Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 2 Chronicles · About this commentary
The Offering Restored with Singing
2 Chronicles 29:20-36
20 Then Hezekiah the king arose early, gathered the princes of the city, and went up to Yahweh’s house. · WEB
The service resumes for all Israel, the music begins at the moment the offering does, and the Levites outdo the priests.
The king is up early 2 Chronicles 29:20, and the sin offering is brought in sevens — bulls, rams, lambs, goats — for three things named separately: for the kingdom, for the sanctuary, and for Judah 2 Chronicles 29:21.
The sanctuary itself needs atonement. The building had been defiled, so the offering is made for the place as well as for the people and the government, and the three are not collapsed into one.
Then the reach of it is widened past anything the political situation would support. The offering is made to make atonement for all Israel, and the writer repeats the phrase to be sure it is not missed 2 Chronicles 29:24. The northern kingdom is at that moment hostile, unreformed, and beyond Hezekiah's jurisdiction. He offers for them anyway.
The musical arrangements are then credited with unusual precision — according to the commandment of David, of Gad the king's seer, and Nathan the prophet; for the commandment was from Yahweh by his prophets 2 Chronicles 29:25. Three names, and then a clause explaining that none of the three originated it. The instruments are David's, three centuries old, and they had been sitting unused through the reign just ended.
The timing is stated twice because it is the point. When the burnt offering began, Yahweh's song also began 2 Chronicles 29:27, and it continued until the burnt offering was finished 2 Chronicles 29:28. The singing is not before or after the sacrifice; it runs exactly as long as the sacrifice does. Praise and atonement occupy the same minutes.
What the king says when it ends is an invitation rather than an order: now you have consecrated yourselves... come near and bring 2 Chronicles 29:31. And the response divides in the way this book always notes — the assembly brought sacrifices, and as many as were of a willing heart brought burnt offerings as well.
The totals are large enough to break the system, and the failure is recorded honestly. The priests were too few, so that they could not skin all the burnt offerings, and the Levites had to help 2 Chronicles 29:34.
The reason given for the shortage is the sharpest sentence in the chapter: the Levites were more upright in heart to sanctify themselves than the priests. The men with the higher office were slower to prepare, and the book says so plainly, in the middle of a chapter celebrating the restoration they were supposed to be leading.
The last verse gives the mood and the cause. They rejoiced because of that which God had prepared for the people; for the thing was done suddenly 2 Chronicles 29:36. Nobody expected a national restoration inside sixteen days, and the speed is credited to the preparation of somebody who was not in the room.
settled What this mark means