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2 Chronicles 30:3

in 2 Chronicles 30

since they had been unable to observe it at the regular time, because not enough priests had consecrated themselves and the people had not been gathered in Jerusalem.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

For they could not keep it at that time, because the priests had not sanctified themselves in sufficient number, neither had the people gathered themselves together to Jerusalem.

KJV

For they could not keep it at that time, because the priests had not sanctified themselves sufficiently, neither had the people gathered themselves together to Jerusalem.

This verse in 2 Chronicles 30

Commentary

6 notes on this verse

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

Hoshea, the reigning king, is described as, though evil in some respects, yet more favorably disposed to religious liberty than any of his predecessors since the separation of the kingdom. This is thought to be the meaning of the mitigating clause in his character (2Ki 17:2).

This site's exposition

wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh

on 2 Chronicles 30:1-3

Hezekiah’s letters reach past Judah to Ephraim and Manasseh in the north, where the calves at Dan and Bethel had governed worship for two centuries. The Passover moved to the second month, the provision Numbers 9:9-11 makes for one man unclean or far from home.

This site's exposition

not enough priests had consecrated themselves

Two causes are named: too few priests were consecrated, and the people had not gathered. The first repeats the complaint of 29:34. Matthew Henry reads the decision as letting the date yield to the feast itself, so that the people's readiness was used while it lasted.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

Whereupon they resolved to keep the passover in the second month. Let the circumstance give way to the substance, and let not the thing itself be lost upon a nicety about the time. It is good striking while the iron is hot, and taking people when they are in a good mind.
For they could not keep it at the time,....

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

At that time - i. e. in the first month, at the time of the events mentioned in 2 Chr. 29.

How the passage was read

On 2 Chronicles 30:1-27

On 2 Chronicles 30:1-27

The Passover held a month late

Hezekiah's great Passover is kept in the SECOND month, and that is not an irregularity he invented: the Law itself provides a one-month make-up date for those unclean or far off (Numbers 9:10–11, the “Second Passover”). Hezekiah applies the provision nationally because the priests and the people could not be ready in time. Notice the chapter's heart: many northerners ate the Passover ritually unclean, and the king prays for them, “may the good LORD pardon everyone who sets his heart to seek God,” and the LORD heals the people. The feast's paperwork bends; the seeking heart is heard.

This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.

Sources: Numbers 9:10–11 (the Second-Passover provision) · Mishnah Pesachim 9:1 (the provision in the oral law)

The words behind it

15 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • כִּ֣יfor

    kiH3588 →4482 times

  • לֹ֧אnot

    lo'H3808 →5168 times

  • יָכְל֛וּthey had been able

    yakheluH3201 →194 times

  • לַעֲשֹׂת֖וֹto observe it

    laasotoH6213 →2628 times

  • בָּעֵ֣תat the time

    baetH6256 →296 times

  • הַהִ֑יא<the> that

    hahi'H1931 →1879 times

  • כִּ֤יfor

    kiH3588 →4482 times

  • הַכֹּהֲנִים֙the priests

    hakohanimH3548 →750 times

  • לֹֽא־not

    lo'-H3808 →5168 times

  • הִתְקַדְּשׁ֣וּthey had consecrated themselves

    hitkadeshuH6942 →171 times

  • לְמַדַּ֔יto <from> [what] [was] sufficiency

    lemadaiH4100 →H1767 →39 times

  • וְהָעָ֖םand the people

    vehaamH5971 →1873 times

  • לֹא־not

    lo'-H3808 →5168 times

  • נֶאֶסְפ֥וּthey had gathered

    neesfuH622 →200 times

  • לִֽירוּשָׁלִָֽם׃to Jerusalem

    lirushalimH3389 →643 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Exodus 12:6

    You must keep it until the fourteenth day of the month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel will slaughter the animals at twilight.

    it leads to

    • Leviticus 23:5

      The Passover to the LORD begins at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month.

    • Numbers 28:16

      The fourteenth day of the first month is the LORD’s Passover.

    • 2 Chronicles 30:15–18

      And on the fourteenth day of the second month they slaughtered the Passover lamb. The priests and Levites were ashamed, and they consecrated themselves and brought burnt offerings to the house of the LORD.

    • Numbers 9:11

      Such people are to observe it at twilight on the fourteenth day of the second month. They are to eat the lamb, together with unleavened bread and bitter herbs;

    • Exodus 12:18

      In the first month you are to eat unleavened bread, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day.

  • Through

    Exodus 12:18

    In the first month you are to eat unleavened bread, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day.

    it leads to

    • Exodus 12:15

      For seven days you must eat unleavened bread. On the first day you are to remove the leaven from your houses. Whoever eats anything leavened from the first day through the seventh must be…

    • Leviticus 23:5–8

      The Passover to the LORD begins at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month.

  • Through

    2 Chronicles 29:34

    However, since there were not enough priests to skin all the burnt offerings, their Levite brothers helped them until the work was finished and until the priests had been consecrated. For the Levites had…

    it leads to

    • 2 Chronicles 35:11

      And they slaughtered the Passover lambs, while the priests sprinkled the blood handed to them and the Levites skinned the animals.

Where this verse is studied

About 2 Chronicles

Saphan Reading the Book of the Law to Josiah, Philip Galle, engraving after Maarten van Heemskerck, 1569, Royal Library of Belgium. Public domain.
Saphan Reading the Book of the Law to Josiah, Philip Galle, engraving after Maarten van Heemskerck, 1569, Royal Library of Belgium. Public domain.

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.