Ver. 1. Hezekiah began to reign.] See 2 Kings 18:1,2. And his mother’s name was Abijah.] He was the better man for the good instructions of his mother, though she could do no good on her husband Ahaz; such was his pertinacy, not moved at all by her piety.
Ver. 2. And he did that which was right.]. (2 Kings 18:3) The more happy was his government, because he came after the stormy times of his father Ahaz. He came as a fresh spring after a sharp winter, and brought the ship of Judah from a troublous and tempestuous sea, to a safe and quiet harbour.
Ver. 3. He in the first year of his reign, in the first month.] Yea, and the first day of that month, (2 Chronicles 29:17) on his coronation day, began to reform.
Ver. 4. The east street.] Which was before the east gate of the temple.
Ver. 5. And he said unto them, Hear me.] He makes a speech to them, full of faith and piety in every passage. Ye Levites.] He beginneth his reformation at the ministry. Incipiendum a Minoritis, said one of the council of Basil; Imo vero a Maioritis, said another. The priests are here comprised under the name of Levites. Sanctify now yourselves.] By legal rites, but especially by repentance, faith, and new obedience, fit yourselves for your respective employments. And carry forth the filthiness.] The idols, and all their trinkets and trash. Nothing must be left behind that might make idolaters hope for a desired day.
Ver. 6. And have turned their backs.] With greatest scorn and disdain, openly, basely, and opprobriously.
Ver. 7. Unto the God of Israel.] Whom they have sacrilegiously robbed and wronged. We should be sensible of, and humbled for, the sins of our forefathers, else we are justly chargeable with them.
Ver. 8. And he hath delivered them to trouble.] Heb., To commotion, so that they are scattered hither and thither, ut fit incursionibus Turcicis, as it falleth out wherever the great Turk setteth his foot.
Ver. 9. For, lo, our fathers have fallen.] 2 Chronicles 28:5,6. For this,] i.e., For sin, that mother of all misery. It is in my heart.] Or, With my heart. God put it there doubtless; for the heart of the best is naturally as barren of any good as they report the isle of Patmos is, where nothing will grow but on earth brought from other places. It is with holy resolutions, saith one, as with exotic noble plants: this country is not so kindly for them, being but a step-mother to them, therefore they must be much watered and cherished.
Ver. 11. Be not now negligent.] Or, Be not deceived: a good memento for ministers, who must be both intelligent and diligent. Hezekiah found, it seemeth, some slackness and backwardness in the priests and Levites to the work of reformation: he therefore—-as after him Aemilius Paulus the consul, when nobody else dared, did himself run with the hatchet into the temple of Serapis, the demolishing whereof the senate had decreed—began first himself, and awaketh those sluggards with these words, Ne sitis socordes, Be not slack, my sons; God hath chosen you, &c. Up and be doing.
Ver. 12. Then the Levite, arose.] How could they do less? The Popish clergy, pressed by their prince to a reformation, would have boasted of their immunities, and have given out that the king had not to do in matters of religion, &c. In the colloquy at Possiacum, a Spanish Jesuit told the queen-mother of France to her face that she did ill to meddle in matters that belonged not to her, but to the Pope, cardinals, and bishops: the zeal of which Jesuit pleased the Pope, who said he might be compared to the ancient saints, having, without respect of the young king and princes there present, maintained God’s cause, and upbraided the queen to her face. Mahath the son of Amasai, &c.] These were renowned reformers then, as of late years were Luther, Melanchthon, Bucer, Farellus, Calvin, Cranmer, Knox, and others, whose names are written in the book of life. Hist. of Coun. of Trent, 455.
Ver. 15. By the words of the Lord,] i.e., In his name, and according to his express will. Or, In the business of the Lord.
Ver. 16. Into the brook Kidron.] Or, Town ditch.
Ver. 17. Now they began on the first day.] See 2 Chronicles 29:3,5. Some by the first day here understand the first day of the year, which fell out toward the latter end of the first year of Hezekiah’s reign. And in the sixteenth day.] What a deal of trash and filth was here contracted and got together in the temple in the so short reign of Ahaz, that so many men were so long busied in ridding of it! What wonder, then, that in so long reign of Antichrist, all was so much out of order in the Church, and that the noble reformers had, and still have, so much ado to purge it?
Ver. 18. Then they went in to Hezekiah the king.] To whom they knew they should be most welcome, coming on such an errand.
Ver. 19. Did cast away in his transgression.] Glorying, likely, in his sacrilege, and success there upon; as did Dionysius when he had spoiled a temple. Finding the winds favourable in his navigation, Lo, said he, how the gods approve of sacrilege! But he should have remembered that Nondum omnium dictum sol occiderat, his sin would shortly find him out.
Ver. 20. Then Hezekiah the king rose early.] His zeal for God’s glory made his obedience prompt and present, ready and speedy. He could not rest till he had reformed, calling a Parliament here for the purpose.
Ver. 21. And they brought seven bullocks and seven rams.] Hezekiah being to dedicate, and, as it were, anew to consecrate the temple by solemn sacrifices, bringeth seven of a sort of all kinds of clean beasts, to denote the community or whole body of the kingdom. To offer them on the altar of the Lord.] God sanctified the altar, (Exodus 29:44) and the altar sanctified the gift. (Matthew 23:19) We Christians also have an altar, (Hebrews 13:10) but not as our late altar-men would have had it, and we believe that our sevenfold manifold sins shall be taken away by that perfect and absolute sacrifice of the Messiah, that Lamb without blemish and without spot. (1 Peter 1:19)
Ver. 22. They sprinkled the blood upon the altar.] Whereby was typified the application of Christ’s precious blood purging the conscience from dead works, (Hebrews 9:14) appeasing God’s wrath, (Romans 3:25) purchasing the Church, (Acts 20:28) ratifying the covenant, (Hebrews 9:18) opening the Holy of Holies, and giving entrance. (Hebrews 10:11)
Ver. 23. They laid their hands upon them.] Manibus suis nixi sunt eis; by this ceremony they confessed their sins, and laid them, as it were, upon their sacrifice, indeed upon Christ, “who his own self bore our sins in his own body upon the tree.” (1 Peter 2:24)
Ver. 24. To make an atonement for all Israel.] For the ten tribes also; for they had need enough. It is but a little fire that casteth but a little heat: a great fire will be felt afar off; so a great measure of charity.
Ver. 25. According to the commandment of the Lord.] Heb., By the hand of the Lord, by the hand of his prophets; to note, say the Hebrews here, that precepts delivered by the prophets are the very precepts of God himself.
Ver. 26. With instruments of David,] i.e., Appointed by David, not without God’s Holy Spirit. (1 Chronicles 23:5)
Ver. 27. The song of the Lord began also.] Holy and divine songs, (Psalms 136) especially, which is here, by an excellency, called the song of the Lord, as some think.
Ver. 28. And the singers sang.] Heb., And the song sang, i.e., the whole choir; or, as some will, the chief chanter.
Ver. 29. The king and all that were present.] He joins himself with the many in worshipping God.
Ver. 30. Moreover the king Hezekiah and the princes.] This Parliament (2 Chronicles 29:20) might well have been called, as that was here in the 25th of Edward III, Benedictum Parlementum.
Ver. 31. Come near, and bring sacrifices.] So unsatisfiable was his good heart in serving and praising God.
Ver. 32. Was threescore and ten bullocks.] This was much for a people that had by the late wars been so “scattered and peeled,” (Isaiah 18:2) and that had apostatised from God.
Ver. 33. And the consecrated things.] Reserved to be offered up another time. See 2 Chronicles 29:32.
Ver. 34. So that they could not slay all.] Slay them, and flay them, and lay them on the altar piecemeal. For the Levites were more upright,] i.e., More free hearted, forward, and forth putting.
Ver. 35. Were in abundance.] See 2 Chronicles 29:32.
Ver. 36. For the thing was done suddenly.] Which showed that there was much of God in it. Church businesses usually go on but slowly. Sed nescit tarda molimina Spiritus Sancti gratia, saith Ambrose. The Spirit makes quick work.