come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse,
that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though
I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst:
the Lord will not spare him, but then the anger of the Lord and His
jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are
written in this book shall lie upon him, . . . so that . . . the
strangers that shall come from a far land . . . when they see the
plagues of that land, and the sicknesses which the Lord hath laid upon
it . . . that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth
therein, . . . even all nations shall say, Wherefore hath the Lord done
thus unto this land? what meaneth the heat of this great anger? Then
men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord God
of their fathers, . . . for they went and served other gods, . . . and
the Lord rooted them out of their land in anger, and cast them into
another land." These words, or such as these, either about the people
or relating to his own duties[16], Josiah read in the Book of the Law,
and thinking of the captivity which had overtaken Israel already, and
the sins of his own people Judah, he rent his clothes. Then he bade
the priests inquire of God for him what he ought to do to avert His
anger. "Go," he said, "inquire of the Lord for me, and for them that
are left in Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book that
is found: for great is the wrath of the Lord that is poured out upon
us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the Lord, to do after
all that is written in this book[17]."

It is observable, that not even yet does he seem to have known the
prophets Jeremiah or Zephaniah, though the former had been called to
his office some years. Such was God's pleasure. And the priests and
scribes about him, though they seconded his pious designs, were in no
sense his guides: they were unacquainted with the Law of Moses, and
with the prophets, who were interpreters of that Law. But prophets
were, through God's mercy, in every city: and though Jeremiah might be
silent or might be away, still there were revelations from God even in
Jerusalem. To one of these prophets the priests applied. Shallum was
keeper of the king's wardrobe--his wife Huldah was known to be gifted
with the spirit of prophecy. To her they went. She answered in the
words of which the text forms a part: "Thus saith the Lord God of
Israel, Te