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2 Chronicles 30:20

in 2 Chronicles 30

And the LORD heard Hezekiah and healed the people.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV

ASV

And Jehovah hearkened to Hezekiah, and healed the people.

KJV

And the Lord hearkened to Hezekiah, and healed the people.

This verse in 2 Chronicles 30

Commentary

7 notes on this verse
And the Lord hearkened to Hezekiah,.... Heard his prayer, and accepted of it, and granted what he desired: and healed his people; that is, forgave their sins, as Kimchi interprets it; forgiveness being expressed by healing, for which he refers to Psa 41:4 to which may be added Psa 103:3 and which was known either by a prophet sent to declare it, or by not punishing them for their offence.

This site's exposition

eat the passover otherwise than it was written

on 2 Chronicles 30:18-20

A multitude from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun eat the passover otherwise than it was written, uncleansed by the sanctuary's own standard, and Hezekiah does not send them away but prays over them: the good Lord pardon every one that prepareth his heart to seek God, the Lord God of his fathers, though he be not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary. The prayer names the very thing Chronicles measures every king by, the heart that seeks, and sets it beside the ritual purity the law required, asking mercy where the heart outran the rite rather than asking the law be set aside. Verse 20 answers plainly, the Lord hearkened to Hezekiah, and healed the people, which Gill reads as forgiveness on the pattern of Ps 41:4 and Ps 103:3, the book's clearest word that a sought heart outweighs an unmet ceremony.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

"What shall we do," says Hezekiah, "about the passover? It is a very comfortable ordinance, and has been long neglected. The time has elapsed for this year; we cannot go about it immediately; the congregation is thin, the people have not notice, the priests are not prepared,

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — odd-straight-quotes

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

26 So there was great joy in Jerusalem: for since the time of Solomon the son of David king of Israel there was not the like in Jerusalem. 27 Then the priests the Levites arose and blessed the people: and their voice was heard, and their prayer came up to his holy dwelling place, even unto heaven.

quarantine:scripture (2026-07-29) — verbatim-scripture

The Nineteenth Century3 voices

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

the Lord . . . healed the people--We imagine the whole affair to have been the following: In consequence of their transgressions they had cause to fear disease and even death (Le 15:31). Hezekiah prayed for the nation, which was on the point of being diseased, and might therefore be regarded as sick already [BERTHEAU].

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase

BRETHREN, it should be much to our joy that we do not serve under the ceremonial Law, nor live within the legal dispensation. The legal economy exhibited to the people a multitude of types and figures and consequently it laid down many rules and rituals—and these were enacted with such solemn and terrible penalties that the people were in constant fear of offending and found obedience irksome by reason of the weakness of their flesh and the unspirituality of their minds. As for our Lord Jesus, His yoke is easy and His burden is light.
BRETHREN, it should be much to our joy that we do not serve under the ceremonial Law, nor live within the legal dispensation. The legal economy exhibited to the people a multitude of types and figures and consequently it laid down many rules and rituals—and these were enacted with such solemn and terrible penalties that the people were in constant fear of offending and found obedience irksome by reason of the weakness of their flesh and the unspirituality of their minds. As for our Lord Jesus, His yoke is easy and His burden is light. But concerning the Law, even Peter speaks of it as "a yoke which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear." We are now brought into the glorious liberty of the children of God, a liberty which those who had been in the bondage could best appreciate. Those who are still under legal restrictions feel the pressure of them when they see the liberty of others. Sitting at dinner with a Samaritan who considered himself under the Law of the Pentateuch, I noticed that the worthy man refused first one dish and then another, and at length he exclaimed, "Moses very hard," evidently feeling that the limit upon his diet involved a good deal of self-denial. Some of us could cheerfully bear such small matters as abstinence from certain meats and drinks, but if we were surrounded with regulations and prescriptions entering into minute details, our life would be full of cares and we should feel ill at ease. We have attained the liberty of the Gospel and we are not called upon to observe days, and months and years—nor to border our garments with a certain color, nor to trim our hair by rule. Neither are we called to practice different washing and purifying, or to observe laws and regulations amounting to a continual round of rites.

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

7 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.

  • וַיִּשְׁמַ֤עand he listened

    vaiyishma'H80851159 times

  • יְהוָה֙Yahweh

    yahwehH30686520 times

  • אֶל־to

    ʾel-H4135510 times

  • יְחִזְקִיָּ֔הוּHezekiah

    yechizkiyahuH2396127 times

  • וַיִּרְפָּ֖אand he healed

    vaiyirpa'H749567 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H85310935 times

  • הָעָֽם׃ סthe people

    haamH59711873 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 15:26

    saying, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God, and do what is right in His eyes, and pay attention to His commands, and keep all His statutes, then…

    it leads to

    • Psalms 41:3–4

      The LORD will sustain him on his bed of illness and restore him from his bed of sickness.

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • Psalms 103:3

      He who forgives all your iniquities and heals all your diseases,

    • Deuteronomy 7:15

      And the LORD will remove from you all sickness. He will not lay upon you any of the terrible diseases you knew in Egypt, but He will inflict them on all who hate you.

    • Exodus 23:25

      So you shall serve the LORD your God, and He will bless your bread and your water. And I will take away sickness from among you.

    • Psalms 147:3

      He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

  • Through

    Psalms 103:3

    He who forgives all your iniquities and heals all your diseases,

    it leads to

    • Exodus 15:26

      saying, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God, and do what is right in His eyes, and pay attention to His commands, and keep all His statutes, then…

    • Isaiah 53:5

      But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.

    • Jeremiah 17:14

      Heal me, O LORD, and I will be healed; save me, and I will be saved, for You are my praise.

About 2 Chronicles

This page draws on Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2131: “To Those Who Feel Unfit for Communion” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.