And he set the priests in their charges ,.... In their offices, and in their proper places, to execute them: and encouraged them to the service of the house of the Lord ; to attend it with cheerfulness and constancy, and do it according to the will of God, promising his favour and protection. read more
solemn celebration of the Passover. (For the homiletics of this passage, or the subject of it, see those written on 2 Chronicles 30:1-27 .) read more
The great Passover of Josiah. I. GREAT IN RESPECT OF ITS CONFORMITY TO THE LAW . To suppose (De Wette, Thenius, and others) that never before had a Passover been observed in Israel or Judah since the days of Samuel ( 2 Chronicles 35:18 ; 1 Esdras 1:20, 21) or of the judges ( 2 Kings 23:22 ), is not only to extract an unwarrantable inference from the sacred text, but is contradicted by the fact that Hezekiah, a former King of Judah, celebrated a Passover in Jerusalem... read more
Comp. 2 Chronicles 7:6 ; 2 Chronicles 31:2 ; 1 Chronicles 23:32 ; and our notes in those places. read more
The final reform (34:1-35:27)Another reform swept Judah during the reign of Josiah (34:1-33; see notes on 2 Kings 22:1-23:20). As with the reform of Hezekiah, the climax in the eyes of the Chronicler was a great Passover Feast in Jerusalem.After returning the ark to its rightful place in the temple, the priests and Levites prepared themselves for their duties. Josiah arranged them in divisions as Hezekiah had done earlier, so that the music, singing, sacrifices and other rituals could be... read more
he set the priests, &c. This passover is interesting from the succinct description of its observance. read more
2. Josiah’s Passover 35:1-19As Hezekiah had done, Josiah led his people in observing the Passover, that greatest feast of Israel that commemorated her redemption from Egyptian slavery. Josiah’s Passover was even greater than Hezekiah’s, which Hezekiah had put together quickly (2 Chronicles 35:18; cf. 2 Chronicles 29:36). Josiah offered almost twice as many sacrifices as Hezekiah did (2 Chronicles 30:24), but far fewer than Solomon did at the temple dedication (2 Chronicles 7:5). The writer’s... read more
P. Josiah chs. 34-35Like Amon’s death (2 Chronicles 33:24), Josiah’s was unnecessarily premature. However, unlike Amon, Josiah was one of Judah’s reformers."Josiah instituted the most thorough of all the OT reforms . . ." [Note: Idem, "1, 2 Chronicles," p. 549.] "Despite this, however, Josiah is not so significant a monarch overall for the Chronicler as he is for the earlier historian [i.e., the writer of Kings]. Much that he records is now to be understood as recapitulation of Hezekiah’s work,... read more
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Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - 2 Chronicles 35:1-19
The destruction which Josiah made of idols and idolatry was more largely related in the Kings, but just mentioned here in the foregoing chapter (2 Chron. 34:33); but his solemnizing the passover, which was touched upon there (2 Kgs. 23:21), is very particularly related here. Many were the feasts of the Lord, appointed by the ceremonial law, but the passover was the chief. It began them all in the night wherein Israel came out of Egypt; it concluded them all in the night wherein Christ was... read more