(23) Brought forth.--Rather, brought near--viz., to the altar.

He goats.--Se 'irim ("hairy ones"). A different term--cephire 'izzim, "spring-bucks of goats"--was used in 2Chronicles 29:21. This latter is properly an Aramean word, and only found in late Heb., se 'irim being the classical term.

Laid their hands upon them.--Comp. Leviticus 1:4; Leviticus 3:2; Leviticus 4:4, from which it appears that the person offering laid his hand upon the head of the victim, whether he were making a burnt offering or a thank-offering or a sin-offering.

The natural fitness of the ceremony in the case of expiatory sacrifices is obvious. "The king and the congregation" performed it, in the present instance, on behalf of the entire nation.

Verse 23. - The he-goats for the sin offering. No preposition "for" is found in the Hebrew text, and the previous noun is in the construct state, שְׂעַירֵי. Laid their hands. This signified the supposed laying of sins - the sins of the people - on the head of the animal (Leviticus 1:4; Leviticus 4:4, etc.).

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.And they brought forth the he goats for the sin offering before the king and the congregation,.... Which were to make atonement for the sins of both:

and they laid their hands on them; signifying thereby that they were vicarious sacrifices to be offered up in their own room and stead, and that they deserved to die, as these creatures would: transferring as it were hereby their sins unto them, for which they were to be sacrificed, and to make atonement, as an emblem of the imputation of the sins of the Lord's people to Christ, sacrificed in their stead.