.
4 And they brake down the altars of Baalim in his presence; and the images,a that were on high above them, he cut down; and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images, he brake in pieces, and made dust of them, and strowed it upon the graves of them that had sacrificed unto them.
5 And he burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars, and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem.
6 And so did he in the cities of Manasseh, and Ephraim, and Simeon, even unto Naphtali, with their mattocksb round about.
7 And when he had broken down the altars and the groves, and had beaten the graven images into powder, and cut down all the idols throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem.
8 Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land, and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair the house of the LORD his God.
9 And when they came to Hilkiah the high priest, they delivered the money that was brought into the house of God, which the Levites that kept the doors had gathered of the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim, and of all the remnant of Israel, and of all Judah and Benjamin; and they returned to Jerusalem.
10 And they put it in the hand of the workmen that had the oversight of the house of the LORD, and they gave it to the workmen that wrought in the house of the LORD, to repair and amend the house:
11 Even to the artificers and builders gave they it, to buy hewn stone, and timber for couplings, and to floorc the houses which the kings of Judah had destroyed.
12 And the men did the work faithfully: and the overseers of them were Jahath and Obadiah, the Levites, of the sons of Merari; and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the sons of the Kohathites, to set it forward; and other of the Levites, all that could skill of instruments of musick.
13 Also they were over the bearers of burdens, and were overseers of all that wrought the work in any manner of service: and of the Levites there were scribes, and officers, and porters.
14 And when they brought out the money that was brought into the house of the LORD, Hilkiah the priest found a book of the law of the LORD given byd Moses.
15 And Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the LORD. And Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan.
16 And Shaphan carried the book to the king, and brought the king word back again, saying, All that was committed to thy servants, they do it.
17 And they have gathered togethere the money that was found in the house of the LORD, and have delivered it into the hand of the overseers, and to the hand of the workmen.
18 Then Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest hath given me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king.
19 And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the law, that he rent his clothes.
20 And the king commanded Hilkiah, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Abdonf the son of Micah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah a servant of the king's, saying,
21 Go, enquire of the LORD for me, and for them that are left in Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book that is found: for great is the wrath of the LORD that is poured out upon us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the LORD, to do after all that is written in this book.
22 And Hilkiah, and they that the king had appointed, went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvath, the son of Hasrah,g keeper of the wardrobe; (now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the college:) and they spake to her to that effect.
23 And she answered them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Tell ye the man that sent you to me,
24 Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the curses that are written in the book which they have read before the king of Judah:
25 Because 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 poured out upon this place, and shall not be quenched.
26 And as for the king of Judah, who sent you to enquire of the LORD, so shall ye say unto him, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel concerning the words which thou hast heard;
27 Because thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God, when thou heardest his words against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, and humbledst thyself before me, and didst rend thy clothes, and weep before me; I have even heard thee also, saith the LORD.
28 Behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace, neither shall thine eyes see all the evil that I will bring upon this place, and upon the inhabitants of the same. So they brought the king word again.
29 Then the king sent and gathered together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem.
30 And the king went up into the house of the LORD, and all the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests, and the Levites, and all the people, greath and small: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant that was found in the house of the LORD.
31 And the king stood in his place, 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 with all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant which are written in this book.
32 And he caused all that were presenti in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand to it. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers.
33 And Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries that pertained to the children of Israel, and made all that were presentj in Israel to serve, even to serve the LORD their God. And all his days they departed not from following the LORD, the God of their fathers.
2 Chronicles 34:5. He burnt the bones of the priests, and so, perhaps without intending it, he fulfilled the prophecy of the man of God that came to Bethel. 1 Kings 13:2.
REFLECTIONS.
As the nipping frosts of winter spoil the glory of the summer, and as the spring comes and revives nature again, so were the good and the bad kings in their succession on the throne of Judah; only with this sad difference, vice and idolatry grew stronger and stronger, and reformation became more and more difficult till there was no more remedy. The old idolatrous princes, who had seduced Manasseh to every crime, being either slain or dead, the new generation was not so forward to corrupt Josiah the infant king. He received a religious education; and at the age of sixteen, taking the reins of government wholly into his own hands, he discovered a strong propensity to piety. He began so early, even at the age of twelve, to purge his capital, by repairing the Lord's house, which the wicked apostates of the late reign had either pillaged, or after it was pillaged by the Babylonians, they had done nothing to repair it. His zeal exceeded the zeal of Jehoshaphat, of Asa, and of Hezekiah. He destroyed the statues of Ashtaroth, that is, Astartè or Venus, wherever he found them: Baal also, and the horses of the sun; that is, the chariot and horses dedicated to the sun. He demolished in like manner the retiring houses for wickedness which cannot be named. The image of the grove, that is, of Astartè, which was in the house of God, he utterly destroyed, and put down the priests of those profane altars; and many of them he slew for the murders and sorceries they had committed, and defiled their altars with their bones, it is good when we begin for God, to do his work heartily: a glory attends it which remains for ever.
After the house was repaired, and the reserve of the money employed for this purpose, Hilkiah found a treasure preferable to gold. He found concealed in the side of the ark, or in some chest, the copy of the law which Moses wrote with his own hand. This was a treasure indeed; for it was supposed to have been destroyed, or stolen in idolatrous times. And though neither the king nor the priests were unacquainted with the law; yet on this occasion, Josiah was so affected by hearing the curses of the law read, and probably those in the latter part of Deuteronomy, that he rent his robes, and sent to enquire of the Lord for the remnant which was left in Israel and in Judah. Hence we learn, that we should most diligently read the law of the Lord, and feelingly weep under its violated precepts.
It was some consolation to the weeping king, that there was in Jerusalem a Huldah, a woman highly honoured with the prophetic gift, and so reputable that she was preferred to the judgment of the Urim. She was not the first who had predicted the ruin of Jerusalem, but she joined her testimony to theirs: and though unable to reverse the high decrees of heaven, she at last gave the king of Judah some token for good; and perceiving that his heart was tender, she comforted him with the assurance that in his days there should be no evil.
The pious king, trembling for his sinful country, hasted to convene the elders of Jerusalem and Judah to hear the law, and renew the covenant, which was enjoined to be done every seventh year, anxiously desirous of exciting in them alarms for their safety, and true repentance for their sins. After the solemnities of this covenant, fresh efforts were made to destroy if possible every vestige of idolatry. The hopes of Judah now assumed a smiling aspect; and who would not have augured that God, delighted with the repentance of his people, would now turn away his fierce anger? But ah, the devotion was too much that of the lips; the hearts of the people were still attached to their idols and their sins. Therefore they gradually began, and on the open hills, to practise their abominations again. Jeremiah 3:7; Jeremiah 3:10. Well did Isaiah say, why should ye be striken any more? Ye will revolt yet more and more. So it is with the old and hardened sinner, whom mercy and judgment have failed to reform. Let the righteous be sanctified by the thought, and cleave the closer to the Lord and to one another.