Page:The Books of Chronicles (1916).djvu/400

336 anger with all the works of their hands; therefore is my wrath poured out upon this place, and it shall not be quenched. But unto the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the, thus shall ye say to him, Thus saith the, the God of Israel: As touching the words which thou hast heard, because thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God, when thou heardest his words against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, and hast humbled thyself before me, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard thee, saith the. Behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace, neither shall thine eyes see all the evil that I will bring upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof. And they brought the king word again. Then the king sent and gathered together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. And the king went up to the

26. As touching the words which thou hast heard, because thine heart] Read perhaps, Inasmuch as thou hast heard my words, and thine heart. There is some slight flaw in the Heb. text.

28. thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace] So also in 2 Kin. But in point of fact Josiah met with a violent death, being slain by Neco, king of Egypt, according both to Kings (2 Kin. xxiii. 29) and Chronicles (2 Chr. xxxv. 23 f.). From the contradiction between this prediction and the event, we may infer that in the prophecy of Huldah we have an old and reliable tradition, which obviously must have been made before the death of Josiah. That the contradiction was allowed to stand in Kings is not perhaps surprising, but it is remarkable in the Chronicler's narrative. Not only does the idea of a genuine prophecy failing to come true run counter to his fixed principles, but (judging from many definite instances as well as from the whole tone of his history) the tradition that a king so pious from the start to the finish of his reign should meet his death in a disastrous battle must have seemed to him well-nigh incredible. The fact remains that he has allowed the tradition to stand, but it is certainly surprising.

neither shall thine eyes see] Cp. the similar promise made to Ahab (1 Kin. xxi. 29).

29—33 (= 2 Kin. xxiii. 1-3).&emsp;

This renewal of the covenant should be compared with the passage describing Hezekiah's great service of atonement for the breach of the covenant (xxix. 20 ff.).