2 Kings 23:21

Josiah Restores the Passover

21 The king commanded all the people, “Keep the Passover of the LORD your God, as it is written in this Book of the Covenant.” ¹

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 Just as Josiah had done at Bethel, so also in the cities of Samaria he removed all the shrines of the high places set up by the kings of Israel who had provoked the LORD to anger.

20 On the altars he slaughtered all the priests of the high places, and he burned human bones on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

21 The king commanded all the people, “Keep the Passover of the LORD your God, as it is written in this Book of the Covenant.”

22 No such Passover had been observed from the days of the judges who had governed Israel through all the days of the kings of Israel and Judah.

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

Cross References

• 1. (2 Chronicles 35:1–19)