13 They were also over the bearers of burdens, and were overseers of all that worked in any manner of service. And of the Levites were the scribes, and officers, and doorkeepers.
And Judah said, The strength of the bearers of burdens faileth, and there is much rubbish; so that we are not able to build at the wall.
And he set seventy thousand of them to be bearers of burdens, and eighty thousand to be stone-masons in the mountains, and three thousand six hundred overseers to set the people to work.
and with them their brethren of the second [rank], Zechariah, Ben, and Jaaziel, and Shemiramoth, and Jehiel, and Unni, Eliab, and Benaiah, and Maaseiah, and Mattithiah, and Elipheleh, and Mikneiah, and Obed-Edom, and Jeiel, the doorkeepers;
and Obed-Edom, and their brethren, sixty-eight; Obed-Edom also, the son of Jeduthun, and Hosah as doorkeepers.
Of these, twenty-four thousand were to preside over the work of the house of Jehovah; and six thousand were officers and judges; and four thousand were doorkeepers; and four thousand praised Jehovah with the instruments which I made, [said David,] to praise [therewith].
The divisions of the doorkeepers. Of the Korahites: Meshelemiah the son of Kore, of the sons of Asaph. And Meshelemiah had sons: Zechariah the firstborn, Jediael the second, Zebadiah the third, Jathniel the fourth, Elam the fifth, Johanan the sixth, Elioenai the seventh. -- And the sons of Obed-Edom: Shemaiah the firstborn, Jehozabad the second, Joah the third, and Sacar the fourth, and Nethaneel the fifth, Ammiel the sixth, Issachar the seventh, Peulthai the eighth: for God had blessed him. And to Shemaiah his son were sons born, who were rulers in their father's house; for they were mighty men of valour. The sons of Shemaiah: Othni, and Rephael, and Obed, [and] Elzabad, whose brethren were valiant men, Elihu and Semachiah. All these were of the sons of Obed-Edom: they and their sons and their brethren, able men in strength for the service, were sixty-two of Obed-Edom. -- And Meshelemiah had sons and brethren, men of valour, eighteen. -- And Hosah, of the sons of Merari, had sons: Shimri the head, for though he was not the firstborn, yet his father made him the head; Hilkijah the second, Tebaliah the third, Zechariah the fourth: all the sons and brethren of Hosah were thirteen. Among these were the divisions of the doorkeepers, among the head-men, as to the charges together with their brethren, for performing the service in the house of Jehovah. And they cast lots, the small as well as the great, according to their fathers' houses, for every gate. And the lot eastward fell to Shelemiah; and they cast lots for Zechariah his son, a wise counsellor, and his lot came out northward; to Obed-Edom southward; and to his sons the storehouse. To Shuppim and Hosah westward, with the gate Shallecheth, by the causeway of the ascent, watch against watch. Eastward were six Levites, northward four a day, southward four a day, and in the storehouse two [and] two. At the portico westward, four at the causeway, two at the portico. These are the divisions of the doorkeepers among the sons of the Korahites and among the sons of Merari.
Of the Jizharites, Chenaniah and his sons were over Israel, for the outward business for officers and judges. Of the Hebronites, Hashabiah and his brethren, men of valour, a thousand and seven hundred, for the administration of Israel on this side Jordan westward, for all the business of Jehovah, and for the service of the king.
And behold, I will give to thy servants the hewers that fell timber, twenty thousand measures of beaten wheat, and twenty thousand measures of barley, and twenty thousand baths of wine, and twenty thousand baths of oil.
And these were the chief of king Solomon's superintendents, two hundred and fifty, that ruled over the people.
And he appointed, according to the ordinance of David his father, the divisions of the priests for their service, and the Levites for their charges, to praise and serve before the priests, as the duty of every day required; and the doorkeepers by their divisions at every gate: for such was the commandment of David the man of God;
And behold, Amariah the chief priest is over you in all matters of Jehovah, and Zebadiah the son of Ishmael, prince of the house of Judah, in all the king's matters; and ye have the Levites before you as officers. Be strong and do it, and Jehovah will be with the good.
-- this Ezra went up from Babylon; and he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which Jehovah the God of Israel had given. And the king granted him all his request, according to the hand of Jehovah his God upon him. (And there went up [some] of the children of Israel, and of the priests, and the Levites, and the singers, and the doorkeepers, and the Nethinim, to Jerusalem, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king.)
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on 2 Chronicles 34
Commentary on 2 Chronicles 34 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 34
2Ch 34:1, 2. Josiah's Good Reign.
1. Josiah was eight years old—(See on 2Ki 22:1). The testimony borne to the undeviating steadfastness of his adherence to the cause of true religion places his character and reign in honorable contrast with those of many of his royal predecessors.
2Ch 34:3-7. He Destroys Idolatry.
3. in the eighth year of his reign—This was the sixteenth year of his age, and, as the kings of Judah were considered minors till they had completed their thirteenth year, it was three years after he had attained majority. He had very early manifested the piety and excellent dispositions of his character. In the twelfth year of his reign, but the twentieth of his age, he began to take a lively interest in the purgation of his kingdom from all the monuments of idolatry which, in his father's short reign, had been erected. At a later period, his increasing zeal for securing the purity of divine worship led him to superintend the work of demolition in various parts of his dominion. The course of the narrative in this passage is somewhat different from that followed in the Book of Kings. For the historian, having made allusion to the early manifestation of Josiah's zeal, goes on with a full detail of all the measures this good king adopted for the extirpation of idolatry; whereas the author of the Book of Kings sets out with the cleansing of the temple, immediately previous to the celebration of the passover, and embraces that occasion to give a general description of Josiah's policy for freeing the land from idolatrous pollution. The exact chronological order is not followed either in Kings or Chronicles. But it is clearly recorded in both that the abolition of idolatry began in the twelfth and was completed in the eighteenth year of Josiah's reign. Notwithstanding Josiah's undoubted sincerity and zeal and the people's apparent compliance with the king's orders, he could not extinguish a strongly rooted attachment to idolatries introduced in the early part of Manasseh's reign. This latent predilection appears unmistakably developed in the subsequent reigns, and the divine decree for the removal of Judah, as well as Israel, into captivity was irrevocably passed.
4. the graves of them that had sacrificed unto them—He treated the graves themselves as guilty of the crimes of those who were lying in them [Bertheau].
5. he burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars—A greater brand of infamy could not have been put on idolatrous priests than the disinterment of their bones, and a greater defilement could not have been done to the altars of idolatry than the burning upon them the bones of those who had there officiated in their lifetime.
6. with their mattocks—or, "in their deserts"—so that the verse will stand thus: "And so did [namely, break the altars and burn the bones of priests] he in the cities of Manasseh, and Ephraim, and Simeon, even unto Naphtali, in their deserted suburbs." The reader is apt to be surprised on finding that Josiah, whose hereditary possessions were confined to the kingdom of Judah, exercised as much authority among the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, Simeon, and others as far as Naphtali, as he did within his own dominion. Therefore, it is necessary to observe that, after the destruction of Samaria by Shalmaneser, the remnant that continued on the mountains of Israel maintained a close intercourse with Judah, and looked to the sovereigns of that kingdom as their natural protectors. Those kings acquired great influence over them, which Josiah exercised in removing every vestige of idolatry from the land. He could not have done this without the acquiescence of the people in the propriety of this proceeding, conscious that this was conformable to their ancient laws and institutions. The Assyrian kings, who were now masters of the country, might have been displeased at the liberties Josiah took beyond his own territories. But either they were not informed of his doings, or they did not trouble themselves about his religious proceedings, relating, as they would think, to the god of the land, especially as he did not attempt to seize upon any place or to disturb the allegiance of the people [Calmet].
2Ch 34:8-18. He Repairs the Temple.
8. in the eighteenth year of his reign … he sent Shaphan—(See on 2Ki 22:3-9).
2Ch 34:19-33. And, Causing the Law to Be Read, Renews the Covenant between God and the People.
19. when the king had heard the words of the law, &c.—(See on 2Ki 22:11-20; 23:1-3).