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2 Chronicles 23:6

in 2 Chronicles 23

No one is to enter the house of the LORD except the priests and those Levites who serve; they may enter because they are consecrated, but all the people are to obey the requirement of the LORD.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

But let none come into the house of Jehovah, save the priests, and they that minister of the Levites; they shall come in, for they are holy: but all the people shall keep the charge of Jehovah.

KJV

But let none come into the house of the Lord, save the priests, and they that minister of the Levites; they shall go in, for they are holy: but all the people shall keep the watch of the Lord.

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This verse in 2 Chronicles 23

Commentary

4 notes on this verse

This site's exposition

shall keep watch at the doors

on 2 Chronicles 23:4-7

Jehoiada's plan turns on one restriction the parallel in Kings does not carry. “No one is to enter the house of the LORD except the priests and those Levites who serve”, since “they are consecrated”. Chronicles builds it around the temple's line between holy and common ground.

This site's exposition

all the people are to obey the requirement of the LORD

The crowd stays in the courts while only priests and serving Levites enter the house. The command gives the people a duty of their own. Barnes takes “the requirement of the LORD” to mean guard duty, holding the courts against any attempt by Baal's worshipers to push through.

The record, by era

The Nineteenth Century2 voices

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

The people were divided into three bodies; one attended as guards to the king, while the other two were posted at all the doors and gates, and the captains and military officers who entered the temple unarmed to lull suspicion, were furnished with weapons out of the sacred armory, where David had deposited his trophies of victory and which was reopened on this occasion.
Keep the watch of the Lord - i. e. guard against any attempt that might be made by the Baal-worshippers to force their way through the courts into the temple.

The words behind it

19 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וְאַל־and may not

    veal-H408 →724 times

  • יָב֣וֹאanyone go

    yavo'H935 →2568 times

  • בֵית־[the] house of

    veit-H1004 →2046 times

  • יְהוָ֗הYahweh

    yahwehH3068 →6520 times

  • כִּ֤יthat

    kiH3588 →4482 times

  • אִם־except

    ʾim-H518 →1069 times

  • הַכֹּֽהֲנִים֙the priests

    hakohanimH3548 →750 times

  • וְהַמְשָׁרְתִ֣יםand those [who] are serving

    vehamsharetimH8334 →97 times

  • לַלְוִיִּ֔םof the Levites

    lalviyimH3881 →291 times

  • הֵ֥מָּהthey

    hemahH1992 →553 times

  • יָבֹ֖אוּthey will go

    yavouH935 →2568 times

  • כִּי־for

    ki-H3588 →4482 times

  • קֹ֣דֶשׁ[are] holiness

    kodeshH6944 →469 times

  • הֵ֑מָּהthey

    hemahH1992 →553 times

  • וְכָל־and all

    vekholH3605 →5413 times

  • הָעָ֔םthe people

    haamH5971 →1873 times

  • יִשְׁמְר֖וּthey will keep

    yishmeruH8104 →468 times

  • מִשְׁמֶ֥רֶת[the] duty of

    mishmeretH4931 →78 times

  • יְהוָֽה׃Yahweh

    yahwehH3068 →6520 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

5 in all, six open

The number beside each verse is how many compiled reference works tie it to this one. The strongest six stand open.

1 Chronicles 23:28–32but their duty was to assist the descendants of Aaron with the service of the house of the LORD, being responsible for the courts and chambers, the purification of all the holy things, and the work of the service of the house of God,3 worksDeuteronomy 33:8Concerning Levi he said: “Give Your Thummim to Levi and Your Urim to Your godly one, whom You tested at Massah and contested at the waters of Meribah.3 works2 Kings 11:6–7a third shall be at the gate of Sur, and a third at the gate behind the guards. You are to take turns guarding the temple—2 works2 Kings 11:7the two divisions that would go off duty on the Sabbath are to guard the house of the LORD for the king.2 worksNehemiah 12:45They performed the service of their God and the service of purification, along with the singers and gatekeepers, as David and his son Solomon had prescribed.2 works

About 2 Chronicles

Saphan Reading the Book of the Law to Josiah, Philip Galle, engraving after Maarten van Heemskerck, 1569, Royal Library of Belgium. Public domain.
Saphan Reading the Book of the Law to Josiah, Philip Galle, engraving after Maarten van Heemskerck, 1569, Royal Library of Belgium. Public domain.
2 Chronicles: the study guide →Read 2 Chronicles 23 →

This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible and Keil, The Books of the Chronicles.

Read on in 2 Chronicles 23 →