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Celebration of Passover in the first year of King Hezekiah 1–12. The decision of the king and nobles to postpone the celebration of Passover to the second month and to invite all residents of Judea and the kingdom of Israel to the holiday. 13–22. The gathering of people to Jerusalem, the destruction of idol altars, the seven-day celebration of Passover and Hezekiah’s prayer for those who were not purified. 23–27. The abundance of victims during the subsequent extension of the holiday. 2 Chronicles 30:1. And Hezekiah sent throughout all the land of Israel and Judah, and wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh, so that they would come to the house of the Lord, to Jerusalem, to celebrate the Passover to the Lord God of Israel. 2 Chronicles 30:2. And in council the king and his princes and the whole congregation in Jerusalem decided to keep the Passover in the second month, 2 Chronicles 30:3. for they could not accomplish it in due time, because the priests had not yet been sanctified in sufficient numbers and the people had not gathered to Jerusalem. 2 Chronicles 30:4. And the king and the whole assembly liked it. 2 Chronicles 30:5. And they decided to proclaim throughout all Israel, from Beersheba to Dan, that they should go to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover to the Lord God of Israel, because for a long time they had not celebrated it as prescribed. 2 Chronicles 30:6. And messengers went with letters from the king and from his princes throughout all the land of Israel and Judah, and at the command of the king they said: Children of Israel! turn to the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, and He will turn to the remnant you have left from the hand of the kings of Assyria. 2 Chronicles 30:7. And do not be like your fathers and your brothers, who acted iniquity before the Lord God of their fathers; and He gave them up for desolation, as you see. 2 Chronicles 30:8. Now do not be stiff-necked like your fathers, submit yourself to the Lord and come to His sanctuary, which He has sanctified forever; and serve the Lord your God, and He will turn away the flame of His wrath from you. 2 Chronicles 30:9. When you turn to the Lord, then your brothers and your children will be favored by those who captivated them and will return to this land, for the Lord your God is good and merciful and will not turn His face away from you if you turn to Him. 2 Chronicles 30:10. And messengers went from city to city through the land of Ephraim and Manasseh and to Zebulun, but they laughed and mocked them. 2 Chronicles 30:11. However, some of the tribes of Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem. 2 Chronicles 30:12. And the hand of God was over Judea, giving them one heart to fulfill the command of the king and princes, according to the word of the Lord. The restoration of the true cult by Hezekiah (2 Chronicles 29:21–36) had to be expressed in the deliberately solemn celebration of holidays, as one of the most important elements of the cult. It is known that Solomon, after the consecration of the church he created, solemnly celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles in it ((1 Kings 8:65–66), (2 Chronicles 7:8–10); cf. “Explanatory Bible” vol. II, pp. 407–408); This holiday was celebrated in a similar way under Ezra after the consecration of the altar, completed by those who returned from captivity (1 Ezra 3:4) and under Nehemiah - after the construction of the walls of Jerusalem (Neh. 8:14). In this case, under Hezekiah, the restoration of the cult took place in the first month (Nisan, ancient Aviv) of the year (2 Chronicles 29:17), on the 14th day of which, according to the law, the holiday of Passover was celebrated - unleavened bread (Ex. 12:18; Lev. 23: 5-6; Num. 28: 16-17) (cf. "Explanatory Bible", vol. I, p. 309–311 and 482–483). But since the cleansing and consecration of the church ended only on the 16th day of the first month (2 Chronicles 29:17), Easter could not be celebrated this year in a timely manner, and with the general consent of the king, elders and people, it was decided to move the celebration of Easter to the second month of the year (2 Chronicles 30:2-4), to the 14th day of this month, in strict accordance with the decree of the law on the celebration of Easter a month later by persons ritually unclean, on the road and for other valid reasons unable to celebrate the 14th of Nisan ((Num. 9:10–11), “Explanatory Bible”, vol. I, p. 526). This is the so-called Second or Lesser Passover (Mishna, tractate Pesachim IX, 1 ff; Rosh Hashanah I, 3). Quite arbitrarily, some Talmudists saw in Hezekiah’s transfer of Passover to the second month of the year the insertion of an extra, additional month, the so-called second Adar (Heb. adar scheni or veadar), a measure for regulating the Jewish calendar, which was actually practiced in the so-called Methonic reckoning; but in this case, not only is there no indication in favor of this opinion, but on the contrary, indicated in Art. 3 motif, referring to (Num. 9:10–11), directly excludes the idea of ​​some kind of calendar reform (Karaite Jews rightly reject the idea of ​​Hezekiah inserting a second adar). Even more arbitrary is the opinion of the newest biblical scholars, adherents of the evolutionary theory as applied to biblical history, that Hezekiah’s Passover (chapter 2 Chronicles 30) is not a historical fact, but an invention of the chronicler, created by him on the model of the Passover of King Josiah (2 Chronicles 35: 1-19). We said above that, on the contrary, there is nothing more natural than that the renewal of the cult under Hezekiah was accompanied by a particularly solemn celebration of Easter. Here we add that both reforms - Hezekiah and Josiah, caused by the same reasons and goals, inevitably resembled one another, and therefore the deliberate celebration of Easter in both cases does not represent anything incredible; this must be said, in particular, about the remark of Art. 26 (cf. a similar remark about Josiah's Passover (2 Kings 23:22; 2 Chronicles 35:18)). As for Hezekiah’s message and embassy to the inhabitants of the ten-tribe kingdom, first to the closest tribes to the northern border of Judah - Ephraim and Manasseh (v. 1), and then to more distant ones (vv. 5, 10) with an exhortation to turn to Jehovah and come to Jerusalem for the holiday (vv. 5-9), then Hezekiah’s invasion of another state, which is incomprehensible at first glance, can be explained partly because this invasion had spiritual, religious motives, and not political ones. Then the weakness of the Kingdom of Israel under Hezekiah’s contemporary Hosea was obvious and its fall followed just 5 years after that described in Chapter. (2 Chronicles 30) Passover (2 Kings 18:10). Finally, if you believe the Jewish tradition, Hosea, generally better than other Israeli kings (2 Kings 17:2), abolished the restrictions for his subjects to visit Jerusalem (cf., however, what was said in the “Explanatory Bible,” vol. II, pp. 535–536). From the fact that Hezekiah addresses the Israelites with written messages (Heb.: iggeroth, ἐπιστολαί, v. 1, 6), the prevalence of literacy and the art of writing among the Jews under Hezekiah (i.e. in the 8th century BC) is obvious. X.), although the Hebrew word iggeret itself is of later and probably Assyrian origin (in Assyrian - egirtu): it is found only in biblical books of post-exilic origin and is used almost exclusively in royal, government messages or edicts (Neh. 2: 7–9, 6: 5, 17, 19), etc.). In the Slavic text: “do not harden your hearts” is an exact rendering of the accepted Greek text LXX: μὴ σκληρόνητε τὰς καρδίας ὑμῶν. But the Hebrew (orpechem), Vulgata (cervices) and Russian ("zhestokovany") texts do not have hearts, but necks, the latter is confirmed by the use of the same phrase in other parallel biblical places (2 Kings 17:14; 2 Chronicles 36:13, etc.). Many Greek codes (19, 52, 60, 64, 74, 93, 106, 108, 119, 120, 121, 134, 236, 243 in Golmes, the Complutensian Bible, the Aldinian Bible, cf. Origen's Hexaples) also have: τούς τραχὴλους ύμιῶν. The embassy to the kingdom of Israel, despite the unfavorable reception in places (v. 10), generally achieved its goal (vv. 11–12). 2 Chronicles 30:13. And a multitude of people gathered together in Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the second month—a very large congregation. 2 Chronicles 30:14. And they rose up and overthrew the altars that were in Jerusalem; and everything on which incense was made [to idols] was destroyed and thrown into the brook Kidron; 2 Chronicles 30:15. and they slaughtered the Passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the second month. The priests and Levites were ashamed and sanctified themselves and brought burnt offerings to the house of the Lord, 2 Chronicles 30:16. and they stood in their place according to their statute, according to the law of Moses the man of God. The priests sprinkled blood [receiving it] from the hands of the Levites. 2 Chronicles 30:17. Since there were many in the congregation who were not sanctified, instead of the unclean ones the Levites slaughtered the Passover lamb for dedication to the Lord. 2 Chronicles 30:18. Many of the people, mostly from the tribe of Ephraim and Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun, were not cleansed; however, they did not eat Passover according to the rules. 2 Chronicles 30:19. But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying: May the good Lord forgive everyone who has disposed his heart to seek the Lord God, the God of his fathers, although without the purification of the sacred! 2 Chronicles 30:20. And the Lord heard Hezekiah and forgave the people. 2 Chronicles 30:21. And the children of Israel, who were in Jerusalem, kept the feast of unleavened bread for seven days with great joy; Every day the Levites and priests praised the Lord on the instruments built for praising the Lord. 2 Chronicles 30:22. And Hezekiah spoke according to the heart of all the Levites who had good understanding in serving the Lord. And they ate the feast seven days, offering peace offerings and glorifying the Lord God of their fathers. The Jews and Israelis who had gathered in Jerusalem in great numbers before the celebration of Passover performed (v. 14) an act of cleansing of the holy city, destroying in its various places the altars to idols, once created by Ahaz (2 Chronicles 28:24). This example of sacred zeal prompted the priests and Levites, who had not previously shown any particular energy in the matter of comprehensive purification of the cult (v. 3), (see (2 Chron. 29:34) and note to the last place), hastily and carefully “sanctified” (Heb.: itkaddeshu, Vulgata: sanctificati). But LXX in the accepted text has: ἥγνισαν, in most other codes, such as: XI, 44, 52, 60, 64, 74, 106, 119, 120, 121, 134, 158, 236, 243 in Golmes, etc.: ἡγνίσθησαν, and only in a few codes (19, 93, 108, Complutensian): ἡγιάσθησαν. From Art. 17 one can see that the slaughter of the Passover lamb, according to the original law on Passover (Exodus 12:6), as well as the slaughter of any sacrifice in general, even at the sanctuary ((Lev.1:5); “Explanatory Bible” vol. I, p. 411) was the work of the owner-sacrifices themselves, excluding cases of their ritual impurity, when the slaughter was performed by the Levites. Eating any holy thing, and therefore the Passover meal, in ritual uncleanness was expressly prohibited in the law (Lev.15:31, 22:4; Num.9:6). The unrefined Israelites (v. 18), who had long ago severed their connection with the legal cult of the Jerusalem Temple, ate the Passover in this state and found themselves violating the law. But Hezekiah, realizing that their reunification with the church is more important than the details of the ritual, prays for them to Jehovah for forgiveness of their not entirely conscious sin; in this case, the pious king was likened to the great Moses in his intercession for the people of Israel who sinned at Sinai (Ex. 32:30). In both cases, the outstanding people of the Old Testament rose significantly above the average level of religious and moral consciousness, rising almost to the heights of gospel concepts. Accordingly, in both cases, God’s grace-filled forgiveness of the sins of the people followed (“forgave” – verse 20; Hebrew “healed” – irpa; Greek ἰάσατο, i.e. sin as a spiritual illness; cf. (Ps. 40:5)), and also averted the punishment of death, etc. 2 Chronicles 30:23. And the whole assembly decided to celebrate another seven days, and spent these seven days in joy, 2 Chronicles 30:24. for Hezekiah king of Judah set forth a thousand bullocks and ten thousand flocks for those assembled, and the nobles set forth a thousand bullocks and ten thousand flocks for those assembled; and many priests have already been consecrated. 2 Chronicles 30:25. And all those who were gathered from Judah rejoiced, both the priests and the Levites, and all the congregation that came from Israel, and the strangers that came from the land of Israel and dwelt in Judah. 2 Chronicles 30:26. And there was great joy in Jerusalem, because since the days of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel, there had never been anything like this in Jerusalem. 2 Chronicles 30:27. And the priests and the Levites stood up and blessed the people; and their voice was heard, and their prayer ascended into His holy dwelling in heaven. The extension of the Passover holiday for the next seven days (v. 23) could have been motivated by a similar example of Solomon at the consecration of the church ((2 Chronicles 7:8-9), (1 Kings 8:65), see The Expository Bible, vol. II, p. 407). The mention of Solomon in the speech (v. 26) about the extraordinary solemnity of Hezekiah’s Passover also has this meaning: however, the mention of Solomon in this story, Ch. (2 Chronicles 30) about the participation in the Jerusalem holiday of members of individual tribes of the Kingdom of Israel, the chronological date is also significant: after the death of Solomon, the ten tribes of Israel were torn away from the house of David and the temple of Jerusalem, and only now part of them were religiously reunited with the Jewish people and the church; In connection with this reunion, it was natural to recall the time of the inseparable existence of Judah and Israel, which ended with the death of Solomon. In verse 25, when listing the participants in the celebration, the accepted text of the LXX, instead of what is in the Hebrew, Vulgata, Russian text, “came from Israel” (or according to the Hebrew codex 259 in Kennicott, “from the land of Israel”) has: “from Jerusalem”: ἐξ Ἰερουσαλήμ (glory: “coming from Jerusalem”). But many codes, like XI, 19, 55, 93, 119, 153, Complutensian, have ἐξ Ἰσραὴλ (or ἐκ γῆς Ἰσραὴλ - code 108 in Golmes). Both external, textual and internal data encourage us to prefer reading the Hebrew text: the mention of “those who came from Jerusalem” to the Jerusalem celebration in itself is not natural, while the speech about pilgrims from the kingdom of Israel who arrived in Jerusalem is understandable in connection with the previous one. In addition to the Jews and Israelites, aliens are also named here (v. 25) (Heb. Gerim, LXX: προσή λυτοι) - without a doubt, naturalized and entered into the theocratic society through circumcision, since an uncircumcised foreigner certainly could not eat the Passover ((Ex. 12:43,48 ); "Explanatory Bible", vol. I, p. 315). The right and duty to bless the people (at the end of the day's service belonged exclusively to the priests (led by the high priest), but not at all to the Levites: in this case (v. 27), the latter only aggravated the solemnity of the blessing by playing musical instruments and exclamations (cf. v. 22). You might be interested in: