Commentari biblici

2Ch 35:1-19.

JOSIAH KEEPS A SOLEMN PASSOVER.

1-3. Moreover Josiah kept a passover--(See on

2Ki 23:21).

The first nine verses give an account of the preparations made for the celebration of the solemn feast

[2Ch 35:1-9].

The day appointed by the law was kept on this occasion (compare

2Ch 30:2, 13).

The priests were ranged in their courses and exhorted to be ready for their duties in the manner that legal purity required (compare

2Ch 29:5).

The Levites, the ministers or instructors of the people in all matters pertaining to the divine worship, were commanded

(2Ch 35:3)

to "put the holy ark in the house which Solomon did build." Their duty was to transport the ark from place to place according to circumstances. Some think that it had been ignominiously put away from the sanctuary by order of some idolatrous king, probably Manasseh, who set a carved image in the house of God

(2Ch 33:7),

or Amon; while others are of opinion that it had been temporarily removed by Josiah himself into some adjoining chamber, during the repairs on the temple. In replacing it, the Levites had evidently carried it upon their shoulders, deeming that still to be the duty which the law imposed on them. But Josiah reminded them of the change of circumstances. As the service of God was now performed in a fixed and permanent temple, they were not required to be bearers of the ark any longer; and, being released from the service, they should address themselves with the greater alacrity to the discharge of other functions.

4. prepare yourselves by the houses of your fathers, after your courses--Each course or division was to be composed of those who belonged to the same fathers' house.

according to the writing of David and . . . Solomon--Their injunctions are recorded

(2Ch 8:14; 1Ch 23:1-26:32).

5. stand in the holy place--in the court of the priests, the place where the victims were killed. The people were admitted according to their families in groups or companies of several households at a time. When the first company entered the court (which consisted commonly of as many as it could well hold), the gates were shut and the offering was made. The Levites stood in rows from the slaughtering places to the altar, and handed the blood and fat from one to another of the officiating priests

(2Ch 30:16-18).

6. So kill the passover, &c.--The design of the minute directions given here was to facilitate the distribution of the paschal lambs. These were to be eaten by the respective families according to their numbers

(Ex 12:3).

But multitudes of the people, especially those from Israel, having been reduced to poverty through the Assyrian devastations, were to be provided with the means of commemorating the passover. Therefore, the king enjoined the Levites that when the paschal lambs were brought to them to be killed

(2Ch 35:7-9)

they should take care to have everything put in so orderly a train, that the lambs, after due presentation, might be easily delivered to the various families to be roasted and eaten by themselves apart.

7. Josiah gave to the people . . . lambs and kids--These were in all probability destined for the poor; a lamb or a kid might be used at convenience

(Ex 12:5).

and . . . bullocks--which were offered after the lambs on each of the successive days of the feast.

8, 9. his princes--These gave to the priests and Levites; as those of Hezekiah's princes

(2Ch 30:24).

They were ecclesiastical princes; namely, Hilkiah the high priest

(2Ch 34:9).

Zechariah, probably the second priest of the Eleazar

(2Ki 16:18),

and Jehiel, of the Ithamar line. And as the Levitical tribes were not yet sufficiently provided

(2Ch 35:9),

some of their eminent brethren who had been distinguished in Hezekiah's time

(2Ch 31:12-15),

gave a large additional contribution for the use of the Levites exclusively.

10, 11. So the service was prepared, &c.--All the necessary preparations having been completed, and the appointed time having arrived for the passover, the solemnity was celebrated. One remarkable feature in the account is the prominent part that was taken by the Levites in the preparation of the sacrifices; namely, the killing and stripping of the skins, which were properly the peculiar duties of the priests; but as those functionaries were not able to overtake the extraordinary amount of work and the Levites had been duly sanctified for the service, they were enlisted for the time in this priestly employment. At the passover in Hezekiah's time, the Levites officiated in the same departments of duty, the reason assigned for that deviation from the established rule being the unprepared state of many of the people

(2Ch 30:17).

But on this occasion the whole people had been duly sanctified, and therefore the exceptional enlistment of the Levites' services must have been rendered unavoidably necessary from the multitudes engaged in celebrating the passover.

12. they removed the burnt offerings--Some of the small cattle being designed for burnt offerings were put apart by themselves, that they might not be intermingled with the paschal lambs, which were carefully selected according to certain rules, and intended to be sacramentally eaten; and the manner in which those burnt offerings were presented seems to have been the following: "All the subdivisions of the different fathers' houses came one after another to the altar in solemn procession to bring to the priests the portions which had been cut off, and the priests laid these pieces upon the fire of the altar of burnt offering."