Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Hezekiah restores the worship of God that had been abolished by his father Ahaz, and together with the priests, Levites, and singers, honors God with many sacrifices.
Vulgate Text: 2 Paralipomenon 29:1-36
1. Therefore Hezekiah began to reign when he was twenty-five years old, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. The name of his mother was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah. 2. And he did what was pleasing in the sight of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done. 3. In the first year and the first month of his reign, he opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them. 4. And he brought in the priests and the Levites, and assembled them in the eastern square. 5. And he said to them: Hear me, O Levites, and sanctify yourselves; cleanse the house of the Lord God of your fathers, and remove all uncleanness from the sanctuary. 6. Our fathers sinned and did evil in the sight of the Lord our God, forsaking Him. They turned their faces away from the tabernacle of the Lord and turned their backs. 7. They shut the doors that were in the porch, and extinguished the lamps, and did not burn incense, and did not offer holocausts in the sanctuary to the God of Israel. 8. Therefore the fury of the Lord was stirred up against Judah and Jerusalem, and He delivered them to agitation, and to destruction, and to hissing, as you yourselves see with your eyes. 9. Behold, our fathers fell by the sword; our sons, and our daughters, and our wives were led away captive, because of this crime. 10. Now therefore it pleases me that we should enter into a covenant with the Lord God of Israel, and He will turn away from us the fury of His wrath. 11. My sons, do not be negligent: the Lord has chosen you to stand before Him, and to minister to Him, and to worship Him and burn incense to Him. 12. Then the Levites arose: Mahath the son of Amasai, and Joel the son of Azariah, of the sons of Kohath; and of the sons of Merari, Kish the son of Abdi, and Azariah the son of Jehallelel. And of the sons of Gershom, Joah the son of Zimmah, and Eden the son of Joah. 13. And of the sons of Elizaphan, Shimri and Jehiel. And of the sons of Asaph, Zechariah and Mattaniah. 14. Also of the sons of Heman, Jehiel and Shimei; and of the sons of Jeduthun, Shemaiah and Uzziel. 15. And they gathered their brethren and sanctified themselves; and they entered according to the command of the king and the decree of the Lord, to purify the house of God. 16. The priests also entered the temple of the Lord to sanctify it, and they carried out all the uncleanness that they found within, into the vestibule of the house of the Lord, which the Levites took and carried out to the brook Kidron. 17. Now they began to cleanse on the first day of the first month, and on the eighth day of the same month they entered the porch of the temple of the Lord; and they purified the temple in eight days, and on the sixteenth day of the same month they completed what they had begun. 18. They also went in to King Hezekiah and said to him: We have sanctified the whole house of the Lord, and the altar of holocaust and its vessels, and also the table of the showbread with all its vessels. 19. And all the furniture of the temple, which King Ahaz had defiled during his reign, after he transgressed — and behold, they are all set forth before the altar of the Lord. 20. And King Hezekiah, rising at dawn, assembled all the princes of the city and went up to the house of the Lord. 21. And they offered together seven bulls, and seven rams, seven lambs, and seven he-goats for a sin offering, for the kingdom, for the sanctuary, for Judah; and he told the priests, the sons of Aaron, to offer them upon the altar of the Lord. 22. So they slaughtered the bulls, and the priests received the blood and poured it upon the altar; they also slaughtered the rams and poured their blood upon the altar, and they sacrificed the lambs and poured the blood upon the altar. 23. They brought the he-goats for the sin offering before the king and the whole multitude, and they laid their hands upon them; 24. and the priests sacrificed them and sprinkled their blood before the altar as an atonement for all Israel — for the king had commanded that the holocaust and the sin offering should be made for all Israel. 25. He also stationed the Levites in the house of the Lord with cymbals, and psalteries, and harps, according to the arrangement of King David, and of Gad the Seer, and of Nathan the Prophet; for it was the commandment of the Lord, by the hand of His prophets. 26. And the Levites stood holding the instruments of David, and the priests the trumpets. 27. And Hezekiah commanded that they offer the holocausts upon the altar; and when the holocausts were being offered, they began to sing praises to the Lord and to sound the trumpets, and to play upon the various instruments which David king of Israel had prepared. 28. And while the whole multitude was worshipping, the singers and those who held the trumpets were at their duty, until the holocaust was completed. 29. And when the offering was finished, the king bowed down, and all who were with him, and they worshipped. 30. And Hezekiah and the princes commanded the Levites to praise the Lord with the words of David and of Asaph the Seer; and they praised Him with great joy, and kneeling down they worshipped. 31. And Hezekiah added these words also: You have consecrated your hands to the Lord; come forward and offer sacrifices and praises in the house of the Lord. So the whole multitude offered sacrifices and praises and holocausts with a devout mind. 32. Now the number of the holocausts which the multitude offered was this: seventy bulls, one hundred rams, two hundred lambs. 33. And they consecrated to the Lord six hundred oxen and three thousand sheep. 34. But the priests were few and could not suffice to skin the holocausts; therefore the Levites their brethren assisted them until the work was completed and the priests were sanctified — for the Levites are sanctified by an easier rite than the priests. 35. So there were very many holocausts, with the fat of the peace offerings and the libations of the holocausts, and the worship of the house of the Lord was completed. 36. And Hezekiah rejoiced, and all the people, because the ministry of the Lord had been accomplished. For it had pleased them that this be done so suddenly.
Verse 1: Abijah the Mother of Hezekiah
1. The name of his (Hezekiah's) mother was Abijah, daughter of Zechariah — who was the son of the elder Zechariah, the priest and martyr, whom Joash king of Judah killed, chapter 24, verse 21. Abijah therefore, the daughter of this younger Zechariah, who kept King Uzziah in the worship of the true God, of whom see chapter 26, verse 5, was the wife of Ahaz and the mother of Hezekiah, who educated him in all piety and the fear of God. She is therefore named here to indicate that Hezekiah had imbibed his virtue and zeal with his mother's milk. So St. Jerome in the Traditions, Salianus, and others.
Verse 4: The Eastern Square
4. THE EASTERN SQUARE — so called because it faced the eastern gate of the temple.
Verse 15: To Purify the House of the Lord
15. TO PURIFY THE HOUSE OF THE LORD — namely the court of the priests, which was their temple; for no one was permitted to enter the Holy Place except a priest, just as only the High Priest could enter the Holy of Holies. Hence here only the priests are said to have "entered the temple and sanctified it," that is, to have cleansed it from idols and their superstition; carrying these defilements out "into the vestibule." The Septuagint says: into the vestibule, from which the Levites then carried them out and cast them into the brook Kidron.
Verse 17: They Began on the First Day
17. NOW THEY BEGAN ON THE FIRST DAY OF THE FIRST MONTH (Nisan, that is, in March) TO CLEANSE — that is to say, in the first eight days of the month of Nisan they cleansed the courts and the chambers of the priests and Levites that were attached to them; then in the following eight days they cleansed the temple itself, that is, the Holy Place.
Verse 24: And for Sin
24. AND FOR SIN — that is, so that a sacrifice for sin would be offered, according to the rite prescribed in Leviticus chapter 4.
Verse 30: The Words of David and Asaph
30. WITH THE WORDS OF DAVID AND OF ASAPH THE SEER — that is, the prophet. He calls the Psalms "words," from which it is clear that they were composed partly by David and partly by Asaph, as are those twelve which are inscribed with the name of Asaph.
Verse 31: You Have Consecrated
31. YOU HAVE CONSECRATED (that is, you have dedicated) YOUR HANDS TO THE LORD — that is, you have consecrated yourselves as priests, by filling your hands with oil and sacrifices.
Verse 33: Six Hundred Oxen Consecrated
33. AND THEY CONSECRATED TO THE LORD SIX HUNDRED OXEN — that is to say, they dedicated, offered, and donated to God and the temple six hundred oxen and three thousand sheep, so that some of them would be offered as holocausts, others for sin, and others as peace offerings.
Verse 34: The Chief Priests
34. THE CHIEF PRIESTS — that is, the priests; for these commanded the Levites as their superiors. On the rite of consecrating priests, see Leviticus 8. From this verse it is gathered that it belonged to the priests to slaughter the victim, skin it, divide it, place it on the altar, and burn it. But in case of necessity, the skinning and the other subsequent tasks were shared with and permitted to the Levites. So Cajetan, and the first part is sufficiently clear from Leviticus chapter 1, verse 5.