The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Chronicles — Section 284

delay in its execution, and how he finally of the eervioe; i.e. the persons responsible overcame the obstrnotive dele.y. for the work, or " tbtit had the oversight of Ver. 7.-The sona of Athe.lie.h. This it" (2 Kings xii. 11). Carpenters. It is verse's testimony against Athe.linh's sons preferable to render here literally tvorkmen exple.ins oh. xxi. 17, and is expl1tined 1tnd or 1corke1·s. Probe.bly this clause purports oorroborated by it. That wioked woman ; that those responsible, a.s above, hired mason.1 Hebrew, r,p~~~;-:t; fem. noun, derivative of and workmen. And also suoh as wrought. i~':1; meaning strictly in tho abstract, " the Supply the preposition found iu the Hebrew wickedness," cque.l to that incarnation of text, "to" before "suoh," and render a.go.in toickedne88. All the dedioated thinga; i.e. the BR.Ille word (•~:,t;i) literally, workers of the holy vessels, tree.sure, and holy furniture iron and bra.ss. of the house of the Lord, he.d they desecrated, Ver, 13.-The work was perfeoted by their and robbed them thence to squander them ~and~; Th~ m~rgin gives the literal render- on their various Bae.ls (eh. xvii. 3). rng, hea.hng or heo.lth, or, i.e., recovery, Ver. 8.-A chest; Hebrew, ,i;i~ J',!:\• "one "went up upon the work." The lively chest." This is more accurately described figure of the Hebrew word used (/"C11~) is in ver. 9 of the parallel. Without at the yery intelligible. The term is e~ployed gate of the house of the Lord ; i.e. in the ID only five other places, viz. Neh. iv. 7 court opposite the porch, and, as we learn (Authorized Version," The walls were made from the pa.ra.llel, by the side of the altar of up;" Revised Version better, The repairing burnt offering. Now, not the priests gene- o.f_~he ,cal"8wentforward); Iso.. lviii. 8; Jer. rally, but simply those who kept the door Tm. 22 ; xxx. 17 ; xxxiii. 6; in ea.eh of (probably the north door, Ezek. xi. 35), which four instances, in both Authorized receiving the contributions of the people a.t Version and Revised Version, the literal their hands, into their o= hands deposited rendering "health " or " heo.liug" is found, them in the one chest. In his state; equivalent to in its stateliness, Ver. 9.-(See notes on ver. 6.) perho.ps the idea. of the Hebrew word lm::ir,o Ver. 10.-Until they had made an end: [ only used four other times, and then •~;n-~ Hebrew, ;;,~~. piel infin. The meaning can dered once "tale" (Exod. v. 8), twice sca.rcely be till enough was obtained, because "composition" (eh. xxx. 32, 37), once day after day, a.s the next verse tells us, the "measure" (Ezek. xlv. 11)], being measure, chest was brought; but either till thoi;e who or proportion, or rate. had come that day to give had all given in Ver. 14.-And to offer witho.J. The in- their contributions, or, as some think with sertion of the italic type in the Authorized much less probability, till the chest was full Version "withal" unneces,,e.rily helps suggest for the day. At lhe same time, the clause, uncertainty in this rendering, while the Re- occupying only one word in the original, vised Version gives thtit word in the ordi- may quite possibly purport to state sum- ne.ry type ; margin, both Authorized Version marily by anticipation that the same system and Revised Version, gives "pestles." The was observed to the end, and the method Hebrew word is (rii,.P.1J) the hiph. infin. of of the chest not depe.rted from. the familiar verb n7v,; or plural of ''!!, with Ver. 11.-Unto the king's office. Not article prefixed ; this word, however, seems " office " in the modern technical business to occur only once (Prov. xxvii. 22 ), and sense; the meaning is tbe ea.re, charge, or then in the singular number. The rest of custody of the king, the Hebrew word being the money . . . made vessels for the house of ri:rp!! ; nor does this necessitate the snpposi- the Lord. This passage may harmonize not tion of the personal care of the king. The unse.tisfa.ctorily with the parallel (2 Kings body of this verse leaves it quite open to xii. 13), and on the very suggestion of the possibility, in harmony with the usage of the circumstantial evidence the.t arises from the Hebrew language and its idiom, that the place in which the information of our own process described took place, if necessary, text is found, by laying emphasis on the more than once in a day, and, on the other expression,·" the rest of the money." The hand, not neeessarily every evening. The writer of Kinge meant that nothing inter- change of the number of the verb in "they fered with, nothing whatsoever ran even emptied," etc., and the apparent statement with the execution of the substantial work of that thoi!C who emptied also carried back reparation of the building, and he neglech the chest, betoken that while the king's to record that finally e. remanet of money scribe (1 Kings iv. 3) and the high priest's being available, vessels were made of it for officer stood by, the usual Levite function- the inner fumiBhing of the house. nrits did the work. TLe phrase, day by day, Ver. 15.-:Bnt Jehoiade. . . . died; an is not necessarily equivalent to every evening, hundred and thirty years old. This good but to time after time. man, husband of Jehoram's daughter (eh. Yer. 12.-Gave it to such as did 1.he work xxii. 11), only comes to view in virtue of OIi. xx1v, 1-27.J THE SECOND DUOK OF THE CHRONICLES. 285