2 Chronicles 29:28

And all the congregation worshipped, and the singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded: and all this continued until the burnt offering was finished.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(28) Worshipped.—Were worshipping. LXX. προσεκύνει.

The singers.—Heb., the song. So we might say “the music was playing;” or even “the song was singing,” i.e., being sung.

The trumpeters sounded.—And the clarions were blowing (literally, clarioning). The participle is masculine, although the noun is properly feminine, because here the word “clarions” really stands for the clarion-players. So in modern orchestras they speak of “the violins,” or “the ‘cellos,” meaning the players on those instruments.

And all this.—Literally, the whole, until the burnt offering was finished.

This passage is highly interesting for the light it throws upon the mode in which the worship of the second Temple was conducted in the fourth century B.C., the probable age of the chronicler; and no doubt also in the times here treated of, for the Temple ritual would naturally be a matter of immemorial tradition. (Comp. 2Chronicles 7:5-6.)

Benson Commentary

2 Chronicles 29:28. And all the congregation worshipped — The king and all present testified their consent to, and concurrence in, all that was done by bowing their heads and worshipping, expressing an awful veneration for the divine majesty by postures of adoration. It is not enough for us to be where God is worshipped; if we do not ourselves worship him, and that not with bodily exercise only, which profits little, but with the heart.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

29:20-36 As soon as Hezekiah heard that the temple was ready, he lost no time. Atonement must be made for the sins of the last reign. It was not enough to lament and forsake those sins; they brought a sin-offering. Our repentance and reformation will not obtain pardon but in and through Christ, who was made sin, that is, a sin-offering for us. While the offerings were on the altar, the Levites sang. Sorrow for sin must not prevent us from praising God. The king and the congregation gave their consent to all that was done. It is not enough for us to be where God is worshipped, if we do not ourselves worship with the heart. And we should offer up our spiritual sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving, and devote ourselves and all we have, as sacrifices, acceptable to the Father only through the Redeemer.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

All had hitherto been preparatory. Now Hezekiah gave orders that "the burnt offering" - i. e. the daily morning sacrifice - should be offered upon the brass altar in front of the porch, thus restoring and reinstituting the regular temple-service. A burst of music gave notice to the people of the moment when the old worship recommenced.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

20-30. Then Hezekiah the king rose early, and gathered the rulers of the city—His anxiety to enter upon the expiatory service with all possible despatch, now that the temple had been properly prepared for it, prevented his summoning all the representatives of Israel. The requisite number of victims having been provided, and the officers of the temple having sanctified themselves according to the directions of the law, the priests were appointed to offer sacrifices of atonement successively, for "the kingdom," that is, for the sins of the king and his predecessors; for "the sanctuary," that is, for the sins of the priests themselves and for the desecration of the temple; "and for Judah," that is, for the people who, by their voluntary consent, were involved in the guilt of the national apostasy. Animals of the kinds used in sacrifice were offered by sevens, that number indicating completeness. The Levites were ordered to praise God with musical instruments, which, although not originally used in the tabernacle, had been enlisted in the service of divine worship by David on the advice of the prophets Gad and Nathan, as well calculated to animate the devotions of the people. At the close of the special services of the occasion, namely, the offering of atonement sacrifices, the king and all civic rulers who were present joined in the worship. A grand anthem was sung (2Ch 29:30) by the choir, consisting of some of the psalms of David and Asaph, and a great number of thank offerings, praise offerings, and freewill burnt offerings were presented at the invitation of the king.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And all the congregation worshipped,.... Bowed their heads as a token of divine adoration:

and the singers sang; both with vocal and instrumental music, who were the Levites:

and the trumpeters sounded; their silver trumpets; these were the priests: and all this continued

until the burnt offering was finished; with all appertaining to it, the meat and drink offerings.

Geneva Study Bible

And all the congregation worshipped, and the singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded: and all this continued until the burnt offering was finished.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

28. and all this] R.V. all this.

2 Chronicles 29:28

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

During the offering of the burnt-offering, until it was ended, the whole congregation stood worshipping; and the song of the Levites, accompanied by the music of the stringed instruments and the trumpet-blowing of the priests, continued. משׁורר השּׁיר, "the song was singing," stands for "the body of singers sang;" and the trumpets also stand for the trumpeters.