Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch Old Testament Commentary

The dismay of the king at the contents of the book which was read to him, and his inquiry of the prophetess Huldah as to the judgments threatened in the law. - Compare with this the parallel account in Kg2 22:11-20, with the commentary there given, as both accounts agree with the exception of some unimportant variations in expression. Instead of Abdon ben Micah (Ch2 34:20) we find in 2 Kings Achbor ben Micayahu, perhaps the correct reading. In Ch2 34:21, the expression, "and for those that are left in Israel and Judah," i.e., for the remainder of the people who were left in Israel after the destruction of the kingdom, and in Judah after the divine chastisements inflicted, mainly by the Assyrians under Hezekiah and Manasseh, is clearer and more significant than that in Kg2 22:13, "and for the people, and for all Judah." נתּכה, to pour itself forth (of anger), is quite as suitable as נצּתה, inflame, kindle itself, in Kg2 22:13. In Ch2 34:22, those sent with the high priest Hilkiah are briefly designated by the words המּלך ואשׁר, and whom the king, scil. had sent; in Kg2 22:14, on the contrary, the individual names are recorded (Ewald, Gramm. 292, b, would supply אמר, after the lxx). The names of the ancestors of the prophetess Huldah also are somewhat different. כּזאת, as the king had said to him, is omitted in 2 Kings. - In Ch2 34:24, כּל־האלות, all the curses, is more significant than כּל־דּברי, Kg2 22:16. ותּתּך (Ch2 34:25) is a statement of the result of the עזבוּני: Because they have forsaken me, my anger pours itself forth. In Ch2 34:27, the rhetorical expansion of the words which God had spoken of Jerusalem in the law, וגו לשׁמּה להיות, inserted in Kg2 22:19 as an elucidation, are omitted. After the preceding designation of these words as "the curses written in the law," any further elucidation was superfluous. On the contents of the saying of the prophetess Huldah, see the commentary on Kg2 22:16.