Page:The Books of Chronicles (1916).djvu/372

308 And Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of the at Jerusalem, to keep the passover unto the, the God of Israel. For the king had taken counsel, and his princes, and all the congregation in Jerusalem, to keep the passover in the second month. For they could not keep it at that time, because the priests had not sanctified themselves in sufficient number, neither had the people gathered themselves together to Jerusalem. And the thing was right in the eyes of the king and of all the congregation. So they established a decree to make proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beer-sheba even to Dan, that they should come to keep the passover unto the, the God of Israel, at Jerusalem: for they had not kept it in great numbers in such sort as it is written. So

XXX. 1—12 (not in 2 Kin.).&emsp;

From ver. 2 it appears that this Passover took place in the first year of Hezekiah while the Northern Kingdom was still standing. The invitation to share in it at Jerusalem which Hezekiah is here (ver. 1) said to have sent to north Israel is opposed to all historic probability. The Chronicler, however, was little likely to be troubled by that difficulty, even if he had observed it (see note, ver. 5). Furthermore it is a plausible suggestion that the references to Ephraim, Manasseh, etc. in vv. 1, 10, 11, 18 really reflect conditions of the Chronicler's own circumstances, regarding which see the note on xv. 9. It is therefore a mistake to suggest that the date may be wrong and that the Passover really took place in the sixth year of Hezekiah after the fall of Samaria on the ground that the invitation would then be more credible.

2. in the second month] The Law allowed such a postponement; cp. Num. ix. 10, 11.

3. at that time] In the first month.

5. to make proclamation] A phrase characteristic of the Chronicler.

from Beer-sheba even to Dan] i.e. the extreme points of the undivided kingdom of David and Solomon. "The existence of the N. Kingdom is either ignored or more probably the writer assumed that it had already fallen" (Curtis). On the origin of the phrase and the order in Chron. (Beer-sheba to Dan not Dan to Beer-sheba, as in 2 Sam. xxiv. 2, etc.) see Hogg in the Expositor, 1898, pp. 411—421.

they had not kept it in great numbers in such sort as it is written] The statement applies to Israel, not to Judah; for the first time an