Глава 35

1–6. Celebration of Passover under Josiah according to the law of Jehovah and according to the statutes of David and Solomon. 7–17. Abundance of Easter sacrifices. 15–19. The participation of singers in the celebration, a general note about the extraordinary solemnity of the Passover celebration under Josiah. 20–27. The death of Josiah in the battle with the Egyptian pharaoh, the grief of the people and the mournful song of the prophet Jeremiah. 2 Chronicles 35:1 . And Josiah kept the Passover to the Lord in Jerusalem, and they killed the Passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the first month. 2 Chronicles 35:2 . And he appointed priests in their places, and encouraged them to serve in the house of the Lord, 2 Chronicles 35:3. And he said to the Levites, the teachers of all Israel, consecrated to the Lord: Set up the holy ark in the temple that Solomon the son of David, king of Israel, built; there is no need for you to carry it on your ramen; serve now the Lord our God and His people Israel; 2 Chronicles 35:4. stand according to your generations, according to your ranks, as was prescribed by David king of Israel, and as was prescribed by Solomon his son, 2 Chronicles 35:5. and stand in the sanctuary, according to the division of the generations of your brothers the sons of the people, and according to the division of the generations of the Levites, 2 Chronicles 35:6. and slaughter the Passover lamb, and sanctify yourself, and prepare it for your brothers, doing according to the word of the Lord through Moses. Only 3 verses are dedicated to the celebration of Passover under Josiah in the 4th book of Kings (2Kings 23:21–23); in 2 Chronicles it is set out in great detail (verses 1–19), which fully corresponds to the exceptional solemnity of this holiday under Josiah, noted in both books (according to (2 Kings 23:22) - “such a Passover was not kept since the days of the judges who judged Israel, and in all the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah"; according to (2 Chronicles 35:18) - “there was no Such a Passover has been celebrated in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet; and of all the kings of Israel, not one has celebrated such a Passover as Josiah did.” Of course, there is no need to insist on the strictly literal accuracy of these remarks when applied to the entire previous history of Israel). Great detail in the story of 2 Chronicles is already expressed in the indication (v. 1) of the day of Passover: the 14th of Nisan, i.e. on the day appointed for this purpose by the law of Moses (Ex.12:6; Lev.23:5; Num.23:16). Then this includes the ordering of the priestly and Levitical lines made by Josiah (vv. 2:4-5) and the order to the Levites to place the ark of the covenant in its place in the church (vv. 3). “But we must ask,” notes Blessed Theodoret, “how, while the ark of the covenant was inside in the Holy of Holies, Josiah ordered the Levites to sanctify themselves in order to place the holy ark in the house of God? This also means the following (remark): “and they placed 10 the holy ark in the temple that Solomon the son of David had built.” For my part, I believe that either the Assyrian, when he took the city under Manasseh, carried the ark out, or one of the wicked kings after Hezekiah did this: Manasseh or Amon, and then Josiah, having learned this circumstance, returned the ark to its place.” (Quaestiones in II Paralipomenon. Patrologia Graeca, T. 80, Col. 855–856). Some rabbis, on the contrary, arbitrarily interpreted the words of Josiah v. 3 in the sense of an order to remove the ark - in view of the upcoming dangers from the Chaldeans - in one of the outbuildings of Solomon's temple. The text, on the contrary, clearly speaks of the return of the ark to the church from some other place. Such a temporary location of the ark was considered either some secret room in the church itself from among its outbuildings, or some private house (for example, the house of Shallum, the husband of the prophetess Huldana). These, of course, are only assumptions, to which the indication of the text of verse 3 should be strongly preferred: from the words of Josiah to the Levites: “you do not need to carry it on your shoulder,” it is clear that for one reason or another the ark was also carried by the Levites, as it once was during the Jews’ wanderings in the desert (cf. Prof. Gulyaev, “Historical Books,” p. 582). 2 Chronicles 35:7. And Josiah gave a gift to the children of the people, to all who were there, of the flocks of lambs and young goats, all for the Passover sacrifice, to the number of thirty thousand and three thousand oxen. This is from the king's property. 2 Chronicles 35:8. And his princes diligently gave gifts to the people, to the priests and the Levites: Hilkiah and Zechariah and Jehiel, the rulers of the house of God, gave to the priests for the Passover sacrifice two thousand six hundred [sheep, lambs and goats] and three hundred oxen; 2 Chronicles 35:9. and Chonaniah, and Shemaiah, and Nathanael, his brothers, and Hashabiah, and Jeiel, and Jozabad, the captains of the Levites, gave to the Levites five thousand and five hundred oxen for the Passover sacrifice. The entire set of sacrifices made at the Passover festival in the 18th year of the reign of Josiah and designated by the general name “passover sacrifice” (Hebrew plural pesachim v. 9) consisted (vv. 7, 8, 9) of 37,600 small livestock (sheep and goats) and 3,800 pcs. large, which significantly exceeded even the number of victims during the Passover of Hezekiah (2 Chron. 30). 2 Chronicles 35:10. This is how the ministry was structured. And the priests stood in their places, and the Levites in their ranks, according to the king's commandment; 2 Chronicles 35:11. and they slaughtered the Passover lamb. And the priests sprinkled the blood, taking it from the hands of the Levites, and the Levites flayed it; 2 Chronicles 35:12. And they distributed what was appointed for the burnt offering, to be distributed among the divisions of the generations among the children of the people, to be offered to the Lord, as it is written in the book of Moses. They did the same with the oxen. 2 Chronicles 35:13. And they roasted the Passover lamb on the fire, according to the statute; and the sacred sacrifices were boiled in cauldrons, pots and pans, and hastily distributed to all the people, 2 Chronicles 35:14. and afterward they prepared it for themselves and for the priests, for the priests, the sons of Aaron, were busy offering burnt offerings and fats until nightfall; That is why the Levites prepared for themselves and for the priests, the sons of Aaron. Skinning the sacrificial animal was the duty of the priests (Lev. 1:6), but in this case, due to the many sacrifices, it was performed by the Levites (v. 11), as was the case during the celebration of the Passover during Hezekiah (2 Chron. 30). The whole story is 2 Chronicles 35. o Josiah's Passover, in comparison with the data of the Pentateuch about Passover ((Exod. 12:1–20, 13:3–10), (Deut. 16:1–8), etc.), presents significant features that bring this holiday closer to the post-exilic and generally later Jewish practice of celebrating it. This includes, first of all, that the slaughter of the Passover lambs in this case (v. 11) is also carried out later, after the return of the Jews from captivity (1 Ezra 6:20), by the Levites and priests, whereas according to the original law of Moses regarding the Passover, the slaughter of the lamb was provided to each individual family (Exodus 12:6). In this regard, in (2 Chronicles 35:11) it is deliberately said about the Passover sacrifice that it was the priests who performed the blood sprinkling at this sacrifice, i.e. the sacrificial significance of the Passover lamb is especially emphasized (cf. on the sprinkling of blood, see comments to (Lev. 1:5), “Explanatory Bible,” vol. I, p. 411). In the Mishnah (tr. Pesachim, V, 5–6), the sprinkling of blood also appears to be a necessary element of the Passover sacrifice. The sacrificial character of Passover appears in (2 Chronicles 35:6–9,12) all the more clearly because the Passover lamb is placed in direct connection with the festive peace offerings, so-called in later times chagiga (from Hebrew chag, “holiday”, “festive”, i.e. sacrifice, cf. Mishna, Pesachim VI, 3-4). In later times, the only logical place for the slaughter of both Passover and holiday sacrifices was recognized as the church courtyard (Mishna Pesachim, V, 8). And in (2 Chronicles 35:10) only this place is meant. The basis of all these features of the celebration of Easter under Josiah is the centralizing importance that increased under him in the religious and popular life of the Temple of Jerusalem - as a result of the religious reform carried out by this king ((2 Kings 23: 4–20); cf. W. Nowack, Lehrbuch der hebraischen Archaologie, 2-ter Bd. 1894, s.s. 172–175). 2 Chronicles 35:15. And the singers, the sons of Asaph, remained in their places, according to the decree of David and Asaph, and Heman and Jeduthun, the king's seer, and the gatekeepers at each gate: there was no reason for them to depart from their service, since their brothers the Levites prepared for them. In the Hebrew Masoretic text and in the Russian synodal translation, only Idithun is named after the seer (Heb. Jose), LXX, Vulgata, Syriac, Arabic, Slavic apply this honorary title to all three singers or psalmists, David's collaborators and creators of inspired hymns like his psalms. 2 Chronicles 35:17. And the children of Israel who were there kept the Passover at that time, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days. Regarding the duration of the Passover of Unleavened Bread, cf. (Ex.12:15; Lev.23:6; Num.28:17). 2 Chronicles 35:18. And such a Passover was not celebrated in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet; and of all the kings of Israel, not one kept such a passover as Josiah did, and the priests, and the Levites, and all the Jews and the Israelites who were there, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 2 Chronicles 35:19. In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah this Passover was celebrated. 2 Chronicles 35:20. After all that Josiah did in the house of God [and how King Josiah burned with fire the ventriloquists, and the wise men, and the high places, and the idols, and the oak groves that were in Jerusalem and Judah, to confirm the words of the law written in the book, which Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Lord, there was not one like him before him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul, and with all our strength, according to all the law of Moses; neither did anyone like him rise up after him. However, the Lord did not turn away from the great rage of His anger - the rage with which the Lord was angry with Judah for all the insults with which Manasseh was angered. And the Lord said, “I will also reject Judah from before Me, just as I rejected the house of Israel, and I will reject the city of Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the church of which I said, My name will be there.” Necho king of Egypt went to war to Carchemish on the Euphrates; and Josiah went out to meet him. 2 Chronicles 35:21. And Necho sent messengers to him, saying: What do you and I need, King of Judah? Now I am not going against you, but to where I am at war. And God commanded me to hurry; Do not resist God, who is with me, lest He destroy you. 2 Chronicles 35:22. But Josiah did not move away from him, but prepared to fight with him, and did not listen to the words of Necho on behalf of God and went out to fight on the plain of Megiddo. 2 Chronicles 35:23. And the archers shot at King Josiah, and the king said to his servants: Take me away, for I am seriously wounded. 2 Chronicles 35:24. And his servants took him down from the chariot, and put him in another chariot that he had, and took him to Jerusalem. And he died and was buried in the tombs of his fathers. And all Judea and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. 2 Chronicles 35:25. Josiah and Jeremiah mourned in a lamentable song; and all the singers and singers spoke about Josiah in their lamentable songs, known to this day, and handed them over to Israel for use; and now they are written in the book of lamentations. Here, in much more detail than in (2 Kings 23:29–30), the circumstances of the death of Josiah are outlined, and also indications are given of the unanimous cry with which the country, led by the prophet Jeremiah, honored the memory of the best of the kings of Judah. About the position of Carchemish (v. 20, Onomasticon, 954), see comments to (2 Kings 23:29) ("Explanatory Bible", vol. II, p. 573), where, however, this city is not named, and perhaps not without reason: the defeat of Pharaoh Necho by Nebuchadnezzar at Carchemish on the Euphrates occurred after the death of Josiah four years later - in the fourth year the reign of Jehoiakim of Judah (Jer.46:2); at this time, Carchemish may not have been and probably was not the goal of Necho’s movement, which was generally heading only to the possessions of Assyria (v. 21), with which Egypt had had military clashes since the time of Sennacherib. The name of Carchemis is not read here (v. 20) and in the accepted Greek text LXX, but only in codices 19, 108 in Golmes and in the Complutensian Bible, as well as in the Vulgate, Slavic and Russian texts. The accepted text of the LXX (verse 19), Slavic, Russian synodal translations (art. 20) have, in comparison with the Hebrew text, a large addition (in the Russian synodal text it is in parentheses), corresponding in content (2 Kings 23:24–26), in form somewhat different from the now named biblical passage, but probably borrowed from the latter, as the obviously generalized nature of this gives reason to think raises. In this addition, by the way, it is said that Josiah “burned ... idols and oak groves” (LXX: τὰ καρησίμ). The last word - undoubtedly an error - instead of κασησίμ in codex 121, indeed, stands καδησείμ, which serves (for example, in (2 Kings 23:7) according to the LXX translation) as a transcription of Heb. kedeshim, fornicators and harlots of Astarte-Ashera, whose cult was concentrated in groves or oak groves (from where in the LXX, Slavic, Russian languages ​​the proper name of Astarte-Ashera is often replaced by the common noun ἄλσος, oak grove). Blessed Theodorit explains the word καρησίμ in a similar way: “I believe that Κερεσίμ (as Blessed Theodorit reads this word) is a special type of mantika, because it is associated with ventriloquists, magi and teraphim” (“Patrologiae Cursus Completus. Series graeca”, t. LXXX, col. 857–858). As for Necho's reference (v. 21) to the will of God, which prompted him to go against Assyria and inevitably pass through the possessions of Josiah, this reference is directly confirmed by the sacred writer himself, v. 22 and, moreover, is very probable in itself in view of the historically known very great importance of oracles in ancient Egypt. Because some interpreters (Keil) rightly see in this characteristic feature of the story evidence of its authenticity. On the situation of Megiddo, see the commentary on (1 Kings 4:12), The Expository Bible, vol. II, p. 380. The depiction of the last minutes of Josiah’s life (vv. 23–24) breathes especially life’s truth (according to verse 22 from the Hebrew original (chap. githappesh - hid himself, changed his appearance), before the battle Josiah changed his clothes, probably into the clothes of a simple soldier, i.e. he used the same precaution as Ahab once did (1 Kings 22:30)) and touching sincerity. But the latter property appears with particular force in the further remarks of the sacred writer (vv. 24–25) about the general lamentation of the people, the capital and the country for the dead king (cf. Zech. 12:11). “Such was the virtue of this king that even the prophet Jeremiah wrote a lamentable song (συνέγραψε Θρῆνον) and gave it to singers and singers so that they would sing it, commemorating him year after year” (Theodoret, Patrologia Cursus Completus. Series Graeca, T. LXXX, Col. 858 ). In the quoted words of Blessed Theodoret, the existence of the mournful song of the prophet Jeremiah in written form is recognized. Josephus states the same thing and testifies that this scripture existed in his time: “the prophet Jeremiah composed a funeral elegy for the death of Josiah, which has survived to this day” (“Antiquities of the Jews,” book X, 5, 1). On this basis, many ancient and new interpreters (I. Lire, Mkhaelis, Date, Kalovius, etc.) identified the elegy of the prophet Jeremiah on the death of Josiah with the book of Lamentations attributed by tradition to the same prophet, in the Talmud called Kinot, qinoth (Berach 57b; Baba Batra 15a; in LXX: Θρῆνοι or Θρῆνοι Ἰερεμίου), as well as a collection of lamentable songs, singers and female singers (LXX: οἱ ἄρχοντες καὶ αἱ ἄρχοσαι, slav.: “princes and princesses”) about Josiah is called here (v. 25) Kinot, Θρῆνοι. But such an identification has no basis and must be abandoned. Strictly speaking, in this place of 2 Chronicles one cannot see any indication of the existence of a written work of the prophet Jeremiah: the general expression “mourned” (Heb. jeqonen) can also mean the prophet’s oral utterance of his elegy; the expression (at the end of v. 25) “and behold they are written in the book of lamentable songs” can only refer to those imitative elegies of singers and singers (for the widespread development among Jews of the elegy of professional singers and singers, see (Am. 5:16; Jer. 9:16–19)), for which the elegy of the prophet Jeremiah served as a model. But even if we assume that the elegy of the prophet Jeremiah on the death of Josiah was also recorded in this collection, then in any case this collection, dedicated to the memory of King Josiah, had a content completely different from the book of Lamentations, which all refers to the destruction of Jerusalem and the fall of the kingdom of Judah. Thus, together with other exegetes (Grotius, Cornelius a Lapide, Calmet, etc.), it should be recognized that in (2 Chronicles 35:25) we are talking about a special work of the prophet Jeremiah, different from the book of Lamentations, which has not survived to our time, like many other sacred Jewish records, only quoted in the Bible (see Prof. Gulyaev, p. 585; especially in M.D. Blagoveshchensky, “The Book of Lamentation.” Experience in historical and exegetical research, Kyiv 1899, pp. 78–83). The very attempt to identify two completely different works arose from the unlawful desire to find all the ancient works of the Jews mentioned in history in the Old Testament canon; in fact, the number of lost Hebrew works known from the Bible only by name is very large (see The Explanatory Bible, vol. II, p. 301). In character and content, the elegies of the prophet Jeremiah and his imitators on the death of Josiah should have resembled the elegies of David preserved in the Bible: on the death of Saul and Jonathan - the so-called “bow”, qescheth (2 Samuel 1:18–27), and on the death of Abner (2 Samuel 3:33–34). 2 Chronicles 35:26. Other acts of Josiah and his virtues, consistent with those prescribed in the law of the Lord, 2 Chronicles 35:27. and his deeds, the first and the last, are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah. But if the elegy of the prophet Jeremiah has not been preserved, perhaps by the time the book was written. Chronicles, then its historical records about the time of Josiah, as well as the later kings of Judah, undoubtedly were part of the “book of the kings of Israel and Judah” (v. 27) and thus were one of the sources when writing both 3 and 4 Kings (see “Explanatory Bible”, vol. II, p. 360), and 1 and 2 books of Chronicles. That the prophet Jeremiah wrote, in addition to the prophetic (his name) and poetic (book of Lamentations) books, also historical notes, can be seen from (2 Mac. 2: 1–7) and from the Talmud (Baba batra 15a; Prof. Olesnitsky, “State Chronicle of the Kings of Judah,” p. 464). LXX, Slavic text, instead of the imperative mood in the Hebrew, Vulgata, Russian synodal translation: “put”, they have an aorist: καὶ ἐθηκαν, “and put” You might be interested in: