This text is part of:
Search the Perseus Catalog for:
View text chunked by:
[57]
But when he was now in the eighteenth year of his reign, he sent
to Eliakim the high priest, and gave order, that out of what money was
overplus, he should cast cups, and dishes, and vials, for ministration
[in the temple]; and besides, that they should bring all the gold or silver
which was among the treasures, and expend that also in making cups and
the like vessels. But as the high priest was bringing out the gold, he
lighted upon the holy books of Moses that were laid up in the temple; and
when he had brought them out, he gave them to Shaphan the scribe, who,
when he had read them, came to the king, and informed him that all was
finished which he had ordered to be done. He also read over the books to
him, who, when he had heard them read, rent his garment, and called for
Eliakim the high priest, and for [Shaphan] the scribe, and for certain
[other] of his most particular friends, and sent them to Huldah the prophetess,
the wife of Shallum, (which Shallum was a man of dignity, and of an eminent
family,) and bid them go to her, and say that [he desired] she would appease
God, and endeavor to render him propitious to them, for that there was
cause to fear, lest, upon the transgression of the laws of Moses by their
forefathers, they should be in peril of going into captivity, and of being
cast out of their own country; lest they should be in want of all things,
and so end their days miserably. When the prophetess had heard this from
the messengers that were sent to her by the king, she bid them go back
to the king, and say that "God had already given sentence against
them, to destroy the people, and cast them out of their country, and deprive
them of all the happiness they enjoyed; which sentence none could set aside
by any prayers of theirs, since it was passed on account of their transgressions
of the laws, and of their not having repented in so long a time, while
the prophets had exhorted them to amend, and had foretold the punishment
that would ensue on their impious practices; which threatening God would
certainly execute upon them, that they might be persuaded that he is God,
and had not deceived them in any respect as to what he had denounced by
his prophets; that yet, because Josiah was a righteous man, he would at
present delay those calamities, but that after his death he would send
on the multitude what miseries he had determined for them."
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.