2 Chronicles 34:19

And when they brought out the money that was brought into the house of the Lord,.... The Levites, who brought it out of the country into the temple, and from thence brought it to the high priest, who delivering it to the king's ministers, and they to the overseers, the repairs were begun: and then Hilkiah the high priest found a book of the law of the Lord given by Moses house of the Lord,.... The Levites, who brought it out of the country into the temple, and from thence brought it to the high priest, who delivering it to the king's ministers, and they to the overseers, the repairs were begun: See Gill on 2 Kings 22:8. From hence, to the end of 2 Chronicles 34:28, is the same as 2 Kings 22:8.

34:1-33 Josiah's good reign in Judah. - As the years of infancy cannot be useful to our fellow-creatures, our earliest youth should be dedicated to God, that we may not waste any of the remaining short space of life. Happy and wise are those who seek the Lord and prepare for usefulness at an early age, when others are pursuing sinful pleasures, contracting bad habits, and forming ruinous connexions. Who can express the anguish prevented by early piety, and its blessed effects? Diligent self-examination and watchfulness will convince us of the deceitfulness and wickedness of our own hearts, and the sinfulness of our lives. We are here encouraged to humble ourselves before God, and to seek unto him, as Josiah did. And believers are here taught, not to fear death, but to welcome it, when it takes them away from the evil to come. Nothing hastens the ruin of a people, nor ripens them for it, more than their disregard of the attempts made for their reformation. Be not deceived, God is not mocked. The current and tide of affections only turns at the command of Him who raises up those that are dead in trespasses and sins. We behold peculiar loveliness, in the grace the Lord bestows on those, who in tender years seek to know and to love the Saviour. Hath Jesus, the Day-spring from on high, visited you? Can you trace your knowledge of this light and life of man, like Josiah, from your youth? Oh the unspeakable happiness of becoming acquainted with Jesus from our earliest years!

2 Chronicles 34:19 . When the king had heard the words he rent his clothes — Were the things contained in Scripture new to us, as they were here to Josiah, surely they would make deeper impressions upon us than they commonly do. But they are not the less weighty, and therefore should not be the less regarded, because they are well known.

Verse 19. - With one insignificant exception (the omission here of the word סֶפֶר ), the words of this verse are identical with the parallel in its ver. 11. The same, to all purposes, may be said of our twelve succeeding verses, compared with the parallel in its ver. 12 - 2 Chronicles 23:3 . The king rent his clothes, in grief that the practice of his nation had diverged so terribly from their ever-to-be-venerated Law. 2 Chronicles 34:19

Of the Levites there were scribes - Hereto the word "scribe" has never been used to designate a class (compare 1 Kings 4:3 ). But here an order of scribes, forming a distinct division of the Levitical body, has been instituted. The class itself probably originated in the reign of Hezekiah (compare Proverbs 25:1 ); and it is probably to the rise of this class that we are indebted for the preservation of so many prophecies belonging to Hezekiah's time, while the works of almost all previous prophets - Ahijah, Iddo, Shemaiah, Jehu, the son of Hanani, and probably many others - have perished.

The dismay of the king at the contents of the book which was read to him, and his inquiry of the prophetess Huldah as to the judgments threatened in the law. - Compare with this the parallel account in 2 Kings 22:11-20 , with the commentary there given, as both accounts agree with the exception of some unimportant variations in expression. Instead of Abdon ben Micah ( 2 Chronicles 34:20 ) we find in 2 Kings chbor ben Micayahu, perhaps the correct reading. In 2 Chronicles 34:21 , the expression, "and for those that are left in Israel and Judah," i.e., for the remainder of the people who were left in Israel after the destruction of the kingdom, and in Judah after the divine chastisements inflicted, mainly by the Assyrians under Hezekiah and Manasseh, is clearer and more significant than that in 2 Kings 22:13 , "and for the people, and for all Judah." נתּכה, to pour itself forth (of anger), is quite as suitable as נצּתה, inflame, kindle itself, in 2 Kings 22:13 . In 2 Chronicles 34:22 , those sent with the high priest Hilkiah are briefly designated by the words המּלך ואשׁר, and whom the king, scil. had sent; in 2 Kings 22:14 , on the contrary, the individual names are recorded (Ewald, Gramm. 292, b, would supply אמר, after the lxx). The names of the ancestors of the prophetess Huldah also are somewhat different. כּזאת, as the king had said to him, is omitted in 2 Kings.

In 2 Chronicles 34:24 , כּל־האלות, all the curses, is more significant than כּל־דּברי, 2 Kings 22:16 . ותּתּך ( 2 Chronicles 34:25 ) is a statement of the result of the עזבוּני: Because they have forsaken me, my anger pours itself forth. In 2 Chronicles 34:27 , the rhetorical expansion of the words which God had spoken of Jerusalem in the law, וגו לשׁמּה להיות, inserted in 2 Kings 22:19 as an elucidation, are omitted. After the preceding designation of these words as "the curses written in the law," any further elucidation was superfluous. On the contents of the saying of the prophetess Huldah, see the commentary on 2 Kings 22:16 .