What Does 2 Chronicles 2:18 Mean?

(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 1Kings 5:15. **And three thousand and six hundred overseers.**—The same number was given in 2Chronicles 2:2. In 1Kings 5:16 we read of 3,300 officers. In the Hebrew, *three* (*shālôsh*) 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 (1Kings 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. **Overseers.**—Heb. *mĕnaççĕhîm.* Only here and in 2Chronicles 2:2 *supra,* and 2Chronicles 34:13. It is the plural of a participle which occurs only in the titles of the Psalms (including Habakkuk 3:19), while the verb is read only in Chronicles and Ezra 3:8-9. (See Note on 1Chronicles 15:21.) **To set the people a work**—*i.e.*, *on work* or *a-working.* (Comp. “I go a-fishing,” John 21:3.) Literally, *to make the people work.* Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com. Used by Permission. Bible Hub