2 Chronicleschapter 30
27 verses · BSB2 Chronicles book hub →
Speaks with:2 Chronicles 30×72 Chronicles 29×6Exodus 12×42 Chronicles 35×31 Chronicles 13×22 Chronicles 7×2
Summary
Chapter summary
Hezekiah keeps the passover in the second month rather than not at all, because the priests were not sanctified in sufficient number and the people had not gathered. Posts carry letters throughout Israel and Judah, from Beer-sheba to Dan, calling the remnant left from the Assyrian kings to turn again to Jehovah. Some laugh them to scorn and mock; others humble themselves and come, and in Judah 'the hand of God' gives them one heart to obey. The unclean eat anyway, and Hezekiah prays for them: 'The good Jehovah pardon every one that setteth his heart to seek God', and Jehovah hearkened and healed the people. They keep another seven days with great gladness, unmatched in Jerusalem since Solomon.
Context
History · Ezra — 2 Chronicles overview
- A. 1–12 Letters from Dan to Beersheba: turn again, and He will return
- B. 13–20 Hezekiah prays for those who ate unprepared, and God heals them
- C. 21–27 Seven days more of gladness, unmatched since Solomon's day
The outline
A.Letters from Dan to Beersheba: turn again, and He will returnvv. 1 to 12
Read vv. 1 to 12 →B.Hezekiah prays for those who ate unprepared, and God heals themvv. 13 to 20
Read vv. 13 to 20 →C.Seven days more of gladness, unmatched since Solomon's dayvv. 21 to 27
Read vv. 21 to 27 →
The world behind this chapter
2 Chronicles 30The history
The date is a legal ruling, not a convenience. The law of Moses provided that anyone unclean or away on a journey at Passover could keep it in the second month instead. Hezekiah applies that provision to the whole nation, because the priests had not consecrated themselves in time and the people had not gathered — and the officials agreed to it in council.
The invitation goes out by couriers with letters, from Beersheba to Dan, and into Ephraim and Manasseh. The northern kingdom had been broken by Assyria by this point, so what remained there were the people left behind after the deportations. Some towns laughed the couriers to scorn and mocked them; from Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun some humbled themselves and came.
Before the feast the people cleared Jerusalem of the altars Ahaz had scattered through the city and threw them into the Kidron.
Then comes one of the most striking pastoral moments in the Old Testament. A large number ate the Passover 'otherwise than it was written,' not having purified themselves properly. Hezekiah prayed for them — the good LORD pardon everyone who prepares his heart to seek God, though he be not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary — and the LORD heard and healed the people.
The whole assembly then agreed to keep another seven days, with the king providing a thousand bulls and seven thousand sheep and the officials another thousand bulls and ten thousand sheep. There had been nothing like it since Solomon's day.
What it meant to them
The first hearers' community was full of ragged edges: doubtful pedigrees, mixed marriages, people who had grown up in Babylon without a working knowledge of the ritual law.
This chapter told them that a king once prayed for exactly such people and was answered — and that the thing God attended to was the prepared heart, without ever pretending the rule did not exist.
Sources cited
- Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions
- Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Chronicles
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on 2 Chronicles 30. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.