The book found in the temple: Josiah's reform

Second Kings belongs to the Former Prophets (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings), the Bible's long account of Israel in the land. Chapters 22 and 23 are the last bright point in that story. Josiah was the son of Amon and the grandson of Manasseh. Manasseh ruled fifty-five years and led Judah into worse idolatry than the nations the LORD had driven out (2 Kings 21:1-9). Amon was killed by his own servants after two years, and 'the people of the land' placed his eight-year-old son on the throne (21:19-24; 22:1). Josiah reigned thirty-one years, traditionally dated about 640 to 609 BC, so his eighteenth year, the year of the discovery, falls about 622 BC. Jeremiah and Zephaniah both prophesied in his days (Jeremiah 1:2; Zephaniah 1:1).

The book of Kings does not name its author. The Talmud (Bava Batra 15a) says Jeremiah wrote it. Since the work of Martin Noth in the twentieth century, many scholars have held that Joshua through Kings form one 'Deuteronomistic History', shaped by the language and theology of Deuteronomy. Frank Moore Cross proposed a first edition under Josiah and a second in exile, while other scholars doubt that such a unified work existed. All agree on one fact: the last dated event in the book is in 561 BC (25:27), so the final form comes from the exile. The first readers were people who had seen Jerusalem fall and were asking why it fell even though Josiah had been so faithful.

What was the Book of the Law that Hilkiah found? Most scholars say it was Deuteronomy or a large part of it, because the reform matches Deuteronomy's demands: worship at one chosen place (Deuteronomy 12), the Passover at that place (Deuteronomy 16), and a covenant ceremony with blessings and curses (Deuteronomy 27-29). In 1805 Wilhelm de Wette argued that Deuteronomy was written in Josiah's time to support the reform. Conservative readers hold that Deuteronomy comes from Moses and was neglected and lost under Manasseh and Amon. The text says only that the book was found, and Josiah speaks of 'our fathers' who had not listened to its words (22:13), which treats it as old rather than new.

These chapters are Hebrew historical narrative, but narrative with a purpose. The author selects scenes to show whether each king did what was right in the LORD's eyes, and the standard is always the same: loyalty to the LORD alone, obedience to the Law of Moses and the removal of the high places, the local shrines. Chapter 22 is about the word heard, and chapter 23 is about the word done. Josiah is said to have walked in the way of David and not turned 'to the right or to the left' (22:2), and at the end no king before or after is his equal (23:25).

Two literary clues matter.

• The first is the reference back to Deuteronomy. The phrase about turning neither right nor left comes from Deuteronomy 17:18-20, the law of the king, which says the king must copy the Law, read it all his life and not turn aside from it. Josiah is the king in Kings who is shown doing this.
• The second clue is a prophecy looking forward. In 1 Kings 13:2 an unnamed man of God had said that a king named Josiah would burn the bones of the priests of the high places on the altar at Bethel. In 2 Kings 23:15-18 that happens, and the text points back to the earlier prophecy.

Readers should also compare 2 Chronicles 34-35. Chronicles says Josiah began to seek God in his eighth year and began to purge Judah in his twelfth (2 Chronicles 34:3), before the book was found. Kings places the whole reform after the discovery. The two books are not in conflict: Kings groups the acts of reform around the covenant ceremony, as its aim is to show Josiah's response to the Book, while Chronicles follows a different order for its own purposes. Finally, Huldah says Josiah will be gathered to his grave 'in peace' (22:20), and then he is killed in battle. The oracle itself explains the word: he will not see the disaster come on Jerusalem. 'Peace' here means being spared the judgment, not a quiet death.

22:1-7. Josiah comes to the throne at eight, and the narrator at once says he did what was right and followed David. In his eighteenth year he sends Shaphan the scribe to Hilkiah the high priest to count the money gathered at the temple door and pay the workmen. The scene resembles the repairs under Joash (12:4-16). The repair is routine, and nothing in the text suggests anyone was looking for a book.

22:8-10. Hilkiah says, 'I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the LORD.' The phrase 'Book of the Law' (sefer ha-torah) is used of the Mosaic writings elsewhere (Joshua 1:8). Shaphan carries the book to the king and reports on the repairs, and then adds, almost in passing, that Hilkiah has given him a book, and reads it to him. The word of God had been lost inside God's own house.

22:11-13. When Josiah hears the words he tears his clothes. This is the standard sign of grief or horror (compare Genesis 37:34). What he hears includes covenant terms and the curses that fall on a people who forsake the LORD (Deuteronomy 28). He sends five officials, including Ahikam, Shaphan's son, to inquire of the LORD, since the LORD's wrath burns against the nation because the fathers did not obey the words of the book.

22:14-20. The officials go to Huldah the prophetess, who lived in the Second Quarter (mishneh) of Jerusalem. Her answer has two parts, each opened by 'thus says the LORD'. To the nation: disaster will come on this place 'according to all the words of the book', because they have forsaken the LORD. To the king: because his heart was 'tender' (rakh), he humbled himself, tore his clothes and wept, so the LORD has heard him and will gather him to his fathers 'in peace', so that his eyes will not see the disaster. Mercy for Josiah does not cancel judgment on Judah. The two are told side by side.

23:1-3. Josiah gathers the elders, priests, prophets and all the people, small and great, and reads 'all the words of the Book of the Covenant' (sefer ha-berit) in their hearing. He stands by the pillar, the king's customary place (compare 11:14), and makes a covenant to walk after the LORD with all his heart and soul. All the people pledge themselves to the covenant. The pattern recalls Exodus 24:7 and Joshua 24.

23:4-14. The purge begins at the center. Vessels made for Baal and Asherah are brought out of the temple and burned in the Kidron valley outside the city. The idolatrous priests are removed. The Asherah pole is destroyed, as are the houses of the male cult prostitutes. The high places are defiled from Geba to Beersheba, which marks the northern and southern limits of Judah. Topheth in the Valley of Hinnom is defiled so that no one could any longer pass a son or daughter through the fire to Molech. The altars of Ahaz and Manasseh are smashed, and even the shrines Solomon had built for foreign gods are destroyed (23:13), which shows how old the corruption was.

23:15-20. Josiah turns north to Bethel, where Jeroboam had set up his altar (1 Kings 12:32-33). He breaks it down and burns the bones on it, then spares the tomb of the man of God who had foretold it (compare 1 Kings 13). He also removes the high places in the towns of Samaria. The northern kingdom had fallen a century earlier, yet Judah's king acts there as though the whole land were still one covenant people.

23:21-25. The king orders a Passover 'as it is written in this Book of the Covenant'. The text says no such Passover had been kept since the days of the judges, a statement about thoroughness and correct form. Then comes the verdict: before him and after him there was no king who turned to the LORD with all his heart, soul and strength, according to all the Law of Moses. The words echo the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:5).

23:26-37. Yet the LORD did not turn from his great anger, because of what Manasseh had done. Jeremiah says the same (Jeremiah 15:4). Josiah goes out to meet Pharaoh Neco at Megiddo and is killed in 609 BC. Neco was most likely marching to help Assyria against Babylon, a detail known from Babylonian records. His son Jehoahaz is deposed after three months, and Jehoiakim, put in his place by Egypt, does evil.

The first lesson of these chapters is the authority of the written Word. A reform that begins with a found book shows that God's people are renewed by what he has said, not by what they invent. Josiah reads the covenant, takes it seriously and acts on it. The same pattern appears later in the reading of the Law under Ezra and Nehemiah.

The second lesson is that mercy for a person and judgment on a nation can be true at once. Huldah's oracle does not say Josiah's repentance was too little. It says the nation's sin, laid up under Manasseh, is already beyond the point where the covenant curses of Deuteronomy 28-29 can be avoided. Jeremiah agrees (Jeremiah 15:1-4) and adds that even Josiah's reform did not reach the heart of the people (Jeremiah 3:10). Yet Jeremiah praises Josiah for defending the poor and needy, and calls that 'knowing' the LORD (Jeremiah 22:15-16). Josiah's faith was real, and it did not rescue the nation.

The third lesson is about the king. Deuteronomy 17 expected a king under the Law, and Josiah is the king who most nearly fits. His story shows that a king under the Law is the right pattern, and that no ordinary king can meet it perfectly or bear the nation's guilt.

The connection is type, with fulfillment in the line of David. Josiah is a king who hears the Law and trembles, repents for the nation, cleanses God's house and restores the Passover. In that way he foreshadows the greater Son of David. Matthew names him in the genealogy of Jesus (Matthew 1:10-11), so the New Testament itself places him on the road to Christ. Jesus fulfills what Josiah could only picture: he does not only read the Law with a tender heart but keeps it perfectly.

Josiah also shows the limit of every earthly king. He hears the curses of the Law and weeps, but he cannot bear them for the people. He reforms the land and then dies at Megiddo. The curses still fall. Paul says that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse for us (Galatians 3:13, quoting Deuteronomy 21:23). What Josiah's reform could only delay, Christ takes upon himself.

Two more links are echoes. The Passover Josiah restores points to the Lamb, since Paul writes that Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed (1 Corinthians 5:7). And the king who purges the house of God, driving out what does not belong there, may be echoed when Jesus drives the traders from the temple (John 2:13-17). The New Testament does not tie these two to Josiah by name.