Matthew Henry on 2 Chronicles 29:1-11
Here is, I. Hezekiah's age when he came to the crown. He was twenty-five years old. Joash, who came to the crown after two bad reigns, was but seven years old; Josiah, who came after two bad reigns, was but eight, which occasioned the delay of the reformation; but Hezekiah had come to years, and so applied himself immediately to it. We may well think with what a sorrowful heart he beheld his father's idolatry and profaneness, how it troubled him to see the doors of the temple shut, though, while his father lived, he durst not open them. His soul no doubt wept in secret for it, and he vowed that when he should receive the congregation he would redress these grievances, which made him do it wi…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on 2 Chronicles 29:4
the east street--the court of the priests, which fronted the eastern gate of the temple. Assembling the priests and Levites there, he enjoined them to set about the immediate purification of the temple. It does not appear that the order referred to the removal of idols, for objects of idolatrous homage could scarcely have been put there, seeing the doors had been shut up [Ch2 29:3]; but in its forsaken and desolate state the temple and its courts had been polluted by every kind of impurity.
Adam Clarke on 2 Chronicles 29:2
He did that which was right - See the note on Kg2 18:3.
John Gill on 2 Chronicles 29:4
And he brought in the priests and Levites,.... The persons that officiated in the service of the temple:
and gathered them together into the east street; which led to the eastern gate of the temple.
Tyndale Open Study Notes on 2 Chronicles 29:3-4
Hezekiah’s first act as king was to repair the doors of the Temple (29:3). The verb used (yekhazzeqem, “he made them strong”) is a deliberate pun on the name of King Hezekiah (yekhizqiyyahu, “Yah makes strong”). This action provided a setting for the king’s speech to the priests and Levites (29:5-11).
