29:3 He in the first year of his reign, in the a first month,
opened the b doors of the house of the LORD, and repaired
them.
(a) This is a notable example for all princes, first to
establish the pure religion of God and to procure that
the Lord may be honoured and served correctly.
(b) Which Ahaz had shut up, (2Ch 28:24).
29:5 And said unto them, Hear me, ye Levites, sanctify now
yourselves, and sanctify the house of the LORD God of your
fathers, and carry forth c the filthiness out of the holy
[place].
(c) Meaning, all the idols, altar groves and whatever was
occupied in their service and with which the temple was
polluted.
29:8d Wherefore the wrath of the LORD was upon Judah and
Jerusalem, and he hath delivered them to trouble, to
astonishment, and to hissing, as ye see with your eyes.
(d) He shows that the contempt of religion is the cause of
all God's plagues.
29:10 Now [it is] in mine heart to make a covenant with the LORD
God of Israel, that his fierce wrath may e turn away
from us.
(e) He proves by the judgments of God on those who have
contemned his word, that there is no way to avoid his
plagues, but by conforming themselves to his will.
29:16 And the priests went into the inner part of the house of
the LORD, to f cleanse [it], and brought out all the
uncleanness that they found in the temple of the LORD into
the court of the house of the LORD. And the Levites took
[it], to carry [it] out abroad into the brook Kidron.
(f) From the pollution and filth that Ahaz had brought in.
29:17 Now they began on the first [day] of the g first month
to sanctify, and on the eighth day of the month came they
to the porch of the LORD: so they sanctified the house of
the LORD in eight days; and in the sixteenth day of the
first month they made an end.
(g) Which contained part of March and part of April.
29:20 Then Hezekiah the king h rose early, and gathered the
rulers of the city, and went up to the house of the LORD.
(h) By this manner of speech the Hebrews mean a certain
diligence and speed to do a thing: and when there is
no delay.
29:22 So they killed the bullocks, and the priests received the
blood, and i sprinkled [it] on the altar: likewise, when
they had killed the rams, they sprinkled the blood upon
the altar: they killed also the lambs, and they sprinkled
the blood upon the altar.
(i) For without sprinkling of blood nothing could be
sanctified, (He 9:21, Ex 24:8).
29:23 And they brought forth the he goats [for] the sin offering
before the king and the congregation; k and they laid
their hands upon them:
(k) That is, the king and the elders, as in (Le 4:15)
for they who offered a sin offering must lay their
hands on it, to signify that they had deserved that
death, and also that they consecrated it to God to be
sanctified by it, (Ex 29:10).
29:25 And he set the Levites in the house of the LORD with
cymbals, with psalteries, and with harps, according to the
commandment of David, and of Gad the king's seer, and
Nathan the prophet: for [so was] the l commandment of
the LORD by his prophets.
(l) This thing was not appointed by man, but it was the
commandment of God.
29:27 And Hezekiah commanded to offer the burnt offering upon
the altar. And when the burnt offering began, the song of
the m LORD began [also] with the trumpets, and with the
instruments [ordained] n by David king of Israel.
(m) The psalm which David had appointed to be sung for
thanksgiving.
(n) Which David had appointed to praise the Lord with.
29:30 Moreover Hezekiah the king and the princes commanded the
Levites to sing praise unto the LORD with the o words of
David, and of Asaph the seer. And they sang praises with
gladness, and they bowed their heads and worshipped.
29:33 And the p consecrated things [were] six hundred oxen and
three thousand sheep.
(p) That is, for the holy offerings.
29:34 But the priests were too few, so that they could not flay
all the burnt offerings: wherefore their brethren the
Levites did help them, till the work was ended, and until
the [other] priests had sanctified themselves: for the
Levites [were] q more upright in heart to sanctify
themselves than the priests.
(q) Meaning, were more zealous to set forth the religion.
29:36 And Hezekiah rejoiced, and all the people, that God had
r prepared the people: for the thing was [done]
suddenly.
(r) He shows that religion cannot proceed unless God
touches the heart of the people.
