KIAHU. Sept. XeXiciar). Of the seven persons bearing this name in the Bible, the most important is the high-priest in the reign of Joash (2 Kings xxii. 4, ; 2 Chron. xxxiv. 9, ff.) He was the son of Shallum (t Chron. vi. 13); and Ezra, the scribe, was his great-g-,randson (Ezra vii. t). He took a prominent part in the reforms effected by king Josiah, and is especially remarkable for the dis covery which he made in the house of the Lord of a book which is called The Book of the Law' (2 Kings xxii. 8), and The Book of the Covenant' (xxiii. 2). That this was some well-known book is evident from the form of the expression ; but as to what it was opinions are divided. That it was the writino. of Moses is expressly stated (2 Chron. xxxiv. 14)'; that it was the entire Pentateuch is the opinion of Josephus, von Lengerke, Keil, Ewald, HKvernick, etc. ; but others think it was only part of that collection, and others, that it was simply a collection of laws and ordinances appointed by Moses, such as are given in the Pentateuch, and especially in Deuteronomy. The objection to its beim, the whole Pentateuch is the improbability of thatbeing read in the audience of the people at one time, 2S was this book (xxiii. 2) ; and there are many circa mstances which render it probable that what was zead to the people was the book of Deuteronony, as, ex. gr., the apparent allusion to
Deut. xxix. and xxx. 2 in ch. xxiii. 2, 3, and the special effect which the reading of the book had on the king, who did, in consequence, just what one impressed by such passages as occur in Deut. xvi. 18, etc., would be likely to do. At the same time, even if we admit that the part actually read consisted only of the summary of laws and institu tions in Deuteronomy, it will not follow that that was the only part of the Pentiteuch found by Hillciah ; for, as the matter brought before his mind by Hul dah, the prophetess (2 Kings xxii. 15, ff.), respected the restoration of the worship of Jehovah, it might be only to what bore on that that the reading spe cially referred. The probability is that the book found by Hilkiah vvas the same which was entrusted to the care of the priests, and was to be put in the side of the ark (Deut. 9-26); and that this was the entire body of the .Mosaic writing, and not any part of it, seems the only tenable conclusion (Hengstenberg, Beitra:ge ii. 159, ff.)—W. L. A.