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.

2 Chronicles 29:10 Parallel Commentaries

Now it is

2 Chronicles 6:7,8 Now it was in the heart of David my father to build an house for the name of the LORD God of Israel...

to make a covenant To renew that covenant under which the whole people were constantly considered, and of which circumcision was the sign, and the spirit of which was, `I will be your God, ye shall be my people.'

2 Chronicles 15:12,13 And they entered into a covenant to seek the LORD God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul...

2 Chronicles 23:16 And Jehoiada made a covenant between him, and between all the people, and between the king, that they should be the LORD's people.

2 Chronicles 34:30-32 And the king went up into the house of the LORD, and all the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests...

Ezra 10:3 Now therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives, and such as are born of them...

Nehemiah 9:38 And because of all this we make a sure covenant, and write it; and our princes, Levites, and priests, seal to it.

Nehemiah 10:1 Now those that sealed were, Nehemiah, the Tirshatha, the son of Hachaliah, and Zidkijah,

Jeremiah 34:15,18 And you were now turned, and had done right in my sight, in proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbor...

Jeremiah 50:5 They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward, saying, Come...

2 Corinthians 8:5 And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and to us by the will of God.

that his fierce

2 Kings 23:3,26 And the king stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD...