2 Kings 22:3 - Exposition

And it came to pass in the eighteenth year of King Josiah . The writer of Kings, bent on abbreviating as much as possible, omits the early reforms of Josiah, which are related in 2 Chronicles 34:3-7 , with perhaps some anticipation of what happened later. The young king gave marked indications of personal piety and attachment to true religion as early as the eighth year of his reign, when he was sixteen, and had just attained his majority. Later, in his twelfth year, he began the purging of the temple and of Jerusalem, at the same time probably commencing the repairs spoken of in 2 Chronicles 34:9 . Jeremiah's prophesying, begun in the same or in the next year ( Jeremiah 1:2 ), must have been a powerful assistance to his reformation. That the king sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, the scribe, to the house of the Lord, saying. Shaphan held the office, which Shebna had held in the later part of Hezekiah's reign ( 2 Kings 18:18 ), an office of much importance and dignity. According to the author of Chronicles ( 2 Chronicles 34:8 ), there were associated with him on this occasion two other personages of importance, viz. Maaseiah, the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz, the "recorder," or "remembrancer."