Verse 24
All lsrael - Hezekiah aimed at reuniting once more the whole people of Israel, if not into a single state, yet, at any rate, into a single religious communion. The northern kingdom was in a condition approaching to anarchy. The end was evidently approaching. Hoshea, the king contemporary with Hezekiah 2 Kings 18:1, ruled, not as an independent monarch, but as an Assyrian feudatory 2 Kings 17:3. Under these circumstances Hezekiah designed to invite the revolted tribes to return, if not to their old temporal, at least to their old spiritual, allegiance 2 Chronicles 30:5-10. In order, therefore, to prepare the way for this return, he included “all Israel” in the expiatory sacrifice, by which he prefaced his restoration of the old worship.
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