Josiah is now king of the Southern Kingdom of Judah and he was eight years old when he became king and reigned for thirty-one years, 640 B.C. to 609 B.C, 2 Chronicles 34:1.
His mother’s name was Jedidah daughter of Adaiah and she was from Bozkath, 2 Kings 22:1. Josiah did what was right in God’s eyes and loved and obeyed God as David did, 2 Kings 22:2 / 2 Chronicles 34:2 / Acts 13:22.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘He was one of the best, if not the best, of all the Jewish kings since the time of David. He began well, continued well, and ended well.’
Shaphan, 2 Kings 22:3 / 2 Chronicles 34:8, was the father of Jeremiah’s friend Ahikam, Jeremiah 26:24, and the grandfather of Gedaliah, who was made governor of Judea by the Babylonians after the fall of Jerusalem, 2 Kings 25:22. Shaphan and Nathan-Melek’s, 2 Kings 23:11, names also appear on ancient records of those who lived during these times.
Hilkiah, 2 Kings 22:4 / 2 Chronicles 34:9, was the father, or grandfather, of Seriah, Nehemiah 11:11, who was high priest at the time of the captivity, and an ancestor of Ezra the scribe.
Hilkiah was a priest and the grandfather of Ezra, 1 Chronicles 6:13-14 / 1 Chronicles 9:11 / Ezra 7:1. Hilkiah’s name also appears on the seal of another son named Hanan.
Josiah wanted some repair work done on the temple, 2 Kings 22:4 / 2 Chronicles 34:8-9, and so he set about raising the funds needed for the repairs, similar to the way Jehoash did many years ago, 2 Kings 12:9-15.
The doorkeepers collected from the people, and they entrusted it to the men appointed to supervise the work on the temple, 2 Kings 22:4-5 / 2 Chronicles 34:9.
They are to pay the workers who repair the temple of the LORD, the carpenters, the builders and the masons, and also they are to purchase timber and dressed stone to repair the temple, 2 Kings 22:5-6 / 2 Chronicles 34:10-11. Notice they didn’t account for the money entrusted to them, because they are honest in their dealings, 2 Kings 22:7 / 2 Chronicles 34:12.
The workers laboured faithfully under the direction of Jahath and Obadiah, Levites descended from Merari, and Zechariah and Meshullam, descended from Kohath, 2 Chronicles 34:12.
The Levites were all skilled in playing musical instruments, and they had charge of the labourers and supervised all the workers from job to job, 2 Chronicles 34:12-13.
Some of the Levites were secretaries, scribes and gatekeepers, 2 Chronicles 34:13. Josiah makes a lot of effort in restoring the neglected temple, much as his predecessor Hezekiah had done, 2 Chronicles 29.
Hilkiah discovers ‘the Book of the Law’, 2 Kings 22:8 / 2 Chronicles 34:14-15. Jeremiah 1:1-2 tells us that Jeremiah was the son of Hilkiah, which tells us that Jeremiah began his ministry during the reign of King Joash.
2 Chronicles tells us that Josiah’s reforms had already been going forward for several years. He began the purging of the temple and Jerusalem in his twelfth year, six full years before the events in 2 Kings 22:8, and the repairs on the temple mentioned in 2 Kings 22:9 were probably commenced at the same time.
Although each king was supposed to have a copy of the Book of the Law, Deuteronomy 17:18-20 / Deuteronomy 31:9-13, we have no idea how long they have been without the Law of Moses, that is, the first five books of the Old Testament, but because only those portions that referred to the responsibilities of the king were immediately read before Josiah, 2 Kings 22:10 / 2 Chronicles 34:16-18.
Remember nobody had seen the Book of the Law for years and so when Josiah heard the word of the Book of the Law, he tore his robes, 2 Kings 22:11 / 2 Chronicles 34:19 / Genesis 37:29 / Job 1:20 / 1 Kings 21:27. In other words, God’s Word moved him to repentance, and as a result of his repentance, the whole of Israel was deeply moved toward God again.
Josiah commands the priests Ahikam, Akbor, Shaphan the secretary and Asaiah the king’s attendant to speak to God on behalf of himself, the people and all of Judah about what was written in the book, 2 Kings 22:12 / 2 Chronicles 34:20.
The good news is that Josiah didn’t just go out of his way to get Israel to worship and obey God how they were supposed to in the first place, 2 Kings 22:13 / 2 Chronicles 34:21, he actually went on to destroy anything which involved idolatry and the worshipping of false gods.
Hilkiah the priest and others went to speak to the prophet Huldah, who was Shallum’s wife, who lived in Jerusalem, in the New Quarter, 2 Kings 22:14 / 2 Chronicles 34:22.
It should be noted that other prophets were now on the scene at this time. Prophets like Zephaniah, Zephaniah 1:1, and Jeremiah, Jeremiah 22:15-16, who were both warning God’s people about their upcoming exile into Babylon.
It’s possible that they went to Huldah because she was closest to them, but she is a prophetess, Exodus 15:20 / Numbers 12:2 / Judges 4:4, and they went to inquire of the Lord.
Priestley, in his commentary, says the following.
‘It pleased God to distinguish several women with the spirit of prophecy, as well as other great attainments, to show that in his sight, and especially in things of a spiritual nature, there is no essential pre-eminence in the male sex, though in some things the female be subject to the male.’
It’s interesting because we don’t know what they asked, but we do know they did enquire about the newly discovered Book of Law.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following, concerning 2 Kings 22:15-16 / 2 Chronicles 34:23-24.
‘The ‘words’ here intended are no doubt the threatenings of the Law, particularly those of Leviticus 26:16-39, and Deuteronomy 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, 2 Kings 22:11, and his hurried message to Huldah.’
Huldah tells them that God says that He will bring disaster upon the Southern Kingdom of Judah because of their apostasy, 2 Kings 22:15-17 / 2 Chronicles 34:23-25 / Jeremiah 19:13 / Jeremiah 32:29 / 2 Kings 21:3, but the disaster wouldn’t come anytime during the reign of Josiah.
God delayed judgment on Josiah as he did with Ahab, who responded to a word of warning with a kind of repentance, 1 Kings 21:25-29. Josiah has now received news about this upcoming disaster twice, once from God’s Word and now from God’s prophet, 2 Kings 22:18-20 / 2 Chronicles 34:26-28. And so, they took her answer back to Josiah, 2 Kings 22:20 / 2 Chronicles 34:28.
Although Josiah had religiously cleaned up Judah by the standards of God’s Word, sadly, his descendants went back to idolatry and undone everything he had achieved.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘From the account in the above chapter, where we have this business detailed, we find that Josiah should not have meddled in the quarrel between the Egyptian and the Assyrian kings, for God had given a commission to the former against the latter; but he did it in error, and suffered for it. But this unfortunate end of this pious man does not at all impeach the credit of Huldah; he died in peace in his own kingdom. He died in peace with God, and there was neither war nor desolation in his land, nor did the king of Egypt proceed any farther against the Jews during his life, 2 Chronicles 35:21-24.’
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The death of Josiah in battle, 2 Kings 23:29, is in verbal contradiction to this prophecy, but not in real opposition to its spirit, which is simply that the pious prince who has sent to inquire of the Lord shall be gathered to his fathers before the troubles come upon the land which are to result in her utter desolation. Now those troubles were to come, not from Egypt, but from Babylon; and their commencement was not the invasion of Necho in 608 B.C., but that of Nebuchadnezzar three years later. Thus was Josiah ‘taken away from the evil to come,’ and died ‘in peace’ before his city had suffered attack from the really formidable enemy.’