2 Kings 23:2

_AND THE KING WENT UP INTO THE HOUSE OF THE LORD, AND ALL THE MEN OF JUDAH AND ALL THE INHABITANTS OF JERUSALEM WITH HIM, AND THE PRIESTS, AND THE PROPHETS, AND ALL THE PEOPLE, BOTH SMALL AND GREAT: AND HE READ IN THEIR EARS ALL THE WORDS OF THE BOOK OF THE COVENANT WHICH WAS FOUND IN THE HOUSE OF THE LORD._ He read in their ears - i:e caused to be read....

1-3 Josiah had received a message from God, that there was no preventing the ruin of Jerusalem, but that he should only deliver his own soul; yet he does his duty, and leaves the event to God. He engaged the people in the most solemn manner to abolish idolatry, and to serve God in righteousness and true holiness. Though most were formal or hypocritical herein, yet much outward wickedness would be prevented, and they were accountable to God for their own conduct....

Verse 2 Kings 23:2. _THE KING WENT UP INTO THE HOUSE OF THE LORD_] Here is another very singular circumstance. The high priest, scribes, priest, and prophets, are gathered together, with all the elders of the people, and the king himself reads the book of the covenant which had been lately found! It is strange that either the high priest, Jeremiah, Zephaniah, or some other of the prophets, who were certainly there present, did not read the sacred book! It is likely that the king considered himself a _mediator_ between God and them, and therefore read and made the covenant....

THE PROPHETS - The suggestion to regard this word an error of the pen for “Levites,” which occurs in Chronicles (marginal reference), is unnecessary. For though Zephaniah, Urijah, and Jeremiah are all that we can name as belonging to the order at the time, there is no reason to doubt that Judaea contained others whom we cannot name. “Schools of the prophets” were as common in Judah as in Israel. HE READ - The present passage is strong evidence that the Jewish kings could read. The solemn reading of the Law - a practice commanded in the Law itself once in seven years Deuteronomy 31:10 - had been intermitted, at least for the last 75 years, from the date of the accession of Manasseh....

EXPOSITION 2 KINGS 23:1 JOSIAH'S RENEWAL OF THE COVENANT. HIS REFORMS AND DEATH. REIGN OF JEHOAHAZ. ACCESSION OF JEHOIAKIM. 2 KINGS 23:1 _Josiah_'_s renewal of the covenant_._ _The first care of Josiah, on receiving Huldah's message, which stamped the book found as the true "book of the covenant," was to call together a great assembly of the nation, which should be sufficiently representative of it, and renew the covenant between God and his people made originally a

AND THE KING WENT UP INTO THE HOUSE OF THE LORD,.... To the temple, from his palace: AND ALL THE MEN OF JUDAH AND ALL THE INHABITANTS OF JERUSALEM WITH HIM: they met him there: AND THE PRIESTS, AND THE PROPHETS; the prophets Jeremiah, Zephaniah, and Uriah, who, though they might not be at Jerusalem when the book of the law was found, yet, upon this message of the king's, might come up thither from the countries where they were; the Targum interprets the word "scribes": and some take them to be the sons of the prophets, their disciples; in 2 Chronicles 34:30 they are called Levites: AND ALL THE PEOPLE, BOTH SMALL AND GREAT; a very numerous assembly: AND HE READ IN THEIR EARS ALL THE WORDS OF THE BOOK OF THE COVENANT WHICH WAS FOUND IN THE HOUSE OF THE LORD: that is, he caused it to be read by others, a

2. THE RESULTS OF THE REVIVAL AND THE DEATH OF JOSIAH CHAPTER 23:1-30 _ 1. The People hear the law (2 Kings 23:1; 2 Chronicles 34)_ 2. Josiah makes a covenant (2 Kings 23:3) 3. The great reformations (2 Kings 23:4) 4. The Passover celebrated (2 Kings 23:21; 2 Chronicles 35) 5. Further statements concerning Josiah (2 Kings 23:24

2 KINGS 23:3. BY THE PILLAR. COVENANT: for the word pillar see 2 Kings 11:14 and 1 Kings 7:21. In the latter passage it is used for the two great brazen pillars set up by Solomon before the porch of the Temple. In making the covenant the king takes the lead. The ceremony was accompanied by a sacrifice; hence the phrase in Heb. is to _cut_ a covenant (Genesis 15:17 *, Jeremiah 34:18) or divide the victims. The newly discovered volume is called (2 Kings 23:2) the

THE LORD. Hebrew. _Jehovah._ App-4. PROPHETS. Some codices read "Levites", as in 2 Chronicles 34:30. READ. Either himself; or, by Hebrew idiom, "caused to be read". IN THEIR EARS. Compare Nehemiah 8:1, &c. The king did not keep it to himself. God's word is for all....

THE PRIESTS AND THE PROPHETS— _The priests and the Levites._ Houbigant. 2 Chronicles 34:30....