have the passover was not taken in time to allow of the necessary
removal of uncleanness from the priests nor of the assembling of the
people, and therefore the permission to defer it for a month was taken
advantage of, in order to allow full time for the despatch of the
messengers and the journeys of the farthest northern tribes. It is to
be observed that Hezekiah took his subjects into counsel, since the
step intended was much too great for him to venture on of his own mere
motion. So the overtures went out clothed with the authority of the
whole kingdom of Judah. It was the voice of a nation that sought to
woo back the secessionists.

The messengers were instructed to supplement the official letters of
invitation with earnest entreaties as from the king, of which the gist
is given in verses 6-9. With the skill born of intense desire to draw
the long-parted kingdoms together, the message touches on ancestral
memories, recent bitter experiences, yearnings for the captive
kinsfolk, the instinct of self-preservation, and rises at last into
the clear light of full faith in, and insight into, God's infinite
heart of pardoning pity.

Note the very first words, 'Ye children of Israel,' and consider the
effect of this frank recognition of the northern kingdom as part of
the undivided Israel. Such recognition might have been misunderstood
or spurned when Samaria was gay and prosperous; but when its palaces
were desolate, the effect of the old name, recalling happier days,
must have been as if the elder brother had come out from the father's
house and entreated the prodigal to come back to his place at the
fireside. The battle would be more than half won if the appeal that
was couched in the very name of Israel was heeded.