Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch Old Testament Commentary

The purification of the temple by the priests and Levites. - Ch2 29:3. In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he caused the doors of the house of Jahve to be opened and repaired (הזּק as in Ch2 24:12, where it alternates with הדּשׁ). Cf. herewith the remark in Kg2 18:16, that Hezekiah caused the doors of the היכל to be covered with leaf-gold. The date, in the first month, in the first year of his reign, is variously interpreted. As the Levites, according to Ch2 29:17, began the purification on the first day of the first month, in eight days had reached the porch, and on the sixteenth day of the first month had completed the work, while the king had, according to Ch2 29:4, before called upon the priests and Levites to sanctify themselves for the work, and those summoned then assembled their brethren for this purpose, and after they had consecrated themselves, began the cleansing (Ch2 29:15), it would seem as if the summons of the king and the calling together of the remaining Levites had occurred before the first day of the first month, when they began the purification of the house of God. On that account Caspari (Beitrge z. Einleit. in d. B. Jesaiah, S. 111) thinks that the first month (Ch2 29:3) is not the first month of the year (Nisan), but the first month of the reign of Hezekiah, who probably became king shortly before Nisan, towards the end of the year. But it is not at all likely that הראשׁון החדר is used in a different sense in Ch2 29:3 from that in which it is used in Ch2 29:17. We therefore hold, with Berth. and others, the first month, both in Ch2 29:3 and in Ch2 29:17, to be the first month of the ecclesiastical year Nisan, without, however, accepting the supposition of Gumpach and Bertheau that the years of Hezekiah's reign began with the first of Tishri, for for that way of reckoning there are no certain data in the historical books of the Old Testament. The statement, "in the first year of his reign, in the first month" (not in the first year, in the first month of his reign), is sufficiently explained if Hezekiah ascended the throne in one of the last months of the calendar year, which began with Nisan. In that case, on the first of Nisan of the new year, so few months, or perhaps only weeks, would have elapsed since his accession, that what he did in Nisan could not rightly have been dated otherwise than "in the first year of his reign." The other difficulty, that the purification of the temple began on the first day of the first month (Ch2 29:7), while the preparations for it which preceded were yet, according to Ch2 29:3, made also in the first month, is removed if we take Ch2 29:3 to be a comprehensive summary of what is described in the following verses, and regard the connection between Ch2 29:3 and Ch2 29:4. as only logical, not chronological, the ו consec. (ויּבא) expressing, not succession in time, but connection in thought. The opening of the doors of the house of God, and the repairing of them (Ch2 29:3), did not precede in time the summons to the priests (Ch2 29:4), but is placed at the commencement of the account of the reopening and restoration of the temple as a contrast to the closing and devastation of the sanctuary by Ahaz. Hezekiah commenced this work in the first year of his reign, in the first month of the calendar year, and accomplished it as is described in Ch2 29:4-17. If we take Ch2 29:3 as a statement of the contents of the succeeding section, - as are e.g., (Kg1 6:14; Kg1 7:1) the statements, "he built the house, and completed it," where in both passages the completion of the building is described only in the succeeding verses, - we need not confine the preparations spoken of in Ch2 29:4-15 to the first day of the first month, but may quite well suppose that these preparations preceded the first day of the month, and that only the accomplishment of that which had been resolved upon and commanded by the king fell in the first month, as is more accurately stated in Ch2 29:17. Ch2 29:4-6 Hezekiah gathered the priests and Levites together "into the open space of the east," i.e., in the eastern open space before the temple, not "in the inner court" (Berth.), - see on Ezr 10:9 -and called upon them (Ch2 29:5) to sanctify themselves, and then to sanctify the house of the Lord. To purify the temple they must first sanctify themselves (cf. Ch2 29:15), in order to proceed to the work of sanctifying the house of God in a state of Levitical purity. The work was to remove all that was unclean from the sanctuary. הנּדּה is Levitical uncleanness, for which in Ch2 29:16 we have הטּמאה; here the abominations of idolatry. The king gave the reason of his summons in a reference to the devastation which Ahaz and his contemporaries had wrought in the house of God (Ch2 29:6, Ch2 29:7), and to the wrath of God which had on that account come upon them (Ch2 29:8, Ch2 29:9). "Our fathers" (Ch2 29:6), that is, Ahaz and his contemporaries, for only these had been guilty of displeasing God in the ways mentioned in Ch2 29:6 and Ch2 29:7, "have turned away their face from the dwelling of Jahve, and turned their back (upon it)." These words are a symbolical expression for: they have ceased to worship Jahve in His temple, and exchanged it for idolatry. Ch2 29:7 Even (גּם) the doors of the porch have they shut, and caused the service in the sanctuary, the lighting of the lamps, and the sacrifices of incense, to cease; see on Ch2 28:24. The words, "and they brought not burnt-offerings in the sanctuary to the God of Israel," do not imply the complete cessation of the legal sacrificial worship, but only that no burnt-offerings were brought to the God of Israel. Sacrifices offered upon the altar of burnt-offering built after a heathen pattern by Ahaz were not, in the eyes of the author of the Chronicle, sacrifices which were offered to the God of Israel; and it is also possible that even this sacrificial worship may have more and more decayed. קדשׁ, Ch2 29:7, is the whole sanctuary, with the court of the priests. Ch2 29:8-9 Wherefore the wrath of the Lord came upon Judah and Jerusalem. Cf. for the expression, Ch2 24:18; Ch2 32:25; on Ch2 29:8, cf. Deu 28:25, Deu 28:37; Jer 24:9; Jer 25:9, etc. "As ye see with your eyes." The shameful defeats which Judah had sustained under Ahaz from the Syrians, Ephraimites, Philistines, and Edomites, and the oppression by the Syrian king (Ch2 28:5., Ch2 28:17-21), are here referred to, as we learn from Ch2 29:9. Ch2 29:10-11 To turn away this anger of God, Hezekiah wishes to make a covenant with the Lord, i.e., to renew the covenant with Jahve by restoring His worship (לבבי עם as in Ch2 6:7; Ch2 9:1; Ch1 28:2, etc.), and therefore calls upon the Levites not to neglect the performance of their duty. בּני he calls the Levites, addressing them in kindly language; cf. Pro 1:8, etc. תּשּׁלוּ in Niph. occurs only here, and denotes to avoid a thing from carelessness or laziness, - from שׁלה, to draw forth; Job 27:8. On Ch2 29:11, cf. Deu 10:8; Ch1 23:13. Ch2 29:12-14 This address was heard with gladness. The Levites present assembled their brethren, and set to work, after they had all sanctified themselves, to purify the temple. In Ch2 29:12-14 fourteen names are mentioned as those of the audience, viz.: two Levites of each of the great families of Kohath, Merari, and Gershon; two of the family of Elizaphan, i.e., Elzaphan the son of Uzziel, the son of Kohath, Exo 6:18, who in the time of Moses was prince of the family of Kohath, Num 3:30; and then two Levites of the descendants of Asaph (of the family of Gershon); two of Heman's descendants (of the family of Kohath); and two of Jeduthun's (of the family of Merari): see on Ch1 6:18-32. Of these names, Mahath, Eden, and Jehiel occur again in Ch2 31:13-15; several others, Joah ben Zimmah and Kish ben Abdi, have occurred already in the genealogy, Ch1 6:5. and Ch2 29:29, for in the various families the same name often repeats itself. Ch2 29:15 These fourteen heads of the various families and branches of Levi assembled their brethren (the other Levites who dwelt in Jerusalem); then they all sanctified themselves, and went forward, according to the command of the king, with the work of cleansing the temple. יהוה בּדברי belongs to הם כּמצות, according to the command of the king, which was founded upon the words of Jahve, i.e., upon the commands of Moses' law; cf. Ch2 30:12. Ch2 29:16 The priests went into the inner part of the house of the Lord (into the holy place, probably also into the most holy place) to cleanse it, and removed all the uncleanness which was there into the court, whence the Levites carried it out into the valley of the brook Kidron (חוּצה, out of the precincts of the temple). The Levites were forbidden by the law to enter the holy place, and this command was strictly observed. Of what nature the uncleannesses were which the priests found in the holy place (היכל) cannot be accurately ascertained. Owing to the prevalence of idolatry under Ahaz, vessels, e.g., sacrificial bowls, which were used in the worship, may have come into the holy place; and besides, all vessels of the holy place would require to be cleaned, and their filth removed. The closing of the temple doors (Ch2 28:24) occurred only in the last year of Ahaz, while idolatry had been practised from the beginning of his reign. On the Kidron, see on Kg2 23:4. Ch2 29:17 The duration of the purification. On the first day of the first month they commenced with the purification of the courts; on the eighth day of the same month they came to the porch of Jahve, and with it began the purification of the temple building. This lasted eight days more, so that the work was finished on the sixteenth day of the first month. Ch2 29:18-19 At the end of this business they made their report to the king. "All the vessels which King Ahaz had thrown away, i.e., made worthy of rejection," are the copper altar of burnt-offering, the brazen sea, and the lavers upon the bases (Kg2 16:14, Kg2 16:17). הכנּוּ, we have prepared, is a shorter form of הכיונוּ; cf. Gesen. Gramm. 72. 5, and J. Olshausen, hebr. Grammat. S. 565. The altar of Jahve is the altar of burnt-offering; cf. Ch2 29:21.