2 Chronicles 30

Moses told the Hebrew ancestors of today’s Jewish people to begin celebrating the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month. They followed a lunar calendar. Nisan (March-April) was the first month. But Hezekiah was going to celebrate Passover a month late, during the month of Iyyar (April-May) instead. Every new month started at the first tiny crescent after the new moon. A new moon is when the moon is hidden behind earth’s shadow for one day. The sun, moon, and earth are aligned, with earth in the middle.

Ritual cleansing involved bathing, washing clothes, abstinence from sex, and offering a sacrifice to atone for sins (Numbers 8). And there was a waiting period for anyone who had touched something ritually unclean, like a dead animal or a corpse, or if they had sexual relations (Exodus 19:15; Leviticus 15).

They had no reason to come. The Temple had been closed for years.

The ancient Hebrew text calls him “Israel,” which was the new name God gave him later in life (Genesis 32:28).

Assyrian invaders had erased the northern Jewish nation of Israel from the political map in 722 BC, half a dozen years before Hezekiah became king. Only a remnant of the former Israel remained, without a united governing system.

There’s no indication that the Assyrians released their captives from Israel, a nation that became known as the Lost Tribes of Israel. But later, Babylonians erased the last remaining Jewish kingdom: Judah. That was in 586 BC, more than a century after Hezekiah. Persians defeated Babylon a generation later, in 538 BC. Then they freed the Jewish captives. Some returned to their homeland. Others stayed in their new homeland.

Often called “Feast of Unleavened Bread.” Observant Jews eat a large cracker-like bread called matzo. “For seven days, don’t eat any bread with yeast in it. Eat only bread made without yeast. Just as I commanded you earlier, do this in the first month of the year because that’s the month you came out of Egypt. When you come to worship me, don’t come empty-handed. Bring offerings” (Exodus 23:15). The Passover meal, called the seder, concludes the week’s observance on the evening of day seven.

This reads like Jerusalem used the Kidron Valley as the city dump. From the top of the Jerusalem ridge, they could roll heavy objects down the side of the hill.

Burnt offerings were the most common. The entire animal was burned in the fire. No one got to eat any of the meat.

The sentence is more literally “He healed them.” But there’s no hint that they were physically sick. Instead, they had been ritually unclean. And, as a nation, they had been out of touch with God for decades. The “healing” may point back to 2 Chronicles 7:14, some say. “I will forgive them and heal their land.” Without God’s mercy and forgiveness, they would have been at risk of death for breaking this law. “Make sure the people know not to bring any ritual uncleanness into the tent worship center. This would defile the LORD’s sacred place, and they would die because of their uncleanness” (Leviticus 15:31).

A peace offering, also called an offering of well-being, is one of several prescribed offerings in Jewish tradition (Leviticus 3). When Jewish people wanted to give thanks to God for something, such as good health or safety, they would sacrifice a sheep, goat, cow, or bull. They would burn part of the animal, including the kidneys and fat covering the intestines. They would eat the rest in celebration, often with family and friends. It takes a fair number of hungry people to eat a cow. But people were eager to eat meat because it was rare in Bible times for common folks to eat meat, many Bible scholars say.

King Solomon did the same when he first built and opened the Temple. He added a week to celebrate the Festival of Temporary Shelters (2 Chronicles 7:9). It’s often called the Festival of Shelters or Festival of Booths. In Exodus, it was the last harvest festival of the year. That’s when farmers harvested late-season crops such as grapes, figs, and olives (Exodus 23:16). This was in the late summer and early autumn. The Hebrew word describing the festival here is sukka. It can mean tent, canopy, or temporary shelter. Moses said God wanted the Israelites to observe this festival by building temporary shelters and living in them for seven days “so you and your descendants will remember that the people of Israel I led out of Egyptian slavery once lived in shelters like this” (Leviticus 23:43).

The northern Jewish nation of Israel was gone. Assyrian invaders erased it from the political map in 722 BC, exiling or killing many of Israel’s officials and leading citizens. Hezekiah became king of the southern Jewish nation of Judah half a dozen years later, in about 716 BC.

A blessing is the opposite of a curse. Instead of wishing harm on people, it’s a wish and a prayer for good things to happen to them. It praises people. It encourages them. It asks God to show kindness to them. Many people seemed to believe that spoken words, with God’s help, had the power to make the wish come true.