Ezra 6:19-22 - Exposition

CELEBRATION OF THE PASSOVER IN THE ENSUING MONTH , AND OBSERVANCE OF THE FEAST OF UNLEAVENED BREAD ( Ezra 6:19-22 ). Specially solemn passovers were celebrated on specially solemn occasions; and these received special record at the hands of the sacred writers. Of this kind are the passover celebrated By Hezekiah in the year B.C. 726, recorded in 2 Chronicles 30:1-27 ; and that celebrated by Josiah in b.c. 624, recorded in 2 Chronicles 35:1-27 . Both of these followed upon a cleansing of the temple, and restoration of the temple worship after a period of suspension. Ezra seems to place the passover of b.c. 516 in the same category. It marked the period of the full re-establishment of the regular ordinances of religion, more or less interrupted from the time of the destruction of the temple by Nebuchadnezzar. It terminated the abnormal and commenced the normal condition of things. Perhaps it is to mark this, that Ezra at this point disuses the Chaldee dialect, which he had introduced in Ezra 4:8 , and returns to the Hebrew, the established language of the Jewish religion.