And the children of Israel, the priests, and the Levites, and the rest of the children of the captivity, kept the dedication of this house of God with joy,
Ver. 16. Kept the dedication … with joy] So they did at the dedication of the first temple, 2 Chronicles 7:10. God had required all his worships to be celebrated with joy, Deuteronomy 12:7, and made it a condition of an acceptable service, Deuteronomy 26:14. Sacrifices offered with mourning were abomination, Hosea 9:4, yea, accursed by God, Deuteronomy 28:47. What a general joy was there at Samaria when Christ first was preached and believed on among them, Acts 8:8, when they first became God's building, 1 Corinthians 3:9, a temple for God to dwell in and walk in, 2Co 6:16 ! The like was at Bern, at Geneva, at Zurich, when the reformed religion was first received among them. They caused (for joy thereof) the day and year to be engraven in a pillar in letters of gold, for a perpetual memory to all posterity. Like as at Heidelberg, A.D. 1617, on the first of November, they kept, for three days time, an evangelical Jubilee, for joy of the Reformation begun by Luther, a hundred years before (Vita Parei, operib, praefix.).