2 Tawarikh 30:1

Hezekiah Observes the Passover

30:1 Hezekiah sent messages throughout Israel and Judah; he even wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh, summoning them to come to the Lord’s temple in Jerusalem ¹  and observe a Passover celebration for the Lord God of Israel.

2 Tawarikh 30:6-12

30:6 Messengers ²  delivered the letters from the king and his officials throughout Israel and Judah.

This royal edict read: ³  “O Israelites, return to the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, so he may return ⁴  to you who have been spared from the kings of Assyria. ⁵  30:7 Don’t be like your fathers and brothers who were unfaithful to the Lord God of their ancestors, ⁶  provoking him to destroy them, ⁷  as you can see. 30:8 Now, don’t be stubborn ⁸  like your fathers! Submit ⁹  to the Lord and come to his sanctuary which he has permanently consecrated. Serve the Lord your God so that he might relent from his raging anger. ¹⁰  30:9 For if you return to the Lord, your brothers and sons will be shown mercy by their captors and return to this land. The Lord your God is merciful and compassionate; he will not reject you ¹¹  if you return to him.”

30:10 The messengers journeyed from city to city through the land of Ephraim and Manasseh as far as Zebulun, but people mocked and ridiculed them. ¹²  30:11 But some men from Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem. 30:12 In Judah God moved the people to unite and carry out the edict the king and the officers had issued at the Lord’s command. ¹³ 

[30:1]  ¹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[30:6]  ² tn Heb “the runners.”

[30:6]  ³ tn Heb “and according to the command of the king, saying.”

[30:6]  ⁴ tn The jussive with vav conjunctive indicates purpose/result after the preceding imperative.

[30:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “to the survivors who are left to you from the palm of the kings of Assyria.”

[30:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 19, 22).

[30:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “and he made them a devastation” (or, perhaps, “an object of horror”).

[30:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “don’t stiffen your neck” (a Hebrew idiom for being stubborn).

[30:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “give a hand.” On the meaning of the idiom here, see HALOT 387 s.v. I יָד 2.

[30:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “so that the rage of his anger might turn from you.” The jussive with vav conjunctive indicates purpose/result after the preceding imperative.

[30:9]  ¹¹ tn Heb “turn [his] face from you.”

[30:10]  ¹² tn Heb “and they were mocking them and ridiculing them.”

[30:12]  ¹³ tn Heb “also in Judah the hand of God was to give to them one heart to do the command of the king and the officials by the word of the Lord.”