Commentaria in II Paralipomenon
Chapter 34
Josias roots out all idolatry, restores the temple and worship of God, and establishes a new covenant between God and the people.
1. Josias was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. 2. And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the ways of David his father: he turned not aside neither to the right hand nor to the left. 3. And in the eighth year of his reign, when he was yet a boy, he began to seek the God of David his father: and in the twelfth year after he began to reign, he cleansed Juda and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and the idols and graven things. 4. And they destroyed before him the altars of Baalim: and the idols that had been set up above them they demolished: the groves also and the graven things he cut down and broke in pieces, and scattered the fragments upon the graves of them that were wont to sacrifice to them. 5. The bones also of the priests he burnt on the altars of the idols, and cleansed Juda and Jerusalem. 6. And in the cities of Manasses, and Ephraim, and Simeon, as far as Nephtali, he destroyed all.
7. And when he had thrown down the altars, and broken the groves and the idols in pieces, and demolished all the temples out of all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem. 8. So in the eighteenth year of his reign, the land and the temple of the Lord being now cleansed, he sent Saphan the son of Eselias, and Maasias the governor of the city, and Joha the son of Joachaz the recorder, to repair the house of the Lord his God. 9. And they came to Helcias the high priest: and having received of him the money that had been brought into the house of the Lord, and that the Levites and porters had gathered together, of Manasses, and Ephraim, and all the remnant of Israel, and of all Juda, and Benjamin, and of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, 10. they delivered it into the hands of them that were over the workmen in the house of the Lord, to repair the temple, and mend all that was weak. 11. And they gave it to the artificers and masons, to buy stones out of the quarries, and timber for the joists of the building, and the flooring of the houses, which the kings of Juda had destroyed.
12. And they did all faithfully. And the overseers of the workmen were Jahath and Abdias of the sons of Merari, Zacharias and Mosollam of the sons of Caath, who forwarded the work: all Levites skilful to play on instruments of music. 13. And over them that carried burdens for divers uses, were scribes and masters of the Levites, porters. 14. And when they brought out the money that had been carried into the temple of the Lord, Helcias the priest found the book of the law of the Lord by the hand of Moses. 15. And he said to Saphan the scribe: I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord: and he delivered it to him. 16. And he carried the volume to the king, and told him, saying: All that thou hast committed to the hands of thy servants, behold is fulfilled. 17. The silver that was found in the house of the Lord they have melted down: and it hath been given to the overseers of the artificers, and to those that work in divers works. 18. Moreover Helcias the priest hath delivered me this book. Which when he had read before the king, 19. and he heard the words of the law, he rent his garments: 20. and commanded Helcias, and Ahicam the son of Saphan, and Abdon the son of Micha, and Saphan the scribe, and Asa the king’s servant, saying: 21. Go, and pray to the Lord for me, and for the remnant of Israel and Juda, concerning all the words of this book which is found: for the great wrath of the Lord is fallen upon us, because our fathers have not kept the words of the Lord, to do all that is written in this book.
22. So Helcias went, and they who were sent by the king together, to Olda the prophetess, the wife of Sellum the son of Thecuath, the son of Hasra, keeper of the wardrobe: who dwelt in Jerusalem in the second [quarter]: and they spoke to her the words which we have related above. 23. And she answered them: Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel: Tell the man that sent you to me: 24. Thus saith the Lord: Behold I will bring evils upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, and all the curses that are written in the book which they read before the king of Juda. 25. Because they have forsaken me, and sacrificed to strange gods, to provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands, therefore my wrath shall drop upon this place, and shall not be quenched. 26. But to the king of Juda, who sent you to pray to the Lord, thus shall you say: Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel: Because thou hast heard the words of the book, 27. and thy heart hath been softened, and thou hast humbled thyself in the sight of God, upon the things that are spoken against this place, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and reverencing my face hast rent thy garments, and wept before me: I also have heard thee, saith the Lord.
28. For now I will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be brought to thy sepulchre in peace: and thy eyes shall not see all the evil that I will bring upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof. So they reported to the king all that she had said. 29. But he, calling together all the ancients of Juda and Jerusalem, 30. went up to the house of the Lord, and with him all the men of Juda and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests and the Levites, and all the people from the least to the greatest. In the hearing of them all in the house of the Lord, the king read all the words of the book: 31. and standing in his tribunal, he made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after him, and keep his commandments, and testimonies, and justifications with all his heart, and with all his soul, and do the things that were written in that book which he had read. 32. He adjured also on this all that were found in Jerusalem and Benjamin: and the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of the Lord the God of their fathers. 33. So Josias took away all the abominations out of all the countries of the children of Israel: and made all that were left in Israel to serve the Lord their God. All his days they departed not from the Lord the God of their fathers.
Verse 3. In the twelfth year, etc., he cleansed Juda,—that is, he began to cleanse; for he completed this cleansing after six years, in the 18th year of his reign, as is said in verse 8.
Verse 5. The bones also of the priests (of the idols, for example of the golden calves) he burnt on the altars of the idols,—namely that by the contact and burning of the bodies of such impious men the altars themselves might be defiled, disgraced, and made an object of horror, lest anyone should thereafter sacrifice victims to idols on them.
Verse 15. I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord.—Genebrard in the Chronology thinks this was the exemplar which had been written by Moses or by another in his lifetime, and placed in the sanctuary 800 years before, so that for that reason it was received with greater devotion and read with greater fruit. Moreover there is no doubt that elsewhere in Judea, and in other provinces, among pious and learned Jews many books of the law existed: it seems therefore incredible what some say, that all the books of Holy Scripture were burnt with the temple by the Chaldeans, and were restored by Esdras from memory.
Verse 28. Thou shalt be brought to thy sepulchre in peace.—Thou wilt say: Josias was slain in battle by Pharao Nechao; therefore he fell not by a peaceful but by a violent death. I answer that peace is here understood not private to Josias but public to the Republic; for while Josias lived and when he died, Judea enjoyed peace and abundance of things; but after his death it was invaded by various nations, especially the Babylonians, who utterly overthrew it under Sedecias the son of Josias. That this is the sense is clear from what follows, where Scripture thus explains itself.