And she said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Tell the man that sent you to me,
The verse opens Huldah's answer to the messengers King Josiah sent to consult her, bidding them carry the answer back to the man who sent them. She prefaces it by declaring it the word of the LORD God of Israel, speaking not on her own but with divine authority. What that introduction ushers in is a sentence of judgment upon Jerusalem and Judah for having forsaken God and worshiped other gods, exactly as threatened in the book of the law.
That ruin of Jerusalem could not be turned aside. Even though the people were then humbling themselves, their long course of wrongdoing made it likely they would return to sin. To Josiah himself, however, because of his humility and sorrow of heart, came the promise that he would die before his eyes saw that calamity.
The verse opens Huldah's answer to the messengers King Josiah sent to consult her, bidding them carry the answer back to the man who sent them. She prefaces it by declaring it the word of the LORD God of Israel, speaking not on her own but with divine authority. What that introduction ushers in is a sentence of judgment upon Jerusalem and Judah for having forsaken God and worshiped other gods, exactly as threatened in the book of the law.
That ruin of Jerusalem could not be turned aside. Even though the people were then humbling themselves, their long course of wrongdoing made it likely they would return to sin. To Josiah himself, however, because of his humility and sorrow of heart, came the promise that he would die before his eyes saw that calamity.