2 Kings · 20 verses
2 Kings 22
Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.
The chapter
What happens here
Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.
A book found beneath the business of temple repairs makes a king tear his clothes, and its warning is both national disaster and one man’s peaceful grave.
The boy king and the bookvv. 1–10
Josiah was eight when he became king, and Jerusalem kept him for thirty-one years. His mother was Jedidah, daughter of Adaiah, from Bozkath; the record gives the child his family, his place, and then his straight walk after David. In the eighteenth year, Josiah sent Shaphan the scribe to Hilkiah at the house of the LORD with an admirably practical errand: count the money, pay the supervisors, repair the damages with timber and dressed stone. The carpenters, builders, and masons were trusted with the funds and spared the nuisance of accounting. Then Hilkiah found the Book of the Law in the house of the LORD, and Shaphan read it. He first reported the money properly paid out, and only afterwards mentioned the book—a wonderfully ordinary report carrying an extraordinary parcel.
The torn robe and Huldah’s answervv. 11–20
When Josiah heard the words, he tore his clothes and sent Hilkiah, Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah to inquire of the LORD for the king, the people, and all Judah. They went not to a courtly sage but to Huldah the prophetess, who lived in Jerusalem, in the Second District, with the wardrobe-keeper’s household behind her. Her answer was severe for the place and tender toward the king: calamity was coming because the people had forsaken the LORD and burned incense to other gods, yet Josiah’s humbled heart, torn clothes, and tears had been heard. The country would become a desolation and a curse; Josiah would be gathered to his fathers and his grave in peace, with the curious mercy of not seeing the calamity himself. The messengers brought her answer back to the king.
The text
Read it
Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.
2 Kgs 22:1Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem thirty-one years. His mother’s name was Jedidah daughter of Adaiah; she was from Bozkath.
2 Kgs 22:2And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD and walked in all the ways of his father David; he did not turn aside to the right or to the left.
2 Kgs 22:3Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, King Josiah sent the scribe, Shaphan son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, to the house of the LORD, saying,
2 Kgs 22:4“Go up to Hilkiah the high priest and have him count the money that has been brought into the house of the LORD, which the doorkeepers have collected from the people.
2 Kgs 22:5And let them deliver it into the hands of the supervisors of those doing the work on the house of the LORD, who in turn are to give it to the workmen repairing the damages to the house of the LORD—
2 Kgs 22:6to the carpenters, builders, and masons—to buy timber and dressed stone to repair the temple.
2 Kgs 22:7But they need not account for the money put into their hands, since they work with integrity.”
2 Kgs 22:8Then Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the scribe, “I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the LORD!” And he gave it to Shaphan, who read it.
2 Kgs 22:9And Shaphan the scribe went to the king and reported, “Your servants have paid out the money that was found in the temple and have put it into the hands of the workers and supervisors of the house of the LORD.”
2 Kgs 22:10Moreover, Shaphan the scribe told the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read it in the presence of the king.
2 Kgs 22:11When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes
2 Kgs 22:12and commanded Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Achbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah the servant of the king:
2 Kgs 22:13“Go and inquire of the LORD for me, for the people, and for all Judah concerning the words in this book that has been found. For great is the wrath of the LORD that burns against us because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book by doing all that is written about us.”
2 Kgs 22:14So Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went and spoke to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, the keeper of the wardrobe. She lived in Jerusalem, in the Second District.
2 Kgs 22:15And Huldah said to them, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Tell the man who sent you
2 Kgs 22:16that this is what the LORD says: I am about to bring calamity on this place and on its people, according to all the words of the book that the king of Judah has read,
2 Kgs 22:17because they have forsaken Me and burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke Me to anger with all the works of their hands. My wrath will be kindled against this place and will not be quenched.’
2 Kgs 22:18But as for the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the LORD, tell him that this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘As for the words that you heard,
2 Kgs 22:19because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before the LORD when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its people, that they would become a desolation and a curse, and because you have torn your clothes and wept before Me, I have heard you,’ declares the LORD.
2 Kgs 22:20‘Therefore I will indeed gather you to your fathers, and you will be gathered to your grave in peace. Your eyes will not see all the calamity that I will bring on this place.’” So they brought her answer back to the king.
01 — Also here
Who else the chapter reaches
Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.
Named in the Hebrew or Greek somewhere in this chapter, under a form the English renders differently — the registry's Ludim against the translation's Ludites — so there is no word in the sentence to hang the link on.
Reached by an assertion Atlas extracted from a verse of this chapter rather than by a name written in it — a pronoun, a title, or a participant the sentence carries without naming. This layer is model-read and measured at 88.6–90.3% precision, and it is kept separate from the names above for that reason.
02 — Read alongside
Where this is echoed
Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 227 passages were voted onto 19 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.
- 19Psalms 51:17The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.
- 191 Kings 21:29“Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before Me? Because he has humbled himself before Me, I will not bring the calamity during his days, but I will bring it upon his house in the days of his son.”
- 19Exodus 10:3So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and told him, “This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: ‘How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me? Let My people go, so that they may worship Me.
- 19Isaiah 57:15For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in a high and holy place, and with the oppressed and humble in spirit, to restore the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the contrite.
- 2Deuteronomy 5:32So be careful to do as the LORD your God has commanded you; you are not to turn aside to the right or to the left.
- 20Psalms 37:37Consider the blameless and observe the upright, for posterity awaits the man of peace.
- 2Joshua 1:7Above all, be strong and very courageous. Be careful to observe all the law that My servant Moses commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may prosper wherever you go.
- 191 Samuel 24:5Afterward, David’s conscience was stricken because he had cut off the corner of Saul’s robe.
- 19Micah 6:8He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?
- 191 Peter 5:5–6Young men, in the same way, submit yourselves to your elders. And all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
- 20Isaiah 57:1–2The righteous perish, and no one takes it to heart; devout men are taken away, while no one considers that the righteous are taken away from the presence of evil.
- 1Joshua 15:39Lachish, Bozkath, Eglon,
- 22 Kings 18:3And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father David had done.
- 72 Kings 12:15No accounting was required from the men who received the money to pay the workmen, because they acted with integrity.
- 8Deuteronomy 31:24–26When Moses had finished writing in a book the words of this law from beginning to end,
- 19Jeremiah 44:22So the LORD could no longer endure the evil deeds and detestable acts you committed, and your land became a desolation, a horror, and an object of cursing, without inhabitant, as it is this day.
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