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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - 2 Chronicles 29:31 - 29:31
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The sacrifice of thank-offerings and praise-offerings and voluntary burnt-offering. - Hezekiah introduces this, the concluding act of this religious festival, with the words, “Now have ye filled your hand to the Lord,” i.e., you have again consecrated yourselves to the service of the Lord (cf. Exo 32:29 and the commentary on Lev 7:37.); “come near, and bring sacrifices and thank-offerings into the house of the Lord.” The words “Now have ye filled” are regarded by the commentators (Clericus, Ramb., Bertheau, etc.) as addressed to the priests; while the following וגו גְּשׁוּ are supposed to be directed to the congregation, and Clericus and Ramb. consequently supply before גְּשׁוּ, vos vero, Israelitae. The summons וְהָבִיאוּ גְּשׁוּ can certainly only be addressed to the congregation, as is shown by the words הַקָּהָל וַיָּבִיאוּ, and the congregation brought, which correspond to the summons. But the supplying of vos vero before גְּשׁוּ is quite arbitrary. If in גְּשׁוּ other persons are addressed than those to whom the king formerly said, “Now have ye filled your hands,” the change in the persons addressed would have been intimated by mention of the person, or at least by וְאַתֶּם, “but ye.” As the two clauses at present stand, they must be spoken to the same persons, viz., the whole assembled congregation, including the priests and Levites. We must therefore suppose that the phrase לי יָד מִלֵּא, which in its narrower sense denotes only the consecration of the priests for service at the altar (see on Lev 7:37), is here used in a wider sense, and transferred to the whole congregation. They, by their participation in the consecratory offerings, by laying on of hands and worship during the sacrificial act, had consecrated themselves anew to the service of the Lord as their God, and had anew made a covenant with the Lord (2Ch 29:10); so that only the sacrificial meal was wanting to the completion of this celebration of the covenant, and for this the offering of sacrifices was requisite. The collocation וְתֹודֹות זְבָהִים is strange. זְבָהִים are שְׁלָמִים זְבָהִים, sacrifices of peace-offering, also called briefly שְׁלָמִים. Of these, in the law, three species - praise-offerings (תֹּודֹות), vowed offerings, and voluntary offerings - are distinguished (Lev 7:11, Lev 7:16). תֹּודֹות therefore denotes a species of the sacrifices or peace-offerings, the praise or thank-offerings in the stricter sense; and וְתֹודֹות must be taken as explicative: sacrifices, and that (or namely) praise-offerings. לֵב וְכָל־נְדִיב, and every one who was heartily willing, (brought) burnt-offerings; i.e., all who felt inwardly impelled to do so, brought of their own accord burnt-offerings.
2Ch 29:32
The number of the burnt-offerings brought spontaneously by the congregation was very large: 70 bullocks, 100 rams, and 200 lambs.
2Ch 29:33-34
וְהֲקָּדָשִׁים, and the consecrated, i.e., the beasts brought as thank-offering (cf. 2Ch 35:13; Neh 10:34), were 600 bullocks and 3000 small cattle (sheep and goats). - In 2Ch 29:34-36 the account closes with some remarks upon these sacrifices and the festal solemnity. 2Ch 29:34. But there were too few priests, and they were not able (so that they were not able) to flay all the burnt-offerings; and their brethren the Levites helped them till the work was ended (i.e., the flaying), and until the priests had sanctified themselves. In the case of private burnt-offerings the flaying of the beast was the business of the sacrificer (Lev 1:6); while in the case of those offered on solemn occasions in the name of the congregation it was the priest's duty, and in it, as the work was not of a specifically priestly character, the Levites might assist. The burnt-offerings which are spoken of in 2Ch 29:34 are not merely those voluntarily offered (2Ch 29:34), but also the consecratory burnt-offerings (2Ch 29:22, 2Ch 29:27). Only 2Ch 29:35 refers to the voluntary offerings alone. “For the Levites had been more upright to sanctify themselves than the priests.” לֵב יִשְׁרֵי, rectiores animo, had endeavoured more honestly. Perhaps the priests had taken more part in the idolatrous worship of Ahaz than the Levites, which would be quite accounted for, as Kueper, das Priesterth. des A. Bundes (1870), S. 216, remarks, by their relation to the court of the king, and their dependence upon it. They consequently showed themselves more slack even in the purification than the Levites, who forte etiam idololatricis sacris minus contaminati et impediti erant (Ramb.).
2Ch 29:35
2Ch 29:35 gives yet another reason why the Levites had to help the priests: “And also the burnt-offerings were in abundance, with the fat of the peace-offerings, and the drink-offerings for every burnt-offering.” The priests could not accomplish the flaying for this reason also, that they had, besides, to see to the proper altar service (sprinkling of the blood, and burning of the sacrifices upon the altar), which taxed their strength, since, besides the consecratory burnt-offerings, there were the voluntary burnt-offerings (2Ch 29:31), which were offered along with the thank-offerings and the drink-offerings, which belonged to the burnt-offerings of Num 15:1-15. Thus the service of the house of Jahve was arranged. עֲבֹודָה is not the purification and dedication of the temple (Berth.), but only the sacrificial service, or rather all that concerned the regular temple worship, which had decayed under Ahaz, and had at length wholly ceased.
2Ch 29:36
Hezekiah and the whole people rejoiced because of it. הַהֵכִין עַל, over that which God had prepared for the people (by the purification of the temple and the restoration of the Jahve worship), not “because God had made the people ready” (Ramb., Berth.). The article with הֵכִין represents the relative pronoun אֲשֶׁר; see on 1Ch 26:28. The joy was heightened by the fact that the thing was done suddenly.