2 Chronicles 31

The TorahRooted Bible (TRB), translated directly from the Hebrew and Greek.

The idols removed from the land

¹ Now when all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah and broke the pillars in pieces, cut down the Asherah poles, and tore down the high places and the altars throughout all Judah and Benjamin, and also in Ephraim and Manasseh, until they had destroyed them all. Then all the children of Israel returned, every man to his possession, to their own cities.

The portions of the priests and the Levites

² And Hezekiah appointed the divisions of the priests and the Levites by their divisions, each according to his service, the priests and the Levites, for burnt offerings and for peace offerings, to minister, to give thanks and to praise in the gates of the camps of Yahweh. ³ The king's portion from his own possessions was for the burnt offerings: the burnt offerings of morning and evening, and the burnt offerings for the Shabbats, for the new moons and for the appointed times, as it is written in the Torah of Yahweh. ⁴ He also commanded the people who lived in Jerusalem to give the portion of the priests and the Levites, so that they might devote themselves to the Torah of Yahweh.

The firstfruits and the tithes

⁵ As soon as the command spread abroad, the children of Israel gave in abundance the firstfruits of grain, new wine, oil and honey, and of all the produce of the field; and they brought the tithe of everything in abundance. ⁶ And the children of Israel and Judah who lived in the cities of Judah also brought the tithe of herds and flocks, and the tithe of the holy things which were consecrated to Yahweh their Elohim, and they laid them in heaps upon heaps. ⁷ In the third month they began to pile up the heaps, and they finished them in the seventh month. ⁸ When Hezekiah and the leaders came and saw the heaps, they blessed Yahweh and His people Israel. ⁹ Then Hezekiah inquired of the priests and the Levites concerning the heaps. ¹⁰ And Azariah the chief priest, of the house of Zadok, answered him and said, "Since they began to bring the contributions into the house of Yahweh, we have eaten and been satisfied and have plenty left over, for Yahweh has blessed His people; and what is left over is this great abundance."

¹¹ Then Hezekiah commanded them to prepare chambers in the house of Yahweh, and they prepared them. ¹² And they faithfully brought in the contributions, the tithes and the consecrated things; and the officer in charge of them was Conaniah the Levite, and Shimei his brother was second. ¹³ Jehiel, Azaziah, Nahath, Asahel, Jerimoth, Jozabad, Eliel, Ismachiah, Mahath and Benaiah were overseers under the hand of Conaniah and Shimei his brother, by the appointment of Hezekiah the king and of Azariah the chief officer of the house of Elohim. ¹⁴ Kore the son of Imnah the Levite, the gatekeeper of the east gate, was over the freewill offerings to Elohim, to distribute the contribution for Yahweh and the most holy things. ¹⁵ Under him were Eden, Miniamin, Jeshua, Shemaiah, Amariah and Shecaniah in the cities of the priests, to distribute faithfully to their brothers by divisions, to the great and the small alike, ¹⁶ apart from those registered by genealogy, males from three years old and upward, everyone who entered the house of Yahweh as each day required, for their service in their duties according to their divisions, ¹⁷ and the priests registered by their fathers' houses, and the Levites from twenty years old and upward, in their duties by their divisions, ¹⁸ and those registered with all their little ones, their wives, their sons and their daughters, the whole company; for in their faithfulness they kept themselves holy. ¹⁹ Also for the sons of Aaron, the priests, who were in the fields of the pasturelands of their cities, in every city there were men designated by name to distribute portions to every male among the priests and to everyone registered by genealogy among the Levites.

²⁰ Thus Hezekiah did throughout all Judah; and he did what was good and right and true before Yahweh his Elohim. ²¹ And in every work that he began in the service of the house of Elohim, and in the Torah and in the commandment, to seek his Elohim, he did it with all his heart, and he prospered.

Notes

• 31:1 "All Israel who were present" are those who had kept the Passover in Jerusalem, among them men of the northern tribes (30:11, 18). They carry the cleansing beyond Judah and Benjamin into Ephraim and Manasseh, the heart of the old northern kingdom. Kings sums up the same work in one line: Hezekiah "removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah pole" (2 Kings 18:4). Only after this did the worshipers go home, "every man to his possession."
• 31:4 "Devote themselves" is literally "be strong (yechezku) in the Torah of Yahweh": to hold fast to it, keep it and teach it. The Levites had no land of their own to farm, and their portion set them free for this work, as Moses had said of Levi: "They shall teach Jacob Your judgments, and Israel Your Torah" (Deuteronomy 33:10). Nehemiah 13:10 later shows the other side: when the portions were not given, the Levites and singers went back to work their own fields.
• 31:6 "Tithe" is ma'aser, "a tenth." Hezekiah restores the tithe as the Torah gives it. It was the Levites' inheritance: "To the sons of Levi, see, I have given all the tithe in Israel as an inheritance, in return for their service which they perform" (Numbers 18:21). The Levites in turn gave the priests "a tithe of the tithe" (Numbers 18:26). And every third year the poor shared in it: "the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates, shall come and eat and be satisfied" (Deuteronomy 14:29). "The tithe of the holy things" is found only here; it may mean a tenth of gifts already dedicated to Yahweh, but its exact sense is uncertain.
• 31:10 The heaps grew from the third month to the seventh, the whole harvest season, from the grain harvest at the Feast of Weeks to the ingathering of the fruit at the Feast of Tabernacles. Azariah's words echo the promise of Deuteronomy 14:29: those who share in the tithe "shall come and eat and be satisfied," and Yahweh will bless the giver. So much came in that, as at the building of the tabernacle (Exodus 36:5-7), there was more than enough. "Contributions" is terumah, the word Numbers 18:24 uses for the tithe lifted up "as a heave offering to Yahweh."
• 31:16 These verses describe how the portions were handed out, and the Hebrew is compact and hard. As they are commonly read, those serving their turn at the house were fed there; the distributors in the priests' cities provided for the rest. The age "three years old" is unusual, and some think it may be a copying slip for "thirty," the age of Levitical service in 1 Chronicles 23:3; others take it to mean that boys from three years old were counted for a portion. The Levites served "from twenty years old and upward" (verse 17; 1 Chronicles 23:24, 27), and the portions fed whole households, as the Torah gave the priests' share "to you, and to your sons and your daughters with you" (Numbers 18:11; verse 18).
• 31:21 Chronicles sums up Hezekiah's work in three words: good, right and true (emet, "truth, faithfulness"). He used the same words in his own prayer: "I have walked before You in truth and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in Your sight" (2 Kings 20:3). The root of it all is that he set out "to seek his Elohim," the key word of Chronicles, as David told Solomon: "If you seek Him, He will let Himself be found by you" (1 Chronicles 28:9). He did it in the service of the house, in the Torah and in the commandment, "with all his heart, and he prospered."

2 Chronicles 30 · 2 Chronicles 32

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