(2) For the king had taken counsel.--And the king determined (2Chronicles 25:17). The resolution was taken by the king in council with his grandees and the popular representatives; apparently before the 14th of Nisan, which was the proper time for keeping the feast.

In the second month.--And not in the first month of the sacred year, as the law prescribes (Numbers 9:1-5). The grounds of the postponement are assigned in the next verse, viz., the legal impurity of many of the priests, and the non-arrival of the people at the proper time. The law permits postponement to the second month in such cases (Numbers 9:6-11). The first month was Nisan; Assyr., Nisdnu; the second, Iyyar; Assyr., ?ru.

Verse 2. - This and the following verse are well explained by Numbers 9:6-13, where the particular instance of the "defilement by a dead body" simply exemplified other legitimate instances of defilement or non-sanctification (2 Chronicles 29:5, 15, 34), and where absence on a journey similarly exemplified other unavoidable absence.

30:1-12 Hezekiah made Israel as welcome to the passover, as any of his own subjects. Let us yield ourselves unto the Lord. Say not, you will do what you please, but resolve to do what he pleases. We perceive in the carnal mind a stiffness, an obstinacy, an unaptness to compel with God; we have it from our fathers: this must be overcome. Those who, through grace, have turned to God themselves, should do all they can to bring others to him. Numbers will be scorners, but some will be humbled and benefited; perhaps where least expected. The rich mercy of God is the great argument by which to enforce repentance; the vilest who submit and yield themselves to the Lord, seek his grace, and give themselves to his service, shall certainly be saved. Oh that messengers were sent forth to carry these glad tidings to every city and every village, through every land!For the king had taken counsel, and his princes, and all the congregation in Jerusalem,.... He and his nobles, and the great sanhedrim or senate of the nation, had consulted together:

to keep the passover in the second month; in the month Ijar, as the Targum, because they could not keep it in the first month, as it should have been kept, according to the law of God, for the reasons following.