they are today. The king was to have a copy himself (Deut. 17:18), and the Levites were to have ready access to their copies, but most Israelites probably learned the law of Moses from the teaching of their parents and the Levites (2 Chron. 17:9). The loss of the law then could occur in the span of one generation. All that was necessary was for one generation of leaders to neglect its responsibility to teach the younger generations. The loss of the law in Josiah’s day was not a new problem. In fact,