Bible Commentaries

He in the first year of his reign, in the ^a first month, opened the ^b doors of the house of the LORD, and repaired them.

(a) This is a notable example for all princes, first to establish the pure religion of God and to procure that the Lord may be honoured and served correctly.

(b) Which Ahaz had shut up, (2 Chronicles 28:24).

And said unto them, Hear me, ye Levites, sanctify now yourselves, and sanctify the house of the LORD God of your fathers, and carry forth ^c the filthiness out of the holy [place].

(c) Meaning, all the idols, altar groves and whatever was occupied in their service and with which the temple was polluted.

^d Wherefore the wrath of the LORD was upon Judah and Jerusalem, and he hath delivered them to trouble, to astonishment, and to hissing, as ye see with your eyes.

(d) He shows that the contempt of religion is the cause of all God's plagues.

Now [it is] in mine heart to make a covenant with the LORD God of Israel, that his fierce wrath may ^e turn away from us.

(e) He proves by the judgments of God on those who have contemned his word, that there is no way to avoid his plagues, but by conforming themselves to his will.

And the priests went into the inner part of the house of the LORD, to ^f cleanse [it], and brought out all the uncleanness that they found in the temple of the LORD into the court of the house of the LORD. And the Levites took [it], to carry [it] out abroad into the brook Kidron.

(f) From the pollution and filth that Ahaz had brought in.

Now they began on the first [day] of the ^g first month to sanctify, and on the eighth day of the month came they to the porch of the LORD: so they sanctified the house of the LORD in eight days; and in the sixteenth day of the first month they made an end.

(g) Which contained part of March and part of April.

Then Hezekiah the king ^h rose early, and gathered the rulers of the city, and went up to the house of the LORD.

(h) By this manner of speech the Hebrews mean a certain diligence and speed to do a thing: and when there is no delay.

So they killed the bullocks, and the priests received the blood, and ⁱ sprinkled [it] on the altar: likewise, when they had killed the rams, they sprinkled the blood upon the altar: they killed also the lambs, and they sprinkled the blood upon the altar.

(i) For without sprinkling of blood nothing could be sanctified, (Hebrews 9:21) ; (Exodus 24:8).

And they brought forth the he goats [for] the sin offering before the king and the congregation; ^k and they laid their hands upon them:

(k) That is, the king and the elders, as in (Leviticus 4:15) for they who offered a sin offering must lay their hands on it, to signify that they had deserved that death, and also that they consecrated it to God to be sanctified by it, (Exodus 29:10).

And he set the Levites in the house of the LORD with cymbals, with psalteries, and with harps, according to the commandment of David, and of Gad the king's seer, and Nathan the prophet: for [so was] the ^l commandment of the LORD by his prophets.

(l) This thing was not appointed by man, but it was the commandment of God.

And Hezekiah commanded to offer the burnt offering upon the altar. And when the burnt offering began, the song of the ^m LORD began [also] with the trumpets, and with the instruments [ordained] ⁿ by David king of Israel.

(m) The psalm which David had appointed to be sung for thanksgiving.

(n) Which David had appointed to praise the Lord with.

Moreover Hezekiah the king and the princes commanded the Levites to sing praise unto the LORD with the ^o words of David, and of Asaph the seer. And they sang praises with gladness, and they bowed their heads and worshipped.

(o) With the psalm mentioned in (1 Chronicles 16:8).

And the ^p consecrated things [were] six hundred oxen and three thousand sheep.

(p) That is, for the holy offerings.

But the priests were too few, so that they could not flay all the burnt offerings: wherefore their brethren the Levites did help them, till the work was ended, and until the [other] priests had sanctified themselves: for the Levites [were] ^q more upright in heart to sanctify themselves than the priests.

(q) Meaning, were more zealous to set forth the religion.

And Hezekiah rejoiced, and all the people, that God had ^r prepared the people: for the thing was [done] suddenly.

(r) He shows that religion cannot proceed unless God touches the heart of the people.