2 Chronicles 35:1-4
Josiah <02977> [Josiah.]
The whole solemnity was performed with great exactness according to the law, and upon that account there was none like it since Samuel's time; for even in Hezekiah's passover there were several irregularities. Bp. Patrick observes, that in this also it exceeded the other passovers which preceding things had kept, that though Josiah was by no means so rich as David, or Solomon, or Jehoshaphat, yet he furnished the congregation with beasts for sacrifice, both paschal and eucharistical, at his own proper cost and charge, which was more than any king ever did before.
fourteenth <0702> [the fourteenth.]
Josiah's solemnization of the passover, which is merely alluded to at 2 Ki 23:21, is very particularly related her, while the destruction of idolatry is largely related in the Kings, and here only touched upon. The feasts of the Lord God, appointed by the ceremonial law, were very numerous; but the passover was the chief. It was the first which was solemnized in the night wherein Israel came out of Egypt, and ushered in those which were afterwards instituted: and it was the last great feast which was held in the night wherein Christ was betrayed, before the vail of the temple was rent in twain. Be means of this feast, both Josiah and Hezekiah revived religion in their day.
duties <04931> [charges.]
encouraged them <02388> [encouraged.]
Levites <03881> [the Levites.]
Place <05414> [Put.]
temple <01004> [in the house.]
carry <04853> [not be.]
Lord ......................... serve ... Lord <05647 03068> [serve now.]
families <01004> [the houses.]
divisions <04256> [after your courses.]
The regulations formed by David, and established by Solomon, concerning the courses of the priests and Levites, were committed to writing, and preserved, for them to refer to continually. Josiah, as well as Hezekiah, required the priests and Levites to attend to their several duties, and encouraged them therein, but he neither added, altered, not retrenched anything: he merely enforced what had been established in the law, and in the regulations made by David and the contemporary prophets: "the commandment of the king....was by the word of the Lord."
<04385> [and according.]
