2. And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD. Since Josiah was a child when he became king, one must assume that his virtuous behavior at first must have been through the dictates of the regents who would have had to manage the affairs of state for the first eight to ten years of his reign.

3. the scribe. As elsewhere, this title, in court circles, designates not someone who copies manuscripts but a high royal official with administrative responsibilities.

4. that he melt down the silver. The verb as it appears here in the received text, yatem, is of uncertain meaning. When this same activity is reported in verse 9, a different verb is used, meaning “to melt down,” suggesting that the original text here read yatekh. (The differing last consonants resemble each other in appearance in paleo-Hebrew script.) Several ancient versions show “melt down” at this point. People would have brought contributions to the Temple in the form of silver ornaments, and these then had to be melted down and broken into small weights of silver that could be used for payment of labor and materials.

5. those doing the tasks appointed over the house of the LORD . . . those doing the tasks. The first group, distinguished by the term “appointed,” are administrators and foremen, probably part of the permanent staff of the Temple, and the second group are the sundry skilled workmen, in all likelihood brought into the Temple to perform these specific jobs.

8. I have found a book of teaching. The identical designation sefer hatorah occurs in Deuteronomy 30:10. The term sefer can mean “scroll” or “book” or indeed any written document, even a letter, but its force as “book” seems especially relevant here. For two centuries, the scholarly consensus, despite some dissent, has been that the found book is Deuteronomy. Although attributed to Moses, it would have been written in the reign of Josiah, perhaps drawing on some earlier materials. The book “found” in 621 B.C.E. was also not altogether identical with Deuteronomy as we have it, which almost certainly included some later elements, and was not edited in the form that has come down to us until the Babylonian exile. The major new emphases of the book brought to Josiah were the repeated stress on the exclusivity of the cult in Jerusalem (“the place that I shall choose”) and the dire warnings of imminent disaster and exile if the people fail to fulfill its covenant with God.

11. he rent his garments. The most likely reason would be his hearing the grim warnings of impending catastrophe if Judah did not mend its ways. This reaction would then provide the impetus for Josiah’s rigorous reforms.

13. Go, inquire of the LORD. This is the usual idiom for inquiring of an oracle.

for great is the LORD’s wrath. This sounds very much like a direct response to the great catalogue of hair-raising curses (see Deuteronomy 28:15–68) in the book read out to Josiah.

14. Huldah the prophetess. She is the only female prophet mentioned in the Book of Kings. She performs in every respect like the male prophets, quoting God’s words directly with the introductory messenger-formula, “Thus said the LORD,” and the large royal delegation that comes to her clearly accepts her authority as fully as they would that of a male prophet.

Mishneh. The term means “repetition” or “addition” and was a western addition in Jerusalem.

15. Say to the man who sent you to me. Pointedly avoiding in her initial speech reference to Josiah by name or title, she reduces him to a mere sender of messages. In verse 18, she refers to him as “the king of Judah” but continues to suppress his name.

16. by all the words of the book that the king of Judah read. Since the contents of the book at this point would be known only to Josiah and Shaphan and perhaps some courtiers who heard the reading of the text, Huldah must be presumed to know the book through her prophetic gifts.

17. all their handiwork. The reference is to idols, fashioned by human hands.

20. you shall be gathered to your grave in peace. In fact, Josiah will be killed in battle at Megiddo at the age of thirty-nine. Some scholars cite the discrepancy between Huldah’s prophecy and what is reported in 23:29 as evidence that the terms of the prophecy are authentic, with Huldah’s actual reassurance at the time to Josiah then contradicted by historical events.