and Simeon, even unto Naphtali, [1]in their ruins round about. 7And he brake down the altars, and beat the Asherim and the graven images into powder, and hewed down all the sun-images throughout all the land of Israel, and returned to Jerusalem.
8Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land, and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the [2]recorder, to repair the house of the LORD his God. 9And they came to Hilkiah the high priest, and delivered the money that was brought into the house of God, which the Levites, the keepers of the [3]door,
6. Simeon] Here as in xv. 9 Simeon is regarded as belonging to the northern tribes, but its cities were in the south; cp. the note on xv. 9, and 1 Chr. iv. 28 ff.
in their ruins] Remark the mg., "with their axes. The text is probably corrupt." The Versions afford no real help. A plausible conjecture is given by Curtis, who would read, he laid waste their houses.
8—28 (= 2 Kin. xxii. 3—20). Repair of the Temple. Discovery of the Book of the Law.
8. Shaphan] According to 2 Kin. he was Scribe. See 1 Chr. xviii. 16 (note).
the governor of the city] Render, a ruler of the city; cp. xxix. 20.
the recorder] mg. the chronicler; cp. 1 Chr. xviii. 15 (note). Neither Maaseiah nor Joah is mentioned in 2 Kin.
to repair the house of the LORD] It may be conjectured that the disrepair was not due solely to the abuses of Manasseh's reign, but was connected with the disaster recorded in xxxiii. 11, when an Assyrian army carried off Manasseh to Babylon. Probably the capture of the king was not achieved without the conquest of Jerusalem, and the Temple may easily have suffered serious damage at that time. Note that Kings (which does not record the disaster mentioned in Chron.) uses strong terms regarding the condition of the Temple when Josiah's work was put in hand—"to repair the breaches of the house," 2 Kin. xxii. 5.
9. And they came . . . and delivered] The matter is differently stated in 2 Kin. according to which they are sent to Hilkiah with a message to him to "sum," i.e. to reckon, the total of the money collected in the Temple. The Chronicler has in mind the idea which he set forth in xxiv. 6 ff.—namely, that the money was gathered by a body of Levites who went round the country collecting it.
the Levites, the keepers of the door] In 2 Kin. xii. 9 the keepers of the doors are called priests; cp. ib. xxv. 18.
