2 Chronicleschapter 31
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Speaks with:Nehemiah 13×41 Chronicles 24×31 Chronicles 23×32 Chronicles 35×2Exodus 35×21 Chronicles 6×2
Summary
Chapter summary
The passover crowd goes home by way of the high places: images broken, pillars cut down, Asherim and altars thrown out of Judah and Benjamin, Ephraim and Manasseh. Hezekiah restores the priestly courses, gives his own portion for the daily and festal offerings, and commands the people to give the priests' portion 'that they might give themselves to the law of Jehovah.' The response overflows: heaps of grain, wine, oil, honey, and tithes piled four months, and Azariah reports, 'Since the people began to bring the oblations into the house of Jehovah, we have eaten and had enough, and have left plenty.' Chambers are prepared and faithful men appointed to distribute. He did it with all his heart, and prospered.
Context
History · Ezra — 2 Chronicles overview
- A. 1–10 Heaps of firstfruits piled from the third month to the seventh
- B. 11–19 Storerooms prepared and faithful men set over the distribution
- C. 20–21 He did it with all his heart, and he prospered
The outline
A.Heaps of firstfruits piled from the third month to the seventhvv. 1 to 10
Read vv. 1 to 10 →B.Storerooms prepared and faithful men set over the distributionvv. 11 to 19
Read vv. 11 to 19 →C.He did it with all his heart, and he prosperedvv. 20 to 21
Read vv. 20 to 21 →
The world behind this chapter
2 Chronicles 31The history
This is a chapter about supply chains. Priests and Levites owned no farmland, so if the tithes stopped they had to go find fields of their own, and the temple service collapsed. Hezekiah restores the courses, funds the daily, Sabbath, new moon, and festival offerings out of his own property, and then commands the people of Jerusalem to give the portion due to the priests and Levites — the stated reason being 'that they might be encouraged in the law of the LORD.'
The response follows the harvest calendar exactly. The firstfruits of grain, new wine, oil, and honey came in from the third month — the grain harvest — and the piling up continued until the seventh month, when the fruit and olive harvest ended. The heaps stood in the open until someone thought to ask about them.
So chambers were prepared in the house of the LORD and the produce was brought in, with named officers: a Levite over the stores, his brother second, and ten more appointed under them, plus a keeper of the east gate over the freewill offerings.
The distribution list shows why registers mattered. Portions went out to the priests by their family enrolment and to the Levites from twenty years old by their courses — and to their whole households, including children from three years old, since these were families living entirely on the system.
The summary line is that they distributed 'to great and small alike' by their divisions, and that in every work the king began, he did it with all his heart, and prospered.
What it meant to them
Nehemiah found the exact opposite state of affairs a few centuries later: the portions not given, the Levites and singers gone back to their fields, and the house of God forsaken — so he gathered them and put them back in their places and appointed treasurers over the storehouses.
This chapter is that same fix, done right the first time. For its readers it was not administration; it was the difference between a temple with staff and an empty building.
Sources cited
- Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions
- Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Chronicles
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on 2 Chronicles 31. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.