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CHAPTER XXXI

The people destroy all traces of idolatry throughout Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh, 1. Hezekiah reforms the state of religion in general; and the tithes are brought in from all quarters, and proper officers set over them, 2-13. They bring to also the freewill-offerings, and regulate the priests and Levites and their families, according to their genealogies, 14-19. Hezekiah does every thing in sincerity and truth, and is prosperous, 20, 21.

NOTES ON CHAP. XXXI

Verse 1. "Brake the images in pieces" - This species of reformation was not only carried on through Judah, but they carried it into Israel; whether through a transport of religious zeal, or whether with the consent of Hoshea the Israelitish king, we cannot tell.

Verse 2. "In the gates of the tents of the Lord." - That is, in the temple; for this was the house, tabernacle, tent, and camp, of the Most High.

Verse 3. "The king's portion of his substance for the burnt- offerings" - It is conjectured that the Jewish kings, at least from the time of David, furnished the morning and evening sacrifice daily at their own expense, and several others also.

Verse 5. "Brought-the first-fruits" - These were principally for the maintenance of the priests and Levites; they brought tithes of all the produce of the field, whether commanded or not, as we see in the instance of honey, which was not to be offered to the Lord, Lev. ii. 11, yet it appears it might be offered to the priests as first-fruits, or in the way of tithes.

Verse 7. "In the third month" - "The month Sivan; the seventh, Tisri." -Targum.

"The heaps" - The vast collections of grain which they had from the tithes over and above their own consumption; see 2 Chron. xxxi. 10.

Verse 11. "To prepare chambers" - To make granaries to lay up this superabundance.

Verse 12. "Shimei-was the next." - He was assistant to Cononiah.

Verse 15. "And Miniamin" - Instead of mynm , Miniamin, mynb , Benjamin, is the reading of three of Kennicott's and Deuteronomy Rossi's MSS.; and this is the reading of the Vulgate, Syriac, Septuagint, and Arabic.

Verse 17. "From twenty years old" - Moses had ordered that the Levites should not begin their labour till they were thirty years of age; but David changed this order, and obliged them to begin at twenty.

Verse 20. "Wrought-good and right and truth" - Here is the proper character of a worthy king: he is GOOD, and he does good; he is UPRIGHT, and he acts justly and maintains justice; he is truly RELIGIOUS, and he lives according to that truth which he receives as a revelation from God.