2 Kings 22:19 - Exposition

Because thine heart was tender —or, faint , timid (comp. Deuteronomy 20:3 ; Isaiah 7:4 )— and thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord. Rending the garments ( 2 Kings 22:11 ) was an outward act of humiliation. Josiah had accompanied it by inward repentance and self-abasement. He had even been moved to tears (see the last clause but one of this verse). When thou heartiest what I spake against this place. The book was, therefore, a record of what God had really spoken, not a fraud imposed on the king by the high priest, or on the high priest by an unknown Egyptian exile. And against the inhabitants thereof ; that they should become a desolation and a curse. This is not a direct quotation from the Law, but a summary, in pregnant language, of the general effect of such passages as Le 26:31-35 and Deuteronomy 28:15-20 . The language is like that of Jeremiah 26:6 ; Jeremiah 41:18 ; Jeremiah 44:22 . And hast rent thy clothes (see Jeremiah 44:11 ), and wept before me. This had not been previously stated, but might have been gathered from Josiah's evident sincerity, and from the ordinary habits of Orientals. I also have heard thee, saith the Lord. The general sense of Jeremiah 44:18 , Jeremiah 44:19 , is, as Bahr notes, "Because thou hast heard me and taken heed to my threats, I also have heard thee, and will delay their fulfillment."