TIONS ON THE WRAPPINGS OF A MUMMY.]

The envoys betook themselves not to the official oracle or the
recognised prophets, but to a woman, the prophetess Huldah, who was
attached to the court in virtue of her husband's office; and she bade
them, in the name of the Most High, to summon a meeting of the faithful,
and, after reading the new code to them, to call upon all present to
promise that they would henceforth observe its ordinances: thus Jahveh
would be appeased, and since the king had "rent his garments and wept
before Me, I also have heard thee, saith Jahveh. Therefore, behold, I
will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave
in peace." Josiah thereupon having summoned the elders of Judah and
Jerusalem, went up into the temple, and there, standing on the platform,
he read the Book of the Law in the presence of the whole people.*

* 2 Kings xxii. 3-20; xxiii. 1, 2. The narrative has
undergone slight interpolation in places, e.g. verses 46,
5a, 6, and 7, where the compiler has made it harmonise with
events previously recorded in connection with the reign of
Joash (2 Kings xii. 6-16). The beginning of Huldah's
prophecy was suppressed, when the capture of Jerusalem
proved that the reform of divine worship had not succeeded
in averting the wrath of Jahveh. It probably contained
directions to read the _Book of the Covenant_ to the people,
and to persuade them to adopt its precepts, followed by a
promise to save Judah provided it remained faithful to its
engagements.

It dealt with questions which had been frequent subjects of debate in
prophetic circles since the days of Hezekiah, and the anonymous writer
who had compiled it was so strongly imbued with the ideas of Jeremiah,
and had so closely followed his style, that some have been inclined to
ascribe the work to Jeremiah himself. It has always been a custom among
Orientals to affirm that any work for which they profess particular
esteem was discovered in the temple of a god; the Egyptian priests,
for instance, invented an origin of this nature for the more important
chapters of their Book of the Dead, and for the leading treatises in the
scientific literature of Egypt. The author of the Book of the Law had
ransacked the distant past for the name of the leader who had delivered
Israel from captivity in Egypt. He told how Moses, when he began to feel
the hand of death upon him, determ