2 Chronicles 29:19

19. The vessels, which… Ahaz… cast away See 2 Chronicles 28:24. 2 Chronicles 29:20-36 describe the rededication of the temple, and should be compared with our author’s description of its first dedication by Solomon, especially the passages, 2 Chronicles 5:11-14; 2 Chronicles 7:4-11. The passage calls for no verbal comments, but we should note with what emphasis it is stated in 2 Chronicles 29:24 that an atonement and sin offering were made for “all Israel,” as if at this new dedication of the temple they would obliterate the memory of old national strifes and divisions, and consecrate the whole nation as an unbroken community to God.

In public national offerings it was customary for the priests to slay and flay the victims, but on this occasion “the priests were too few,” (2 Chronicles 29:34,) and were accordingly helped by “their brethren the Levites.” We are also informed that the Levites were more upright and prompt to purify themselves from past defilement than the priests. It is commonly supposed that the priests had been more implicated in the idolatrous practices of Ahaz than the Levites, and therefore many of them were slow of heart to respond to Hezekiah’s call to sanctify themselves. Urijah, the high priest, sacrilegiously participated in the impieties of Ahab. Comp. 2Ki 16:11 ; 2 Kings 16:16.