II Chronicles 30:5
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So they established a decree to circulate a proclamation throughout Israel, from Beersheba to Dan, that the people should come to keep the Passover of the LORD, the God of Israel, in Jerusalem. For they had not observed it as a nation as prescribed.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
Destruction of the idols and the altars of the high places. Provisions for the ordering and maintenance of the temple worship, and the attendants upon it. - Ch2 31:1. At the conclusion of the festival, all the Israelites who had been present at the feast (הנּמצאים כּל־שׂראל to be understood as in Ch2 30:21) went into the cities of Judah, and destroyed all the idols, high places, and altars not only in Judah and Benjamin (the southern kingdom), but also in Ephraim and Manasseh (the domain of the ten tribes), utterly (עד־לככּה, cf. Ch2 24:10), and only then returned each to his home; cf. Kg2 18:4.
Open source ↗In this chapter we have an account of the solemn passover which Hezekiah kept in the first year of his reign. I. The consultation about it, and the resolution he and his people came to for the observance of it (Ch2 30:2-5). II. The invitation he sent to Judah and Israel to come and keep it (Ch2 30:1, Ch2 30:6-12). III. The joyful celebration of it (Ch2 30:13-27). By this the reformation, set on foot in the foregoing chapter, was greatly advanced and established, and that nail in God's holy place clenched.
Open source ↗30:5 Hezekiah dispatched couriers from Beersheba . . . to Dan, the traditional designation for the entire nation, including even the now-desolate territories of Israel’s northern tribes.
Open source ↗Cross-references
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Then all the Israelites from Dan to Beersheba and from the land of Gilead came out, and the congregation assembled as one man before the LORD at Mizpah.
Now I commend you for remembering me in everything and for maintaining the traditions, just as I passed them on to you.
See that you do everything I command you; do not add to it or subtract from it.
No such Passover had been observed in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet. None of the kings of Israel ever observed a Passover like the one that Josiah observed with the priests, the Levites, all Judah, the Israelites who were present, and the people of Jerusalem.
“Speak to the Israelites and say to them, ‘These are My appointed feasts, the feasts of the LORD that you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies.
In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken through Jeremiah, the LORD stirred the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia to send a proclamation throughout his kingdom and to put it in writing as follows:
Therefore, O king, establish the decree and sign the document so that it cannot be changed—in accordance with the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be repealed.”
These are the LORD’s appointed feasts, the sacred assemblies you are to proclaim at their appointed times.
And a proclamation was issued in Judah and Jerusalem that they were to bring to the LORD the tax imposed by Moses the servant of God on Israel in the wilderness.