Hezekiah’s celebration of the Passover
30
📚And Hezekiah sent word to all Israel and Judah, and also wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh 📖, that they should come to the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, to keep the Passover 📖 to the LORD God of Israel. 2 📚For the king and his officials, and all the congregation in Jerusalem, had agreed to keep the Passover in the second month 📖. 3 📚For they had not been able to keep it at that time, because the priests had not consecrated themselves in sufficient numbers, nor had the people gathered together to Jerusalem. 4 📚And the arrangement pleased the king and all the congregation. 5 📚So they resolved to make a proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beersheba to Dan 📖, that they should come to keep the Passover to the LORD God of Israel at Jerusalem, for they had not done so for a long time in the way in which it was written. 6 📚So the couriers went with the letters from the king and his officials throughout all Israel and Judah, in accordance with the command of the king, saying, “You children of Israel, turn back to the LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and he will return 📖 to those of you who remain, who have escaped out of the hands of the kings of Assyria 📖. 7 📚And do not be like your fathers and like your brethren who trespassed against the LORD God of their fathers, who therefore made them an object of horror, as you see.
30:7 Deut 28:25 had been fulfilled before their eyes only a few years before.⚜
8 📚Now do not be stiff-necked 📖, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves to the LORD and come to his sanctuary, which he has sanctified forever, and serve the LORD your God, so that the fierceness of his wrath 📖 may turn away from you. 9 📚For if you turn back to the LORD, your brethren and your children will find compassion before those who have taken them away captive, so that they may return to this land. For the LORD your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away his face from you, if you turn back to him”.
10 📚So the couriers travelled from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh to Zebulun, but the people laughed them to scorn 📖 and mocked them. 11 📚Nevertheless, some from Asher and Manasseh and from Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem.
30:11 God always has His remnant of faithful people. Compare 1 Kings 19:18.⚜
12 📚The hand of God was also on Judah to give them one heart 📖 to do what the king and the officials commanded, by the word of the LORD.
13 📚And many people, a very great congregation, assembled at Jerusalem to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread 📖 in the second month. 14 📚And they rose up and took away the altars that were in Jerusalem, and they took away all the altars 📖 of incense, and threw them into the brook Kidron.
15 📚Then they killed the Passover 📖 on the fourteenth day of the second month, and the priests and the Levites became ashamed of themselves and consecrated themselves, and brought the burnt offerings into the house of the LORD. 16 📚And they stood in their place according to their custom, according to the law of Moses the man of God. The priests sprinkled the blood, which they received from the hands of the Levites. 17 📚For there were many in the congregation who were not consecrated, therefore the Levites were in charge of killing the Passovers for every one who was not clean, to sanctify them to the LORD. 18 📚For a large number of the people, many from Ephraim and Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun had not cleansed themselves, yet they ate the Passover, contrary to what was written. But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, “The good LORD pardon every one 19 📚who prepares his heart to seek God, the LORD God of his fathers, even though he is not cleansed in accordance with the purification of the sanctuary”.
30:19 They had faced the ridicule of fellow Israelites in the north (v 10), and came to Jerusalem for the first time in many years. They were not “clean” (for possible cause of uncleanness see Lev 5:2-3; 11:24), but Hezekiah did not want to refuse them the privilege of taking part in the Passover. He reasoned rightly that seeking God and trying to have their hearts right with God was more important than perfectly following the prescribed ritual. Compare Isa 1:11-17; Matt 23:25-28.⚜
20 📚And the LORD listened to Hezekiah, and healed the people.
21 📚And the children of Israel who were present at Jerusalem kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days with great gladness, and the Levites and the priests praised the LORD day by day, singing with loud instruments to the LORD.
22 📚And Hezekiah spoke words of encouragement to all the Levites who taught the good knowledge of the LORD, and they ate throughout the feast for seven days, offering peace offerings 📖, and making confession to the LORD God of their fathers.
23 📚And the whole assembly agreed to keep the feast for seven more days, and they kept it for seven more days with gladness. 24 📚For Hezekiah king of Judah gave a thousand bulls and seven thousand sheep to the congregation, and the officials gave a thousand bulls and ten thousand sheep to the congregation, and a great number of priests consecrated themselves. 25 📚And all the congregation of Judah, with the priests and the Levites, and all the congregation that came out of Israel, and the foreigners who came out of the land of Israel and who lived in Judah, rejoiced. 26 📚So there was great joy in Jerusalem, for since the time of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel, there had been nothing like this in Jerusalem. 27 📚Then the priests, the Levites, rose up and blessed 📖 the people, and their voice was heard and their prayer came up to his holy dwelling place, to heaven.