2 Kings 22 Study Notes

22:1-23:30 The reign of King Josiah of Judah is covered in these two chapters.

22:1-2 The formal statements are typical for a good king: Josiah walked in all the ways of David, and he turned neither to the right or the left.

22:3-5 At twenty-six years old, Josiah pushed for the repairing of the temple. There was no argument over whose treasury was involved (see Joash, 12:4-8). The king either already had or then assumed the necessary authority for renovating the temple.

22:6-7 Verse 7 is repeated from 12:15 in the account of Joash’s repair of the temple.

22:8 The Torah, or book of the law, had probably not been completely lost. Even the Samaritans had been preserving their Torah for almost a hundred years (17:28). Perhaps the copies available had been guarded from the previous idolatrous royal house.

22:9-10 Shaphan seems not to have appreciated the significance of the discovery of “the book of the law.” He leads his report to the king with the report of financial diligence. Then he refers to the book (Deuteronomy?) simply as a book.

22:11 Whatever had happened, the king had been ignorant of some provisions of the law.

22:12-13 Josiah’s heart was tender toward God (v. 19). Just as he had searched for God when he was sixteen years old (2Ch 34:3) and had pushed for rebuilding the temple, now he was equally willing to heed this message of sin, guilt, and judgment. He acknowledged that sin had aroused the Lord’s wrath.

22:14 Despite the general false worship that was occurring throughout the land, a true prophetess was known and tolerated just as apostate Samaria had tolerated Elisha (6:32).

22:15-17 The message of the prophetess was that the sins of the nation must be judged.

22:18-20 Because of Josiah’s grief over the sins of the nation, he was assured that destruction would not come until after his death.