dedicated" as the ordinary tithe to the ordinary produce of the soil.

In answer to the king's inquiry the high-priest Azariah explained that the large store accumulated

was due to the special blessing bestowed by the Lord on a willing and obedient people (2

Chronicles 31:5-10). The collection of this store began in the third month - that of Pentecost -

when the wheat harvest was completed, and it ended in the seventh month - that of Tabernacles,

which marked the close of the fruit harvest and of the vintage. And these contributions, or dues,

came not only from Judah, but also from "the children of Israel" (ver. 6); that is, from those in the

northern kingdom who had joined their brethren in returning to the service and the law of their

For the storage of these provisions, Hezekiah ordered that certain chambers in the Temple should

be prepared, and he appointed officials, who are named in the sacred text, alike for the supervision

and the administration of these stores (verses 11-19). Again and again it is noted with what

"faithfulness" one and the other duty were discharged by each in the special department assigned

to him (verses 12, 15, 18).* The provision for the priesthood included not only those who were

for the time actually on service in the Temple,** but also the others in the priest cities, together

with their wives and children, and lastly to those in the country districts around t hese cities (vers.

* In vers. 15 and 18 translate instead of "in their set office" (A. and R.V.), "with faithfulness," and

"in their faithfulness," (...) .

** The text is somewhat involved. In ver. 16 translate, "besides their registration [the names

registered] of the males from three years upwards, of all them that came to the house of Jehovah,

according to the requirements of every day," etc., i.e., as they were needed for duty each day.

Verse I7 is an intercalated sentence, "but the registra tion of the priests, it was according to the

houses of their fathers," etc. ("in their charges," i.e., in their offices). Verse 18 again connects

itself with the close of ver. 15 (verses 16 and I7 being a double parenthesis): "and [viz., to give] to

the re gistration [the names registered] of all their little ones...for in their faithfulness they showed

[proved] themselves holy (comp. Ezekiel 38:23, and see Ewald, Lehrb. d. hebr. Spr., p. 329)

concerning the consecrated [holy]." In the R.V. the rendering "in their set office" is utterly

unwarrantable - "trust" is not much better. Otherwise, their rendering seems to apply to the

recipients, not to the distributors. This is possible, but our rendering is in accordance with the

These and all kindred arrangements were extended throughout all Judah. And the detailed account

given of the religious activity of Hezekiah closes with the twofold notice that he "wrought the

good, the right, and the truth before Jehovah his God;" and that in all he undertook, wh ether as

matter of public or private religious arrangement, "he did it with all his heart, and prospered" (2

Chronicles 31:20, 21).

To the description of the reformation inaugurated by the piety of Hezekiah, it seems desirable to

add some further particulars, either illustrative of the text or derived from other notices in Holy

Scripture. As regards the trustworthiness of the account of the sacrificial worship in the restored

Temple - that it was not of later invention, and designed to bear out the priestly institutions first

enforced in the time of Ezra - we have to point to the important fact that the number of sacrifices

and sin -offerings in the time of Hezekiah notably differs from that at the dedication of the Temple

in the time of Ezra (comp. 2 Chronicles 29:21, 32 with Ezra 6:17). This, considering especially the

symbolism of numbers, shows that the one account could not have been framed upon the other. It

follows that the Mosaic institutions must have existed in and before the time of Hezekiah, and

could not, as a certain school of critics contends, have originated with the priesthood at a much

later period. Indeed, as we follow the present line of argument, by a comparison of the services in

the time of Hezekiah with the Mosaic institutions to which they bear reference, the conviction

grows upon us not only of the existence of the latter, but of their general acknowledgment, since,