UST 2 KI Chapter 22

◄ 2 KI 22 ► ║ ═ ©

22 Josiah was 8 years old when he became the king of Judah. He ruled from Jerusalem for 31 years. His mother was Jedidah daughter of Adaiah. She was from the city of Bozkath. 2 Josiah did things that pleased Yahweh. He behaved in the same godly manner as his ancestor King David had behaved. He did not behave differently at all.

3 After Josiah had been ruling for almost eighteen years, he sent his secretary Shaphan, whose father was Azaliah and whose grandfather was Meshullam, to Yahweh’s temple. He told him, 4 “The priests who supervise the courtyard entrance have collected money from the people and brought it into the temple. Go and tell the high priest Hilkiah to get that money, count it, and put it in bags. 5 Tell him to give the money to the men who are supervising the work of repairing the temple. They are to use it to pay the men who are doing the actual work of making the repairs that the temple needs. 6 They must use it to pay carpenters and builders and masons and to buy timber and stones that workers have shaped. The skilled workers will use that timber and stone to repair the temple.” 7 The men who supervise the work are completely honest. So you do not need to require them to report how they spend the money you give them.

8 So Shaphan did that, and later Hilkiah reported to him, “I have found a scroll in the temple that records the laws that God gave to Moses.” Hilkiah gave the scroll to Shaphan, and he read it. 9 Then Shaphan went to King Josiah and told him, “I gave the priests your instructions, and they have emptied the chest in which they were collecting money for the temple. They have given the money to the men who are supervising the work of repairing the temple.” 10 Then Shaphan also told the king, “Hilkiah gave me this scroll.” And Shaphan read to the king what the scroll recorded. 11 When the king heard the laws that Shaphan was reading to him from the scroll, he tore his robes to show how concerned he was that Yahweh would punish the Judeans. 12 Then King Josiah gave special instructions to Hilkiah, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Akbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan his royal secretary, and Asaiah, his special advisor. He told them, 13 “Now that Hilkiah has found this scroll, I want you to go and ask Yahweh what I and the people of Jerusalem and the rest of Judah should do about what it says. Our ancestors did not obey the commandments that this scroll records. They should have done everything that Moses wrote we should do. So Yahweh must be very angry with us.”

14 So Hilkiah, Ahikam, Akbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went to consult a woman whose name was Huldah. She was a prophetess, and she lived in the Second Quarter of Jerusalem. She was married to Shallum, whose father was Tikvah and whose grandfather was Harhas. Shallum took care of the garments that the priests wore in the temple. Those five men told Huldah about the scroll that Hilkiah had found. 15 In response, she told them, “Yahweh, the God whom we Israelites worship, says that wants you to say something to the man who sent you to me. 16 Yahweh says that he is going to make something terrible happen to this city and to the people who live here. He is going to punish them in the way that the scroll King Josiah read describes. 17 He is going to do that because they stopped worshiping him and burned incense to honor other gods. They made many idols, and that made him very angry. He is so angry with them that he is going punish them. 18 But there is something further that you are to tell the king of Judah, who sent you to ask Yahweh about what the scroll said. Yahweh, the God whom we Israelites worship, says that 19 he is going to treat him mercifully. Yahweh will do that because he was so sad and he acted humbly toward me when he heard what Yahweh said he was going to do to punish this city and the people who live here. Yahweh said that he was going to do something so terrible that it would horrify people. People would curse other places by saying they wanted them to become like Jerusalem. But when King Josiah heard that, he wept and tore his robes to show his distress. He knew that Yahweh was watching him. That is why Yahweh declares that he is going to treat him mercifully. 20 Yahweh wants you to tell Josiah that because he was sorry for the sins of Judah, Yahweh is going to allow him to die peacefully. The Judeans will bury him in the same place where people buried his ancestors. Yahweh is still going to cause something terrible to happen to Jerusalem and the people who live in it. But Josiah will not be alive to see that.” The officials returned to King Josiah and reported what Huldah had told them.

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UST 2 KI Chapter 22

UST 2 KI Chapter 22