Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 2 Chronicles · About this commentary
The Portions, and the Heaps
2 Chronicles 31:1-21
1 Now when all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah and broke the pillars in pieces, cut down the Asherah poles, and broke down the high places and the altars out of all Judah and Benjamin, also in Ephraim and Manasseh, until they had destroyed them all. Then all the children of Israel returned, every man to his possession, into their own cities. · WEB
The festival ends and the administration begins, and the surplus is so large that rooms have to be built to hold it.
The first thing the congregation does after the feast is go home by way of the shrines. They break the pillars and cut down the poles out of all Judah and Benjamin, also in Ephraim and Manasseh 2 Chronicles 31:1 — including territory outside the king's authority, done by people returning to their own towns.
That is the pattern of this reign. Hezekiah opens doors and issues invitations; the demolition is done by whoever was at the feast, on their way back.
Then the chapter turns to something no reform in the book had yet addressed: how the arrangement is paid for. The divisions are appointed, and the king assigns the king's portion of his possessions for the daily, weekly, monthly and annual offerings 2 Chronicles 31:3. He funds the schedule out of his own estate before asking anyone else.
The command to the people carries its reason inside it. They are to give the priests' portion that they might give themselves to Yahweh's law 2 Chronicles 31:4. Support is not a courtesy owed to a class; it is what buys the clergy the time to do the one thing Judah had most conspicuously lacked, which is teaching.
The response overwhelms the system. First fruits of grain, wine, oil, honey and every increase; the tithe of herds; dedicated things — and laid them in heaps 2 Chronicles 31:6. The piles take from the third month to the seventh to accumulate 2 Chronicles 31:7.
The king's question about them, and the answer, make the finest exchange in the chapter. He asks what the heaps are. The chief priest replies: since people began to bring the offerings into Yahweh's house, we have eaten and had enough, and have plenty left over, for Yahweh has blessed his people; and that which is left is this great store 2 Chronicles 31:10.
The surplus is what remains after everyone was fed. It is not evidence of hoarding but of a shortage ending, and the priest attributes it past the givers to the one who gave them the increase.
The administration that follows is precise about the thing that usually goes wrong. Storerooms are built; two brothers are put over them with ten named overseers, appointed jointly by the king and the chief priest 2 Chronicles 31:12–13; a gatekeeper is put over the freewill offerings with six men under him in the country towns 2 Chronicles 31:14–15.
And the distribution rule is stated in five words: to the great as well as to the small. The registers extend to children from three years old, to wives, sons and daughters 2 Chronicles 31:16–18, so the food reaches households and not only office-holders.
The verdict on the reign is given here rather than at his death, and it uses the book's verb one last time about him. In everything he began, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart and prospered 2 Chronicles 31:21.
settled What this mark means