◄ 2 Kings 22:15 ►
And Huldah said to them, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'Tell the man who sent you
Study Bible
And she said to them
This phrase introduces Huldah, the prophetess, who is speaking to the delegation sent by King Josiah. In the Hebrew context, the role of a prophetess was significant, as it demonstrated that God could choose anyone, regardless of gender, to deliver His message. Huldah's presence in the narrative underscores the inclusivity of God's call and the importance of being attentive to His voice, regardless of the vessel He chooses.

This is what the LORD
The phrase signifies the authoritative nature of the message. "LORD" in Hebrew is "YHWH," the sacred and personal name of God, emphasizing His covenant relationship with Israel. This introduction is a common prophetic formula, indicating that the words to follow are not of human origin but are divinely inspired. It reminds us of the importance of recognizing God's sovereignty and His direct communication with His people.

the God of Israel
This title reaffirms God's unique relationship with Israel, His chosen people. It highlights the historical and covenantal context in which God has consistently acted on behalf of Israel. The phrase serves as a reminder of God's faithfulness and His ongoing commitment to His promises, despite Israel's frequent disobedience.

says
This word underscores the immediacy and certainty of the message. In the prophetic tradition, when God "says" something, it is not merely a suggestion but a declaration of truth that demands attention and response. It calls the audience to listen and act upon the divine instruction.

Tell the man who sent you to me
Here, Huldah refers to King Josiah indirectly, which may indicate a level of humility or a focus on the message rather than the messenger. The phrase suggests a chain of communication, where God's message is delivered through His chosen prophet to the king. It emphasizes the importance of obedience and the responsibility of leaders to heed God's word for the guidance of the nation.

Persons / Places / Events
1. Huldah the Prophetess
A respected female prophet in Jerusalem during the reign of King Josiah. She is consulted by the king's officials regarding the Book of the Law found in the temple.

2. King Josiah
The king of Judah who initiated religious reforms and sought to restore the worship of Yahweh. His reign is marked by a return to the covenant with God.

3. Jerusalem
The capital city of Judah, where the temple of the LORD is located. It is the center of religious and political life in the kingdom.

4. The Book of the Law
A scroll discovered in the temple, believed to be a part of the Torah, which prompts a religious revival and reform under King Josiah.

5. The LORD, the God of Israel
The covenant God of Israel, who communicates His will through prophets and His written word.
Teaching Points
The Importance of God's Word
The rediscovery of the Book of the Law highlights the necessity of Scripture in guiding the lives of believers. It serves as a reminder to regularly engage with and study God's Word.

God Speaks Through His Prophets
Huldah's role as a prophetess underscores that God uses chosen individuals to convey His messages. We should be attentive to those who faithfully teach and interpret Scripture.

Responding to God's Revelation
Josiah's response to the reading of the law demonstrates the appropriate reaction to God's revelation—repentance and reform. Believers are called to align their lives with God's commands.

The Role of Women in Ministry
Huldah's significant role as a prophetess shows that God values and uses women in His work. This encourages the church to recognize and support the contributions of women in ministry.

The Urgency of Obedience
The immediate response to Huldah's prophecy by Josiah and his officials illustrates the urgency of obeying God's commands. Delayed obedience can lead to missed opportunities for blessing and transformation.
Bible Study Questions
1. How does the rediscovery of the Book of the Law in 2 Kings 22 challenge us to prioritize Scripture in our daily lives?

2. In what ways can we discern and respond to God's messages today, similar to how Josiah responded to Huldah's prophecy?

3. How does Huldah's role as a prophetess inform our understanding of the contributions of women in the church?

4. What parallels can we draw between Josiah's reforms and the call for personal and communal repentance in the New Testament?

5. How can we ensure that our response to God's Word is immediate and transformative, as demonstrated by King Josiah?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Deuteronomy 31:24-26
This passage describes Moses writing the Book of the Law and placing it beside the Ark of the Covenant, which connects to the rediscovery of the law in 2 Kings 22.

2 Chronicles 34:22-28
This parallel account of Huldah's prophecy provides additional context and details about her message to King Josiah.

Jeremiah 1:1-2
Jeremiah, a contemporary prophet, also speaks during Josiah's reign, emphasizing the importance of heeding God's word.
Sermons
A Monarch of Rare Virtue, and a God of Retributive JusticeDavid Thomas, D. D.2 Kings 22:1-20
A Monarch of Rare Virtue, and a God of Retributive JusticeD. Thomas 2 Kings 22:1-20
Josiah and the Book of the LawMonday Club Sermons2 Kings 22:1-20
Josiah's ReformationAlex. Whyte, D. D.2 Kings 22:1-20
The Finding of the Law-BookJ. Orr 2 Kings 22:8-20
People
Achbor, Adaiah, Ahikam, Asahiah, Asaiah, Azaliah, David, Harhas, Hilkiah, Huldah, Jedidah, Josiah, Meshullam, Micaiah, Michaiah, Shallum, Shaphan, Tikvah
Places
Bozkath, Jerusalem, Second Quarter
Topics
Says, Thus
Dictionary of Bible Themes
2 Kings 22:8-16

     1640   Book of the Law

2 Kings 22:11-20

     8160   seeking God

2 Kings 22:13-20

     8129   guidance, examples

2 Kings 22:14-17

     7773   prophets, role

2 Kings 22:14-20

     5745   women

2 Kings 22:15-20

     1429   prophecy, OT fulfilment

Library
The Rediscovered Law and Its Effects
'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. 9. And Shaphan the scribe came to the king, and brought the king word again, and said, Thy servants have gathered the money that was found in the house, and have delivered it into the hand of them that do the work, that have the oversight of the house of the Lord. 10. And Shaphan the scribe shewed the king, saying, Hilkiah the …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Josiah, a Pattern for the Ignorant.
"Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord, when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before Me; I also have heard thee, saith the Lord. Behold therefore, I will gather thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace; and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place."--2 Kings …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII

A Traveler's Note-Book
A tourist who roams for a brief while through some great country like England or Russia may jot down a few of the impressions which come home to him, making no pretense at completeness or symmetry of description. So, one who has journeyed like a hasty traveler over some passages in that vast tract of years which we describe as the classic and Christian civilizations, notes down in the following pages a few of the salient features that have impressed him. He has already prefaced this with a sort …
George S. Merriam—The Chief End of Man

Whether Determinate Things are Required for a Sacrament?
Objection 1: It seems that determinate things are not required for a sacrament. For sensible things are required in sacraments for the purpose of signification, as stated above [4343](A[4]). But nothing hinders the same thing being signified by divers sensible things: thus in Holy Scripture God is signified metaphorically, sometimes by a stone (2 Kings 22:2; Zech. 3:9; 1 Cor. 10:4; Apoc. 4:3); sometimes by a lion (Is. 31:4; Apoc. 5:5); sometimes by the sun (Is. 60:19,20; Mal. 4:2), or by something …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

The Instrumentality of the Wicked Employed by God, While He Continues Free from Every Taint.
1. The carnal mind the source of the objections which are raised against the Providence of God. A primary objection, making a distinction between the permission and the will of God, refuted. Angels and men, good and bad, do nought but what has been decreed by God. This proved by examples. 2. All hidden movements directed to their end by the unseen but righteous instigation of God. Examples, with answers to objections. 3. These objections originate in a spirit of pride and blasphemy. Objection, that …
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion

The Medes and the Second Chaldaean Empire
THE FALL OF NINEVEH AND THE RISE OF THE CHALDAEAN AND MEDIAN EMPIRES--THE XXVIth EGYPTIAN DYNASTY: CYAXARES, ALYATTES, AND NEBUCHADREZZAR. The legendary history of the kings of Media and the first contact of the Medes with the Assyrians: the alleged Iranian migrations of the Avesta--Media-proper, its fauna and flora; Phraortes and the beginning of the Median empire--Persia proper and the Persians; conquest of Persia by the Medes--The last monuments of Assur-bani-pal: the library of Kouyunjik--Phraortes …
G. Maspero—History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, V 8

The First Blast of the Trumpet
The English Scholar's Library etc. No. 2. The First Blast of the Trumpet &c. 1558. The English Scholar's Library of Old and Modern Works. No. 2. The First Blast of the Trumpet &c. 1558. Edited by EDWARD ARBER, F.S.A., etc., LECTURER IN ENGLISH LITERATURE, ETC., UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON. SOUTHGATE, LONDON, N. 15 August 1878. No. 2. (All rights reserved.) CONTENTS. Bibliography vii-viii Introduction …
John Knox—The First Blast of the Trumpet

Why Should we not Believe These to be Angelic Operations through Dispensation of The...
16. Why should we not believe these to be angelic operations through dispensation of the providence of God, Who maketh good use of both good things and evil, according to the unsearchable depth of His judgments? whether thereby the minds of mortals be instructed, or whether deceived; whether consoled, or whether terrified: according as unto each one there is to be either a showing of mercy, or a taking of vengeance, by Him to Whom, not without a meaning, the Church doth sing "of mercy and of judgment." …
St. Augustine—On Care to Be Had for the Dead.

The Credibility of Scripture Sufficiently Proved in So Far as Natural Reason Admits.
1. Secondary helps to establish the credibility of Scripture. I. The arrangement of the sacred volume. II. Its dignity. III. Its truth. IV. Its simplicity. V. Its efficacy. 2. The majesty conspicuous in the writings of the Prophets. 3. Special proofs from the Old Testament. I. The antiquity of the Books of Moses. 4. This antiquity contrasted with the dreams of the Egyptians. II. The majesty of the Books of Moses. 5. The miracles and prophecies of Moses. A profane objection refuted. 6. Another profane …
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion

Authorship of the Pentateuch.
The term Pentateuch is composed of the two Greek words, pente, five, and teuchos, which in later Alexandrine usage signified book. It denotes, therefore, the collection of five books; or, the five books of the law considered as a whole. 1. In our inquiries respecting the authorship of the Pentateuch, we begin with the undisputed fact that it existed in its present form in the days of Christ and his apostles, and had so existed from the time of Ezra. When the translators of the Greek version, …
E. P. Barrows—Companion to the Bible

Synagogues: their Origin, Structure and Outward Arrangements
It was a beautiful saying of Rabbi Jochanan (Jer. Ber. v. 1), that he who prays in his house surrounds and fortifies it, so to speak, with a wall of iron. Nevertheless, it seems immediately contradicted by what follows. For it is explained that this only holds good where a man is alone, but that where there is a community prayer should be offered in the synagogue. We can readily understand how, after the destruction of the Temple, and the cessation of its symbolical worship, the excessive value attached …
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life

The Greater Prophets.
1. We have already seen (Chap. 15, Nos. 11 and 12) that from Moses to Samuel the appearances of prophets were infrequent; that with Samuel and the prophetical school established by him there began a new era, in which the prophets were recognized as a distinct order of men in the Theocracy; and that the age of written prophecy did not begin till about the reign of Uzziah, some three centuries after Samuel. The Jewish division of the latter prophets--prophets in the more restricted sense of the …
E. P. Barrows—Companion to the Bible

Of the Power of Making Laws. The Cruelty of the Pope and his Adherents, in this Respect, in Tyrannically Oppressing and Destroying Souls.
1. The power of the Church in enacting laws. This made a source of human traditions. Impiety of these traditions. 2. Many of the Papistical traditions not only difficult, but impossible to be observed. 3. That the question may be more conveniently explained, nature of conscience must be defined. 4. Definition of conscience explained. Examples in illustration of the definition. 5. Paul's doctrine of submission to magistrates for conscience sake, gives no countenance to the Popish doctrine of the obligation …
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion

Of the Effects of those Prerogatives.
From these prerogatives there will arise to the elect in heaven, five notable effects:-- 1. They shall know God with a perfect knowledge (1 Cor. i. 10), so far as creatures can possibly comprehend the Creator. For there we shall see the Word, the Creator; and in the Word, all creatures that by the Word were created; so that we shall not need to learn (of the things which were made) the knowledge of him by whom all things were made. The most excellent creatures in this life, are but as a dark veil …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety

Meditations for one that is Like to Die.
If thy sickness be like to increase unto death, then meditate on three things:--First, How graciously God dealeth with thee. Secondly, From what evils death will free thee. Thirdly, What good death will bring unto thee. The first sort of Meditations are, to consider God's favourable dealing with thee. 1. Meditate that God uses this chastisement of thy body but as a medicine to cure thy soul, by drawing thee, who art sick in sin, to come by repentance unto Christ, thy physician, to have thy soul healed …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety

Kings
The book[1] of Kings is strikingly unlike any modern historical narrative. Its comparative brevity, its curious perspective, and-with some brilliant exceptions--its relative monotony, are obvious to the most cursory perusal, and to understand these things is, in large measure, to understand the book. It covers a period of no less than four centuries. Beginning with the death of David and the accession of Solomon (1 Kings i., ii.) it traverses his reign with considerable fulness (1 Kings iii.-xi.), …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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