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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comFausset Bible Dictionary: Hilkiah
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("Jehovah is my portion".)
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2. High priest (, etc.; , etc.; ; ). In the 18th year of Josiah's reign the king directed him to have the Lord's house repaired out of the money contributed by the people. So faith, fully did the workmen execute their task that no reckoning was made with them of the money entrusted to them. Hilkiah in the course of the repairs "found the book of the law of the Lord, given by the hand of Moses," and being not able to read it himself gave it to Shaphan to read (, etc., margin of ). Possibly Moses' own autograph copy, but "by the hand of Moses" may mean only that God gave it by means of him (; ; ; margin, ; ).
Still the place where it was found, the temple, and its not having been found before but only brought to light during the repairs, and that by the high priest, identify it with the original temple copy deposited by Moses' command by the side of the ark within the veil (; ). The two tables of the Decalogue were in the ark (); the book of the law by the ark, probably in a chest, securing its safety, attesting its divine authority, and witnessing against Israel's breach of the covenant of which the ark was the symbol. The expression "the book of the law," not a book of laws, must refer to the well known book, the Pentateuch, not to some book then coming to light for the first time. Hilkiah "found" it, not "forged" it under the name of Moses, as rationalists in despite of the text conjecture. Shaphan "read therein" (not the whole, which would require a different phrase, ) to the king.
The threats and curses of the law against transgressors (Leviticus 26; Deuteronomy 28; 29) were prominent in the passages read, and so overwhelmed the king that he tore his clothes. Probably Josiah, owing to the neglect of the law in Manasseh's and Amon's ungodly reigns, had never heard the law read from before. The intimate acquaintance with both its words and truths which the psalmists and prophets long before Josiah's time display establishes the certainty of the Pentateuch's prior existence and of its being the basis of their inspired utterances. Deuteronomy, the repetition of the law in a summary, was the leading portion read, just as at the reading in the feast of tabernacles every seventh year, the year of release, not the whole Pentateuch but lessons from it day by day were read (; -5, etc.; ; -13).
"The covenant," and the words "with all their heart and soul" (-3), answer to the same in ; ; compare also with . Josiah's final and utter destruction of idolatrous symbols, removal of wizards, and keeping of the Passover were the fruits of his hearing Deuteronomy 16, 18. Allusions also occur to ; ; ; -5; -22; , in ; ; -12. Jeremiah's frequent references to Deuteronomy are well known; compare -5, where he quotes .
This correspondence is doubtless due to the prominence given to Deuteronomy in reading the book of the law just then found; the finding and the reading would naturally interest Jeremiah deeply and tinge his prophecies. Josiah read (i.e. caused to be read) "all the words of the book of the covenant found in the house of the Lord," i.e. all the essential parts, "the commandments, statutes, and rights," without the reasons and exhortations, narratives, etc.; just as Joshua (-35) did at Ebal and Gerizim. The directions for the reading of the law every seventh year or year of release, also the direction (-19) that a copy of the law should be made for the king distract from that of the priests and Levites, imply a paucity of readers and of copies (compare ; ; -6).
Shaphan the professional "scribe" read it to Josiah, who as well as Hilkiah probably could not read, for reading and writing were confined to the "scribes," excepting a few who like Moses had learned in Egypt (). The ignorance of the law which this narrative implies accords with the prevalence of idolatry and of a low state of education ever since Jehoshaphat's alliance with Abab, except in Hezekiah's reign. Hilkiah was employed by Josiah also to consult Huldah the prophetess for him, and to help with Zechariah and Jehiel, "rulers of the house of God," in celebrating the Passover (-22; ; ).
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5. ; perhaps the same as the Hilkiah in ; .
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