2 Chronicles 35

2Ch 35:1-19.

JOSIAH

KEEPS A

SOLEMN

PASSOVER.

1-3. Moreover Josiah kept a

passover--(See on

2Ki 23:21).

The first nine verses give an account of the preparations made for the

celebration of the solemn feast

[2Ch 35:1-9].

The day appointed by the law was kept on this occasion (compare

2Ch 30:2, 13).

The priests were ranged in their courses and exhorted to be ready for

their duties in the manner that legal purity required (compare

2Ch 29:5).

The Levites, the ministers or instructors of the people in all matters

pertaining to the divine worship, were commanded

(2Ch 35:3)

to "put the holy ark in the house which Solomon did build." Their duty

was to transport the ark from place to place according to

circumstances. Some think that it had been ignominiously put away from

the sanctuary by order of some idolatrous king, probably Manasseh, who

set a carved image in the house of God

(2Ch 33:7),

or Amon; while others are of opinion that it had been temporarily

removed by Josiah himself into some adjoining chamber, during the

repairs on the temple. In replacing it, the Levites had evidently

carried it upon their shoulders, deeming that still to be the duty

which the law imposed on them. But Josiah reminded them of the change

of circumstances. As the service of God was now performed in a fixed

and permanent temple, they were not required to be bearers of the ark

any longer; and, being released from the service, they should address

themselves with the greater alacrity to the discharge of other

functions.

4. prepare yourselves by the houses of your fathers, after your

courses--Each course or division was to be composed of those who

belonged to the same fathers' house.

according to the writing of David and . . . Solomon--Their injunctions

are recorded

(2Ch 8:14;

1Ch 23:1-26:32).

5. stand in the holy place--in the court of the priests, the place

where the victims were killed. The people were admitted according to

their families in groups or companies of several households at a time.

When the first company entered the court (which consisted commonly of

as many as it could well hold), the gates were shut and the offering

was made. The Levites stood in rows from the slaughtering places to the

altar, and handed the blood and fat from one to another of the

officiating priests

(2Ch 30:16-18).

6. So kill the passover, &c.--The design of the minute directions

given here was to facilitate the distribution of the paschal lambs.

These were to be eaten by the respective families according to their

numbers

(Ex 12:3).

But multitudes of the people, especially those from Israel, having been

reduced to poverty through the Assyrian devastations, were to be

provided with the means of commemorating the passover. Therefore, the

king enjoined the Levites that when the paschal lambs were brought to

them to be killed

(2Ch 35:7-9)

they should take care to have everything put in so orderly a train,

that the lambs, after due presentation, might be easily delivered to

the various families to be roasted and eaten by themselves apart.

7. Josiah gave to the people . . . lambs and kids--These were in all

probability destined for the poor; a lamb or a kid might be used at

convenience

(Ex 12:5).

and . . . bullocks--which were offered after the lambs on each of the

successive days of the feast.

8, 9. his princes--These gave to the priests and Levites; as those of

Hezekiah's princes

(2Ch 30:24).

They were ecclesiastical princes; namely, Hilkiah the high priest

(2Ch 34:9).

Zechariah, probably the second priest of the Eleazar

(2Ki 16:18),

and Jehiel, of the Ithamar line. And as the Levitical tribes were not

yet sufficiently provided

(2Ch 35:9),

some of their eminent brethren who had been distinguished in Hezekiah's

time

(2Ch 31:12-15),

gave a large additional contribution for the use of the Levites

exclusively.

10, 11. So the service was prepared, &c.--All the necessary

preparations having been completed, and the appointed time having

arrived for the passover, the solemnity was celebrated. One remarkable

feature in the account is the prominent part that was taken by the

Levites in the preparation of the sacrifices; namely, the killing and

stripping of the skins, which were properly the peculiar duties of the

priests; but as those functionaries were not able to overtake the

extraordinary amount of work and the Levites had been duly sanctified

for the service, they were enlisted for the time in this priestly

employment. At the passover in Hezekiah's time, the Levites officiated

in the same departments of duty, the reason assigned for that deviation

from the established rule being the unprepared state of many of the

people

(2Ch 30:17).

But on this occasion the whole people had been duly sanctified, and

therefore the exceptional enlistment of the Levites' services must have

been rendered unavoidably necessary from the multitudes engaged in

celebrating the passover.

12. they removed the burnt offerings--Some of the small cattle being

designed for burnt offerings were put apart by themselves, that they

might not be intermingled with the paschal lambs, which were carefully

selected according to certain rules, and intended to be sacramentally

eaten; and the manner in which those burnt offerings were presented

seems to have been the following: "All the subdivisions of the

different fathers' houses came one after another to the altar in solemn

procession to bring to the priests the portions which had been cut off,

and the priests laid these pieces upon the fire of the altar of burnt

offering."

13. they roasted the passover with fire according to the

ordinance--(See

Ex 12:7-9).

This mode of preparation was prescribed by the law exclusively for the

paschal lamb; the other offerings and thank offerings were cooked in

pots, kettles, and pans

(1Sa 2:14).

divided them speedily among the people--The haste was either owing to

the multiplicity of the priests' business, or because the heat and

flavor of the viands would have been otherwise diminished. Hence it

appears that the meal consisted not of the paschal lambs alone, but of

the meat of the thank offerings--for part of the flesh fell to the

portion of the offerer, who, being in this instance, the king and the

princes, were by them made over to the people, who were recommended to

eat them the day they were offered, though not absolutely forbidden to

do so on the next

(Le 7:15-18).

14. afterwards they made ready for themselves, and for the priests--The

Levites rendered this aid to the priests solely because they were so

engrossed the entire day that they had no leisure to provide any

refreshments for themselves.

15. And the singers . . ., were in their place--While the priests and

people were so much engaged, the choir was not idle. They had to sing

certain Psalms, namely, the hundred thirteenth to the hundred

eighteenth inclusive, once, twice, and even a third time, during the

continuance of each company of offerers. As they could not leave their

posts, for the singing was resumed as every fresh company entered, the

Levites prepared for them also; for the various bands relieved each

other in turn, and while the general choir was doing duty, a portion of

the tuneful brethren, relieved for a time, partook of the viands that

were brought them.

18. there was no passover like to that kept in Israel from the days of

Samuel--One feature by which this passover was distinguished was the

liberality of Josiah. But what distinguished it above all preceding

solemnities was, not the imposing grandeur of the ceremonies, nor the

immensity of the assembled concourse of worshippers; for these, with

the exception of a few from the kingdom of Israel, were confined to two

tribes; but it was the ardent devotion of the king and people, the

disregard of purely traditional customs, and the unusually strict

adherence, even in the smallest minutiæ, to the forms of observance

prescribed in the book of the law, the discovery of an original copy of

which had produced so great a sensation. Instead of "from the days of

Samuel," the author of the Book of Kings says, "from the days of the

judges who judged Israel"

[2Ki 23:22].

The meaning is the same in both passages, for Samuel concluded the era

of the judges.

all Judah and Israel that were present--The great majority of the

people of the northern kingdom were in exile, but some of the remaining

inhabitants performed the journey to Jerusalem on this occasion. 37,600

paschal lambs and kids were used, which

[2Ch 35:7],

at ten to a company, would make 376,000 persons attending the

feast.

19. In the eighteenth year of the reign Josiah was this passover

kept--"It is said

(2Ki 22:3)

that Josiah sent Shaphan to Hilkiah in the eighth month of that year."

If this statement rests upon an historical basis, all the events

narrated here (at

2Ch 34:8-35:19)

must have happened in about the space of five months and a half. We

should then have a proof that the eighteenth year of Josiah's reign was

reckoned from the autumn (compare

2Ch 29:3).

"The eighth month" of the sacred year in the eighteenth year of his

reign would be the second month of his eighteenth year, and the first

month of the new year would be the seventh month [BERTHEAU].

2Ch 35:20-27.

HIS

DEATH.

20. After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple--He most

probably calculated that the restoration of the divine worship, with

the revival of vital religion in the land, would lead, according to

God's promise and the uniform experience of the Hebrew people, to a

period of settled peace and increased prosperity. His hopes were

disappointed. The bright interval of tranquillity that followed his

re-establishment of the true religion was brief. But it must be

observed that this interruption did not proceed from any unfaithfulness

in the divine promise, but from the state into which the kingdom of

Judah had brought itself by the national apostasy, which was drawing

down upon it the long threatened but long deferred judgments of God.

Necho king of Egypt came up to fight against Carchemish by

Euphrates--Necho, son of Psammetichus, succeeded to the throne of

Egypt in the twentieth year of Josiah. He was a bold and enterprising

king, who entered with all his heart into the struggle which the two

great powers of Egypt and Assyria had long carried on for the political

ascendency. Each, jealous of the aggressive movements of its rival, was

desirous to maintain Palestine as a frontier barrier. After the

overthrow of Israel, the kingdom of Judah became in that respect doubly

important. Although the king and people had a strong bias for alliance

with Egypt, yet from the time of Manasseh it had become a vassal of

Assyria. Josiah, true to his political no less than his religious

engagements, thought himself bound to support the interests of his

Assyrian liege lord. Hence, when "Necho king of Egypt came up to fight

Carchemish, Josiah went out against him." Carchemish, on the eastern

side of the Euphrates, was the key of Assyria on the west, and in going

thither the king of Egypt would transport his troops by sea along the

coast of Palestine, northwards. Josiah, as a faithful vassal, resolved

to oppose Necho's march across the northern parts of that country. They

met in the "valley of Megiddo," that is, the valley or plain of

Esdraelon. The Egyptian king had come either by water or through the

plains of Philistia, keeping constantly along the coast, round the

northwest corner of Carmel, and so to the great plain of Megiddo. This

was not only his direct way to the Euphrates, but the only route fit

for his chariots, while thereby also he left Judah and Jerusalem quite

to his right. In this valley, however, the Egyptian army had

necessarily to strike across the country, and it was on that occasion

that Josiah could most conveniently intercept his passage. To avoid the

difficulty of passing the river Kishon, Necho kept to the south of it,

and must, therefore, have come past Megiddo. Josiah, in following with

his chariots and horsemen from Jerusalem, had to march northwards along

the highway through Samaria by Kefr-Kud (the ancient Caper-Cotia) to

Megiddo [VAN

DE

VELDE].

21, 22. But he sent ambassadors . . . What have I to do with thee, thou

king of Judah?--Not wishing to spend time, or strength in vain, Necho

informed the king of Judah that he had no intention of molesting the

Jews; that his expedition was directed solely against his old Assyrian

enemy; and that he had undertaken it by an express commission from God.

Commentators are not agreed whether it was really a divine commission

given him through Jeremiah, or whether he merely used the name of God

as an authority that Josiah would not refuse to obey. As he could not

know the truth of Necho's declaration, Josiah did not sin in opposing

him; or, if he sinned at all, it was a sin of ignorance. The engagement

took place. Josiah was mortally wounded

[2Ch 35:23].

24. took him out of that chariot, and put him in the second

chariot--the carriage he had for ordinary use, and which would be

more comfortable for the royal sufferer than the war chariot. The death

of this good king was the subject of universal and lasting regret.

25. Jeremiah lamented for Josiah, &c.--The elegy of the prophet has

not reached us; but it seems to have been long preserved among his

countrymen and chanted on certain public occasions by the professional

singers, who probably got the dirges they sang from a collection of

funeral odes composed on the death of good and great men of the nation.

The spot in the valley of Megiddo where the battle was fought was near

the town of Hadad-rimmon; hence the lamentation for the death of Josiah

was called "the lamentation of Hadad-rimmon in the valley of Megiddo,"

which was so great and so long continued, that the lamentation of Hadad

passed afterwards into a proverbial phrase to express any great and

extraordinary sorrow

(Zec 12:11).