◄ 2 Kings 22:16 ►
that this is what the LORD says: I am about to bring calamity on this place and on its people, according to all the words of the book that the king of Judah has read,
Study Bible
that this is what the LORD says:
This phrase emphasizes the divine authority behind the message. In the biblical context, when a prophet declares "this is what the LORD says," it signifies a direct communication from God, underscoring the seriousness and certainty of the message. This is a common prophetic formula found throughout the Old Testament, indicating that the message is not of human origin but divinely inspired.

I am about to bring calamity on this place:
The "place" refers to Jerusalem and the kingdom of Judah. Historically, this prophecy is set during the reign of King Josiah, a time when Judah was under threat from surrounding nations. The calamity foretold is the impending Babylonian invasion and the subsequent destruction of Jerusalem, which occurred in 586 BC. This serves as a fulfillment of earlier warnings given by prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah, who spoke of judgment due to the people's persistent idolatry and disobedience.

and on its people:
The judgment is not only on the physical location but also on the inhabitants of Judah. This reflects the covenantal relationship between God and His people, where blessings and curses were contingent upon their obedience to the Law (Deuteronomy 28). The people's collective sin, particularly their idolatry and abandonment of God's commandments, has led to this impending judgment.

according to all the words of the book:
This refers to the Book of the Law, likely Deuteronomy, which was discovered during the temple renovations ordered by King Josiah (2 Kings 22:8). The rediscovery of the Law led to a national religious reform, as Josiah sought to align the kingdom with God's commandments. The "words of the book" include the blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience, which are now being realized due to the nation's failure to uphold the covenant.

that the king of Judah has read:
King Josiah's response to the reading of the Law was one of repentance and reform (2 Kings 22:11-13). His actions demonstrate a sincere attempt to avert the prophesied disaster by turning the nation back to God. However, despite his efforts, the accumulated sin of previous generations had set the course for judgment. Josiah's reading and response highlight the importance of Scripture in guiding leaders and nations, and his story serves as a type of Christ, who also sought to bring people back to God through His life and teachings.

Persons / Places / Events
1. King Josiah
The king of Judah who initiated religious reforms after discovering the Book of the Law in the temple.

2. Hilkiah the High Priest
The priest who found the Book of the Law during temple repairs.

3. Shaphan the Scribe
The scribe who read the Book of the Law to King Josiah.

4. Jerusalem
The city where these events took place, and the center of worship in Judah.

5. The Book of the Law
Likely a portion of Deuteronomy, which was discovered in the temple and led to the reforms.
Teaching Points
The Importance of Scripture
The discovery of the Book of the Law led to significant reforms. This underscores the power of God's Word to transform lives and societies.

God's Justice and Mercy
While God pronounces judgment, His actions are always just. Understanding His justice helps us appreciate His mercy and grace.

The Role of Leadership
Josiah's response to God's Word demonstrates the impact of godly leadership. Leaders are called to guide others in righteousness.

Repentance and Reform
Josiah's actions show the importance of repentance and reform in response to God's Word. True repentance leads to tangible changes.

The Consequences of Disobedience
The disaster foretold serves as a reminder of the consequences of turning away from God. It calls us to remain faithful and obedient.
Bible Study Questions
1. How does the discovery of the Book of the Law in 2 Kings 22:16 challenge us to prioritize Scripture in our own lives?

2. In what ways can we, like Josiah, respond to God's Word with genuine repentance and reform?

3. How does understanding God's justice in 2 Kings 22:16 help us appreciate His mercy and grace in our lives today?

4. What lessons can we learn from Josiah's leadership that can be applied to our roles in our families, churches, or communities?

5. How do the consequences of disobedience outlined in 2 Kings 22:16 and Deuteronomy 28 encourage us to remain faithful to God's commands?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Deuteronomy 28
This chapter outlines the blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience, which aligns with the disaster prophesied in 2 Kings 22:16.

2 Chronicles 34
Provides a parallel account of Josiah's reforms and the discovery of the Book of the Law.

Jeremiah 1:16
Speaks of God's judgment on His people for their wickedness, similar to the disaster foretold in 2 Kings 22:16.

Romans 15:4
Highlights the importance of Scripture for teaching and encouragement, reflecting the impact of the Book of the Law on Josiah.
Sermons
A Monarch of Rare Virtue, and a God of Retributive JusticeDavid Thomas, D. D.2 Kings 22:1-20
A Monarch of Rare Virtue, and a God of Retributive JusticeD. Thomas 2 Kings 22:1-20
Josiah and the Book of the LawMonday Club Sermons2 Kings 22:1-20
Josiah's ReformationAlex. Whyte, D. D.2 Kings 22:1-20
The Finding of the Law-BookJ. Orr 2 Kings 22:8-20
People
Achbor, Adaiah, Ahikam, Asahiah, Asaiah, Azaliah, David, Harhas, Hilkiah, Huldah, Jedidah, Josiah, Meshullam, Micaiah, Michaiah, Shallum, Shaphan, Tikvah
Places
Bozkath, Jerusalem, Second Quarter
Topics
Behold, Book, Bring, Bringing, Disaster, Evil, Inhabitants, Judah, Reading, Says, Thereof, Thus, Written
Dictionary of Bible Themes
2 Kings 22:8-16

     1640   Book of the Law

2 Kings 22:11-20

     8160   seeking God

2 Kings 22:13-20

     8129   guidance, examples

2 Kings 22:14-17

     7773   prophets, role

2 Kings 22:14-20

     5745   women

2 Kings 22:15-20

     1429   prophecy, OT fulfilment

Library
The Rediscovered Law and Its Effects
'And Hilkiah the high priest said unto Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord: and Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it. 9. And Shaphan the scribe came to the king, and brought the king word again, and said, Thy servants have gathered the money that was found in the house, and have delivered it into the hand of them that do the work, that have the oversight of the house of the Lord. 10. And Shaphan the scribe shewed the king, saying, Hilkiah the …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Josiah, a Pattern for the Ignorant.
"Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord, when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before Me; I also have heard thee, saith the Lord. Behold therefore, I will gather thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace; and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place."--2 Kings …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII

A Traveler's Note-Book
A tourist who roams for a brief while through some great country like England or Russia may jot down a few of the impressions which come home to him, making no pretense at completeness or symmetry of description. So, one who has journeyed like a hasty traveler over some passages in that vast tract of years which we describe as the classic and Christian civilizations, notes down in the following pages a few of the salient features that have impressed him. He has already prefaced this with a sort …
George S. Merriam—The Chief End of Man

Whether Determinate Things are Required for a Sacrament?
Objection 1: It seems that determinate things are not required for a sacrament. For sensible things are required in sacraments for the purpose of signification, as stated above [4343](A[4]). But nothing hinders the same thing being signified by divers sensible things: thus in Holy Scripture God is signified metaphorically, sometimes by a stone (2 Kings 22:2; Zech. 3:9; 1 Cor. 10:4; Apoc. 4:3); sometimes by a lion (Is. 31:4; Apoc. 5:5); sometimes by the sun (Is. 60:19,20; Mal. 4:2), or by something …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

The Instrumentality of the Wicked Employed by God, While He Continues Free from Every Taint.
1. The carnal mind the source of the objections which are raised against the Providence of God. A primary objection, making a distinction between the permission and the will of God, refuted. Angels and men, good and bad, do nought but what has been decreed by God. This proved by examples. 2. All hidden movements directed to their end by the unseen but righteous instigation of God. Examples, with answers to objections. 3. These objections originate in a spirit of pride and blasphemy. Objection, that …
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion

The Medes and the Second Chaldaean Empire
THE FALL OF NINEVEH AND THE RISE OF THE CHALDAEAN AND MEDIAN EMPIRES--THE XXVIth EGYPTIAN DYNASTY: CYAXARES, ALYATTES, AND NEBUCHADREZZAR. The legendary history of the kings of Media and the first contact of the Medes with the Assyrians: the alleged Iranian migrations of the Avesta--Media-proper, its fauna and flora; Phraortes and the beginning of the Median empire--Persia proper and the Persians; conquest of Persia by the Medes--The last monuments of Assur-bani-pal: the library of Kouyunjik--Phraortes …
G. Maspero—History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, V 8

The First Blast of the Trumpet
The English Scholar's Library etc. No. 2. The First Blast of the Trumpet &c. 1558. The English Scholar's Library of Old and Modern Works. No. 2. The First Blast of the Trumpet &c. 1558. Edited by EDWARD ARBER, F.S.A., etc., LECTURER IN ENGLISH LITERATURE, ETC., UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON. SOUTHGATE, LONDON, N. 15 August 1878. No. 2. (All rights reserved.) CONTENTS. Bibliography vii-viii Introduction …
John Knox—The First Blast of the Trumpet

Why Should we not Believe These to be Angelic Operations through Dispensation of The...
16. Why should we not believe these to be angelic operations through dispensation of the providence of God, Who maketh good use of both good things and evil, according to the unsearchable depth of His judgments? whether thereby the minds of mortals be instructed, or whether deceived; whether consoled, or whether terrified: according as unto each one there is to be either a showing of mercy, or a taking of vengeance, by Him to Whom, not without a meaning, the Church doth sing "of mercy and of judgment." …
St. Augustine—On Care to Be Had for the Dead.

The Credibility of Scripture Sufficiently Proved in So Far as Natural Reason Admits.
1. Secondary helps to establish the credibility of Scripture. I. The arrangement of the sacred volume. II. Its dignity. III. Its truth. IV. Its simplicity. V. Its efficacy. 2. The majesty conspicuous in the writings of the Prophets. 3. Special proofs from the Old Testament. I. The antiquity of the Books of Moses. 4. This antiquity contrasted with the dreams of the Egyptians. II. The majesty of the Books of Moses. 5. The miracles and prophecies of Moses. A profane objection refuted. 6. Another profane …
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion

Authorship of the Pentateuch.
The term Pentateuch is composed of the two Greek words, pente, five, and teuchos, which in later Alexandrine usage signified book. It denotes, therefore, the collection of five books; or, the five books of the law considered as a whole. 1. In our inquiries respecting the authorship of the Pentateuch, we begin with the undisputed fact that it existed in its present form in the days of Christ and his apostles, and had so existed from the time of Ezra. When the translators of the Greek version, …
E. P. Barrows—Companion to the Bible

Synagogues: their Origin, Structure and Outward Arrangements
It was a beautiful saying of Rabbi Jochanan (Jer. Ber. v. 1), that he who prays in his house surrounds and fortifies it, so to speak, with a wall of iron. Nevertheless, it seems immediately contradicted by what follows. For it is explained that this only holds good where a man is alone, but that where there is a community prayer should be offered in the synagogue. We can readily understand how, after the destruction of the Temple, and the cessation of its symbolical worship, the excessive value attached …
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life

The Greater Prophets.
1. We have already seen (Chap. 15, Nos. 11 and 12) that from Moses to Samuel the appearances of prophets were infrequent; that with Samuel and the prophetical school established by him there began a new era, in which the prophets were recognized as a distinct order of men in the Theocracy; and that the age of written prophecy did not begin till about the reign of Uzziah, some three centuries after Samuel. The Jewish division of the latter prophets--prophets in the more restricted sense of the …
E. P. Barrows—Companion to the Bible

Of the Power of Making Laws. The Cruelty of the Pope and his Adherents, in this Respect, in Tyrannically Oppressing and Destroying Souls.
1. The power of the Church in enacting laws. This made a source of human traditions. Impiety of these traditions. 2. Many of the Papistical traditions not only difficult, but impossible to be observed. 3. That the question may be more conveniently explained, nature of conscience must be defined. 4. Definition of conscience explained. Examples in illustration of the definition. 5. Paul's doctrine of submission to magistrates for conscience sake, gives no countenance to the Popish doctrine of the obligation …
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion

Of the Effects of those Prerogatives.
From these prerogatives there will arise to the elect in heaven, five notable effects:-- 1. They shall know God with a perfect knowledge (1 Cor. i. 10), so far as creatures can possibly comprehend the Creator. For there we shall see the Word, the Creator; and in the Word, all creatures that by the Word were created; so that we shall not need to learn (of the things which were made) the knowledge of him by whom all things were made. The most excellent creatures in this life, are but as a dark veil …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety

Meditations for one that is Like to Die.
If thy sickness be like to increase unto death, then meditate on three things:--First, How graciously God dealeth with thee. Secondly, From what evils death will free thee. Thirdly, What good death will bring unto thee. The first sort of Meditations are, to consider God's favourable dealing with thee. 1. Meditate that God uses this chastisement of thy body but as a medicine to cure thy soul, by drawing thee, who art sick in sin, to come by repentance unto Christ, thy physician, to have thy soul healed …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety

Kings
The book[1] of Kings is strikingly unlike any modern historical narrative. Its comparative brevity, its curious perspective, and-with some brilliant exceptions--its relative monotony, are obvious to the most cursory perusal, and to understand these things is, in large measure, to understand the book. It covers a period of no less than four centuries. Beginning with the death of David and the accession of Solomon (1 Kings i., ii.) it traverses his reign with considerable fulness (1 Kings iii.-xi.), …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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