2 Chronicles 34:10

And they put it in the hand of the workmen that had the oversight of the house of the LORD, and they gave it to the workmen that wrought in the house of the LORD, to repair and amend the house:

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(10) Put it in.—Gave it into.

The workmen.—The doers of the work, i.e., the overseers or contractors. See Note on 2Chronicles 24:12.

And they gave it to the workmen . . . the house.—So LXX. and Syriac. The Hebrew text says, and the doers of the work who were working in thehouse of Jehovah gave it for restoring and repairing the house. To whom the masters gave it is stated in next verse.

To repair.—Libdōq, here only. The term is so used in Syriac. The original form of the verse is 2Kings 22:5, where “the doers of the work” are first the masters, and then the men.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

34:1-33 Josiah's good reign in Judah. - As the years of infancy cannot be useful to our fellow-creatures, our earliest youth should be dedicated to God, that we may not waste any of the remaining short space of life. Happy and wise are those who seek the Lord and prepare for usefulness at an early age, when others are pursuing sinful pleasures, contracting bad habits, and forming ruinous connexions. Who can express the anguish prevented by early piety, and its blessed effects? Diligent self-examination and watchfulness will convince us of the deceitfulness and wickedness of our own hearts, and the sinfulness of our lives. We are here encouraged to humble ourselves before God, and to seek unto him, as Josiah did. And believers are here taught, not to fear death, but to welcome it, when it takes them away from the evil to come. Nothing hastens the ruin of a people, nor ripens them for it, more than their disregard of the attempts made for their reformation. Be not deceived, God is not mocked. The current and tide of affections only turns at the command of Him who raises up those that are dead in trespasses and sins. We behold peculiar loveliness, in the grace the Lord bestows on those, who in tender years seek to know and to love the Saviour. Hath Jesus, the Day-spring from on high, visited you? Can you trace your knowledge of this light and life of man, like Josiah, from your youth? Oh the unspeakable happiness of becoming acquainted with Jesus from our earliest years!

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The power of Assyria being now (629-624 B.C.) greatly weakened, if not completely broken, Josiah aimed not merely at a religious reformation, but at a restoration of the kingdom to its ancient limits (see the 2 Kings 23:19 note).

With their mattocks ... - Or "in their desolate places" (compare Psalm 109:10). Another reading gives the sense, "he proved their house round about."

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

2Ch 34:8-18. He Repairs the Temple.

8. in the eighteenth year of his reign … he sent Shaphan—(See on [474]2Ki 22:3-9).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And they put it,.... The king's ministers did:

in the hand of the workmen that had the oversight of the house of the Lord; whose business it was to inspect the temple, and see what repairs were necessary, and to overlook the workmen in making those repairs; the names of these overseers are in 2 Chronicles 34:12,

and they gave it to the workmen that wrought in the house of the Lord, to repair and mend the house; that is, the overseers gave the money they received to the labourers, as the hire of their labour, and the reward of their work, and to buy materials with, as follows.

Geneva Study Bible

{e} And they put it in the hand of the workmen that had the oversight of the house of the LORD, and they gave it to the workmen that wrought in the house of the LORD, to repair and amend the house:

(e) Meaning Shaphan, etc.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

10. put it in] R.V. delivered it into.

and they gave it to the workmen that wrought in the house of the LORD] R.V. and the workmen that wrought in the house of the LORD gave it. The “workmen” are distinguished from the “carpenters and builders” (2 Chronicles 34:11); overseers of some kind are meant. To oversee the work and to do the work are used as synonymous phrases in 1 Chronicles 23:4 and ibid. 1 Chronicles 23:24.

to repair and mend] R.V. to amend and repair. “To amend” is to fill up a breach.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 10. - And they put it; i.e. Shaphan and colleagues, according to the parallel. 2 Chronicles 34:10

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

They, together with the high priest, gave the money which had been received for the repair of the temple to the overseers of the building, who then gave it to workmen to procure building materials and for wages, just as was done when the temple was repaired by Joash, 2 Chronicles 24:11-13. The Keri ויּשׁבוּ is a correction resulting from a misinterpretation of the Keth. וישׁבי, "and of the dwellers in Jerusalem." The enumeration, "from the hand of Manasseh, Ephraim," etc., is rhetorical. In ויּתּנוּ, 2 Chronicles 34:10, the verb of 2 Chronicles 34:9 is again taken up: they handed it to the overseers of the building, and they to the workmen. הם עשׂה is a rare form of the plur. עשׁי; see on 1 Chronicles 23:24. The overseers of the building (המפקדים - עשׁי) are the subject of the second ויּתּנוּ; and before the following עשׂי ל, which stands in 2 Kings, is to be supplied. בדוק is a denom. from בּדק, and signifies to repair what has been damaged. The statement of 2 Chronicles 34:10 is made more definite by 2 Chronicles 34:11 : they gave it, namely, to the workers in stone and wood, and to the builders to buy hewn stones and timber for couplings, and for the beams of the houses (לקרות, to provide with beams; הבּתים are the various buildings of the temple and its courts), which the kings of Judah had allowed to decay (השׁחית, not of designed destroying, but of ruining by neglect). - In 2 Chronicles 34:12 we have still the remark that the people did the work with fidelity, and the money could consequently be given to them without reckoning, cf. 2 Kings 22:7; and then the names of the building inspectors follow. Two Levites of the family of Merari, and two of the family of Kohath, were overseers; לנצּח, i.e., to lead in the building, to preside over it as upper overseers; and besides them, the Levites, all who were skilled in instruments of song (cf. 1 Chronicles 25:6.). As men who by their office and their art occupied a conspicuous place among the Levites, the oversight of the workmen in the temple was committed to them, not "that they might incite and cheer the workmen by music and song" (Berth.).