2 Chronicles 30:2

_FOR THE KING HAD TAKEN COUNSEL, AND HIS PRINCES, AND ALL THE CONGREGATION IN JERUSALEM, TO KEEP THE PASSOVER IN THE SECOND MONTH._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

1-12 Hezekiah made Israel as welcome to the passover, as any of his own subjects. Let us yield ourselves unto the Lord. Say not, you will do what you please, but resolve to do what he pleases. We perceive in the carnal mind a stiffness, an obstinacy, an unaptness to compel with God; we have it from our fathers: this must be overcome. Those who, through grace, have turned to God themselves, should do all they can to bring others to him. Numbers will be scorners, but some will be humbled and benefited; perhaps where least expected. The rich mercy of God is the great argument by which to enforce repentance; the vilest who submit and yield themselves to the Lord, seek his grace, and give themselves to his service, shall certainly be saved. Oh that messengers were sent forth to carry these glad tidings to every city and every village, through every land!...

Verse 2 Chronicles 30:2. _IN THE SECOND MONTH._] In _Ijar_, as they could not celebrate it in _Nisan_, the _fourteenth_ of which month was the proper time. But as they could not complete the purgation of the temple, till the _sixteenth_ of that month, therefore they were obliged to hold it now, or else adjourn it till the next year, which would have been fatal to that spirit of reformation which had now taken place. The _law_ itself had given permission to those who were at a distance, and could not attend to the _fourteenth_ of the first month, and to those who were accidentally defiled, and ought not to attend, to celebrate the passover on the _fourteenth_ of the second month; see Numbers 9:10-4. Hezekiah therefore, and his counsellors, thought that they...

IN THE SECOND MONTH - Hezekiah and his counselors considered that the permission of the Law (see the marginal reference) might, under the circumstances, be extended to the whole people. It had been found impossible to complete the cleansing of the temple until the fourteenth day of the first month was past 2 Chronicles 29:17. It was, therefore, determined to defer it to the 14th of the second month, which allowed time for the priests generally to purify themselves, and for proclamation of the festival to be made throughout all Israel....

EXPOSITION This chapter contains the account of Hezekiah's arrangements after the restoration for the observance of the Passover—arrangements more than ordinarily interesting to notice in respect of, _first, _the unusual time appointed for the celebration; and, _second, _the determined and brave attempt of the good king to win again to the worship of Jerusalem (though, as was no doubt anticipated, it subjected his royal proffers to scorn, 2 Chronicles 30:10) the separated people of "all Israel" (2 Chronicles 30:1); and further, the celebration itself, the happy omen (2 Chronicles 30:14) with which it opened, its duration; and certain several other incidents

FOR THE KING HAD TAKEN COUNSEL, AND HIS PRINCES, AND ALL THE CONGREGATION IN JERUSALEM,.... He and his nobles, and the great sanhedrim or senate of the nation, had consulted together: TO KEEP THE PASSOVER IN THE SECOND MONTH; in the month Ijar, as the Targum, because they could not keep it in the first month, as it should have been kept, according to the law of God, for the reasons following....

SECOND MONTH That is, May; (2 Chronicles 30:13); (2 Chronicles 30:15)....

CHAPTER 30 THE PASSOVER _ 1. Preparations for the great Passover (2 Chronicles 30:1)_ 2. The celebration of the Passover (2 Chronicles 30:15) 3. The concluding festive days (2 Chronicles 30:23) The Passover is next celebrated. It was, so to speak, the birthday of the nation, and typified the great redemption by the blood of the true Passover-Lamb. It had not been kept for a long time and as the proper yearly time for its celebration had passed, the first month, they concluded to keep it in the second month. The law had made provision for that and therefore what they did was according to the Word. (See...

2 Chronicles 29:1 to 2 Chronicles 32:33. THE REIGN OF HEZEKIAH (see notes on 2 Kings 18:2 f., 2 Kings 18:13; 2 Kings 18:19; 2 Kings 20:1). The Chronicler in this long section writes, from his own point of view, much that is quite unhistorical. The three main subjects treated by him here are Hezekiah's reopening of the Temple, the Passover, and the appointment of the Temple officials. In...

CONGREGATION. assembly. See note on Genesis 28:3. THE SECOND MONTH. As provided by the law (Numbers 9:6)....