Matthew Henry on 2 Chronicles 29:12-19
We have here busy work, good work, and needful work, the cleansing of the house of the Lord.
I. The persons employed in this work were the priests and Levites, who should have kept the temple clean, but, not having done that, were concerned to make it clean. Several of the Levites are here named, two of each of the three principal houses, Kohath, Gershon, and Merari (Ch2 29:12), and two of each of the three families of singers, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, Ch2 29:13, Ch2 29:14. We cannot think these are named merely because they were chief in place (for then surely the high priest, or some of the heads of the courses of the priests, would have been mentioned), but because they were more zealo…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on 2 Chronicles 29:12
THE HOUSE OF GOD CLEANSED. (2Ch. 29:12-36)
Then the Levites arose--Fourteen chiefs undertook the duty of collecting and preparing their brethren for the important work of cleansing the Lord's house. Beginning with the outer courts--that of the priests and that of the people--the cleansing of these occupied eight days, after which they set themselves to purify the interior; but as the Levites were not allowed to enter within the walls of the temple, the priest brought all the sweepings out to the porch, where they were received by the Levites and thrown into the brook Kedron. This took eight days more. At the end of this period they repaired to the palace and announced that not only had the…
Read the whole note in the consoleAdam Clarke on 2 Chronicles 29:16
And the priests went - The priests and Levites cleansed first the courts both of the priests and of the people. On this labor they spent eight days. Then they cleansed the interior of the temple; but as the Levites had no right to enter the temple, the priests carried all the dirt and rubbish to the porch, whence they were collected by the Levites, carried away, and cast into the brook Kidron; in this work eight days more were occupied, and thus the temple was purified in sixteen days.
