2 Chronicles 30

The TorahRooted Bible (TRB), translated directly from the Hebrew and Greek.

The invitation to the Passover

¹ Then Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and also wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of Yahweh at Jerusalem to keep the Passover to Yahweh, the Elohim of Israel. ² For the king and his leaders and all the assembly in Jerusalem had taken counsel to keep the Passover in the second month, ³ for they could not keep it at that time, because the priests had not sanctified themselves in sufficient number, and the people had not been gathered to Jerusalem. ⁴ And the plan was right in the eyes of the king and in the eyes of all the assembly. ⁵ So they established a decree to make a proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beersheba to Dan, that they should come to keep the Passover to Yahweh, the Elohim of Israel, at Jerusalem; for they had not kept it in great numbers as it is written.

⁶ So the couriers went with the letters from the hand of the king and his leaders throughout all Israel and Judah, and according to the commandment of the king, saying, "Children of Israel, return to Yahweh, the Elohim of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, that He may return to the remnant of you who have escaped from the hand of the kings of Assyria. ⁷ Do not be like your fathers and your brothers, who acted unfaithfully against Yahweh, the Elohim of their fathers, so that He gave them up to desolation, as you see. ⁸ Now do not stiffen your neck as your fathers did; yield yourselves to Yahweh, and come to His sanctuary, which He has sanctified forever, and serve Yahweh your Elohim, that the fierceness of His anger may turn away from you. ⁹ For if you return to Yahweh, your brothers and your children will find compassion before those who carried them captive, and will return to this land; for Yahweh your Elohim is gracious and compassionate, and He will not turn His face away from you if you return to Him."

¹⁰ So the couriers passed from city to city through the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, as far as Zebulun; but they laughed them to scorn and mocked them. ¹¹ Nevertheless some men of Asher, Manasseh and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem. ¹² Also in Judah the hand of Elohim was on them to give them one heart to do the commandment of the king and the leaders, by the word of Yahweh.

The Passover in the second month

¹³ And many people gathered at Jerusalem to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the second month, a very great assembly. ¹⁴ They arose and removed the altars that were in Jerusalem, and they removed all the incense altars and threw them into the brook Kidron. ¹⁵ Then they slaughtered the Passover on the fourteenth of the second month. And the priests and the Levites were ashamed, and they sanctified themselves and brought burnt offerings to the house of Yahweh. ¹⁶ They stood at their post according to their ordinance, according to the Torah of Moses the man of Elohim; the priests threw the blood which they received from the hand of the Levites. ¹⁷ For there were many in the assembly who had not sanctified themselves; therefore the Levites were in charge of slaughtering the Passover lambs for everyone who was not clean, to sanctify them to Yahweh. ¹⁸ For a multitude of the people, many from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, yet they ate the Passover otherwise than as it is written. But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, "May the good Yahweh provide atonement for everyone ¹⁹ who sets his heart to seek Elohim, Yahweh the Elohim of his fathers, though he is not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary." ²⁰ And Yahweh listened to Hezekiah and healed the people.

²¹ So the children of Israel who were present at Jerusalem kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days with great gladness; and the Levites and the priests praised Yahweh day by day, with loud instruments to Yahweh. ²² And Hezekiah spoke to the heart of all the Levites who showed good insight in the service of Yahweh. So they ate throughout the appointed feast, the seven days, offering sacrifices of peace offerings and giving thanks to Yahweh, the Elohim of their fathers.

Another seven days of joy

²³ Then the whole assembly took counsel to keep another seven days; and they kept another seven days with gladness. ²⁴ For Hezekiah king of Judah contributed to the assembly a thousand bulls and seven thousand sheep, and the leaders contributed to the assembly a thousand bulls and ten thousand sheep; and a great number of priests sanctified themselves. ²⁵ And the whole assembly of Judah rejoiced, with the priests and the Levites, and all the assembly that came from Israel, and the strangers who came from the land of Israel and those who dwelt in Judah. ²⁶ So there was great joy in Jerusalem, for since the days of Solomon the son of David king of Israel there had been nothing like this in Jerusalem. ²⁷ Then the priests, the Levites, arose and blessed the people; and their voice was heard, and their prayer came to His holy habitation, to heaven.

Notes

• 30:2 The Torah itself gave this second date: "If any man of you or of your generations is unclean because of a dead body, or is on a journey far away, he shall still keep the Passover to Yahweh. In the second month, on the fourteenth day, between the evenings, they shall keep it" (Numbers 9:10-11). Hezekiah did not invent a new appointed time; he used the provision Yahweh had already given, applied to the whole people, because the cleansing of the house had ended after the fourteenth of the first month (29:17).
• 30:5 "From Beersheba to Dan" is the whole land from south to north; the same span, sometimes in the other order, marks the united Israel of the judges and of David (Judges 20:1; 1 Chronicles 21:2). Since the division of the kingdom the north had its own altars at Bethel and Dan and a feast of its own devising (1 Kings 12:28-33); now the call goes out to all the tribes to come to the place Yahweh chose. "In great numbers" (larov) can also be read "for a long time"; either way, the point is that the Passover had not been kept "as it is written" (kakkatuv), a phrase that returns in verse 18.
• 30:6 The letter is built on shuv, "turn, return," the Hebrew word behind repentance: "return to Yahweh… that He may return to you" (verse 6), "that the fierceness of His anger may turn away from you" (verse 8), "if you return to Yahweh," your brothers will "return to this land," "if you return to Him" (verse 9). It echoes Moses: "and you return to Yahweh your Elohim… then Yahweh your Elohim will bring you back from captivity" (Deuteronomy 30:2-3), and Solomon's prayer that the exiles find "compassion before those who carried them captive" (1 Kings 8:50), the same words as verse 9. The "kings of Assyria" had already carried away much of the north (2 Kings 15:29; 17:6); whether this Passover came before or after the fall of Samaria is debated, since the dates of Hezekiah's reign are themselves debated (see the note on 2 Kings 18:13).
• 30:11 Most of the north mocked the letters, but some "humbled themselves" (nikhne'u), the word of Yahweh's promise to Solomon: "if My people who are called by My name humble themselves" (7:14). Chronicles records such northerners coming to Jerusalem more than once (11:16; 15:9; 1 Chronicles 9:3); here three tribes are named, and verse 18 adds Ephraim and Issachar. The text shows that people of the northern tribes remained and could return to Yahweh; it says nothing more about them than that.
• 30:18 The Torah forbade the unclean to eat the Passover at its time and gave them the second month instead (Numbers 9:6-11); these men came in the second month but were still unclean. The text says plainly that this was "otherwise than as it is written," and it does not call it right; Hezekiah did not declare them clean, but asked Yahweh to provide atonement. What he points to is the heart: "everyone who sets his heart to seek Elohim," the phrase Chronicles uses for those who truly seek Yahweh (11:16; 12:14; 19:3). "Yahweh listened to Hezekiah and healed the people" (verse 20): the Torah warned that uncleanness near the sanctuary could bring death (Leviticus 15:31), and the healing echoes the promise "I will… heal their land" (7:14). The text records a prayer and Yahweh's answer in this hour; it does not set aside the Torah's purity laws.
• 30:26 The last time the tribes of north and south had rejoiced together in Jerusalem was under Solomon, before the kingdom was divided; at the dedication of the house they also kept "the dedication of the altar seven days and the feast seven days" (7:9), and Hezekiah's assembly likewise added a second seven days. The "strangers" (gerim) of verse 25 may include foreigners living among Israel, whom the Torah allowed to keep the Passover: "according to the statute of the Passover and according to its judgment, so he shall do" (Numbers 9:14).

2 Chronicles 29 · 2 Chronicles 31

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