2 Kings 23:22

_SURELY THERE WAS NOT HOLDEN SUCH A PASSOVER FROM THE DAYS OF THE JUDGES THAT JUDGED ISRAEL, NOR IN ALL THE DAYS OF THE KINGS OF ISRAEL, NOR OF THE KINGS OF JUDAH;_ No JFB commentary on these verses....

15-24 Josiah's zeal extended to the cities of Israel within his reach. He carefully preserved the sepulchre of that man of God, who came from Judah to foretell the throwing down of Jeroboam's altar. When they had cleared the country of the old leaven of idolatry, then they applied themselves to the keeping of the feast. There was not holden such a passover in any of the foregoing reigns. The revival of a long-neglected ordinance, filled them with holy joy; and God recompensed their zeal in destroying idolatry with uncommon tokens of his presence and favour. We have reason to think that during the remainder of Josiah's reign, religion flourished....

Verse 2 Kings 23:22. _SURELY THERE WAS NOT HOLDEN SUCH A PASSOVER_] Not one on _purer_ principles, more _heartily_ joined in by the _people_ present, more _literally consecrated_, or more _religiously_ observed. The words do not apply to the number present, but to the manner and spirit. See the _particulars_ and _mode_ of celebrating this passover in 2 Chronicles 35:1....

The details of the Passover are given by the author of Chronicles (the marginal reference). Its superiority to other Passovers seems to have consisted: (1) in the multitudes that attended it; and (2) in the completeness with which all the directions of the Law were observed in the celebration. Compare Nehemiah 8:17....

EXPOSITION 2 KINGS 23:1 JOSIAH'S RENEWAL OF THE COVENANT. HIS REFORMS AND DEATH. REIGN OF JEHOAHAZ. ACCESSION OF JEHOIAKIM. 2 KINGS 23:1 _Josiah_'_s renewal of the covenant_._ _The first care of Josiah, on receiving Huldah's message, which stamped the book found as the true "book of the covenant," was to call together a great assembly of the nation, which should be sufficiently representative of it, and renew the covenant between God and his people made originally a

SURELY THERE WAS NOT HOLDEN SUCH A PASSOVER FROM THE DAYS OF THE JUDGES THAT JUDGED ISRAEL,.... As the king commanded; the people obeyed and kept the passover, according to the law of the Lord; the manner of its being kept is not here recorded, but is at large in 2 Chronicles 35:1 where it is observed there had not been such an one from the days of Samuel, the last of the judges; so that the days of the judges here mean the last days of them: NOR IN ALL THE DAYS OF THE KINGS OF ISRAEL, NOR OF THE KINGS OF JUDAH; since the division of the kingdoms; for as for the kings of Israel, they kept it not; and though it was observed in the times of Hezekiah king of Judah, yet not universally, and by some in their uncleanness; for it is a mistake of Clemens of Alexandria w, that it was not kept in the times between Samuel and Josiah; in the days of David and So

2. THE RESULTS OF THE REVIVAL AND THE DEATH OF JOSIAH CHAPTER 23:1-30 _ 1. The People hear the law (2 Kings 23:1; 2 Chronicles 34)_ 2. Josiah makes a covenant (2 Kings 23:3) 3. The great reformations (2 Kings 23:4) 4. The Passover celebrated (2 Kings 23:21; 2 Chronicles 35) 5. Further statements concerning Josiah (2 Kings 23:24

Celebration of the Passover. The mention of the eighteenth year (2 Kings 23:23; cf. 2 Kings 22:3) shows that the reforms of Josiah occupied six months. The book was discovered in the first month of the civil year, in autumn. It was read (_cf._ Deuteronomy 31:10) at the Feast of Tabernacles. The Passover contemplated in Deuteronomy 16:6 was celebrated in the central sanctuary. It was not the domestic feast of the Priestly Code (Exodus 12), but a general assembly of the nation. In 2 Chronicles 30 Hezekiah is said to have kept a similar feast, but this is denied in...

NOT HOLDEN SUCH. Compare Hezekiah's passover, of which the same is said (2 Chronicles 30:26). Both statements true. Hezekiah's greater than any before it. Josiah's greater than Hezekiah's. See the details (2 Chronicles 35:1). There were larger numbers, and the law was more exactly followed. Hezekiah's passover kept just before the dispersion of Israel. Josiah's passover kept just before the captivity of Judah. JUDGES THAT JUDGED. Figure of speech _Polyptoton._...

_Surely there was not holden_[R.V. KEPT] _such a passover_ The same change is also required in the next verse. The king had said - _Keep_the passover". This verse cannot be tortured into the meaning which some have put upon it, that the passover had been wholly neglected since the days of the Judges, or as the Chronicler puts it, -the days of Samuel the prophet", and through all the reigns of the previous kings of Judah, with the exception of the one recorded passover of Hezekiah. That the passovers are not mentioned comes about because they were a part of the life of the nation, which went on its natural round as a matter of course. That there was a relaxation in portions of the observance we can have no doubt, but that passovers ceased is as little to be accepted as that there was no observance of the great day of atonement because we do not read of it in the books of Samuel or Kings....