adjungi potuerunt quidam modi agendi innocui et commodi ad legis jussa exsequenda. לבּקר וכן, and so was it done also with the oxen, which consequently were not offered as burnt-offerings, but as thank-offerings, only the fat being burnt upon the altar, and the flesh being used for sacrificial meals.
Verse 13
The passover, i.e., the flesh of the paschal lamb, they roasted (בּאשׁ בּשּׁל, to make ready upon the fire, i.e., roast; see on Exo 12:9), according to the ordinance (as the law appointed); and “the sanctified (as they called the slaughtered oxen, cf. 2Ch 29:33) they sod (שּׁלוּ, sc. במּים, cf. Exo 12:9) in pots, caldrons, and pans, and brought it speedily to the sons of the people,” i.e., the laymen. From this Bertheau draws the conclusion, “that with the paschal lambs the oxen were also offered as thank-offerings; and the sacrificial meal consisted not merely of the paschal lamb, but also of the flesh of the thank-offerings: for these must have been consumed on the same day as they were offered, though the eating of them on the following day was not strictly forbidden, Lev 7:15-18.” But this conclusion is shown to be incorrect even by this fact, that there is no word to hint that the roasting of the paschal lambs and the cooking of the flesh of the oxen which were offered as thank-offerings took place simultaneously on the evening of the 14th Nisan. This is implied neither in the לבּקר וכן, nor in the statement in 2Ch 35:14, that the priests were busied until night in offering the עלה and the חלבים. According to 2Ch 35:17, the Israelites held on that day, not only the passover, but also the Mazzoth-feast, seven days. The description of the offering and preparation of the sacrifices, partly for the altar and partly for the meal, 2Ch 35:13-15, refers, therefore, not only to the passover in its more restricted sense, but also to the seven days' Mazzoth festival, without its being expressly stated; because both from the law and from the practice it was sufficiently well known that at the פּסח meal only צאן (lambs or goats) were roasted and eaten; while on the seven following days of the Mazzoth, besides the daily burnt-offering, thank-offerings were brought and sacrificial meals were held; see on Deu 16:1-8. The connecting, or rather the mingling, of the sacrificial meal prepared from the roasted lambs with the eating of the sodden flesh of oxen, would have been too great an offence against the legal prescriptions for the paschal meal, to be attributed either to King Josiah, to the priesthood, or to the author of the Chronicle, since the latter expressly remarks that the celebration was carried out
