2Ch 29:4-15 | KD | STEP | Hezekiah gathered the priests and Levites together “into the open space of the east,” i.e., in the eastern open space before the temple, not “in the inner court” (Berth.), - see on Ezr 10:9 -and called upon them ( ) to sanctify themselves, and then to sanctify the house of the Lord. To purify the temple they must first sanctify themselves (cf. ), in order to proceed to the work of sanctifying the house of God in a state of Levitical purity. The work was to remove all that was unclean from the sanctuary. הנּדּה is Levitical uncleanness, for which in we have הטּמאה; here the abominations of idolatry. The king gave the reason of his summons in a reference to the devastation which Ahaz and his contemporaries had wrought in the house of God ( , ), and to the wrath of God which had on that account come upon them ( , ). “Our fathers” ( ), that is, Ahaz and his contemporaries, for only these had been guilty of displeasing God in the ways mentioned in and , “have turned away their face from the dwelling of Jahve, and turned their back (upon it).” These words are a symbolical expression for: they have ceased to worship Jahve in His temple, and exchanged it for idolatry.

‏ 2 Chronicles 29:4-15

Hezekiah gathered the priests and Levites together “into the open space of the east,” i.e., in the eastern open space before the temple, not “in the inner court” (Berth.), - see on Ezr 10:9 -and called upon them (2Ch 29:5) to sanctify themselves, and then to sanctify the house of the Lord. To purify the temple they must first sanctify themselves (cf. 2Ch 29:15), in order to proceed to the work of sanctifying the house of God in a state of Levitical purity. The work was to remove all that was unclean from the sanctuary. הנּדּה is Levitical uncleanness, for which in 2Ch 29:16 we have הטּמאה; here the abominations of idolatry. The king gave the reason of his summons in a reference to the devastation which Ahaz and his contemporaries had wrought in the house of God (2Ch 29:6, 2Ch 29:7), and to the wrath of God which had on that account come upon them (2Ch 29:8, 2Ch 29:9). “Our fathers” (2Ch 29:6), that is, Ahaz and his contemporaries, for only these had been guilty of displeasing God in the ways mentioned in 2Ch 29:6 and 2Ch 29:7, “have turned away their face from the dwelling of Jahve, and turned their back (upon it).” These words are a symbolical expression for: they have ceased to worship Jahve in His temple, and exchanged it for idolatry. 2Ch 29:7

Even (גּם) the doors of the porch have they shut, and caused the service in the sanctuary, the lighting of the lamps, and the sacrifices of incense, to cease; see on 2Ch 28:24. The words, “and they brought not burnt-offerings in the sanctuary to the God of Israel,” do not imply the complete cessation of the legal sacrificial worship, but only that no burnt-offerings were brought to the God of Israel. Sacrifices offered upon the altar of burnt-offering built after a heathen pattern by Ahaz were not, in the eyes of the author of the Chronicle, sacrifices which were offered to the God of Israel; and it is also possible that even this sacrificial worship may have more and more decayed. קדשׁ, 2Ch 29:7, is the whole sanctuary, with the court of the priests. 2Ch 29:8-9

Wherefore the wrath of the Lord came upon Judah and Jerusalem. Cf. for the expression, 2Ch 24:18; 2Ch 32:25; on 2Ch 29:8, cf. Deu 28:25, Deu 28:37; Jer 24:9; Jer 25:9, etc. “As ye see with your eyes.” The shameful defeats which Judah had sustained under Ahaz from the Syrians, Ephraimites, Philistines, and Edomites, and the oppression by the Syrian king (2Ch 28:5., 2Ch 28:17-21), are here referred to, as we learn from 2Ch 29:9. 2Ch 29:10-11

To turn away this anger of God, Hezekiah wishes to make a covenant with the Lord, i.e., to renew the covenant with Jahve by restoring His worship (לבבי עם as in 2Ch 6:7; 2Ch 9:1; 1Ch 28:2, etc.), and therefore calls upon the Levites not to neglect the performance of their duty. בּני he calls the Levites, addressing them in kindly language; cf. Pro 1:8, etc. תּשּׁלוּ in Niph. occurs only here, and denotes to avoid a thing from carelessness or laziness, - from שׁלה, to draw forth; Job 27:8. On 2Ch 29:11, cf. Deu 10:8; 1Ch 23:13. 2Ch 29:12-14

This address was heard with gladness. The Levites present assembled their brethren, and set to work, after they had all sanctified themselves, to purify the temple. In 2Ch 29:12-14 fourteen names are mentioned as those of the audience, viz.: two Levites of each of the great families of Kohath, Merari, and Gershon; two of the family of Elizaphan, i.e., Elzaphan the son of Uzziel, the son of Kohath, Exo 6:18, who in the time of Moses was prince of the family of Kohath, Num 3:30; and then two Levites of the descendants of Asaph (of the family of Gershon); two of Heman’s descendants (of the family of Kohath); and two of Jeduthun’s (of the family of Merari): see on 1Ch 6:18-32. Of these names, Mahath, Eden, and Jehiel occur again in 2Ch 31:13-15; several others, Joah ben Zimmah and Kish ben Abdi, have occurred already in the genealogy, 1Ch 6:5. and 2Ch 29:29, for in the various families the same name often repeats itself. 2Ch 29:15

These fourteen heads of the various families and branches of Levi assembled their brethren (the other Levites who dwelt in Jerusalem); then they all sanctified themselves, and went forward, according to the command of the king, with the work of cleansing the temple. יהוה בּדברי belongs to הם כּמצות, according to the command of the king, which was founded upon the words of Jahve, i.e., upon the commands of Moses’ law; cf. 2Ch 30:12.