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Hezekiah Restores the Worship of Jehovah
v. 1. Hezekiah began to reign when he was five and twenty years old, and he reigned nine and twenty years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah, very likely the prophet of that name, 2Ch_26:5. Cf 2 Kings 18.
v. 2. And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that David, his father, had done; he patterned his life of piety strictly after that of the founder of the dynasty.
v. 3. He, in the first year of his reign, in the first month, the month Nisan, the first of the church-year, just as soon as he could well arrange for it, opened the doors of the house of the Lord, which had been closed by his father, 2Ch_28:24, and repaired them, put them in order for constant use.
v. 4. And he brought in the priests and the Levites, who had, of course, been dismissed when the worship of Jehovah was suspended, and gathered them together into the east street, literally, "in the broad way toward the east," either in the Court of the Priests or in some open space outside of the Temple area,
v. 5. and said unto them, Hear me, ye Levites, sanctify now yourselves, this special consecration being required whenever the Levites were to enter upon their ministry, Exo_19:10, and sanctify the house of the Lord God of your fathers, putting it into condition to be used in the service of Jehovah once more, and carry forth the filthiness, every evidence of idolatrous customs and worship, out of the Holy Place.
v. 6. For our fathers, particularly Ahaz and his generation, have trespassed, and done that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord, our God, and have forsaken Him, and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the Lord, and turned their backs, as one does in utter contempt of a thing. Note the heaping of parallel, synonymous expressions to designate the greatness of the transgression described by Hezekiah.
v. 7. Also they have shut up the doors of the porch, those leading to the Sanctuary proper, thereby discontinuing the regular sacrifices to Jehovah, and have put out the lamps, those illuminating the Holy Place, and have not burned incense nor offered burnt offerings in the Holy Place unto the God of Israel. The lawful worship of Jehovah had been abandoned entirely.
v. 8. Wherefore the wrath of the Lord, as shown in His severe displeasure and punishment, was upon Judah and Jerusalem, and He hath delivered them to trouble, to commotion and horror, Deu_28:25, to astonishment, and to hissing, as ye see with your eyes; for the country had been laid waste and its resources drained by the successive raids and wars, as they knew only too well.
v. 9. For, lo, our fathers have fallen by the sword, 2Ch_28:6, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this, 2Ch_28:5 to 2Ch_17:18.
v. 10. Now it is in mine heart, he had firmly resolved upon this course, to make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel, by restoring the covenant which had repeatedly been made with Jehovah as the one true God, that His fierce wrath may turn away from us.
v. 11. My sons, so the king addresses the Levites in a familiar, persuasive address, be not now negligent, by drawing back from the king and delaying or hindering his proposed reformation; for the Lord hath chosen you to stand before Him, to serve Him, and that ye should minister unto Him and burn incense, taking up all the work of their ministry according to the Lord's precepts, and helping the king carry out his plans for the restoration of the ancient law and order.
v. 12. Then the Levites arose: Mahath, the son of Amasai, and Joel, the son of Azariah, of the sons of the Kohathites, this family being especially distinguished among the Levites; and of the sons of Merari: Kish, the son of Abdi, and Azariah, the son of Jehalelel; and of the Gershonites: Joah, the son of Zimnah, and Eden, the son of Joah;
v. 13. and of the sons of Elizaphan: Shimri and Jeiel; and of the sons of Asaph: Zechariah and Mattaniah;
v. 14. and of the sons of Heman: Jehiel and Shimei; and of the sons of Jeduthun: Shemaiah, and Uzziel. These fourteen chiefs among the Levites undertook the task of preparing their brethren and cleansing the house of the Lord.
v. 15. And they gathered their brethren and sanctified themselves, by taking the usual measures to purify themselves from any defilements, and came, according to the commandment of the king, by the words of the Lord; for the king's command was founded on the precepts of the Law, to cleanse the house of the Lord.
v. 16. And the priests went into the inner part of the house of the Lord, within the Sanctuary and especially within the veil, where the Levites were not permitted to enter, to cleanse it, and brought out all the uncleanness that they found in the Temple of the Lord, whatever idolatrous vessels and remains of idolatrous offerings they found, into the court of the house of the Lord. And the Levites took it to carry it out abroad into the brook Kidron, where the uncleanness could be burned and the ashes swept down with the winter rains into the Dead Sea.
v. 17. Now, they began on the first day of the first month to sanctify, and on the eighth day of the month came they to the porch of the Lord; so long it took them to remove the accumulated filth of the courts. So they sanctified the house of the Lord in eight days; that much longer it took them to remove the filth from the sanctuary proper; and in the sixteenth day of the first month they made an end.
v. 18. Then they went in to Hezekiah the king and said, We have cleansed all the house of the Lord and the altar of burnt offering, with all the vessels thereof, those used in the sacrifices, and the showbread table, with all the vessels thereof, for all these things had no longer been in use during the last years of Ahaz.
v. 19. Moreover, all the vessels which King Ahaz in his reign did cast away in his transgression, including Solomon's altar of burnt offering, the brazen sea, and the lavers on the stands, 2Ki_16:14-17, have we prepared and sanctified, and, behold, they are before the altar of the Lord. Note: It is a special sign of God's grace if a person is kept in the ways of the Lord and does not turn from them either to the right or to the left.