Temple Worship Restored
20Then King Hezekiah rose early, assembled the officials of the city, and went up to the house of the LORD. 21They brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven male goats for a sin offering for the kingdom and for the sanctuary and for Judah. He commanded the priests the descendants of Aaron to offer them on the altar of the LORD. 22So they slaughtered the bulls, and the priests received the blood and dashed it against the altar; they slaughtered the rams and their blood was dashed against the altar; they also slaughtered the lambs and their blood was dashed against the altar. 23Then the male goats for the sin offering were brought to the king and the assembly; they laid their hands on them, 24and the priests slaughtered them and made a sin offering with their blood at the altar, to make atonement for all Israel. For the king commanded that the burnt offering and the sin offering should be made for all Israel.
25He stationed the Levites in the house of the LORD with cymbals, harps, and lyres, according to the commandment of David and of Gad the king’s seer and of the prophet Nathan, for the commandment was from the LORD through his prophets. 26The Levites stood with the instruments of David, and the priests with the trumpets. 27Then Hezekiah commanded that the burnt offering be offered on the altar. When the burnt offering began, the song to the LORD began also, and the trumpets, accompanied by the instruments of King David of Israel. 28The whole assembly worshiped, the singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded; all this continued until the burnt offering was finished. 29When the offering was finished, the king and all who were present with him bowed down and worshiped. 30King Hezekiah and the officials commanded the Levites to sing praises to the LORD with the words of David and of the seer Asaph. They sang praises with gladness, and they bowed down and worshiped.
31Then Hezekiah said, “You have now consecrated yourselves to the LORD; come near, bring sacrifices and thank offerings to the house of the LORD.” The assembly brought sacrifices and thank offerings; and all who were of a willing heart brought burnt offerings. 32The number of the burnt offerings that the assembly brought was seventy bulls, one hundred rams, and two hundred lambs; all these were for a burnt offering to the LORD. 33The consecrated offerings were six hundred bulls and three thousand sheep. 34But the priests were too few and could not skin all the burnt offerings, so, until other priests had sanctified themselves, their kindred, the Levites, helped them until the work was finished—for the Levites were more conscientiousa than the priests in sanctifying themselves. 35Besides the great number of burnt offerings there was the fat of the offerings of well-being, and there were the drink offerings for the burnt offerings. Thus the service of the house of the LORD was restored. 36And Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced because of what God had done for the people; for the thing had come about suddenly.
next chapter
* * *
a Heb upright in heart
29.1–2 Cf. 2 Kings 18.1–3. The opening paragraph for Hezekiah is virtually identical to the material in 2 Kings, except that the Chronicler, as usual, omits the synchronism with the Northern king. The Chronicler gives great attention to Hezekiah’s reform (chs. 29–31), but less attention than does 2 Kings to the Assyrian invasion (ch. 32), the delegation from Babylon (32.31), and the king’s illness (32.24–26). Unity returns to all Israel under Hezekiah, who is a second David (see 29.2) and especially a second Solomon.
29.3–19 Like Solomon, Hezekiah is concerned with the temple right from the start of his reign—in the first year…in the first month (cf. chs. 1–2). The actions urged by Hezekiah would reverse those of his father, Ahaz (28.24–25; 29.19).
29.5 Levites, used in a broad sense that includes both priests and Levites.
29.8 This description of circumstances at the time of Hezekiah quotes Jer 29.18, which announces the exile that took place more than a century after Hezekiah.
29.10 The temple cleansing renews the covenant and sets an example for the postexilic audience.
29.12–14 There are two Levites from each of the families of Kohath, Merari, and Gershon, two from the family of Elizaphan (descended from Kohath), and two from each division of the singers: Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun.
29.15 By the words of the LORD. Hezekiah’s reform is given divine sanction.
29.16–17 As prohibited items are removed from the temple, priests and Levites are active in places appropriate to them (cf. 5.4–11). Kidron, just east of the city, is also the place for destroying polluted vessels under Asa (15.16) and Josiah (2 Kings 23.4, 6, 12). The purification rites end two days after the normal beginning of Passover.
29.20–36 Temple worship is restored.
29.21 The bulls, rams, and lambs are for the burnt offering and the goats for the sin offering. The sin offering benefited the royal house (kingdom), the temple and its personnel (sanctuary), and the whole nation (Judah).
29.22 They, the king and his officials (cf. v. 20).
29.23 Through laying on of hands, the one making the offering identifies with the victim in the sin offering.
29.24 All Israel. The king’s offering is explicitly inclusive (cf. v. 21).
29.25–30 The Levites accompany the sacrifices with music. Their role may reflect worship practices from the Chronicler’s own time, but their musical performance also echoes their activity at the dedication of the temple (7.6). The restoration of the temple makes Hezekiah a second Solomon.
29.25 David and the prophets are credited with authorizing the levitical activity.
29.31–36 The people join their leaders in bringing sacrifices and so reinaugurate regular worship practices (v. 35; cf. 8.16). Their enthusiasm harks back to popular enthusiasm for the sanctuary at the time of Moses and during the reigns of David and Solomon.
29.32 Burnt offerings, expressions of self-giving.
29.33 Consecrated offerings. Only parts of these offerings are burned; the rest is consumed by the ones making the offering.
29.34 Although the priests are not required by the law to skin the animals (Lev 1), this verse criticizes them for their delay and offers praise for the Levites who helped them until they had sanctified themselves.
29.36 Suddenly. The purification of the temple happens within three weeks during Hezekiah’s first year.
2 CHRONICLES 30
The Great Passover
1Hezekiah sent word to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, to keep the passover to the LORD the God of Israel. 2For the king and his officials and all the assembly in Jerusalem had taken counsel to keep the passover in the second month 3(for they could not keep it at its proper time because the priests had not sanctified themselves in sufficient number, nor had the people assembled in Jerusalem). 4The plan seemed right to the king and all the assembly. 5So they decreed to make a proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beer-sheba to Dan, that the people should come and keep the passover to the LORD the God of Israel, at Jerusalem; for they had not kept it in great numbers as prescribed. 6So couriers went throughout all Israel and Judah with letters from the king and his officials, as the king had commanded, saying, “O people of Israel, return to the LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, so that he may turn again to the remnant of you who have escaped from the hand of the kings of Assyria. 7Do not be like your ancestors and your kindred, who were faithless to the LORD God of their ancestors, so that he made them a desolation, as you see. 8Do not now be stiff-necked as your ancestors were, but yield yourselves to the LORD and come to his sanctuary, which he has sanctified forever, and serve the LORD your God, so that his fierce anger may turn away from you. 9For as you return to the LORD, your kindred and your children will find compassion with their captors, and return to this land. For the LORD your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away his face from you, if you return to him.”
10So the couriers went from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, and as far as Zebulun; but they laughed them to scorn, and moc
ked them. 11Only a few from Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem. 12The hand of God was also on Judah to give them one heart to do what the king and the officials commanded by the word of the LORD.
13Many people came together in Jerusalem to keep the festival of unleavened bread in the second month, a very large assembly. 14They set to work and removed the altars that were in Jerusalem, and all the altars for offering incense they took away and threw into the Wadi Kidron. 15They slaughtered the passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the second month. The priests and the Levites were ashamed, and they sanctified themselves and brought burnt offerings into the house of the LORD. 16They took their accustomed posts according to the law of Moses the man of God; the priests dashed the blood that they receiveda from the hands of the Levites. 17For there were many in the assembly who had not sanctified themselves; therefore the Levites had to slaughter the passover lamb for everyone who was not clean, to make it holy to the LORD. 18For a multitude of the people, many of them from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, yet they ate the passover otherwise than as prescribed. But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, “The good LORD pardon all 19who set their hearts to seek God, the LORD the God of their ancestors, even though not in accordance with the sanctuary’s rules of cleanness.” 20The LORD heard Hezekiah, and healed the people. 21The people of Israel who were present at Jerusalem kept the festival of unleavened bread seven days with great gladness; and the Levites and the priests praised the LORD day by day, accompanied by loud instruments for the LORD. 22Hezekiah spoke encouragingly to all the Levites who showed good skill in the service of the LORD. So the people ate the food of the festival for seven days, sacrificing offerings of well-being and giving thanks to the LORD the God of their ancestors.
23Then the whole assembly agreed together to keep the festival for another seven days; so they kept it for another seven days with gladness. 24For King Hezekiah of Judah gave the assembly a thousand bulls and seven thousand sheep for offerings, and the officials gave the assembly a thousand bulls and ten thousand sheep. The priests sanctified themselves in great numbers. 25The whole assembly of Judah, the priests and the Levites, and the whole assembly that came out of Israel, and the resident aliens who came out of the land of Israel, and the resident aliens who lived in Judah, rejoiced. 26There was great joy in Jerusalem, for since the time of Solomon son of King David of Israel there had been nothing like this in Jerusalem. 27Then the priests and the Levites stood up and blessed the people, and their voice was heard; their prayer came to his holy dwelling in heaven.
next chapter
* * *
a Heb lacks that they received
30.1–27 In the Chronicler’s reckoning, the North is already in exile when Hezekiah begins to rule. One of Hezekiah’s first acts is to attempt to unite all Israel around the temple in Jerusalem. Such unification is the main agenda for the author of Chronicles in his postexilic setting. This Passover takes place at the central sanctuary (Deut 16; 2 Kings 23.21–23) and not in the Israelite homes (Ex 12.1–20).
30.2 Second month. Individuals who became unclean through contact with a corpse or who had been on a trip could delay the celebration of Passover one month (Num 9.9–11). Hezekiah extends this exception to the priests who had not sanctified themselves and the people who had not assembled (v. 3).
30.5 Beer-sheba to Dan, the south-to-north description of the land characteristic of Chronicles (cf. 1 Chr 21.2). The author uses a wide variety of terms to identify the North. See vv. 11, 12, 18.
30.6 Israel, Jacob (cf. 1 Chr 16.13, 17). The Chronicler demands repentance as the prerequisite for restoration.
30.9 An excellent statement of the doctrine of retribution.
30.10 The Northerners show reluctance (cf. 36.16), perhaps reflecting their attitude toward the Jerusalem temple in the Chronicler’s time, but Hezekiah, nevertheless, works for their incorporation in the celebration (vv. 18–20).
30.13 The agricultural festival of unleavened bread was originally celebrated separately from Passover (Ex 23.14–17; 34.18–23). The large attendance at the Passover is frequently mentioned in this account.
30.14 Eating of the Passover meal is preceded by reform of inappropriate installations in Jerusalem. Ahaz had built altars to alien deities (28.24).
30.16 Regulation of the cultic roles of priests and Levites is based on the Pentateuch in general.
30.17 The Levites make great efforts to make the Northerners feel welcome.
30.18–20 Hezekiah prays for the people who set their hearts to seek God, even if they have violated ritual regulations in the process. Their intentions and Hezekiah’s prayer bring healing. The steps in this incident follow the procedures laid out in the Lord’s response to Solomon’s prayer at the dedication of the temple (7.14).
30.23 The people decide to celebrate for a second week, just as the celebration at the temple dedication lasted a fortnight (7.9).
30.24 The king and his officials generously provide animals for sacrifice, and the priests are finally ready in sufficient numbers to sacrifice them (cf. 29.34; 30.3).
30.25 Note the all-inclusive makeup of those who celebrate Passover.
30.26 Hezekiah is a kind of second Solomon, who unites the people in sacrificial worship.
30.27 Solomon too prayed that his prayer and that of the people would be heard in heaven (6.21).
2 CHRONICLES 31
Pagan Shrines Destroyed
1Now when all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah and broke down the pillars, hewed down the sacred poles,a and pulled down the high places and the altars throughout all Judah and Benjamin, and in Ephraim and Manasseh, until they had destroyed them all. Then all the people of Israel returned to their cities, all to their individual properties.
2Hezekiah appointed the divisions of the priests and of the Levites, division by division, everyone according to his service, the priests and the Levites, for burnt offerings and offerings of well-being, to minister in the gates of the camp of the LORD and to give thanks and praise. 3The contribution of the king from his own possessions was for the burnt offerings: the burnt offerings of morning and evening, and the burnt offerings for the sabbaths, the new moons, and the appointed festivals, as it is written in the law of the LORD. 4He commanded the people who lived in Jerusalem to give the portion due to the priests and the Levites, so that they might devote themselves to the law of the LORD. 5As soon as the word spread, the people of Israel gave in abundance the first fruits of grain, wine, oil, honey, and of all the produce of the field; and they brought in abundantly the tithe of everything. 6The people of Israel and Judah who lived in the cities of Judah also brought in the tithe of cattle and sheep, and the tithe of the dedicated things that had been consecrated to the LORD their God, and laid them in heaps. 7In the third month they began to pile up the heaps, and finished them in the seventh month. 8When Hezekiah and the officials came and saw the heaps, they blessed the LORD and his people Israel. 9Hezekiah questioned the priests and the Levites about the heaps. 10The chief priest Azariah, who was of the house of Zadok, answered him, “Since they began to bring the contributions into the house of the LORD, we have had enough to eat and have plenty to spare; for the LORD has blessed his people, so that we have this great supply left over.”
Reorganization of Priests and Levites
11Then Hezekiah commanded them to prepare store-chambers in the house of the LORD; and they prepared them. 12Faithfully they brought in the contributions, the tithes and the dedicated things. The chief officer in charge of them was Conaniah the Levite, with his brother Shimei as second; 13while Jehiel, Azaziah, Nahath, Asahel, Jerimoth, Jozabad, Eliel, Ismachiah, Mahath, and Benaiah were overseers assisting Conaniah and his brother Shimei, by the appointment of King Hezekiah and of Azariah the chief officer of the house of God. 14Kore son of Imnah the Levite, keeper of the east gate, was in charge of the freewill offerings to God, to apportion the contribut
ion reserved for the LORD and the most holy offerings. 15Eden, Miniamin, Jeshua, Shemaiah, Amariah, and Shecaniah were faithfully assisting him in the cities of the priests, to distribute the portions to their kindred, old and young alike, by divisions, 16except those enrolled by genealogy, males from three years old and upwards, all who entered the house of the LORD as the duty of each day required, for their service according to their offices, by their divisions. 17The enrollment of the priests was according to their ancestral houses; that of the Levites from twenty years old and upwards was according to their offices, by their divisions. 18The priests were enrolled with all their little children, their wives, their sons, and their daughters, the whole multitude; for they were faithful in keeping themselves holy. 19And for the descendants of Aaron, the priests, who were in the fields of common land belonging to their towns, town by town, the people designated by name were to distribute portions to every male among the priests and to everyone among the Levites who was enrolled.
20Hezekiah did this throughout all Judah; he did what was good and right and faithful before the LORD his God. 21And every work that he undertook in the service of the house of God, and in accordance with the law and the commandments, to seek his God, he did with all his heart; and he prospered.
HarperCollins Study Bible Page 180