2 Chronicles 34:29

²⁸‘Now I will indeed gather you to your fathers, and you will be gathered to your grave in peace. Your eyes will not see all the calamity that I will bring on this place and on its inhabitants.’” So they brought her answer back to the king.²⁹Then the king summoned all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem.³⁰And he went up to the house of the LORD with all the people of Judah and Jerusalem, as well as the priests and the Levites—all the people small and great—and in their hearing he read all the words of the Book of the Covenant that had been found in the house of the LORD.

Sermons

Bible Survey - Zephaniah

Peter Hammond

Summary

In this verse, King Josiah receives a message from the prophetess Huldah, confirming the judgment of God upon Judah for their idolatry and disobedience. Despite the impending destruction, Josiah is commended for his humility and repentance upon hearing the word of the Lord. This passage underscores the importance of heeding God's warnings and turning back to Him in sincere repentance. It serves as a reminder that even in the face of judgment, God's mercy is available to those who humble themselves before Him.

Commentary

Keil-Delitzsch
Matthew Henry
Tyndale

Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch Old Testament Commentary

The reading of the book of the law in the temple, and the solemn renewal of the covenant, to which the king assembled the elders of Judah and Jerusalem, with all the people, after the saying of the prophetess Huldah had been reported to him, are recorded in Kg2 23:1-3 as they are in the Chronicle, and have been commented upon at the former passage. Only Ch2 34:32, the contents of which correspond to the words, "And the whole people entered into the covenant" (Kg2 23:3), will need explanation. ויּעמד is usually translated, "he caused the people to enter into the covenant" (after 2 Kings). This is in substance correct, but exegetically cannot be defended, since בּבּרית does not precede, so as to allow of its here being supplied from the context. ויּעמד only signifies, he caused all who were in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand, and they did according to the covenant of God; whence we can easily supply in the first clause, "and to do according to the covenant." The collocation, "in Jerusalem and in Benjamin," is an abbreviation of the complete formula, "in Jerusalem and Judah and Benjamin;" then in the following clause only the inhabitants of Jerusalem are named as representatives of the inhabitants of the whole kingdom.

Matthew Henry Bible Commentary

We have here an account of the further advances which Josiah made towards the reformation of his kingdom upon the hearing of the law read and the receipt of the message God sent him by the prophetess. Happy the people that had such a king; for here we find that, 1. They were well taught. He did not go about to force them to do their duty, till he had first instructed them in it. He called all the people together, great and small, young and old, rich and poor, high and low. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear the words of the book of the covenant; for they are all concerned in those words. To put an honour upon the service, and to engage attention the more, though there were priests and Levites present, the king himself read the book to the people (Ch2 34:30), and he read it, no doubt, in such a manner as to show that he was himself affected with it, which would be a means of affecting the hearers. 2. They were well fixed. The articles of agreement between God and Israel being read, that they might intelligently covenant with God, both king and people with great solemnity did as it were subscribe the articles. The king in his place covenanted to keep God's commandments with all his heart and soul, according to what was written in the book (Ch2 34:31), and urged the people to declare their consent likewise to this covenant, and solemnly to promise that they would faithfully perform, fulfil, and keep, all and every thing that was on their part to be done, according to this covenant: this they did; they could not for shame do otherwise. He caused all that were present to stand to it (Ch2 34:32), and made them all to serve, even to serve the Lord their God (Ch2 34:33), to do it and to make a business of it. he did all he could to bring them to it - to serve, even to serve; the repetition denotes that this was the only thing his heart was set on; he aimed at nothing else in what he did but to engage them to God and their duty. 3. They were well tended, were honest with good looking to. All his days they departed not from following the Lord; he kept them, with much ado, from running into idolatry again. All his days were days of restraint upon them; but this intimated that there was in them a bent to backslide, a strong inclination to idolatry. Many of them wanted nothing but to have him out of the way, and then they would have their high places and their images up again. And therefore we find that in the days of Josiah (Jer 3:6) God charged it upon treacherous Judah that she had not returned to him with all her heart, but feignedly (Ch2 34:10), nay, had played the harlot (Ch2 34:8) and thereby had even justified backsliding Israel, Ch2 34:11. In the twenty-third year of this reign, four or five years after this, they had gone on to provoke God to anger with the works of their hands (Jer 25:3-7); and, which is very observable, it is from the beginning of Josiah's reformation, his twelfth or thirteenth year, that the iniquity of the house of Judah, which brought ruin upon them, and which the prophet was to bear lying on his right side, was dated (Eze 4:6), for thence to the destruction of Jerusalem was just forty years. Josiah was sincere in what he did, but the generality of the people were averse to it and hankered after their idols still; so that the reformation, though well designed and well prosecuted by the prince, had little or no effect upon the people. It was with reluctancy that they parted with their idols; still they were in heart joined to them, and wished for them again. This God saw, and therefore from that time, when one would have thought the foundations had been laid for a perpetual security and peace, from that very time did the decree go forth for their destruction. Nothing hastens the ruin of a people nor ripens them for it more than the baffling of hopeful attempts for reformation and a hypocritical return to God. Be not deceived, God is not mocked.