2 Kings 22: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Josiah becomes king of Judah at age eight and does what is right in the LORD's eyes. In his eighteenth year he sends money to repair the temple, and during the work the high priest Hilkiah finds the Book of the Law; when it is read aloud, Josiah tears his clothes and sends men to ask the LORD what it means for him and for Judah. The prophetess Huldah answers that the LORD will bring disaster on Jerusalem because the people have abandoned him for other gods, but that Josiah, because his heart was tender and he humbled himself, will die and be buried in peace and will not see it.

Claim by Claim

1. 22:1
   • Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign.
   • Josiah reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem.
   • Josiah's mother was named Jedidah.
   • Jedidah was the daughter of Adaiah.
   • Adaiah was from Bozkath.
2. 22:2
   • Josiah did what was right in the sight of the LORD.
   • Josiah walked in all the way of David his father.
   • Josiah did not turn aside to the right or to the left.
3. 22:3
   • In the eighteenth year of king Josiah, the king sent Shaphan to the house of the LORD.
   • Shaphan was the son of Azaliah.
   • Azaliah was the son of Meshullam.
   • Shaphan was the scribe.
   • The king sent Shaphan with a message.
4. 22:4
   • The king told Shaphan to go up to Hilkiah the high priest.
   • Hilkiah was the high priest.
   • The king ordered that the silver brought into the house of the LORD be counted up.
   • The keepers of the threshold had gathered that silver from the people.
5. 22:5
   • The king ordered that the silver be delivered into the hand of the workmen who had oversight of the house of the LORD.
   • The king ordered that those overseers give the silver to the workmen in the house of the LORD.
   • The purpose was to repair the damaged parts of the house.
6. 22:6
   • The silver was for the carpenters, the builders, and the masons.
   • The silver was for buying timber and hewn stone.
   • The purpose of the timber and stone was to repair the house.
7. 22:7
   • No accounting was to be made with the workmen of the silver delivered into their hand.
   • The reason was that the workmen dealt faithfully.
8. 22:8
   • Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the scribe that he had found the book of the law in the house of the LORD.
   • Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan.
   • Shaphan read the book.
9. 22:9
   • Shaphan the scribe came to the king.
   • Shaphan brought the king word back.
   • Shaphan said the king's servants had emptied out the silver found in the house.
   • Shaphan said they had delivered the silver into the hand of the workmen who had oversight of the house of the LORD.
10. 22:10
    • Shaphan the scribe told the king that Hilkiah the priest had given him a book.
    • Shaphan read the book before the king.
11. 22:11
    • The king heard the words of the book of the law.
    • When the king heard them, he tore his clothes.
12. 22:12
    • The king gave a command to Hilkiah the priest.
    • The king gave a command to Ahikam the son of Shaphan.
    • The king gave a command to Achbor the son of Michaiah.
    • The king gave a command to Shaphan the scribe.
    • The king gave a command to Asahiah, a servant of the king.
13. 22:13
    • The king told them to go and inquire of the LORD for him, for the people, and for all Judah.
    • The inquiry concerned the words of the book that had been found.
    • The king said the wrath of the LORD kindled against them is great.
    • The king said the reason is that their fathers had not listened to the words of this book.
    • The king said their fathers had not done according to all that is written concerning them.
14. 22:14
    • Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan, and Asahiah went to Huldah.
    • Huldah was a prophetess.
    • Huldah was the wife of Shallum.
    • Shallum was the son of Tikvah.
    • Tikvah was the son of Harhas.
    • Shallum was keeper of the wardrobe.
    • Huldah dwelt in Jerusalem in the second quarter of the city.
    • The men spoke with Huldah.
15. 22:15
    • Huldah said to them that this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says.
    • Huldah told them to tell the man who sent them to her.
16. 22:16
    • The LORD says he is bringing evil upon this place and upon its inhabitants.
    • The evil is all the words of the book which the king of Judah has read.
17. 22:17
    • The reason is that they have forsaken the LORD.
    • They have burned incense to other gods.
    • Their purpose was to provoke the LORD to anger with all the works of their hands.
    • The LORD's wrath will be kindled against this place.
    • The LORD's wrath will not be quenched.
18. 22:18
    • The king of Judah sent them to inquire of the LORD.
    • Huldah told them what to say to the king of Judah.
    • The message begins: this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says, concerning the words the king has heard.
19. 22:19
    • The king's heart was tender.
    • The king humbled himself before the LORD.
    • The king did so when he heard what the LORD spoke against this place and its inhabitants.
    • The LORD spoke that this place and its inhabitants would become a desolation and a curse.
    • The king tore his clothes.
    • The king wept before the LORD.
    • The LORD says he has also heard the king.
    • This is the declaration of the LORD.
20. 22:20
    • The LORD will gather the king to his fathers.
    • The king will be gathered to his grave in peace.
    • The king's eyes will not see all the evil the LORD will bring upon this place.
    • The men brought the king word back.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

22:1

Judah was the smaller southern kingdom, with its capital and temple at Jerusalem; Josiah ruled it from about 640 to 609 BC. The books of Kings follow a fixed formula when introducing each king of Judah: his age at accession, the length of his reign, and his mother's name. The mother is named because the king's mother held a recognized position at court. Bozkath was a town in the low hill country of Judah.

22:2

"Did what was right in the LORD's sight" is the standard verdict the book of Kings passes on each ruler, alongside its opposite, "did evil in the sight of the LORD"; it is a formal judgment rather than a description of personality. David is called Josiah's "father" in the King James wording in the sense of ancestor, David had died roughly three hundred years earlier. "Turned not aside to the right hand or to the left" is a set phrase from Israel's law books meaning he kept to the instructions exactly, adding nothing and dropping nothing.

22:3

A "scribe" here is not a copyist but a senior officer of state, the king's secretary, who handled royal correspondence, records and finances. The eighteenth year of Josiah's reign was about 622 BC, when the king was roughly twenty-six.

22:4

The high priest was the chief officiant of the temple, at the head of the whole priesthood. Coined money did not yet circulate in Judah, so the "silver" or "money" was metal weighed out by amount rather than counted in coins, which is why it has to be "summed" or weighed up. The "keepers of the door" were priests posted at the temple entrances who took in the contributions worshipers brought.

22:5

The temple was Solomon's, built roughly three centuries earlier, and by now needed real structural work. A near identical repair fund, collected the same way and handed to the same kind of supervisors, appears earlier in 2 Kings 12 under King Joash.

22:6

The temple had been standing for hundreds of years. Old buildings crack and crumble. Workers needed wood and cut stone to mend it.

22:7

Requiring no accounts from the workmen was a deliberate arrangement, described in the same terms as an earlier temple repair under King Joash; it marks the foremen as trusted rather than unsupervised by oversight.

22:8

A "book" at this date means a scroll, written by hand on leather or papyrus and rolled, not a bound volume. "The book of the law" is a scroll of instruction attributed to Moses; the reforms Josiah then carries out follow the demands of Deuteronomy closely, and many readers have taken the scroll to be some form of that book, though the text itself does not say which writings it contained.

22:10

Reading was normally done aloud, and few people could read at all, so having the scroll read out to the king was the ordinary way a written text reached its hearer.

22:11

Tearing one's clothes was a recognized public gesture of grief, horror or dismay, a visible, deliberate act performed in front of others, not a loss of self-control.

22:12

"A servant of the king's" is a court title, not a description of household service: it marks Asaiah as a royal official. Note also that Ahikam is the son of Shaphan, the secretary in the same delegation; these were families that supplied officials across generations.

22:13

"Enquire of the LORD" is a technical expression for seeking a divine answer to a specific question, normally by putting it to a prophet, who then replied in God's name. It is a formal consultation, not private prayer.

22:14

A prophetess is a woman recognized as speaking messages from God; Israel's traditions name a few others, such as Miriam and Deborah. "Keeper of the wardrobe" was a court post, responsible for the royal or priestly robes. Where the King James has "the college," the Hebrew word means "the second", the Second District or Second Quarter, a newer part of Jerusalem outside the older walls. No school or college is meant.

22:15

"Thus saith the LORD" is the opening formula a messenger used when delivering someone else's words verbatim, the ordinary way an envoy began before a king. Everything that follows it is spoken in the first person as God's own words. Huldah does not name Josiah but calls him "the man that sent you," a notably plain form of address.

22:16

The King James "evil" here translates a Hebrew word meaning harm, ruin or disaster; it refers to the calamity coming on the city, not to moral wickedness. The same word is used again in verse 20.

22:17

Burning incense was a standard act of worship, offering fragrant smoke at an altar or shrine, and doing it "to other gods" means transferring that worship elsewhere. "The works of their hands" can mean their deeds in general, but in contexts like this one it commonly means manufactured images, gods made by craftsmen, and the phrase carries both senses.

22:19

"Thine heart was tender" means responsive and open to what he heard, not sentimental or weak.

22:20

"Gathered to your fathers" and "gathered into your grave" are idioms for dying and being buried with one's ancestors, often literally in a shared family tomb; they describe death, not a judgment on how the person lived. "In peace" is usually understood to mean before the disaster arrives, since 2 Kings 23 goes on to report that Josiah was killed in battle at Megiddo.