2 Kings 23:21

Passover Observed

21 The king commanded all the people, "Keep the Passover of the Lord your God as written in the book of the covenant."

2 Kings 23:21 Meaning and Commentary

2 Kings 23:21

And the king commanded all the people
Not at Jerusalem only, but throughout the whole kingdom: saying,

keep the passover unto the Lord your God, as it is written in this book
of the covenant;
which had been lately found and read, and they had agreed to observe, and in which this ordinance was strictly enjoined, and was a commemoration of their deliverance out of Egypt, and a direction of their faith to the Messiah, the antitype of the passover.

2 Kings 23:21 In-Context

19 Josiah also removed all the shrines of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke [the Lord]. Josiah did the same things to them that he had done at Bethel

20 He slaughtered on the altars all the priests of the high places who were there, and he burned human bones on the altars. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

21 The king commanded all the people, "Keep the Passover of the Lord your God as written in the book of the covenant."

22 No such Passover had ever been kept from the time of the judges who judged Israel through the entire time of the kings of Israel and Judah.

23 But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover was observed to the Lord in Jerusalem.

Footnotes

• [a]. Nm 9:1-14; Dt 16:1-8; 2 Ch 35:1-6