Comentários bíblicos

Josiah [was] eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty and one years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name [was] Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah of Boscath.

Josiah was eight years old. — Josiah he was called by God two or three hundred years before he was born. 1 Kings 13:2 His name signifieth, The salvation of God: and he answered his name better than did Probus the emperor; of whom, notwithstanding, the historian saith, Fla. Vopis. that if Honest had not been his name, yet it might well have been his surname. Some say, but not so well, that he was called Josiah, q., Jah-scai, that is, the gift of God, or, q., Jah-esch, that is, the fire of God, sc., for his zeal, which is called the flame of God. Song of Solomon 8:6

And his mother’s name was Jedidah, — i.e., The Lord’s darling, as his grandmother’s name was Hephzibah; 2 Kings 21:1 a couple of good women likely, doing the same for Josiah as afterward Eunice and Lois did for young Timothy.

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And he did [that which was] right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in all the way of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left.

And he did that which was right. — Helped on, no doubt, by the holy prophets of his time, Zephaniah, Jeremiah, Huldah, …; as was our English Josiah, Edward VI, by Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer, Sir John Cheek, his tutor, and Dr Cox, his almoner. An official distributor of the alms of another; the name of a functionary in a religious house, in the household of a bishop, prince, or other person of rank. Sometimes applied to the chaplain of a hospital, or other institution.

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And it came to pass in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, [that] the king sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, the scribe, to the house of the LORD, saying,

In the eighteenth year of king Josiah. — That is, In the eighteenth year of his reign; after that, with a great deal of zeal, he had purged the land and the house. 2 Chronicles 34:8 In which time also it seemeth that a collection was made for the repairing of the temple, which now this pious king taketh order to have done, and herein he proceedeth aequabiliter, iuste, prudenter. Ussher., Annal. Vet. Testam., p. 115. And from this famous eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign, both those thirty years, Ezekiel 1:1 and those forty days or years of the sin of Judah, Ezekiel 6:6 seem to take their rise and reckoning.

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Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, that he may sum the silver which is brought into the house of the LORD, which the keepers of the door have gathered of the people:

Go up to Helkiah the high priest. — Who perhaps was father to Jeremiah the prophet. Jeremiah 1:1

That he may sum the silver. — That is, Count it; or as some will, Stamp it, and put it into current money.

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And let them deliver it into the hand of the doers of the work, that have the oversight of the house of the LORD: and let them give it to the doers of the work which [is] in the house of the LORD, to repair the breaches of the house,

Into the hands of the doers of the work. — So both the overseers and the workmen are called.

To repair the breaches. — Ad instauranda sarta tecta templi. Tigurin.

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Unto carpenters, and builders, and masons, and to buy timber and hewn stone to repair the house.

To buy timber and hewn stone. — For the very stone walls also temporis iniuria et hominum incuria were much decayed.

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Howbeit there was no reckoning made with them of the money that was delivered into their hand, because they dealt faithfully.

Howbeit there was no reckoning. — Or, Let there be no reckoning made with them of the money: for they will deal faithfully. See Nehemiah 7:2 . See Trapp on " Nehemiah 7:2 "

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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.

I have found the book of the law. — Authenticum Mosis autographum; Deuteronomy; or perhaps the whole law in Moses’s own handwriting: and by him caused to be put by the side of the ark, as a κειμηλιον . Deuteronomy 31:26 This was not venerandae rubiginis, as some books are, sed summae authoritatis monumentum. The Turks themselves do so reverence Moses, that if they find but a paper wherein any part of the pentateuch is written, they presently take it up, and kiss it. This precious piece might in the confusions of Manasseh and Amon be hidden or mislaid; and now it is brought to the king as a rare jewel, and a good reward of his zeal in repairing the temple. R. Solomon saith that wicked Manasseh sought to abolish the law, as point-blank against his idolatry and cruelty. Therefore some good priests had hid this original copy, which now came to light and sight. For it is not credible that this good king had never read the law till now. But that he had not so thoroughly read and considered the comminations of the law as now he did, is evident. But what a shame is it, that Bibles, now so common, are so little set by amongst us: when our devout forefathers would have purchased some few chapters at a great rate! It is a sad complaint that Moulin maketh Moul. Thea., p. 278. of the French Protestants: whilst they burnt us, saith he, for reading the Scriptures, we burnt with zeal to be reading them. Now with our liberty is bred also negligence and disesteem of God’s word.

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