2 Chronicles 34:21

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!

Verse 21. - For me, and for them that are left in Israel and in Judah . The parallel shows, "For me, and for the people, and for all Judah" ( 2 Kings 22:13 ), without any apparent specific reference to Israel. Our present passage may intend to glance at the fact that the bettor part of Israel were in captivity; and it will be possible, at any rate, to read the last clause as intending, not "for them that are left in Judah," but "and for them in Judah." That is poured out ; Hebrew, גִחְכָה . The parallel shows, "that is kindled;" Hebrew, נִצְחָה . The considerable resemblance between the Hebrew words is worthy of passing note. 2 Chronicles 34:21

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 {l} fathers have not kept the word of the LORD, to do after all that is written in this book. (l) Thus the godly not only lament their own sins, but also that their fathers and predecessors have offended God.

(21) Go, enquire of the Lord. —The verse is virtually identical with 2Kings 22:13 . For them that are left . . . Judah.—An alteration of, “and for the people and for all Judah” (Kings). The chronicler thinks of the remnant in the northern kingdom. Poured out.—Kings, “kindled against.” (So LXX.) This was probably the original reading, as the wrath which Josiah dreaded had not yet been poured out upon Judah. But the chronicler remembered the ruin of the ten tribes. Kept.—Kings, “hearkened to” shamĕ’û, as here, instead of shāmĕrû; and so LXX. and Syriac.

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 .