²⁶ “Take this Book of the Law, ^(A)and put it beside the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there ^(B)as a witness against you;

¹⁹ “Now therefore, write down this song for yourselves, and teach it to the children of Israel; put it in their mouths, that this song may be ^(A)a witness for Me against the children of Israel.

¹⁹ For I ^(A)through the law ^(B)died to the law that I might ^(C)live to God.

¹⁹ Now we know that whatever ^(A)the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that ^(B)every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become ^[a]guilty before God. ²⁰ Therefore ^(C)by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

¹⁴ Now when they brought out the money that was brought into the house of the Lord, Hilkiah the priest ^(A)found the Book of the Law of the Lord given by Moses. ¹⁵ Then Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the scribe, “I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord.” And Hilkiah gave the ^(B)book to Shaphan.

¹³ “Go, inquire of the Lord for me, for the people and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found; for great is ^(A)the wrath of the Lord that is aroused against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.”

¹⁴ So Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of ^(B)Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe. (She dwelt in Jerusalem in the Second Quarter.) And they spoke with her. ¹⁵ Then she said to them, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘Tell the man who sent you to Me, ¹⁶ “Thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, ^(C)I will bring calamity on this place and on its inhabitants—all the words of the book which the king of Judah has read— ^17 (D)because they have forsaken Me and burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke Me to anger with all the works of their hands. Therefore My wrath shall be aroused against this place and shall not be quenched.’ ” ’ ¹⁸ But as for ^(E)the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, in this manner you shall speak to him, ‘Thus says the Lord God of Israel: “Concerning the words which you have heard— ¹⁹ because your ^(F)heart was tender, and you ^(G)humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they would become ^(H)a desolation and ^(I)a curse, and you tore your clothes and wept before Me, I also have heard you,” says the Lord.

⁸ Then Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the scribe, ^(A)“I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord.” And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it. ⁹ So Shaphan the scribe went to the king, bringing the king word, saying, “Your servants have ^[a]gathered the money that was found in the house, and have delivered it into the hand of those who do the work, who oversee the house of the Lord.” ¹⁰ Then Shaphan the scribe showed the king, saying, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read it before the king.

¹¹ Now it happened, when the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, that he tore his clothes.

^9 (A)Nothing was in the ark ^(B)except the two tablets of stone which Moses ^(C)put there at Horeb, ^(D)when the Lord made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt.