Bible Commentaries

Reign of Hezekiah (continued)

This chapter relates how a passover was kept on the second month for Israel and Judah.

1. Should come.. at Jerusalem] This implies an endeavour to centralise the national worship by the abolition of the local sanctuaries (as described in 2 Kings 18:4).

2. In the second month] The Law allowed individuals to keep the Passover in the second month instead of the first, if they were prevented by some temporary hindrance (Numbers 9:10-11), and this permission Hezekiah thought might be extended to the whole community.

3. At that time] i.e. at the proper season, viz. the 14th day of the first month. The cleansing of the Temple was not completed till the 16th day of that month: 2 Chronicles 29:17.

5. Done it of a long time] RV 'kept it in great numbers.' According to Exodus 12:8 the Passover was to be observed by 'the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel.'

6. The posts] bit. 'the couriers,' who were probably some of the royal guards. You, that.. Assyria] Since what is here related took place (according to 2 Chronicles 29:3) in Hezekiah's first year, the reference must be to the invasion of Tiglath-pileser: 2 Kings 15:29; 1 Chronicles 5:26.

13. The feast of unleavened bread] This, though distinct from the Passover, was not separated from it by any interval, and the two came to be treated as one which could be described indifferently by either name: 2 Chronicles 30:2, 2 Chronicles 30:13, 2 Chronicles 30:15.

14. The altars] i.e. those erected by Ahaz: 2 Chronicles 28:24.

15. Were ashamed] The zeal of the laity roused the priests, who had formerly been remiss (2 Chronicles 29:34), to a sense of their duty.

17. The passovers] i.e. the paschal lambs, which (according to Exodus 12:6-7) ought to have been killed by the head of each household.

18. Otherwise than it was .written] As this Passover in the second month took the place of the one ordinarily held in the first month, there could be no supplementary passover for such as were unclean; so Hezekiah preferred that the people should break the letter of the Law and eat without being sanctified than that they should be debarred from such an important festival and so be unfaithful to the spirit of the divine legislation.

20. Healed] i.e. did not send upon them, the punishment which they had incurred: cp. Leviticus 15:31.

25. The strangers] i.e. proselytes of foreign descent, who either had come out of the northern kingdom or were settled in Judah.