account Caspari (Beiträge z. Einleit. in d. B. Jesaiah, S. 111) thinks that the first month (2Ch 29:3) is not the first month of the year (Nisan), but the first month of the reign of Hezekiah, who probably became king shortly before Nisan, towards the end of the year. But it is not at all likely that הראשׁון החדר is used in a different sense in 2Ch 29:3 from that in which it is used in 2Ch 29:17. We therefore hold, with Berth. and others, the first month, both in 2Ch 29:3 and in 2Ch 29:17, to be the first month of the ecclesiastical year Nisan, without, however, accepting the supposition of Gumpach and Bertheau that the years of Hezekiah's reign began with the first of Tishri, for for that way of reckoning there are no certain data in the historical books of the Old Testament. The statement, “in the first year of his reign, in the first month” (not in the first year, in the first month of his reign), is sufficiently explained if Hezekiah ascended the throne in one of the last months of the calendar year, which began with Nisan. In that case, on the first of Nisan of the new year, so few months, or perhaps only weeks, would have elapsed since his accession, that what he did in Nisan could not rightly have been dated otherwise than “in the first year of his reign.” The other difficulty, that the purification of the temple began on the first day of the first month (2Ch 29:7), while the preparations for it which preceded were yet, according to 2Ch 29:3, made also in the first month, is removed if we take 2Ch 29:3 to be a comprehensive summary of what is described in the following verses, and regard the connection between 2Ch 29:3 and 2Ch 29:4. as only logical, not chronological, the ו consec. (ויּבא) expressing, not succession in time, but connection in thought. The opening of the doors of the house of God, and the repairing of them (2Ch 29:3), did not precede in time the summons to the priests (2Ch 29:4), but is placed at the commencement of the account of the reopening and restoration of the temple as a contrast to the closing and devastation of the sanctuary by Ahaz. Hezekiah commenced this work in the first year of his reign, in the first month of the calendar year, and accomplished it as is described in 2Ch 29:4-17. If we take 2Ch 29:3 as a statement of the contents of the succeeding section, - as are e.g., (1Ki 6:14; 1Ki 7:1) the statements, “he built the house, and completed it,” where in both passages the completion of the building is described only in the succeeding verses, - we need not confine the preparations spoken of in 2Ch 29:4-15 to the first day of the first month, but may quite well suppose that these preparations
