2 Kings 23:1

THE REIGNS OF THE LAST THREE KINGS OF GOD'S PEOPLE;

ZEDEKIAH WAS A PUPPET OF BABYLON;

THE CONCLUSION OF JOSIAH'S REFORMATION (2 Kings 23:1-30)

"And the king sent, and they gathered unto him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem. And the king went up to the house of Jehovah, and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, both small and great: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of Jehovah. And the king stood by the pillar, and made a covenant before Jehovah, to walk after Jehovah, and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies, and his statutes, with all his heart, and all his soul, to confirm the words of this covenant that were written in this book: and all the people stood to the covenant."

"And the king stood by the pillar" (2 Kings 23:3). "This refers to one of the two great pillars set up in front of the temple by Solomon, either the Jachin or the Boaz."[1]

"All the people stood to the covenant" (2 Kings 23:3). This seems to be a reference to the ancient custom in the making or renewing of covenants, in which the parties to it passed between the portions of the sacrifice that accompanied such ceremonies, as in the instance of Abraham's covenant (Genesis 15:17). In no sense was this the making of a new covenant, but the renewed promise of the people to perform their part of the one already in existence. The people's standing to it may refer to their position between the portions of the sacrifice probably offered on that occasion.

"The effect of this was to give the Deuteronomic Code the force of statute law."[2] This common error popular among the radical critics is rejected out of hand, because Huldah had already confirmed the Holy Books of Moses (which were really "the book" discovered) as being absolutely true and certain and that God would "Bring upon Jerusalem all the words of this book" (2 Kings 22:16). Nothing that either Josiah or his whole nation could do would have made "a new covenant." Furthermore, nothing that any of them could do, not even the extensive reformations, would change the fact that the Real Covenant had already been so hopelessly broken by Judah that their destruction and removal out of God's sight was already a foregone certainty.

The nation had already broken the only covenant that mattered, and they had done so in such an offensive fashion that the doom of all Israel was already sealed and settled. Every word of that was reiterated by Huldah. The critical community have never erred more fundamentally than in their invention of that silly so-called "Deuteronomic Code." The purpose of the ceremony mentioned here was neither that of cutting a new covenant, nor of confirming the old one. The old and true covenant did not NEED confirming. Yes, our text reads, "to confirm the words of this covenant," (2 Kings 23:3), but that is a mistranslation, corrected in the RSV to read, "perform the words of this covenant." indicating that no change in the covenant was needed, but that the standard of Judah's performance was what should have been changed. And it was already too late for that to do much good!

Josiah's extensive reformations were carried out in Jerusalem, Judea and in Samaria, but our Biblical account mixes the report of these reforms in the record that is given here. The Bible does not follow the classical lines of organization that are popular among modern writers.