Page:The Books of Chronicles (1916).djvu/367

Rh Then the Levites arose, Mahath the son of Amasai, and Joel the son of Azariah, of the sons of the Kohathites: and of the sons of Merari, Kish the son of Abdi, and Azariah the son of Jehallelel: and of the Gershonites, Joah the son of Zimmah, and Eden the son of Joah: and of the sons of Elizaphan, Shimri and Jeuel: and of the sons of Asaph, Zechariah and Mattaniah: and of the sons of Heman, Jehuel and Shimei: and of the sons of Jeduthun, Shemaiah and Uzziel. And they gathered their brethren, and sanctified themselves, and went in, according to the commandment of the king by the words of the, to cleanse the house of the. And the priests went in unto the inner part of the house of the, to cleanse it, and brought out all the uncleanness that they found in the temple of the into the court of the house of the. And the Levites took it, to carry it out abroad to the brook Kidron. Now they began on the first day of the first month to sanctify, and on the eighth day of the month came they to the porch of the ; and they sanctified the house of the in eight days: and on the

12—19 (not in 2 Kin.).&emsp;

With this passage cp. 1 Macc. iv. 36—51 (the cleansing of the Temple by Judas Maccabeus).

12. the Levites] The fourteen persons mentioned in these three verses comprise (a) two representatives each of the three great branches of Levi, namely, Kohath, Merari, and Gershon, (b) two representatives of the great Kohathite family of Elizaphan (cp. Num. iii. 30 and 1 Chr. xv. 8), (c) two representatives each of the three divisions of the singers, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun (1 Chr. xxv. 1).

15. by the words of the ] i.e. the king's command was recognised to be in accordance with the Divine will. Read by the word; the plural words is probably only a textual error.

16. the priests] The work was so divided between priests and Levites that only the priests went into the house.

unto the inner part of the house] Render, within the house. The reference is not to the Holy of Holies specially, but to the whole interior of the house.

uncleanness] Cp. ver. 5; Is. xxx. 22.

to the brook Kidron] The brook Kidron is the deep valley on the east of Jerusalem separating it from the Mount of Olives; 2 Sam. xv. 23; John xviii. 1. It was treated as an unclean spot, cp. xv. 16.

17. to sanctify and they sanctified] Two periods of eight days each