2 Chronicles 31: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

After the great Passover, the people go through Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh and destroy the pillars, Asherah poles, high places, and altars. Hezekiah reorganizes the priests and Levites into their work groups, gives from his own property for the regular offerings, and tells the people of Jerusalem to bring the share owed to the priests and Levites. The people bring so much in firstfruits and tithes that the surplus is piled in heaps, so Hezekiah has storerooms prepared and appoints men to receive and hand out the goods fairly. The chapter closes by saying Hezekiah did what was good and right and true before the LORD, and prospered.

Claim by Claim

1. 31:1
   • When all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah
   • They broke the sacred pillars in pieces
   • They cut down the Asherah poles
   • They tore down the high places and the altars
   • They did this throughout all Judah and Benjamin
   • They did this also in Ephraim and Manasseh
   • They continued until they had utterly destroyed them all
   • Then all the children of Israel returned, each man to his own possession, into their own cities
2. 31:2
   • Hezekiah appointed the divisions of the priests and the Levites according to their divisions
   • Each man was assigned according to his service
   • The priests and Levites were assigned for burnt offerings and for peace offerings
   • They were assigned to minister, to give thanks, and to praise
   • This service was at the gates of the camps of the LORD
3. 31:3
   • The king gave a portion from his own substance for the burnt offerings
   • This portion was for the morning and evening burnt offerings
   • This portion was for the burnt offerings of the sabbaths, the new moons, and the appointed feasts
   • This was done as it is written in the law of the LORD
4. 31:4
   • Hezekiah commanded the people who dwelt in Jerusalem to give the portion of the priests and the Levites
   • The purpose was that the priests and Levites might hold firm to the law of the LORD
5. 31:5
   • As soon as the command spread abroad, the children of Israel brought an abundance of firstfruits of grain, new wine, oil, and honey
   • They brought firstfruits of all the produce of the field
   • They brought in the tithe of all things abundantly
6. 31:6
   • The children of Israel and Judah who dwelt in the cities of Judah also brought the tithe of oxen and sheep
   • They brought the tithe of holy things which were consecrated to the LORD their God
   • They laid them in heaps
7. 31:7
   • In the third month they began to lay the foundation of the heaps
   • In the seventh month they finished the heaps
8. 31:8
   • Hezekiah and the princes came and saw the heaps
   • They blessed the LORD
   • They blessed his people Israel
9. 31:9
   • Hezekiah questioned the priests and the Levites concerning the heaps
10. 31:10
    • Azariah the chief priest of the house of Zadok answered him
    • Azariah said that since the people began to bring the offerings into the house of the LORD, they have had enough to eat
    • Azariah said they have plenty left over
    • Azariah said the LORD has blessed his people
    • Azariah said that what is left over is this great store
11. 31:11
    • Hezekiah commanded that chambers be prepared in the house of the LORD
    • They prepared the chambers
12. 31:12
    • They brought in the offerings, the tithes, and the dedicated things faithfully
    • Cononiah the Levite was ruler over them
    • Shimei his brother was second in charge
13. 31:13
    • Jehiel, Azaziah, Nahath, Asahel, Jerimoth, Jozabad, Eliel, Ismachiah, Mahath, and Benaiah were overseers
    • They served under the hand of Cononiah and Shimei his brother
    • They served at the appointment of Hezekiah the king
    • Azariah was the ruler of the house of God
14. 31:14
    • Kore the son of Imnah the Levite was the gatekeeper toward the east
    • Kore was over the freewill offerings of God
    • Kore's duty was to distribute the offerings of the LORD and the most holy things
15. 31:15
    • Under Kore's authority were Eden, Miniamin, Jeshua, Shemaiah, Amariah, and Shecaniah
    • They served in the cities of the priests
    • They served faithfully
    • Their task was to give portions to their brethren by divisions
    • They gave to the great and the small alike
16. 31:16
    • Distribution was made besides those registered by genealogy as males from three years old and upward
    • This included every one who entered the house of the LORD
    • Each received his daily portion for his service
    • The service was according to their charges and their divisions
17. 31:17
    • The priests were registered by genealogy according to the house of their fathers
    • The Levites were registered from twenty years old and upward
    • They were registered according to their charges and their divisions
18. 31:18
    • The genealogy included all their little ones, their wives, their sons, and their daughters
    • This included the whole congregation
    • The reason given is that in their faithfulness they consecrated themselves in holiness
19. 31:19
    • Concerning the sons of Aaron, the priests, who were in the fields of the pasture lands of their cities
    • In every city men were designated by name
    • Their task was to give portions to every male among the priests
    • Their task was to give portions to all who were registered by genealogy among the Levites
20. 31:20
    • Hezekiah did this throughout all Judah
    • Hezekiah did what was good and right and true before the LORD his God
21. 31:21
    • In every work that Hezekiah began in the service of the house of God
    • And in the law and in the commandment
    • He acted in order to seek his God
    • He did it with all his heart
    • He prospered

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

31:1

"All this" is the great Passover festival described in the previous chapter, which Hezekiah had held in Jerusalem for people from both Judah in the south and the old northern kingdom of Israel. Ephraim and Manasseh were northern territories outside Hezekiah's kingdom, so the wrecking crews were crossing a political border. The sacred stone pillars were upright standing stones set up at shrines to mark the presence of a god. Asherah poles were wooden objects, either carved images or living trees, representing the goddess Asherah, a Canaanite mother-goddess. "High places" were local open-air shrines, usually on hilltops or raised platforms, where people sacrificed near their own towns rather than traveling to the temple in Jerusalem.

31:2

Priests and Levites were not the same. Priests were the descendants of Aaron, and only they could handle the altar and the sacrifices. The Levites were the rest of the tribe of Levi, who did the supporting work: guarding gates, music, maintenance, and the storerooms. Neither group owned farmland like the other tribes; both lived on the offerings brought in by everyone else. The "work groups" (the King James "courses") were rotas. Priestly and Levite families were divided into fixed divisions, each of which came up to Jerusalem to serve for a set period and then went home. A burnt offering was an animal burned whole on the altar, with no part eaten. A peace offering was shared: part burned, part given to the priests, and the rest eaten as a meal by the worshiper and his family. "The place where the LORD lived among them" translates a Hebrew word meaning "camps", an old term recalling the portable tent-shrine of the wilderness years, here used for the temple precincts.

31:3

The morning and evening burnt offerings were the fixed daily sacrifices, offered at dawn and dusk every day of the year regardless of what else was happening. New moon festivals marked the start of each month in a lunar calendar; the appointed feasts were the annual pilgrim festivals such as Passover, Weeks, and Booths. Kings were customarily expected to fund these public, state sacrifices out of the royal estates.

31:4

Because the priests and Levites held no farmland of their own, this contribution was not charity but their legal income. Without it they had to work land or trades to eat, which is why the point of the order is that they could "give themselves fully" to their duties.

31:5

The "first and best" (firstfruits) were the opening portion of each harvest, handed over before the household used any of the crop itself. The King James "corn" means grain in general, wheat and barley, not maize, which was unknown in the ancient Near East. "New wine" is freshly pressed grape juice at the start of fermentation. The honey may be bee honey or the thick syrup boiled down from dates or grapes, which went by the same word. The "tenth" (tithe) was a fixed tenth of annual produce owed to the sanctuary.

31:6

The "holy things set apart for the LORD" were goods already vowed or dedicated to the sanctuary. Since these people lived in the towns of Judah, they were bringing their tithes up to Jerusalem rather than storing them locally, which is why the piles grew so large.

31:7

The third month falls roughly in May–June, when the grain harvest ends; the seventh month is roughly September–October, after the grape and olive harvests. The piles grew over the whole four-month harvest season.

31:8

To "bless" the LORD means to praise or thank him; to bless the people means to invoke good on them. The same Hebrew word covers both directions, which is why the King James uses it twice in one sentence.

31:10

Zadok was the priest who backed Solomon at David's accession, and his descendants held the chief priesthood in Jerusalem from then on. Naming the family is a way of saying this was the senior, legitimate priestly line.

31:11

Storerooms in the temple were side chambers built into the complex, used to keep grain, oil, wine, and dedicated goods secure and dry. Until they existed, the contributions were literally sitting outside in heaps.

31:14

Freewill offerings were gifts given voluntarily, over and above what the law required. Gatekeepers were Levites who controlled access to the temple courts and, as here, also handled what came in through their gate. "The things that were most holy" is a technical category: portions of certain offerings that only priests could eat, and only within the sanctuary precincts.

31:15

The priests and Levites were assigned particular towns scattered through the tribal territories, so most of them lived away from Jerusalem except when their rota came up. These six men ran the distribution of supplies out to those towns.

31:16

The registers were genealogical lists, the basis for who had a right to a share. Three years is roughly the age at which a child was weaned, so the list began where a child stopped being fed by its mother and needed a ration of its own. The Hebrew here is compressed and its exact sense is disputed: it may describe the priests' male children generally, or specifically those old enough to be present at the temple.

31:17

"By their father's household" means grouped by family line, the unit that determined a priest's standing and duties. Twenty was one of the traditional starting ages for full Levite service; other passages give different ages, and the ancient sources do not agree.

31:18

The point is that the whole household was supported, not just the man on duty. "Kept themselves set apart as holy" refers to ritual consecration, the washings, abstentions, and avoidance of anything that made a person ceremonially unclean, required of anyone handling holy things.

31:19

The King James "suburbs" does not mean housing estates; it means the open pastureland and fields belonging to each priestly town, where the priests grazed animals and grew food. Priests living out on that land, away from the town center, still had to be reached by the men appointed to hand out shares.

31:20

"Truth" here means being reliable and straight in his dealings, not simply telling no lies.

31:21

"Prospered" in the King James means he succeeded at what he set out to do, not that he grew rich.