In Second Kings, chapter twenty-two, verse eight, the “book of the law” found by Hilkiah had been “given by Moses,” as in Second Chronicles, thirty-four, verse fourteen. It was most likely a copy of the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, as in Deuteronomy thirty-one, stanzas nine through twelve, and twenty-four to twenty-six. This discovery bears witness to God’s guiding and controlling hand, which had watched over his inspiration and protected it from destruction by idolaters and apostates. Indeed, the inspired written Word of God is indestructible!
The book of the law generally agreed to have been the archetype written by Moses and by him ordered to be with the ark in the most holy place. However, some pious high priests had caused it to be hidden in the reign of Ahaz or Manasseh to prevent it from being destroyed with the other copies. Still, by the tenor of the history, that few, if any, others left. But it is much disputed whether it was the whole Pentateuch, emphatically called the Torah, or the law. What appears most surprising is that all the copies of the Scriptures, which the good King Hezekiah seems to have caused to be written and dispersed about the kingdom, as in Proverbs twenty-five, verse one should be so soon vanished, that neither Josiah nor the high-priest had ever seen any of them until brought to light.
God’s care of the Bible is proof of his interest in it. We may observe further here that it was an enormous instance of God’s favor and a token for good to Josiah and his people that the book of the law seasonably brought to light to direct and quicken that blessed reformation that Josiah had begun. It is a sign God has mercy in store for a people when he magnifies his law among them and furnishes them with the means of increasing in Scripture knowledge.