told the king, saying: Hilkiah
the priest hath delivered 18. And Shaphan the scribe
to me a book. And Shaphan told the king, saying: Hilkiah
read it before the king. the priest hath given me a book.
And Shaphan read out of it
before the king.
The occasion on which the priest introduces the Book of the Law
to the notice of Shaphan has presuppositions in the arrangement
made by Joash which Chronicles has destroyed, substituting others
in its place,--that the temple had been destroyed under the
predecessors of Josiah, but that under the latter money was raised
by the agency of peripatetic Levites throughout all Israel for the
restoration, and in the first instance deposited in the treasure-chest.
At the emptying of this chest the priest is then alleged to have
found the book (ver. 14, after Deuteronomy xxxi. 26), notwithstanding
that on this occasion Shaphan also and the two accountants added
in ver. 8 were present, and ought therefore to have had a share
in the discovery which, however, is excluded by ver.
Pages:
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460