Deeper Commentary
2Ch 34:1 Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign; and he
reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem-
Josiah means 'foundation of Yah'. It's unlikely this was the name Amon
gave him, although a repentant Manasseh may have influenced it. However, at
no point did even kings like Amon and Manasseh formally deny Yahweh. They
worshipped Him, so they thought, through worshipping idols. So it is not
impossible that indeed this was Josiah's birth name. And from that we can
take yet another warning, to serve Yahweh with our whole hearts; and not
assume that our service of the flesh is serving Him.
2Ch 34:2 He did that which was right in the eyes of Yahweh, and walked in
the ways of David his father, and didn’t turn aside to the right hand or
to the left-
And yet Josiah died in spiritual weakness and at a point of
disobedience to God's word (2 Chron. 35:20-24). The rubric 'He did what
was right...' is found even of kings who clearly departed from Yahweh. The
truly righteous ones such as Jehoshaphat have a clause added to their
summary, saying that they had followed Yahweh in their hearts. But this is
lacking in the case of Josiah. We note too that he raised evil sons. And
so we wonder whether the record is acknowledging the good works which he
did at some points in his life, and it concludes with this too (2 Chron.
35:26). But there is a notable absence of any statement to the intent that
he was judged as having a heart right with God. And the state of the heart
was and is the critical indicator in God's final judgment of men.
2Ch 34:3 For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he
began to seek after the God of David his father. In the twelfth year he
began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the Asherim,
and the engraved images, and the molten images-
Kings places this reformation after the repair of the temple, whereas
Chronicles puts it before that. However, Manasseh had repaired the temple
just a few years earlier (2 Chron. 33:16) and that may be what Kings has
in mind. Or the temple may have been repaired in stages. However the
chronological problems are avoided if we accept a confusion in copying
between "eighth" and "eighteenth" (2 Kings 22:3).
We note that Amon had revived Manasseh's images in the two years of his reign, and it seems the people worshipped them for the first 12 years of Josiah's reign. Again we have the impression that the removal of idolatry was something done by the reformist kings, but the hearts of the people were generally with the idols. And this was why they were condemned relatively soon after Josiah's time. The timing of Josiah's reformation (2 Chron. 34:3) coincides with the prophecies of Jer. 2,3; he heard them, and responded. Hence Jeremiah wept when Josiah died, remembering how as a teenager, Josiah had heard his prophecies and immediately responded to them.
2Ch 34:4 They broke down the altars of the Baals in his presence. He cut
down the incense altars that were on high above them. He broke in pieces
the Asherim, and the engraved images, and the molten images, and made dust
of them, and strewed it on the graves of those who had sacrificed to them-
We note the contrast between altars being cut down "in his presence",
and he himself cutting others down. We get the impression of total
personal involvement and commitment, just at the age of 20. He put their
dust on the graves of their worshippers who were buried near to the idols,
referring maybe to the children offered to them, or to the fact that some
were so devoted to idols that they gave their lives to them and were
willing human sacrifices.
2Ch 34:5 He burnt the bones of the priests on their altars, and purged
Judah and Jerusalem-
It was done specifically at Bethel (2 Kings 23:15,16). This implies
he murdered the priests and burnt their hones on the altars, or it could
refer to the exhuming of their bodies buried near the altars (:4) and
burning their bones. This would have been seen as permanently desecrating
the altars. This was done because God said that He would do this if His
people broke covenant (Lev. 26:30), and Josiah is recognizing that indeed
they had broken covenant and were worthy of such things. However, it would
seem from :15 that Josiah was ignorant of those curses for disobedience;
so it may be that he intuitively did what was written in them without
specifically being aware of them. This is the spirit of Rom. 2:14.
2Ch 34:6 He did this in the cities of Manasseh and Ephraim and Simeon,
even to Naphtali, in their surrounding ruins-
Simeonites lived in Judah (1 Chron. 4:28). But even in the ruined
northern tribes, ruined because of the Assyrians, they were still
worshipping idols and had not been led to repentance. Like Hezekiah,
Josiah had a sense of responsibility towards the separated, spiritually
weak brethren of the ten tribes. And he also knew that idolatry there
would easily seep into Judah, as it had done previously. This sense of
responsibility even for separated brethren is another abiding lesson for
us. Assyrian power was declining, which is why Josiah was able to enter
Israel and do this. It seems Josiah had a vision of a reunited kingdom,
centered around Yahweh worship. This was indeed the prophetic potential,
but the idolatrous hearts of the people precluded it from coming about.
2Ch 34:7 He broke down the altars, and beat the Asherim and the engraved
images into powder, and cut down all the incense altars throughout all the
land of Israel, and returned to Jerusalem-
"All the land of Israel" need not mean that every altar in all Israel
was broken down, but that he went throughout "all Israel" on this mission;
see on :6.
2Ch 34:8 Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the
land and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the
governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair the
house of Yahweh his God-
"His God" could imply that he was not widely supported by the people.
For as ever, their hearts soon returned to idolatry after this. For the
chronological issue on when this repair occurred, see on :3. The "scribe" or historian was a senior advisor in the Hebrew court (2
Sam. 8:17; 2 Kings 18:18,37; 2 Chron. 34:8) because of the huge value
attached to history in the Hebrew mind, and as reflected in the Bible
being largely history. Advice on how to act was to be based upon
historical, or as we would now say, "Biblical", precedent.
2Ch 34:9 They came to Hilkiah the high priest, and delivered the money
that was brought into God’s house, which the Levites, the keepers of the
threshold, had gathered of the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim, and of all
the remnant of Israel, and of all Judah and Benjamin, and of the
inhabitants of Jerusalem-
AV "And they returned to Jerusalem". We note the generosity of the
people even in the northern tribes, as well as the Israelites living in
Judah ["the remnant of Israel"]. The way the various sources of income are
described suggests a detailed record was made, indeed Kings says that
Hilkiah took the sum. The half shekel temple tax was to be paid when a
census was taken, and it seems this is what he did.
2Ch 34:10 They delivered it into the hand of the workmen who had the
oversight of the house of Yahweh. The workmen who laboured in the house of
Yahweh gave it to mend and repair the house-
Chronicles was written for the encouragement of the exiles to
likewise mend and repair the temple, and so they were intended to take
encouragement from these men.
2Ch 34:11 even to the carpenters and to the builders they gave it, to buy
cut stone, and timber for couplings, and to make beams for the houses
which the kings of Judah had destroyed-
The destruction of the temple by these kings may not have been
because they totally rejected Yahweh. The essence of their apostacy, as
ours, was to use the things of Yahweh for idolatry, to mix paganism and
the way of the flesh with Yahweh worship. So it is likely that when we
read of men like Manasseh building other temples or shrines to idols in
the vicinity of the temple, what happened was that they took the materials
from the temple structure and used them for the idol temples. For
materials like cut stone and timber were expensive and hard to source;
Solomon had spent huge effort in bringing them from far away to build
Yahweh's temple.
2Ch 34:12 The men did the work faithfully; and their overseers were Jahath
and Obadiah, the Levites, of the sons of Merari; and Zechariah and
Meshullam, of the sons of the Kohathites, to set it forward; and others of
the Levites, all who were skilful with instruments of music-
This could mean that the builders worked to the accompaniment of
spiritual music. Or that musicians, not used to manual labour, worked in
the rebuilding; just as apothecaries and others unused to such work
laboured in rebuilding the wall in Nehemiah's time. And Chronicles was
written for their encouragement.
2Ch 34:13 Also they were over the bearers of burdens, and set forward all
who did the work in every kind of service. Of the Levites there were
scribes, and officers, and porters-
This is the first time we read of the "scribes" as a distinct body.
Although possibly they began in the time of Hezekiah (Prov. 25:1). Whilst
this was the class which so persecuted the Lord Jesus generations later,
the original intention was that they would be responsible for "the
writings" and perhaps interpretation of them. But for now, they were to be
concerned not with academic study, but in making the word flesh through
actually labour in the rebuilding work.
2Ch 34:14 When they brought out the money that was brought into the house
of Yahweh, Hilkiah the priest found the book of the law of Yahweh given by
Moses-
All spiritual endeavour leads to the Lord inviting us deeper into that
endeavour; thus it was as Barnabas and Paul went about their
ministering to the Lord that they were invited to go on a missionary
journey (Acts 13:2). Likewise it was as the Levites were in process
of collecting funds for repairing the temple, that they found the book of
the law- perhaps because they needed more space in which to store the
donations, and whilst making space they found the scroll.
In the process of being a deacon, faith is developed (1 Tim. 3:13). The
very process of service and obedience leads to greater faith in practice.
There is an apparent parallel between money being found in the temple, and the book of the law being found (2 Kings 22:8,9). The idea is that as David often says in Ps. 119, Yahweh's law was the greatest treasure. So much so that the Chronicles record focuses so much on the book of the law being found that no direct mention is made of the money also "found"along with it until :17. Even in Kings, the discovery of the money is only mentioned in passing, as if the greatest discovery was not wealth, but God's law. And that is an abiding principle.
2Ch 34:15 Hilkiah answered Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of
the law in the house of Yahweh. Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan-
This book was probably not the entire Pentateuch, but the curses for
disobedience in Dt. 28, for Josiah's response is appropriate to someone
who had just heard them read. But see on :5. Jer. 15:16 refers to this:
"Your words were found, and I did eat them... [they] were to me the joy
and the delight of my heart: for I am called by Your name, Yahweh".
Jeremiah rejoiced in those words of judgment. And as a result, “I am
called by Your name”- the language of a woman marrying and taking her
husband’s name (Is. 4:1). The word of God was his “joy [and] delight”- two
words used four times elsewhere in Jeremiah, and always in the context of
the joy of a wedding (Jer. 7:34; 16:9; 25:10; 33:11). Jeremiah saw his
prophetic task as actually a marriage to God, an inbreathing of His word
and being, to the point that he could say that he personally was “full of
the wrath / passion of God” (Jer. 6:11).
Jeremiah's lament that the people had no joy or delight in God's word
(Jer. 6:10) is the basis for this comment that when he found
God's words, they were his joy.
2Ch 34:16 Shaphan carried the book to the king, and moreover brought back
word to the king, saying, All that was committed to your servants, they
are doing-
There appears an intentional contrast here. The book of the law
contained a list of curses for disobedience, and the people had not being
doing according to God's word. But the message of Shaphan is that the
servants are doing all they have been commanded to do. The idea is that
Josiah perceived this, and realized that all this rebuilding of the temple
was not going to save them of itself. They needed to make a from the heart
repentance amongst all the people, in order to truly avoid Divine
judgment. And this was so relevant to the exiles, for whom Chronicles was
written. Rebuilding the temple alone was not in fact what God primarily
wanted. He desired their hearts.
2Ch 34:17 They have emptied out the money that was found in the house of
Yahweh, and have delivered it into the hand of the overseers, and into the
hand of the workmen-
The implication is that all was being done honestly. Whenever there
was an appeal for materials, money or labour to build the tabernacle or
rebuild the temple, God's people were always very responsive. But the
lesson of Judah's history is that material generosity is not the same as
true spirituality.
2Ch 34:18 Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest has
delivered me a book. Shaphan read therein before the king-
What was read were the curses for disobedience. The harder side of the Father and the Lord Jesus should actually serve
as an attraction to the serious believer. Peter knew that if it really was
the Lord Jesus out there on the water, then He would bid him walk on the
water to Him. Peter knew his Lord, and the sort of things He would ask men
to do- the very hardest things for them in their situation. He knew how
Jesus could be a demanding Lord. Jeremiah “knew that this was the word of
the Lord” when he was asked to do something so humanly senseless- to buy
property when he was in prison, when the land was clearly about to be
overrun by the Babylonians (Jer. 31:8). When Jeremiah had earlier found
the curses for disobedience recorded in the book of the Law which had been
lost, He 'ate them', those words of cursings were "the joy and rejoicing
of my heart" - they so motivated him (Jer. 15:16 = 2 Chron. 34:18-21).
When Ananias and Sapphira were slain by the Lord, fear came upon "as many
as heard these things" .
2Ch 34:19 It happened, when the king had heard the words of the law, that
he tore his clothes-
Although Josiah was personally innocent, he felt so passionately for
God's people. We too need to have hearts that bleed for others, and not be
solely concerned with our own standing before God. For our standing before
Him involves our attitudes to others and our concern for their salvation,
if we truly seek God's glory and not our own.
2Ch 34:20 The king commanded Hilkiah, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and
Abdon the son of Micah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah the king’s
servant saying-
This is the Ahikam of Jer. 26:24; 40:5. His son Gedaliah appears to
have been faithful and to also have cared for Jeremiah after Jerusalem
fell (Jer. 40:6).
2Ch 34:21 Go inquire of Yahweh for me, and for those who are left in
Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book that is found. Great
is the wrath of Yahweh that is poured out on us, because our fathers have
not kept the word of Yahweh, to do according to all that is written in
this book-
"Poured out" is "kindled" in 2 Kings; the sense was that he realized
the wrath of God was kindled and was literally about to burn against them,
and so repentance must be immediate with no time to lose.
2Ch 34:22 So Hilkiah, and they whom the king had commanded, went to Huldah
the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tokhath, the son of Hasrah,
keeper of the wardrobe; (now she lived in Jerusalem in the second
quarter), and they spoke to her to that effect-
"The second quarter" may refer to a newer area of Jerusalem (Zeph.
1:10 RV), or as AV "the college", implying as a prophetess she had a kind
of Bible study centre. "Keeper of the wardrobe" may refer to the priestly
garments (cp. 2 Kings 10:22).
2Ch 34:23 She said to them, Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: ‘Tell the
man who sent you to me-
We see here and in :26 how Josiah had no direct vision from God. He
was dealing all the time through the prophetic word relayed to him, and
his obedience to it is the more commendable. Because it reflects his
humility to God's revealed word, in a way more impressive than if these
words had come directly to him. We are in his position, and should learn
from him.
2Ch 34:24 Thus says Yahweh, Behold, I will bring evil on this place, and
on its inhabitants, even all the curses that are written in the book which
they have read before the king of Judah-
The reference to curses suggests that the scrolls discovered
contained at least Dt. 28 and Dt. 27:15-26. See on :5.
2Ch 34:25 Because they have forsaken Me, and have burned incense to other
gods, that they might provoke Me to anger with all the works of their
hands; therefore is My wrath poured out on this place, and it shall not be
quenched’-
God can be grieved [s.w. 'provoke to anger']. He has emotions, and His
potential foreknowledge doesn't mean that these feelings are not
legitimate. They are presented as occurring in human time, as responses to
human behaviour. This is the degree to which He has accommodated Himself
to human time-space limits, in order to fully enter relationship and
experience with us. As He can limit His omnipotence, so God can limit His
omniscience, in order to feel and respond along with us.
Idolatrous Israel never consciously tried to provoke Yahweh to anger with their apostasy; the words of the prophets must have seemed to them a gross exaggeration. But this was really how God saw it (2 Chron. 34:25).
Although "it shall not be quenched", Josiah knew God well enough to try
to quench it, by getting all His people to make a from the heart
commitment to Him.
2Ch 34:26 But to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of Yahweh,
thus you shall tell him, Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: ‘As touching
the words which you have heard-
See on :23 for the significance of Josiah not receiving these words
directly.
2Ch 34:27 because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before
God when you heard His words against this place, and against its
inhabitants, and have humbled yourself before Me and have torn your
clothes, and wept before Me; I also have heard you, says Yahweh-
We see here the mutuality between God and man; He hears the man who
hears Him. We see the root of humility as being in having a heart / mind
sensitive to Him. But "tender heart" is the same phrase used for being
"faint hearted" in time of battle (Dt. 20:3; Is. 7:4; Jer. 51:46). It was
as if Josiah saw the judgment of God coming, as if it had come, and was
faint hearted before the soldiers he saw coming against him. And yet even
such a tender heart can be given by God (s.w. Job 23:16), for He can also
give attitudes of mind by His sovereign operation .
2Ch 34:28 Behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be
gathered to your grave in peace, neither shall your eyes see all the evil
that I will bring on this place, and on its inhabitants’. They brought
back word to the king-
This is a similar situation to the promise to Hezekiah and Ahab (1
Kings 21:29). It is as if God judged the entire weight of sin to be such
that even Josiah's reformation could only delay and not remove the
judgment for it. However, if the people had all repented in their hearts,
rather than passively allowing a reformer like Josiah to remove the
external evidence of idolatry, then surely the outcome could have been
different. See on :31.
The reality was that Josiah died in battle, not in peace (2 Chron. 35:22-24). Yet he had been promised to be gathered to his grave in peace (2 Chron. 34:28). Here we have an example of God making a statement about the future which is conditional upon human behaviour. Thus He stated that Nineveh would be destroyed in 40 days; but it wasn't, because they repented. There is a gap between the pronouncement and its fulfilment, and in that gap our behaviour can change the outcome. We too must waste so many potential futures.
2Ch 34:29 Then the king sent and gathered together all the elders of Judah
and Jerusalem-
Josiah's idea was to bring about a reformation of the ordinary
people, as in :30 we read of the people small and great being gathered. So
presumably his gathering of the leaders was in order for them to bring
their people with them.
2Ch 34:30 The king went up to the house of Yahweh, and all the men of
Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests, and the Levites,
and all the people, both great and small; and he read in their ears all
the words of the book of the covenant that was found in the house of
Yahweh-
2 Kings has "prophets" for "Levites". There were clearly prophets
actively operating at this time. As noted on :31, Josiah saw the only way
to change the threatened judgments as getting the ordinary people to
repent in their hearts. Unlike Hezekiah, he was not satisfied with simply
avoiding seeing judgment come in his days. Indeed he learned from
Hezekiah's mistake in that matter. See on 2 Chron. 35:7.
2Ch 34:31 The king stood in his place, and made a covenant before Yahweh,
to walk after Yahweh-
Maybe a reference to Dt. 10:12,13, which perhaps was in this scroll.
And to keep His commandments, His testimonies and His statutes,
with all his heart, and with all his soul, to perform the words of the
covenant that were written in this book-
Josiah recognizes that Judah have broken covenant with God and must
be judged appropriately (see on :5,28). God was unwilling to ultimately
avert the judgment upon the people because of their state of heart. And
yet Josiah throws himself into trying to persuade the people to totally
give themselves to covenant relationship. He realized that in the gap
between the pronunciation of judgment, and it being carried out, there was
the possibility of repentance and the judgment not being performed. His
mentor Jeremiah had made this point in Jer. 18, and was also appealing to
the people to change their hearts so that the threatened judgment wouldn't
happen. This is how open God's purpose is, and Josiah and Jeremiah
perceived that.
2Ch 34:32 He caused all who were found in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand
to it. The inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God,
the God of their fathers-
There are a number of Old Testament examples of preaching the word
after becoming aware of the depth of one's own sins. Consider Jonah
preaching the second time, with the marks in his body after three days in
the whale, admitting his rebellion against Yahweh, pleading with them to
respond to His word. Reflect how when his head was wrapped around with
seaweed, at the bottom of the sea at the absolute end of mortal life, he
made a vow to God, which he then fulfilled, presumably in going back to
preach to Nineveh (Jonah 2:9). His response to having confessed his sins
and daring to believe in God’s forgiveness, turning again towards His
temple even from underwater, was to resolve to preach to others if he was
spared his life. And this he did, although as with so many of us, the
pureness of his initial evangelical zeal soon flaked. Or consider
Manasseh, 2 Chron. 33:16; Jehoshaphat, 2 Chron. 19:3 cp. 18:31; 19:2;
Josiah, 2 Chron. 34:29,32; Nebuchadnezzar, Dan. 3:29; 4:2...
We note the specific reference to the people of Jerusalem. It seems that Josiah tried to gather together literally all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, all "found" there. And yet Jerusalem particularly was to suffer in the judgments to come, and Jeremiah's prophesies at this time tend to single out Jerusalem for particular judgment for the unspirituality of the population. So again we perceive that this was all the enthusiasm of Josiah; the people's hearts weren't affected. This is the trouble with mass meetings for "revival". Reformation is essentially personal and of the heart.
2Ch 34:33 Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries
that pertained to the children of Israel, and made all who were found in
Israel to serve, even to serve Yahweh their God. All his days they didn’t
depart from following Yahweh, the God of their fathers-
As noted above, Assyrian power was declining, and the ten tribes although
living in ruins, were invited hereby to become Josiah's subjects. His
vision was of a reunited kingdom of Israel and Judah, based around solid
commitment to Yahweh. For a people accepted the gods of those dominant
over them, and Israel were now agreeing to accept Yahweh, which was
Judah's God, as theirs. But this was to be experienced only in "his days"
as his son Jehoiakim let the ball drop rather dramatically. All this
potential was wasted by him.
Josiah discovered the book
of the Law- and he then went on to do something about it in practice.
Reflect through what he did:
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