2 Chronicles 30:5

Proclamation. Heb. qol, literally, “a voice.” The government of Judah decreed that word should be sent to the inhabitants of Israel inviting them to the Passover. The narrative does not imply that the proclamation itself was of the nature of an official decree. Hezekiah could hardly have made an official proclamation in Hoshea’s kingdom without the cooperation of the Israelite king, and the narrative indicates no such cooperation.

From Beer-sheba even to Dan. A similar expression had been in use during the judges period (Judges 20:1; 1 Sam. 3:20) and during the period of the united monarchy (2 Sam. 3:10; 17:11; 24:2; 1 Kings 4:25; 1 Chron. 21:2), but after the division of the kingdom this is the first occasion of its use in the narrative.

Of a long time. In the days of Rehoboam of Judah many of the faithful in Israel forsook their nation that they might worship the Lord at Jerusalem (ch. 11:16, 17), and in the days of Asa many Israelites again joined their brethren in Judah (ch. 15:9). Jeroboam had established the worship of the golden calves at Bethel and Dan to keep his people from going to Jerusalem to worship (1 Kings 12:27-33), and Baasha fortified Ramah, near the border, to prevent the Israelites from falling away to Judah (2 Chron. 16:1). But now again, after so long a time, the situation was open for an invitation to worship at Jerusalem. Hoshea, a puppet of Assyria (see on 2 Kings 17:1), ruling over an already partly dismembered kingdom, was probably either too weak or too indifferent to interfere with Hezekiah’s messengers.