◄ 2 Kings 22:18 ►
But as for the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the LORD, tell him that this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'As for the words that you heard,
Study Bible
But as for the king of Judah
This phrase refers to King Josiah, who reigned from approximately 640 to 609 BC. Josiah was known for his religious reforms and efforts to restore the worship of Yahweh in Judah. His reign marked a significant departure from the idolatrous practices of his predecessors. Josiah's reforms were motivated by the discovery of the Book of the Law in the temple, which led to a national renewal of covenant faithfulness. His actions are reminiscent of the ideal kingship described in Deuteronomy, where the king is to lead the people in obedience to God's law.

who sent you to inquire of the LORD
Josiah sent a delegation to inquire of the LORD after the discovery of the Book of the Law. This reflects his humility and desire to seek divine guidance, a characteristic of a righteous leader. Inquiring of the LORD was a common practice in ancient Israel, often involving prophets or priests who would seek God's will on behalf of the king or the people. This act demonstrates Josiah's recognition of the authority of God's word and his commitment to aligning his reign with divine expectations.

tell him that this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says
This phrase underscores the prophetic authority of the message being delivered. The LORD, the God of Israel, is the covenant name of God, emphasizing His relationship with His chosen people. The use of "the God of Israel" highlights the continuity of God's promises and His faithfulness to the covenant established with the patriarchs. The prophetic message serves as a direct communication from God, affirming His sovereignty and the importance of obedience to His commands.

‘As for the words that you heard’
This refers to the words of the Book of the Law that were read to Josiah, likely a portion of Deuteronomy. The hearing of these words had a profound impact on Josiah, leading to his repentance and reform efforts. The phrase emphasizes the power of God's word to convict and transform. It also connects to the broader biblical theme of hearing and responding to God's voice, as seen in passages like Deuteronomy 6:4-9 and James 1:22-25. The words heard by Josiah were not just historical records but living words with the power to guide and direct the nation of Judah.

Persons / Places / Events
1. King Josiah
The king of Judah who initiated religious reforms and sought to restore the worship of Yahweh. He is known for his dedication to God and his efforts to rid Judah of idolatry.

2. Huldah the Prophetess
A prophetess in Jerusalem who delivered God's message to King Josiah's delegation. Her role highlights the presence and influence of female prophets in Israel.

3. Jerusalem
The capital city of Judah, where the temple was located and where King Josiah reigned. It was the center of religious and political life in Judah.

4. The Book of the Law
Discovered during temple renovations, this book (likely Deuteronomy) prompted Josiah's reforms and the inquiry to the LORD.

5. The LORD, the God of Israel
The covenant God of Israel, who communicates His will and judgment through prophets and His written word.
Teaching Points
The Importance of Seeking God
Josiah's decision to inquire of the LORD demonstrates the importance of seeking divine guidance in times of uncertainty and decision-making.

The Role of Scripture in Revival
The discovery of the Book of the Law was a catalyst for spiritual renewal, highlighting the power of God's Word to convict and transform.

God's Response to Humility
Josiah's humble response to God's Word led to a favorable message from the LORD, illustrating that God honors those who approach Him with a contrite heart.

The Influence of Godly Leadership
Josiah's reforms show how a leader's commitment to God can lead to national spiritual renewal and blessing.

The Value of Prophetic Voices
Huldah's role underscores the importance of listening to God's messengers, who provide guidance and insight into His will.
Bible Study Questions
1. How does King Josiah's response to the Book of the Law challenge us in our personal engagement with Scripture?

2. In what ways can we seek God's guidance in our daily decisions, as Josiah did?

3. How does the role of Huldah the Prophetess encourage us to value the diverse voices God uses to communicate His truth?

4. What lessons can we learn from Josiah's leadership about the impact of godly influence in our communities?

5. How can we cultivate a heart of humility and repentance in response to God's Word, similar to Josiah's example?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Deuteronomy 17:18-20
This passage outlines the responsibilities of a king in Israel, including the importance of adhering to the Law, which Josiah exemplifies.

2 Chronicles 34:19-28
Provides a parallel account of Josiah's reforms and his response to the reading of the Law, emphasizing his humility and repentance.

Jeremiah 1:1-3
Jeremiah's prophetic ministry began during Josiah's reign, indicating the spiritual climate and the need for reform.
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
Directions, Ears, Enquire, Hast, Inquire, Judah, Regarding, Says, Seek, Sending, Thus, Touching
Dictionary of Bible Themes
2 Kings 22:11-20

     8160   seeking God

2 Kings 22:13-20

     8129   guidance, examples

2 Kings 22:14-20

     5745   women

2 Kings 22:15-20

     1429   prophecy, OT fulfilment

2 Kings 22:18-20

     5932   response
     6227   regret
     6705   peace, experience

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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