2 Chronicles 2:17 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
2 Chronicles 2:17
And Solomon numbered all the strangers that were in the land of Israel, after the numbering wherewith David his father had numbered them; and they were found an hundred and fifty thousand and three thousand and six hundred.
a hundred · noun, common feminine singular absolute
fifty
וַחֲמִשִּׁים֙va.cha.mi.Shim
H2572
fifty · conjunction + noun, common masculine plural absolute
thousand
אֶ֔לֶף'E.lef
H505
hence (the ox's head being the first letter of the alph… · noun, common both genders singular absolute
three
וּשְׁלֹ֥שֶׁתu.she.Lo.shet
H7969
three · conjunction + noun, common both genders singular construct
thousand
אֲלָפִ֖ים'a.la.Fim
H505
hence (the ox's head being the first letter of the alph… · noun, common both genders plural absolute
six
וְשֵׁ֥שׁve.Shesh
H8337
six (as an overplus beyond five or the fingers of the h… · conjunction + noun, common both genders singular absolute
hundred
מֵאֽוֹתme.'ot
H3967
a hundred · noun, common feminine plural absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
1 Chronicles 22:2 And David commanded to gather together the strangers that were in the land of Israel; and he set masons to hew wrought stones to build the h…
1 Kings 5:13-16 And king Solomon raised a levy out of all Israel; and the levy was thirty thousand men.
1 Kings 9:20-21 And all the people that were left of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, which were not of the children of Israel,
2 Chronicles 2:2 And Solomon told out threescore and ten thousand men to bear burdens, and fourscore thousand to hew in the mountain, and three thousand and…
2 Chronicles 8:7-8 As for all the people that were left of the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which were n…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 2 Chronicles 2:11–end
Here we have, I. The return which Huram made to Solomon's embassy, in which he shows a great respect for Solomon and a readiness to serve him. Meaner people may learn of these great ones to be neighbourly and complaisant. 1. He congratulates Israel on having such a king as Solomon was (Ch2 2:11): Because the Lord loved his people, he has made thee king. Note, A wise and good government is a great blessing to a people, and may well be accounted a singular token of God's favour. He does not say, Because he loved thee (though that was true, Sa2 12:24) he made thee king, but because he loved his people. Princes must look upon themselves as preferred for the public good, not for their own persona…
Solomon numbered all the strangers, &c.--(See on Kg1 5:13; Kg1 5:18).
Next: 2 Chronicles Chapter 3
Adam Clarke on 2 Chronicles 2:16
In floats by sea to Joppa - See the note on Kg1 5:9, and on the parallel places, for other matters contained in this chapter.
John Gill on 2 Chronicles 2:17
And Solomon numbered all the strangers that were in the land of Israel,.... Which, according to Kimchi, were the remains of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, and Jebusites, see 2 Chronicles 8:8, yet not idolaters, or they would not have been suffered by David and Solomon to have dwelt in the land, but were such as were become proselytes of the gate:
after the numbering wherewith David his father had numbered them; not at the time Israel was numbered by him, but in order to provide workmen for the building of the temple, 1 Chronicles 22:2,
and they were found an hundred and fifty thousand and six hundred; men able to bear burdens, and hew timber.
Tyndale Open Study Notes on 2 Chronicles 2:17-18
The book of Kings explains that all those left from the seven nations were conscripted for labor. Further, no Israelites were conscripted, and Israelites were placed in charge of the laborers (1 Kgs 9:20-23).
The Church Fathers
Now the overseers who were in charge of each operation are the writers of sacred Scripture by whose teaching authority we are instructed in all things as to how best to teach the ignorant and correct the contemptuous, to bear each other's burdens so that we may fulfill the law of Christ. But the more each one labors in giving his neighbors support in their needs or in correcting their mistakes, the more surely may he expect in the life to come the rewards whether of peace of soul after death or of blessed immortality of body. Consequently, the aforesaid overseers are rightly recorded as numbering 70,000 and 80,000: 70, because of the sabbath rest of souls for the seventh day is consecrated to the sabbath, that is, rest; 80, because of the hope of resurrection on the eighth day, that is, after the sabbath, has already taken place in the Lord, and, it is hoped, will take place in us also on the eighth day and in the eighth age to come. The overseers, on the other hand, were 3,300, doubtless because of faith in the holy Trinity that the holy Scriptures proclaim to us. But the fact that in the book of Paralipomenon the number 3,600 is written instead of 3,300 has to do with the very same perfection of people of sublime virtue. For because the Lord completed the adornment of the world in the number six, the perfect works of good people are rightly apt to be symbolized by the same number, and because holy Scripture teaches that we must have the works of piety as well as true faith, the overseers of the temple works are rightly said to be 3,600. Nor should we pass over the fact that these 70,000 and 80,000 hod carriers and stonemasons with their overseers were not from Israel but from among the proselytes, that is, strangers who sojourned among them. For it is written in the book of Paralipomenon, "And Solomon took a census of all the proselytes resident in the land of Israel, on the model of the census that David his father had taken; and it was found that they numbered 153,600. And he put 70,000 of them carrying burdens on their shoulders," and so forth.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Census — There are five instances of a census of the Jewish people having been taken. (1.) In the fourth month after the Exodus, when the people were encamped at Sinai. The number of men from twenty years old…
Law of Moses — Is the whole body of the Mosaic legislation (1 Kings 2:3; 2 Kings 23:25; Ezra 3:2). It is called by way of eminence simply “the Law” (Heb. Torah, Deut. 1:5; 4:8, 44; 17:18, 19; 27:3, 8). As a written…
Proselyte — Is used in the LXX. for “stranger” (1 Chr. 22:2), i.e., a comer to Palestine; a sojourner in the land (Ex. 12:48; 20:10; 22:21), and in the New Testament for a convert to Judaism. There were such…
Solomon — Peaceful, (Heb. Shelomoh), David’s second son by Bathsheba, i.e., the first after their legal marriage (2 Sam. 12). He was probably born about B.C. 1035 (1 Chr. 22:5; 29:1). He succeeded his father…
Aliens · General references — General references
Strangers In Israel · Very numerous in Solomon’s reign — Very numerous in Solomon’s reign
Temple, The First · Solomon: Employed all the strangers in preparing for — Solomon: Employed all the strangers in preparing for
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Rashi on 2 Chronicles 2:17
And he made of them seventy thousand, etc. The reason he mentions them again and mentions the number is that he interrupted the topic; therefore, he had to repeat it again now. And he did not stop until he finished the entire [account of the] building, and he says immediately (3:1): “And Solomon commenced to build, etc.” Now, even with one verse, it is customary to interrupt the topic and [then] to begin [again] with the previous statement, e.g., (Num. 16:6): “Do this: take yourself, etc.” And the morrow, it says (ibid. 16f.): “And Moses said to Korah: You and all your band, etc.,” and he repeats and says, “and let each man take his censer and place, etc.” Since he interrupted with many vers…
