(36) And Hezekiah rejoiced.--So of David and his people (1Chronicles 29:9; 1Chronicles 29:22). (Comp. also 2Chronicles 7:10.)

That God had prepared.--In the Hebrew the article is used instead of the relative: a construction characteristic of the chronicler (1Chronicles 26:28). Render: "And Hezekiah rejoiced . . . over that which God had set in order for the people," viz., the long-suspended ordinances of the Temple worship (1Chronicles 12:39; 1Chronicles 15:1). Perhaps, however, l?'?m, "for the people," is the mere accusative after the verb, and the sense is "rejoiced because God had prepared the people" (2Samuel 3:30).

For the thing . . . suddenly.--Literally, for on a sudden happened the matter. "On a sudden," be-pith'om, here only; elsewhere simply pith'om. Comp. the synonymous rega' and be-rega' (Psalm 6:10; Job 21:13). The hand of God was seen in the speed with which the revolution was effected, and the sudden turn of the princes and people from indifference to glad alacrity. (Comp. 2Chronicles 30:12.)

Verse 36. - (Comp. Proverbs 16:1.)

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 Hezekiah rejoiced, and all the people,.... To see things go on so well, which foreboded good unto them: and particularly

that God had prepared the people; disposed and directed their hearts in such a manner as to yield such a cheerful obedience to the will of God, and show such a hearty regard to his worship and service, and the restoration of it:

for the thing was done suddenly; whereby it the more appeared that they were under a divine influence, which so quickly and powerfully wrought upon them to engage in this work, and needed not arguments and persuasions to bring them to it.