Bible Commentaries

Josiah. The finding of a Book of the Law

1. Boscath] in Judah: cp. Joshua 15:39.

4. That he may sum, etc.] Josiah was contemplating a restoration of the Temple similar to that carried out previously by Joash (2 Kings 12:4.), and a collection of money had been made for the purpose: see 2 Chronicles 34:9.

5. The doers of the work.. to the doers of the work] The first were the overseers, the second were the labourers.

7. There was no reckoning] cp. 2 Chronicles 12:15.

8. The book of the law] As the book found in the Temple was brief enough to be read at a single assembly (2 Kings 23:2), whereas the reading of the Law by Ezra occupied several days (Nehemiah 8:18), it can scarcely have included the whole of the Pentateuch; and the religious reforms that Josiah carried out after its discovery and perusal (2 Kings 23:4.) point to its being Deuteronomy only. Deuteronomy contains a record of Moses' farewell address to his countrymen, and reproduces much of the Mosaic legislation that is comprised in Exodus 20-23, 34. But it does not profess to be written by Moses (indeed, in its present form it cannot proceed from him since it gives an account of his death, Exodus 34:5), and there are certain features in it which, when compared with other parts of the Pentateuch and with the history of the period between Moses and Joshua, have led many scholars to conclude that it was composed after the time of Moses out of materials of earlier date. Its concealment in the Temple was probably due to the persecution of the worshippers of the Lord by Manasseh, for it condemns in particular those idolatries which Manasseh practised.

13. Because our fathers, etc.] Whether Deuteronomy was actually written by Moses or at a later date, the bulk of its teaching had long been familiar to the people, since it contained the substance of the book of the covenant (Exodus 24:7), embracing Exodus 20-23.

14. Huldah] The only other prophetesses mentioned in the OT. are Miriam (Exodus 15:20), Deborah (Judges 4:4), and Noadiah (Nehemiah 6:14). In the college] RV 'in the second quarter,' a certain division of the city which in Zephaniah 1:10 is associated with 'the fish gate,' a gate in the N or NW. wall.

19. A curse] cp. Deuteronomy 28:15. The condition of Jerusalem should be such that people desirous of cursing their enemies could wish them no worse a fate.

20. In peace] Josiah, though he fell in battle (2 Kings 23:29), yet was spared the pain of witnessing the calamities sustained by his country in the time of his successors. He was one of 'the righteous who were taken away from the evil to come' (Isaiah 57:1).