Josiah's Reforms, the Law Book and Huldah

"For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father: and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places." He breaks altars "in the cities of Manasseh, and Ephraim, and Simeon, even unto Naphtali."

The Levites collect money and oversee the workmen; "and other of the Levites, all that could skill of instruments of musick." "Hilkiah the priest found a book of the law of the LORD given by Moses." Shaphan reads it; the king tears his clothes and sends to Huldah the prophetess.

"Because thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God… I will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace, neither shall thine eyes see all the evil that I will bring upon this place." Josiah reads "all the words of the book of the covenant" to the people and makes a covenant; "all his days they departed not from following the LORD."

Reform before the book

In 2 Kings 22–23 the reform follows the discovery in Josiah's eighteenth year. Chronicles places the purge in his twelfth year, before the book: Josiah sought God first, and the book confirmed it.

"Given by Moses"

Chronicles identifies the book as given "by the hand of Moses," a phrase not in Kings. See the Deuteronomy investigation of Josiah's scroll.