Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Chronicles 2:18
And he set threescore and ten thousand of them [to be] bearers of burdens, and fourscore thousand [to be] hewers in the mountain, and three thousand and six hundred overseers to set the people a work.
18. three thousand and six hundred overseers ] In 1Ki 5:16, three thousand and three hundred. Three in Hebrew (which may be represented in English by the letters SLS) is easily corrupted into six (= SS in English). Cp. also 2Ch 8:10 (= 1Ki 9:23).
a work ] i.e. on work, to work.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
On the numbers, see the 1Ki 5:16 note.
To set the people a work – Or, to set the people to work – i. e., to compel them to labor. Probably, like the Egyptian and Assyrian overseers of forced labor, these officers carried whips or sticks, with which they quickened the movements of the sluggish.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
And he set threescore and ten thousand of them,…. Which is repeated from 2Ch 2:2, to show how the above number of strangers were disposed of; 70,000 of them bearers of burdens, 80,000 of them hewers of wood, and 3,600 overseers of the workmen, in all 153,600; an emblem of the Gentiles employed in building the spiritual temple, the church, Zec 6:15.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(18) And he set . . .Literally, and he made seventy thousand of them bearers of burdens, and eighty thousand hewers in the mountains. This exactly agrees with 1Ki. 5:15.
And three thousand and six hundred overseers.The same number was given in 2Ch. 2:2. In 1Ki. 5:16 we read of 3,300 officers. In the Hebrew, three (shlsh) and six (shsh) might easily be confused; our reading appears right. The chronicler omits all notice of the levy of 30,000 Israelites, which the parallel passage records (1Ki. 5:13-14); whether by an oversight, or from disapproval, we cannot say. Adding that number to the 70,000 and 80,000 other labourers, we get a grand total of 180,000, which gives a company of 50 for each of the 3,600 overseers.
Overseers.Heb. mnahm. Only here and in 2Ch. 2:2 supra, and 2Ch. 34:13. It is the plural of a participle which occurs only in the titles of the Psalms (including Hab. 3:19), while the verb is read only in Chronicles and Ezr. 3:8-9. (See Note on 1Ch. 15:21.)
To set the people a worki.e., on work or a-working. (Comp. I go a-fishing, Joh. 21:3.) Literally, to make the people work.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
REFLECTIONS
IN the view here given of Solomon’s temple, the workmen, and the materials taken and gathered from afar, I would contemplate how Solomon, my God and King, hath gathered the workmen and materials for his Temple, from all the varieties of the earth. When the Lord gave the word, great was the company of the preachers. Thou hast called patriarchs, prophets, and apostles: thou hast taken thy workmen from among the lowest, even the outcasts of the world. And now, Lord, when called, and gathered, and collected, and brought to thy Jerusalem to form thy church below; founded on thyself, thou Chief Corner Stone, how are they like polished stones of the temple, closely joined in Jesus, and formed for an habitation of God, through the Spirit. Are they not the household of faith? Are they not as a spiritual house to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ! And when, by and by, thou shalt remove the whole building to constitute thy temple above, how will they all appear before thee in glory! Blessed Lord! give my soul to see in those outer things, the shadow of those good things which are yet to come. Make me, however low and humble the lot assigned may be, a builder in thine house. Cause me to rest wholly my salvation, and all my hopes upon that elect, precious Corner Stone, which God hath laid in Zion; that all my strength, faith, and gospel conversation may be on Jesus, in Jesus, and of Jesus: perfectly and unalterably convinced, that other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Here, Lord, would I rest, and here would I be found knowing that he that thus buildeth, and thus liveth, and thus dieth, shall never be ashamed nor confounded, world without end.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
2Ch 2:18 And he set threescore and ten thousand of them [to be] bearers of burdens, and fourscore thousand [to be] hewers in the mountain, and three thousand and six hundred overseers to set the people a work.
Ver. 18. And he set threescore and ten thousand of them. ] Hereby were shadowed out the several offices in Christ’s Church: this St Paul setteth forth by the similitude of the diffferent members in man’s body, &c.
To set the people a work.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
set . . . a work = keep the people at work.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
threescore: “As it is 2Ch 2:2.” 2Ch 2:2
Reciprocal: Jos 9:21 – let them 1Ki 5:15 – threescore 1Ki 9:23 – chief 2Ch 8:8 – to pay 2Ch 8:10 – two hundred 2Ch 34:13 – the bearers Neh 4:10 – bearers
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2Ch 2:18. To be hewers in the mountain He would not employ the free- born Israelites in this drudgery, but the strangers that were proselytes, who, having no lands, applied themselves to trades, and got their living by their industry or ingenuity.