perhaps the correct reading. In 2Ch 34:21, the expression, “and for those that are left in Israel and Judah,” i.e., for the remainder of the people who were left in Israel after the destruction of the kingdom, and in Judah after the divine chastisements inflicted, mainly by the Assyrians under Hezekiah and Manasseh, is clearer and more significant than that in 2Ki 22:13, “and for the people, and for all Judah.” נתּכה, to pour itself forth (of anger), is quite as suitable as נצּתה, inflame, kindle itself, in 2Ki 22:13. In 2Ch 34:22, those sent with the high priest Hilkiah are briefly designated by the words המּלך ואשׁר, and whom the king, scil. had sent; in 2Ki 22:14, on the contrary, the individual names are recorded (Ewald, Gramm. §292, b, would supply אמר, after the lxx). The names of the ancestors of the prophetess Huldah also are somewhat different. כּזאת, as the king had said to him, is omitted in 2 Kings. - In 2Ch 34:24, כּל־האלות, all the curses, is more significant than כּל־דּברי, 2Ki 22:16. ותּתּך (2Ch 34:25) is a statement of the result of the עזבוּני: Because they have forsaken me, my anger pours itself forth. In 2Ch 34:27, the rhetorical expansion of the words which God had spoken of Jerusalem in the law, וגו לשׁמּה להיות, inserted in 2Ki 22:19 as an elucidation, are omitted. After the preceding designation of these words as “the curses written in the law,” any further elucidation was superfluous. On the contents of the saying of the prophetess Huldah, see the commentary on 2Ki 22:16.
Verses 29-32
2Ch 34:29-32The reading of the book of the law in the temple, and the solemn renewal of the covenant, to which the king assembled the elders of Judah and Jerusalem, with all the people, after the saying of the prophetess Huldah had been reported to him, are recorded in 2Ki 23:1-3 as they are in the Chronicle, and have been commented upon at the former passage. Only 2Ch 34:32, the contents of which correspond to the words, “And the whole people entered into the covenant” (2Ki 23:3), will need explanation. ויּעמד is usually translated, “he caused the people to enter into the covenant” (after 2 Kings). This is in substance correct, but exegetically cannot be defended, since בּבּרית does not precede, so as to allow of its here being supplied from the context. ויּעמד only signifies, he caused all who were in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand, and they did according to the covenant of God; whence we can easily supply in the first clause, “and to do according to the covenant.” The collocation, “in Jerusalem and in Benjamin,” is an abbreviation
