Explore the Bible Online

2 Chronicles 35:1-19

King James Version (KJV)

“In our prayers we talk to God, in our Bible study God talks to us, and we had better let God do most of the talking.”
— D.L. Moody

Scripture focus

1. Moreover Josiah kept a passover unto the LORD in Jerusalem: and they killed the passover on the fourteenth [day] of the first month. 2. And he set the priests in their charges, and encouraged them to the service of the house of the LORD, 3. And said unto the Levites that taught all Israel, which were holy unto the LORD, Put the holy ark in the house which Solomon the son of David king of Israel did build; [it shall] not [be] a burden upon [your] shoulders: serve now the LORD your God, and his people Israel, 4. And prepare [yourselves] by the houses of your fathers, after your courses, according to the writing of David king of Israel, and according to the writing of Solomon his son. 5. And stand in the holy [place] according to the divisions of the families of the fathers of your brethren the people, and [after] the division of the families of the Levites. 6. So kill the passover, and sanctify yourselves, and prepare your brethren, that [they] may do according to the word of the LORD by the hand of Moses. 7. And Josiah gave to the people, of the flock, lambs and kids, all for the passover offerings, for all that were present, to the number of thirty thousand, and three thousand bullocks: these [were] of the king’s substance. 8. And his princes gave willingly unto the people, to the priests, and to the Levites: Hilkiah and Zechariah and Jehiel, rulers of the house of God, gave unto the priests for the passover offerings two thousand and six hundred [small cattle], and three hundred oxen. 9. Conaniah also, and Shemaiah and Nethaneel, his brethren, and Hashabiah and Jeiel and Jozabad, chief of the Levites, gave unto the Levites for passover offerings five thousand [small cattle], and five hundred oxen. 10. So the service was prepared, and the priests stood in their place, and the Levites in their courses, according to the king’s commandment. 11. And they killed the passover, and the priests sprinkled [the blood] from their hands, and the Levites flayed [them]. 12. And they removed the burnt offerings, that they might give according to the divisions of the families of the people, to offer unto the LORD, as [it is] written in the book of Moses. And so [did they] with the oxen. 13. And they roasted the passover with fire according to the ordinance: but the [other] holy [offerings] sod they in pots, and in caldrons, and in pans, and divided [them] speedily among all the people. 14. And afterward they made ready for themselves, and for the priests: because the priests the sons of Aaron [were busied] in offering of burnt offerings and the fat until night; therefore the Levites prepared for themselves, and for the priests the sons of Aaron. 15. And the singers the sons of Asaph [were] in their place, according to the commandment of David, and Asaph, and Heman, and Jeduthun the king’s seer; and the porters [waited] at every gate; they might not depart from their service; for their brethren the Levites prepared for them. 16. So all the service of the LORD was prepared the same day, to keep the passover, and to offer burnt offerings upon the altar of the LORD, according to the commandment of king Josiah. 17. And the children of Israel that were present kept the passover at that time, and the feast of unleavened bread seven days. 18. And there was no passover like to that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet; neither did all the kings of Israel keep such a passover as Josiah kept, and the priests, and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel that were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 19. In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah was this passover kept.

2 Chronicles 35:1-19 — KJV

Commentary

Commentary on 2 Chronicles 35:1

Theological / Devotional

Kept a passover. Chronicles gives a long and detailed account of Josiah’s Passover (vs. 1-19), whereas the parallel section in Kings is very brief (2 Kings 23:21-23).

There is no need to find, as some do, a difficulty in the narrative because so many activities of the 18th year of Josiah took place before the 14th of the 1st month of that year. It is obvious that 13 days is an impossibly short time to take away “all the abominations out of all the countries that pertained to the children of Israel”—to say nothing of slaying all the Israelite priests and moving those of the high places of Judah to Jerusalem—and to prepare for the greatest Passover ever held in the kingdom, even if, as some suggest, the long account in Kings includes some of the events of the earlier reform that began in the 12th year. It has been suggested that the campaign against idolatry of the 18th year did not begin until after the feasts of the Passover and of the Unleavened Bread. The sequence of the narratives seems to be against this, as is also the statement that the local priests of Judah were brought to Jerusalem to “eat of the unleavened bread among their brethren.”

But even if the campaign against idolatry is placed subsequent to the Passover, there is still insufficient time for the other events recorded to have taken place between the 1st and 14th day of the same month. The money had been counted and paid out to the contractors before the book was delivered to the king; then came the formal consultation with Huldah, the convening of a large assembly to make the covenant of obedience, and then preparations for a major festival by people unaccustomed to the procedure but determined to observe it according to all the regulations. The lambs (more than 30,000 were used) were normally set aside on the 10th of the month, and Temple arrangements needed to be made for these and for the thousands of other offerings; also multitudes of worshipers must travel to Jerusalem and find accommodations before the 14th. Even without the reform campaign the timing is impossible.

But attempts to crowd all these events into such a short period are unnecessary. The obvious solution lies in the fact that the month Abib (later Nisan), which was always numbered the first, was the first of the religious year, but not of the civil year (see Vol. II, pp. 109, 110, 116). Obviously the 18th regnal year of Josiah did not begin two weeks before the Passover, but had begun six months earlier with the 1st of Tishri (the 7th month), the autumn New Year (see Vol. II, pp. 106, 109, 134, 146).

The events leading up to this Passover may be summarized from 2 Kings 22 and 23; 2 Chron. 34 and 35, as follows:

1. In the 18th year of his reign Josiah sent Shaphan the scribe to tell the high priest to “sum the silver” (2 Kings 22:4) collected by the Temple doorkeepers and to make arrangements for repairing the Temple.

2. “When they brought out the money” (2 Chron. 34:14) the book of the law was found.

3. Hilkiah the priest gave the book to Shaphan, who read it.

4. Shaphan came before the king, announced that the money had been gathered and delivered to those who had oversight of the repair work, and then he read the newly found book to the king.

5. The king sent high officials to inquire of Huldah the prophetess.

6. Josiah summoned to the Temple “all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem” and “all the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem” as well as “all the people, great and small” (2 Chron. 34:29, 30) and read the book to them, whereupon the people made a covenant with the Lord to obey what was written in the book.

7. Josiah “took away all the abominations out of all the countries that pertained to the children of Israel” (2 Chron. 34:33). The campaign was thorough and extensive (2 Kings 23:4-20).

8. Josiah commanded the people to keep the Passover “as it is written in the book of this covenant” (2 Kings 23:21).

9. The Passover was kept, the greatest ever held in the kingdom, on the 14th of the 1st month of the same 18th year (2 Chron. 35:1, 19).

The fourteenth day of the first month. Moses directed that this was the date on which the Passover should be observed (Lev. 23:5); it was not a delayed feast in the second month, as was Hezekiah’s (2 Chron. 30:2, 13). The “first month” referred to the beginning of the religious year, and was called Abib (later Nisan), and came in the spring (see Vol. II, p. 105).

By SdaBc