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2 Kings 23 Bible study: No king like him
One Hebrew verb, shuv, stands in two verses side by side: Josiah "turned to the LORD with all his heart" (23:25), and "the LORD didn’t turn from the fierceness of his great wrath" (23:26), because of Manasseh. And after Joshua 5, in the order of the books, the word Passover doesn't come again until the Passover he kept "as it is written in this book of the covenant" (23:21).
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“There was no king like him before him, who turned to the LORD with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; and there was none like him who arose after him.”
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“In 2 Kings, Josiah's Passover was kept in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, the same year he sent Shaphan to the LORD's house.”
Is that in 2 Kings 23, or not? Make your call.
What's really going on
The king read it to everyone, small and great
"The king sent, and they gathered to him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem" (23:1). Then he went up to the LORD's house with "all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him—with the priests, the prophets, and all the people, both small and great" (23:2), "and he read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the LORD’s house" (23:2) (tap covenant). The king reads it himself. Then "The king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the LORD to walk after the LORD and to keep his commandments, 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" (23:3) (tap pillar and confirm). The verse ends, "and all the people agreed to the covenant" (23:3). Where the WEB has agreed, the Hebrew has amad, the verb Brown-Driver-Briggs gives as "take one's stand, stand", the same verb used of the king who "stood by the pillar" (23:3).
Where it leads to Jesus
Josiah, in Jesus' line
2 Kings 23:30leads toMatthew 1:11
Josiah's reign ends in this chapter. "The people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father’s place" (23:30), and later "Pharaoh Necoh made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the place of Josiah his father, and changed his name to Jehoiakim" (23:34). Matthew's "book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David" (Matthew 1:1) names Josiah: "Amon became the father of Josiah" (Matthew 1:10), and "Josiah became the father of Jechoniah and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon" (Matthew 1:11). It runs on to "Jesus, who is called Christ" (Matthew 1:16). Matthew doesn't name Jehoahaz or Jehoiakim, the two sons this chapter makes king; 2 Kings calls Jehoiachin Jehoiakim's son (24:6), and Jeremiah speaks of "Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim" carried away to Babylon (Jeremiah 24:1). Matthew doesn't quote 2 Kings 23; the verses are set side by side here, with nothing more claimed.
Honest questions
Questions people ask about 2 Kings 23
That was a taste
The rest of 2 Kings 23 is waiting in Favor
- Out of the LORD's house, and out of the land
- A word spoken at Bethel, kept at Bethel
- He turned; the LORD didn't turn
- The Passover, as 2 Chronicles tells it
- Solomon's high places
- After Josiah: two sons, two kings, one refrain
- 15 questions as you read
- 12 more Hebrew words
- A short check at the end
- Your notes, saved as you go
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The Hebrew word behind it
שׁוּבshuvsay SHOOV
Strong's: "to turn back (hence, away)". Brown-Driver-Briggs: "turn back, return", and among its senses, "turn back to God (= seek penitently)". The book's verdict on Josiah is that he "turned to the LORD with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might" (23:25). The very next verse uses the same verb of the LORD: "Notwithstanding, the LORD didn’t turn from the fierceness of his great wrath" (23:26). The chapter also uses it once of Josiah coming back to Jerusalem (23:20). It is the verb of Moses' plea, "Turn from your fierce wrath" (Exodus 32:12) (tap fierceness).
For your group
2 Kings 23 Bible study questions
- 1The king read "all the words of the book of the covenant" in the hearing of "all the people, both small and great" (23:2). What difference does it make to hear God's word read aloud together, rather than only on your own?
- 2Josiah "turned to the LORD with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might" (23:25). What would turning to God with all your might look like in one part of your life this week?
- 3Huldah's word had said the evil would still come on the place (22:16-17), and after it Josiah read the book to the people, made the covenant and kept the Passover (23:1-3, 23:21-23). How do you keep doing what is right when you can't see it changing what's coming?
Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads 2 Kings 23 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.
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