2 Kings 22
New Catholic Bible
Chapter 22
Reign of Josiah.[a] 1 Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jedidah, and she was the daughter of Adaiah from Bozkath.
2 He did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and he walked in the ways of David, his father. He did not wander off to the right or to the left.
The Book of the Law.[b] 3 During the eighteenth year of the reign of King Josiah, the king sent Shaphan the scribe, the son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, to the temple. He said, 4 “Go up to Hilkiah, the high priest. Have him count the money that the doorkeepers have collected from the people in the temple of the Lord. 5 Have him give it to the supervisors of the workmen in the temple of the Lord. Have them pay those who are working to repair the damage in the temple of the Lord: 6 the carpenters, the builders, and the masons. Also have them buy timber and hewn stone to repair the temple. 7 They do not need to make an accounting of the money that has been given to them because they have acted honestly.”
8 Hilkiah, the high priest, said to Shaphan, the scribe, “I have found the book of the law in the temple of the Lord.” Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan who read it.
9 Then Shaphan the scribe went to the king and he brought the king a report saying, “Your servants have gathered together the money that has been collected in the temple, and they have handed it over to the supervisors of the workmen in the temple of the Lord.” 10 Then Shaphan the scribe informed the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” Shaphan read it in the presence of the king.
11 When the king heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes. 12 King Josiah gave orders to Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, Achbor, the son of Micaiah, Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah, the king’s servant, saying, 13 “Go and inquire of the Lord for me and for all of the people and for all of Judah about the words of the book that had been found. The Lord’s anger against us is great for our fathers have not heeded the words of this book. They did not do everything that is written in it concerning us.”
14 Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went to the prophetess Huldah, the wife of Shallum, the guardian of the wardrobe, the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas. She lived in the second district of Jerusalem. They spoke with her. 15 She said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, go tell the man who sent you to me: 16 Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will bring disaster upon this place and upon all of those who live in it, everything that is in the book that the king of Judah has read. 17 They have forsaken me, and they have burned incense to other gods, provoking me to anger with all the deeds of their hands. My wrath will blaze out against this place and it will not be quenched.
18 “But as for the king of Judah who sent you to inquire of the Lord, this is what you will say to him: Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: As for the words that you have heard, 19 because your heart was penitent and you have humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard how I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they would become a desolation and a curse, and you tore your clothes and you wept before me, I have also heard you, says the Lord. 20 Therefore, I will gather you to your fathers, and you will be gathered to your grave in peace, so that you will not have to look upon all of the evil that I will bring upon this place with your own eyes.” They brought the report back to the king.
Footnotes
- 2 Kings 22:1 Josiah, a new David and a new Hezekiah, is a king according to God’s heart. The reader desiring to follow the religious developments and political vicissitudes of this final period of the kingdom of Judah should read the relevant passages in Jeremiah, which make known the positions taken by the prophet as events followed ever faster on one another. See also 2 Chr 34–35.
- 2 Kings 22:3 The Book is Deuteronomy, the “Second Law,” which repeated the law of Moses while adapting it. More accurately, perhaps, the book is the central, legislative part of Deuteronomy, which in fact inspires the reform then effected by Josiah. It must have been hidden or lost, or in any case forgotten, during the wicked reign of Manasseh.
