2 Kings 23:21

21 King Josiah then issued this order to all the people: “You must celebrate the Passover to the LORD your God, as required in this 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 Then Josiah demolished all the buildings at the pagan shrines in the towns of Samaria, just as he had done at Bethel. They had been built by the various kings of Israel and had made the LORD very angry.

20 He executed the priests of the pagan shrines on their own altars, and he burned human bones on the altars to desecrate them. Finally, he returned to Jerusalem.

21 King Josiah then issued this order to all the people: “You must celebrate the Passover to the LORD your God, as required in this Book of the Covenant.”

22 There had not been a Passover celebration like that since the time when the judges ruled in Israel, nor throughout all the years of the kings of Israel and Judah.

23 But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah’s reign, this Passover was celebrated to the LORD in Jerusalem.