2 Chronicles 30:5 - Exposition

Of a long time . Though the idea expressed in this rendering must, under any circumstances, attach to this passage, yet it can scarcely be understood to be given in the one Hebrew word we have here ( לָרֹב ); out of nearly a hundred and fifty occurrences of the word, and often with its present preposition, this is the solitary occasion of its being turned into a mark of time. The translation should read, for they had not kept it in multitude, i.e. in proper multitudes, and in the multitude of an undivided and holy kingdom. The force of the reference lies in the fact just stated, that Hezekiah, ignoring all the worse precedents of now many generations, and ignoring the iniquity of the duality of the kingdom, manfully caused his writ to run from south to north unchecked! As it was written ; i.e. in the book of the Law of Moses. So runs the full and frequent and honoured phrase: כַּכָּתוּב בְסֵפֶר תּוֹרַת־משֶׁה ( 2 Kings 14:6 ; 1 Kings 2:3 ; Joshua 3:1-17 :34; 2 Chronicles 35:26 , etc.).