2 Chronicles 29:4

And he brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them together into the east street,

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(4) Brought in.—Caused to come.

The east Street.—The eastern square or open space of the East. (Comp. Ezra 10:9; Nehemiah 8:1; Nehemiah 8:3; Nehemiah 8:16.) The place of meeting was probably an open area in front of the eastern gate of the sacred enclosure.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

29:1-19 When Hezekiah came to the crown, he applied at once to work reform. Those who begin with God, begin at the right end of their work, and it will prosper accordingly. Those that turn their backs upon God's ordinances, may truly be said to forsake God himself. There are still such neglects, if the word be not duly read and opened, for that was signified by the lighting the lamps, and also if prayers and praise be not offered up, for that was signified by the burning incense. Neglect of God's worship was the cause of the calamities they had lain under. The Lord alone can prepare the heart of man for vital godliness: when much good is done in a little time, the glory must be ascribed to him; and all who love him or the souls of men, will rejoice therein. Let those that do good work, learn to do it well.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The east street - Rather, some open space before the eastern gate of the outer temple court is intended.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

4, 5. 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 [2Ch 29:3]; but in its forsaken and desolate state the temple and its courts had been polluted by every kind of impurity.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Which was before the eastern gate of the temple.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

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.

Geneva Study Bible

And he brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them together into the east street,

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

4. into the east street] R.V. into the broad place on the east. The place meant was part of the Temple area; cp. Ezra 10:9, “the broad place before the house of God” (R.V.).

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 4. - The east street; Hebrew, הַמִּזְרָח לִרְחוב. This word, rendered here "street," occurs forty-two times, and is always rendered by the same English word, except three times, when it appears as "broad places," or "ways." Probably it should always be translated thus, its meaning and its manifest preponderant use being "an open space" (2 Chronicles 32:6). So Revised Version: Into the broad place on the east, i.e. an open area east of the temple. 2 Chronicles 29:4

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Hezekiah gathered the priests and Levites together "into the open space of the east," i.e., in the eastern open space before the temple, not "in the inner court" (Berth.), - see on Ezra 10:9 -and called upon them (2 Chronicles 29:5) to sanctify themselves, and then to sanctify the house of the Lord. To purify the temple they must first sanctify themselves (cf. 2 Chronicles 29:15), in order to proceed to the work of sanctifying the house of God in a state of Levitical purity. The work was to remove all that was unclean from the sanctuary. הנּדּה is Levitical uncleanness, for which in 2 Chronicles 29:16 we have הטּמאה; here the abominations of idolatry. The king gave the reason of his summons in a reference to the devastation which Ahaz and his contemporaries had wrought in the house of God (2 Chronicles 29:6, 2 Chronicles 29:7), and to the wrath of God which had on that account come upon them (2 Chronicles 29:8, 2 Chronicles 29:9). "Our fathers" (2 Chronicles 29:6), that is, Ahaz and his contemporaries, for only these had been guilty of displeasing God in the ways mentioned in 2 Chronicles 29:6 and 2 Chronicles 29:7, "have turned away their face from the dwelling of Jahve, and turned their back (upon it)." These words are a symbolical expression for: they have ceased to worship Jahve in His temple, and exchanged it for idolatry.