2 Chronicles 23:5

[See comments on 2 Chronicles 23:1].

And a third part shall be at the king's house; and a third part at the gate of the foundation: and all the people shall be in the courts of the house of the LORD. No JFB commentary on these verses.

At the gate of the foundation; at the east gate, thought to be so called, because it stood lower than the rest of the doors, at the foot of the steps, by which they went up from the king’ s house to the temple. In the courts; either, 1. In the two courts; and so by the people he understands as well the generality of the Levites, who had no particular stations allotted to them, as their brethren had, ,5, which were to be in the priests’ court, as the people, who were in the court of the people: or, 2. In the court of the people, which may be called courts, the plural number being put for the singular, in regard of great amplitude, and divers quarters and partitions, into which it was or might be divided; as the temple is called sanctuaries, because of its division into divers parts, .

2 Chronicles 23:5 And a third part [shall be] at the king’ s house; and a third part at the gate of the foundation: and all the people [shall be] in the courts of the house of the LORD.Ver. 5. At the gate of the foundation.] Called also the gate of Sur; and why, see on 2 Kings 11:6. The Rabbis say that this gate had seven different names.

(5) And a third part at the gate of the foundation.—2 Kings 11:6 reads: “the gate Sûr,” which appears there as a gate of the palace. (LXX., “the middle gate;” Syr. and Arab., “the Butchers’ gate”) And all the people shall be in the courts of the house of the Lord.—This appears to be written from the point of view of a strict legalist, according to which none might enter the holy house itself save the priests. It looks like a protest against 2 Kings 11:4, where it is said that Jehoiada brought the centurions of the royal guard into the house of the Lord.

4. This is the thing that ye shall do] The main features of the arrangement as given here and in 2 Kin. are clear, although some details are obscure. From Kings it appears that it was the custom on the Sabbath for two-thirds of the royal guards to be free and for one-third to be on duty at the palace. In order to avoid arousing suspicion this last third was, according to Jehoiada’s directions, to be at the palace as usual, but it was to be subdivided into thirds and so distributed as to close the various means of communication between the palace and the rest of the city. Thus Athaliah was to be held as in a trap by her own guards (2 Kings 11:5-6). The two-thirds who were free from duty on the Sabbath were to be stationed in the Temple about the young king to guard him at his coronation. The arrangements are differently (and no doubt less accurately) stated in Chron. In the first place Levitical Temple guards take the place of the royal guards, secondly, the only division of the guards recognised is a simple division into thirds, finally, the stations of the different divisions are differently given, viz., one-third in the Temple, one-third in the palace, and one-third at “the gate of the foundation.” Using the modern terms “battalion” and “company” for the divisions and subdivisions given in Kings, the arrangements may be stated in a form which allows easy comparison between Kings and Chron., as fallows:— (A) 2 Kings 11:5-7. (Royal guards in three battalions.) 1st battalion on duty at the king’s house (palace). A company within the palace (2 Chronicles 23:5), B company at the gate of Sur (SVR Heb.), C company at another gate (“behind the guard,” 2 Chronicles 23:6). 2nd and 3rd battalions off duty, but brought into the house of the Lord (the Temple) by Jehoiada (2 Chronicles 23:7). (B) 2 Chronicles 23:4-5. (Levites in three bands.) Band I. (= 1st battalion C company of 2 Kin.) in the house of God, the Chronicler supposing that “the house” (2 Kings 11:6) means the house of the Lord. More probably it means “the house of the king” (2 Kings 11:5). Band II. (= 1st battalion A company of 2 Kin.) at the king’s house (so 2 Kin.). Band III. (= 1st battalion B company of 2 Kin.) at the gate of “the foundation” (JSVD Heb.). (The Chronicler passes over the 2nd and 3rd battalions, because he has already assigned their duty to 1st battalion C company.) of the priests and of the Levites] Not in Kings. The words are a mistaken gloss of the Chronicler, for it is clear that in Kings lay guards are meant. porters of the doors] R.V. mg., of the thresholds, i.e. of the Temple acc. to the Chronicler, for the word for “doors” (or “thresholds,” sippim in Heb.) is always used for the thresholds of some sanctuary, e.g.