He set seventy thousand of them to bear burdens, eighty thousand who were stone cutters in the mountains, and three thousand six hundred overseers to assign the people their work.
Parallel Translations
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He set seventy thousand of them to bear burdens, eighty thousand who were stone cutters in the mountains, and three thousand six hundred overseers to assign the people their work.
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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.
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(2-17) And he set threescore and ten thousand of them to bear burdens, and fourscore thousand to be hewers in the mountains, and three thousand and six hundred overseers to set the people at work.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Contradictions (1)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (1)
Passages linked to 2 Chronicles 2:18 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- 2 Chronicles 2:2 Solomon counted out seventy thousand men to bear burdens, eighty thousand men who were stone cutters in the mountains, and three thousand six hundred to oversee them.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (8 sources)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 2Ch 2:18 And he set threescore and ten thousand…
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.
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To set the people a work.] Heb., To make them to pass, sc., from one business to another.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Hewers in the mountains - He would not employ…
Hewers in the mountains - 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.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain 2Ch 2:18. To be hewers in the mountain —…
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.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On the numbers, see the 1Ki 5:16 note.
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.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Six. We read three, 3 Kings v. 16.: people…
Six. We read three, 3 Kings v. 16.: people who where strangers, as the Israelites were not forced to work, chap. viii. 9. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 18. three thousand and six hundred overseers] In 1Ki_5:16,…
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.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (18) And he set . . .—Literally, and he…
(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 (shâlôsh) and six (shêsh) 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.
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Overseers.—Heb. mĕnaççĕhîm. 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 work—i.e., on work or a-working. (Comp. “I go a-fishing,” Joh_21:3.) Literally, to make the people work.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Three thousand and six hundred. Adding to these the…
Three thousand and six hundred. Adding to these the 250 2Ch_8:10, infra, the total 3850 of 1Ki_5:16 is exactly reached. That total, however, is reached by a somewhat different classification, the division being into 3300 "strangers," and 500 "chief of the officers". (1Ki_9:23) The explanation probably is that of the 3600 "stranger" overseers, the small proportion of 300 were of much higher grade in office than the rest, and were ranked by the writer in Kings with those overseers (250) of Solomon, who were probably Israelites.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.