2 Chronicles 34:13 King James Version with Strong's Concordance (STRONG)

13 Also they were over the bearers of burdens, H5449 and were overseers H5329 of all that wrought H6213 the work H4399 in any manner of service: H5656 and of the Levites H3881 there were scribes, H5608 and officers, H7860 and porters. H7778

Cross Reference

Nehemiah 4:10 STRONG

And Judah H3063 said, H559 The strength H3581 of the bearers of burdens H5449 is decayed, H3782 and there is much H7235 rubbish; H6083 so that we are not able H3201 to build H1129 the wall. H2346

2 Chronicles 2:18 STRONG

And he set H6213 threescore and ten H7657 thousand H505 of them to be bearers of burdens, H5449 and fourscore H8084 thousand H505 to be hewers H2672 in the mountain, H2022 and three H7969 thousand H505 and six H8337 hundred H3967 overseers H5329 to set H5647 the people H5971 a work. H5647

1 Chronicles 9:17 STRONG

And the porters H7778 were, Shallum, H7967 and Akkub, H6126 and Talmon, H2929 and Ahiman, H289 and their brethren: H251 Shallum H7967 was the chief; H7218

1 Chronicles 15:18 STRONG

And with them their brethren H251 of the second H4932 degree, Zechariah, H2148 Ben, H1122 and Jaaziel, H3268 and Shemiramoth, H8070 and Jehiel, H3171 and Unni, H6042 Eliab, H446 and Benaiah, H1141 and Maaseiah, H4641 and Mattithiah, H4993 and Elipheleh, H466 and Mikneiah, H4737 and Obededom, H5654 and Jeiel, H3273 the porters. H7778

1 Chronicles 16:38 STRONG

And Obededom H5654 with their brethren, H251 threescore H8346 and eight; H8083 Obededom H5654 also the son H1121 of Jeduthun H3038 and Hosah H2621 to be porters: H7778

1 Chronicles 16:42 STRONG

And with them Heman H1968 and Jeduthun H3038 with trumpets H2689 and cymbals H4700 for those that should make a sound, H8085 and with musical H7892 instruments H3627 of God. H430 And the sons H1121 of Jeduthun H3038 were porters. H8179

1 Chronicles 23:4-5 STRONG

Of which, H428 twenty H6242 and four H702 thousand H505 were to set forward H5329 the work H4399 of the house H1004 of the LORD; H3068 and six H8337 thousand H505 were officers H7860 and judges: H8199 Moreover four H702 thousand H505 were porters; H7778 and four H702 thousand H505 praised H1984 the LORD H3068 with the instruments H3627 which I made, H6213 said David, to praise H1984 therewith.

1 Chronicles 26:1-19 STRONG

Concerning the divisions H4256 of the porters: H7778 Of the Korhites H7145 was Meshelemiah H4920 the son H1121 of Kore, H6981 of the sons H1121 of Asaph. H623 And the sons H1121 of Meshelemiah H4920 were, Zechariah H2148 the firstborn, H1060 Jediael H3043 the second, H8145 Zebadiah H2069 the third, H7992 Jathniel H3496 the fourth, H7243 Elam H5867 the fifth, H2549 Jehohanan H3076 the sixth, H8345 Elioenai H454 the seventh. H7637 Moreover the sons H1121 of Obededom H5654 were, Shemaiah H8098 the firstborn, H1060 Jehozabad H3075 the second, H8145 Joah H3098 the third, H7992 and Sacar H7940 the fourth, H7243 and Nethaneel H5417 the fifth, H2549 Ammiel H5988 the sixth, H8345 Issachar H3485 the seventh, H7637 Peulthai H6469 the eighth: H8066 for God H430 blessed H1288 him. Also unto Shemaiah H8098 his son H1121 were sons H1121 born, H3205 that ruled H4474 throughout the house H1004 of their father: H1 for they were mighty men H1368 of valour. H2428 The sons H1121 of Shemaiah; H8098 Othni, H6273 and Rephael, H7501 and Obed, H5744 Elzabad, H443 whose brethren H251 were strong H2428 men, H1121 Elihu, H453 and Semachiah. H5565 All these of the sons H1121 of Obededom: H5654 they and their sons H1121 and their brethren, H251 able H2428 men H376 for strength H3581 for the service, H5656 were threescore H8346 and two H8147 of Obededom. H5654 And Meshelemiah H4920 had sons H1121 and brethren, H251 strong H2428 men, H1121 eighteen. H8083 H6240 Also Hosah, H2621 of the children H1121 of Merari, H4847 had sons; H1121 Simri H8113 the chief, H7218 (for though he was not the firstborn, H1060 yet his father H1 made H7760 him the chief;) H7218 Hilkiah H2518 the second, H8145 Tebaliah H2882 the third, H7992 Zechariah H2148 the fourth: H7243 all the sons H1121 and brethren H251 of Hosah H2621 were thirteen. H7969 H6240 Among these were the divisions H4256 of the porters, H7778 even among the chief H7218 men, H1397 having wards H4931 one against H5980 another, H251 to minister H8334 in the house H1004 of the LORD. H3068 And they cast H5307 lots, H1486 as well the small H6996 as the great, H1419 according to the house H1004 of their fathers, H1 for every gate. H8179 And the lot H1486 eastward H4217 fell H5307 to Shelemiah. H8018 Then for Zechariah H2148 his son, H1121 a wise H7922 counsellor, H3289 they cast H5307 lots; H1486 and his lot H1486 came out H3318 northward. H6828 To Obededom H5654 southward; H5045 and to his sons H1121 the house H1004 of Asuppim. H624 To Shuppim H8206 and Hosah H2621 the lot came forth westward, H4628 with the gate H8179 Shallecheth, H7996 by the causeway H4546 of the going up, H5927 ward H4929 against H5980 ward. H4929 Eastward H4217 were six H8337 Levites, H3881 northward H6828 four H702 a day, H3117 southward H5045 four H702 a day, H3117 and toward Asuppim H624 two H8147 and two. H8147 At Parbar H6503 westward, H4628 four H702 at the causeway, H4546 and two H8147 at Parbar. H6503 These are the divisions H4256 of the porters H7778 among the sons H1121 of Kore, H7145 and among the sons H1121 of Merari. H4847

1 Chronicles 26:29-30 STRONG

Of the Izharites, H3325 Chenaniah H3663 and his sons H1121 were for the outward H2435 business H4399 over Israel, H3478 for officers H7860 and judges. H8199 And of the Hebronites, H2276 Hashabiah H2811 and his brethren, H251 men H1121 of valour, H2428 a thousand H505 and seven H7651 hundred, H3967 were officers H6486 among them of Israel H3478 on this side H5676 Jordan H3383 westward H4628 in all the business H4399 of the LORD, H3068 and in the service H5656 of the king. H4428

2 Chronicles 2:10 STRONG

And, behold, I will give H5414 to thy servants, H5650 the hewers H2404 that cut H3772 timber, H6086 twenty H6242 thousand H505 measures H3734 of beaten H4347 wheat, H2406 and twenty H6242 thousand H505 measures H3734 of barley, H8184 and twenty H6242 thousand H505 baths H1324 of wine, H3196 and twenty H6242 thousand H505 baths H1324 of oil. H8081

2 Chronicles 8:10 STRONG

And these were the chief H8269 of king H4428 Solomon's H8010 officers, H5324 H5333 even two hundred H3967 and fifty, H2572 that bare rule H7287 over the people. H5971

2 Chronicles 8:14 STRONG

And he appointed, H5975 according to the order H4941 of David H1732 his father, H1 the courses H4256 of the priests H3548 to their service, H5656 and the Levites H3881 to their charges, H4931 to praise H1984 and minister H8334 before the priests, H3548 as the duty H1697 of every day H3117 required: H3117 the porters H7778 also by their courses H4256 at every gate: H8179 for so had David H1732 the man H376 of God H430 commanded. H4687

2 Chronicles 19:11 STRONG

And, behold, Amariah H568 the chief H7218 priest H3548 is over you in all matters H1697 of the LORD; H3068 and Zebadiah H2069 the son H1121 of Ishmael, H3458 the ruler H5057 of the house H1004 of Judah, H3063 for all the king's H4428 matters: H1697 also the Levites H3881 shall be officers H7860 before H6440 you. Deal H6213 courageously, H2388 and the LORD H3068 shall be with the good. H2896

Ezra 7:6-7 STRONG

This Ezra H5830 went up H5927 from Babylon; H894 and he was a ready H4106 scribe H5608 in the law H8451 of Moses, H4872 which the LORD H3068 God H430 of Israel H3478 had given: H5414 and the king H4428 granted H5414 him all his request, H1246 according to the hand H3027 of the LORD H3068 his God H430 upon him. And there went up H5927 some of the children H1121 of Israel, H3478 and of the priests, H3548 and the Levites, H3881 and the singers, H7891 and the porters, H7778 and the Nethinims, H5411 unto Jerusalem, H3389 in the seventh H7651 year H8141 of Artaxerxes H783 the king. H4428

Jeremiah 8:8 STRONG

How do ye say, H559 We are wise, H2450 and the law H8451 of the LORD H3068 is with us? Lo, certainly H403 in vain H8267 made H6213 he it; the pen H5842 of the scribes H5608 is in vain. H8267

Matthew 26:3 STRONG

Then G5119 assembled together G4863 the chief priests, G749 and G2532 the scribes, G1122 and G2532 the elders G4245 of the people, G2992 unto G1519 the palace G833 of the high priest, G749 who G3588 was called G3004 Caiaphas, G2533

Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on 2 Chronicles 34

Commentary on 2 Chronicles 34 Matthew Henry Commentary


Chapter 34

Before we see Judah and Jerusalem ruined we shall yet see some glorious years, while good Josiah sits at the helm. By his pious endeavours for reformation God tried them yet once more; if they had known in this their day, the day of their visitation, the things that belonged to their peace and improved them, their ruin might have been prevented. But after this reign they were hidden from their eyes, and the next reigns brought an utter desolation upon them. In this chapter we have,

  • I. A general account of Josiah's character (v. 1, 2).
  • II. His zeal to root out idolatry (v. 3-7).
  • III. His care to repair the temple (v. 8-13).
  • IV. The finding of the book of the law and the good use made of it (v. 14-28).
  • V. The public reading of the law to the people and their renewing their covenant with God thereupon (v. 29-33). Much of this we had 2 Ki. 22.

2Ch 34:1-7

Concerning Josiah we are here told,

  • 1. That he came to the crown when he was very young, only eight years old (yet his infancy did not debar him from his right), and he reigned thirty-one years (v. 1), a considerable time. I fear, however, that in the beginning of his reign things went much as they had done in his father's time, because, being a child, he must have left the management of them to others; so that it was not till his twelfth year, which goes far in the number of his years, that the reformation began, v. 3. He could not, as Hezekiah did, fall about it immediately.
  • 2. That he reigned very well (v. 2), approved himself to God, trod in the steps of David, and did not decline either to the right hand of to the left: for there are errors on both hands.
  • 3. That while he was young, about sixteen years old, he began to seek after God, v. 3. We have reason to think he had not so good an education as Manasseh had (it is well if those about him did not endeavour to corrupt and debauch him); yet he thus sought God when he was young. It is the duty and interest of young people, and will particularly be the honour of young gentlemen, as soon as they come to years of understanding, to begin to seek God; for those that seek him early shall find him.
  • 4. That in the twelfth year of his reign, when it is probable he took the administration of the government entirely into his own hands, he began to purge his kingdom from the remains of idolatry; he destroyed the high places, groves, images, altars, all the utensils of idolatry, v. 3, 4. He not only cast them out as Manasseh did, but broke them to pieces, and made dust of them. This destruction of idolatry is here said to be in his twelfth year, but it was said (2 Ki. 23:23) to be in his eighteenth year. Something was probably done towards it in his twelfth year; then he began to purge out idolatry, but that good work met with opposition, so that it was not thoroughly done till they had found the book of the law six years afterwards. But here the whole work is laid together briefly which was much more largely and particularly related in the Kings. His zeal carried him out to do this, not only in Judah and Jerusalem, but in the cities of Israel too, as far as he had any influence upon them.

2Ch 34:8-13

Here,

  • 1. Orders are given by the king for the repair of the temple, v. 8. When he had purged the house of the corruptions of it he began to fit it up for the services that were to be performed in it. Thus we must do by the spiritual temple of the heart, get it cleansed from the pollutions of sin, and then renewed, so as to be transformed into the image of God. Josiah, in this order, calls God the Lord his God. Those that truly love God will love the habitation of his house.
  • 2. Care is taken about it, effectual care. The Levites went about the country and gathered money towards it, which was returned to the three trustees mentioned, v. 8. They brought it to Hilkiah the high priest (v. 9), and he and they put it into the hands of workmen, both overseers and labourers, who undertook to do it by the great, as we say, or in the gross, v. 10, 11. It is observed that the workmen were industrious and honest: They did the work faithfully (v. 12); and workmen are not completely faithful if they are not both careful and diligent, for a confidence is reposed in them that they will be so. It is also intimated that the overseers were ingenious; for it is said that all those were employed to inspect this work who were skilful in instruments of music; not that their skill in music could be of any use in architecture, but it was an evidence that they were men of sense and ingenuity, and particularly that their genius lay towards the mathematics, which qualified them very much for this trust. Witty men are then wise men when they employ their wit in doing good, in helping their friends, and, as they have opportunity, in serving the public. Observe, in this work, how God dispenses his gifts variously; here were some that were bearers of burdens, cut out for bodily labour and fit to work. Here were others (made meliori luto-of finer materials) that had skill in music, and they were overseers of those that laboured, and scribes and officers. The former were the hands: these were the heads. They had need of one another, and the work needed both. Let not the overseers of the work despise the bearers of burdens, nor let those that work in the service grudge at those whose office it is to direct; but let each esteem and serve the other in love, and let God have the glory and the church the benefit of the different gifts and dispositions of both.

2Ch 34:14-28

This whole paragraph we had, just as it is here related, 2 Ki. 22:8-20, and have nothing to add here to what was there observed. But,

  • 1. We may hence take occasion to bless God that we have plenty of Bibles, and that they are, or may be, in all hands,-that the book of the law and gospel is not lost, is not scarce,-that, in this sense, the word of the Lord is not precious. Bibles are jewels, but, thanks be to God, they are not rarities. The fountain of the waters of life is not a spring shut up or a fountain sealed, but the streams of it, in all places, make glad the city of our God. Usus communis aquarum-These waters flow for general use. What a great deal shall we have to answer for if the great things of God's law, being thus made common, should be accounted by us as strange things!
  • 2. We may hence learn, whenever we read or hear the word of God, to affect our hearts with it, and to get them possessed with a holy fear of that wrath of God which is there revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, as Josiah's tender heart was. When he heard the words of the law he rent his clothes (v. 19), and God was well pleased with his doing so, v. 27. Were the things contained in the scripture new to us, as they were here to Josiah, surely they would make deeper impressions upon us than commonly they do; but they are not the less weighty, and therefore should not be the less considered by us, for their being well known. Rend the heart therefore, not the garments.
  • 3. We are here directed when we are under convictions of sin, and apprehensions of divine wrath, to enquire of the Lord; so Josiah did, v. 21. It concerns us to ask (as they did, Acts 2:37), Men and brethren, what shall we do? and more particularly (as the jailor), What must I do to be saved? Acts 16:30. If you will thus enquire, enquire (Isa. 21:12); and, blessed be God, we have the lively oracles to which to apply with these enquiries.
  • 4. We are here warned of the ruin that sin brings upon nations and kingdoms. Those that forsake God bring evil upon themselves (v. 24, 25), and kindle a fire which shall not be quenched. Such will the fire of God's wrath be when the decree has gone forth against those that obstinately and impenitently persist in their wicked ways.
  • 5. We are here encouraged to humble ourselves before God and seek unto him, as Josiah did. If we cannot prevail thereby to turn away God's wrath from our land, yet we shall deliver our own souls, v. 27, 28. And good people are here taught to be so far from fearing death as to welcome it rather when it takes them away from the evil to come. See how the property of it is altered by making it the matter of a promise: Thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace, housed in that ark, as Noah, when a deluge is coming.

2Ch 34:29-33

We have here an account of the further advances which Josiah made towards the reformation of his kingdom upon the hearing of the law read and the receipt of the message God sent him by the prophetess. Happy the people that had such a king; for here we find that,

  • 1. They were well taught. He did not go about to force them to do their duty, till he had first instructed them in it. He called all the people together, great and small, young and old, rich and poor, high and low. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear the words of the book of the covenant; for they are all concerned in those words. To put an honour upon the service, and to engage attention the more, though there were priests and Levites present, the king himself read the book to the people (v. 30), and he read it, no doubt, in such a manner as to show that he was himself affected with it, which would be a means of affecting the hearers.
  • 2. They were well fixed. The articles of agreement between God and Israel being read, that they might intelligently covenant with God, both king and people with great solemnity did as it were subscribe the articles. The king in his place covenanted to keep God's commandments with all his heart and soul, according to what was written in the book (v. 31), and urged the people to declare their consent likewise to this covenant, and solemnly to promise that they would faithfully perform, fulfil, and keep, all and every thing that was on their part to be done, according to this covenant: this they did; they could not for shame do otherwise. He caused all that were present to stand to it (v. 32), and made them all to serve, even to serve the Lord their God (v. 33), to do it and to make a business of it. he did all he could to bring them to it-to serve, even to serve; the repetition denotes that this was the only thing his heart was set on; he aimed at nothing else in what he did but to engage them to God and their duty.
  • 3. They were well tended, were honest with good looking to. All his days they departed not from following the Lord; he kept them, with much ado, from running into idolatry again. All his days were days of restraint upon them; but this intimated that there was in them a bent to backslide, a strong inclination to idolatry. Many of them wanted nothing but to have him out of the way, and then they would have their high places and their images up again. And therefore we find that in the days of Josiah (Jer. 3:6) God charged it upon treacherous Judah that she had not returned to him with all her heart, but feignedly (v. 10), nay, had played the harlot (v. 8) and thereby had even justified backsliding Israel, v. 11. In the twenty-third year of this reign, four or five years after this, they had gone on to provoke God to anger with the works of their hands (Jer. 25:3-7); and, which is very observable, it is from the beginning of Josiah's reformation, his twelfth or thirteenth year, that the iniquity of the house of Judah, which brought ruin upon them, and which the prophet was to bear lying on his right side, was dated (Eze. 4:6), for thence to the destruction of Jerusalem was just forty years. Josiah was sincere in what he did, but the generality of the people were averse to it and hankered after their idols still; so that the reformation, though well designed and well prosecuted by the prince, had little or no effect upon the people. It was with reluctancy that they parted with their idols; still they were in heart joined to them, and wished for them again. This God saw, and therefore from that time, when one would have thought the foundations had been laid for a perpetual security and peace, from that very time did the decree go forth for their destruction. Nothing hastens the ruin of a people nor ripens them for it more than the baffling of hopeful attempts for reformation and a hypocritical return to God. Be not deceived, God is not mocked.