(27) Commanded to offer the burnt offering . . . altar.--These words are repeated from 2Chronicles 29:21, because all that comes between is descriptive of the preparations made for the due performance of the sacrifice. When the victims had been slain, flayed, and cut up, and the altar had been sprinkled with their blood, and when the Levitical musicians had taken their places, instruments in hand, everything was ready, and the sacrifice was ordered to begin. "And at the time when the burnt offering began, the song of Jehovah" (i.e., the chant of the Levites with its musical accompaniment) "began, and the clarions; and that under the lead of the instruments of David king of Israel," i.e., the harps and lyres were dominant throughout, and the clarions subordinate to their music. Or we may render: "And that at the side of (i.e., along with) the instruments of David king of Israel." The phrase is 'al-y?de, "upon the hands." (Comp. 1Chronicles 25:2-3; 1Chronicles 25:6.) The LXX. omits the needless "and that" (w?); the Syriac renders: "And when the burnt offerings began to be offered, Hezekiah began to chant the praises of the Lord, as from the mouth of David king of Israel." The Vulgate also is very free.

Verse 27. - Hezekiah commanded to offer the burnt offering. This verse and the following, with graphic brevity, purport to describe the actual consummating of the preparations rehearsed before, and, as seems most probable, in the significance of the last clause of Ezra 8:35, already referred to. The whole of the burnt offering was burnt on the altar, but of the sin offering the "fat" alone (Leviticus 4:19).

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 commanded to offer the burnt offering upon the altar,.... Which was wholly devoted to the Lord, and was an acknowledgment of his sovereignty over them, and of his goodness to them:

and when the burnt offering began, the song of the Lord began also with trumpets, and with the instruments ordained by David king of Israel; and this was done at the time of the pouring out of the drink offering, which always attended the burnt offering; for this is a rule with the Jews, that they do not say the song but over the drink offering (o).

(o) T. Bab. Eracin, fol. 12. 1.