The people are forward in destroying idolatry, 1. Hezekiah orders the courses of the priests and Levites and provides for their work and maintenance, 2-4. The people's forwardness in offerings and tithes, 5-10. Hezekiah appoints officers to dispose of the tithes, 11-19. The sincerity of Hezekiah, 20, 21.
1 Now when all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah and broke the images in pieces, cut down the groves, and threw down the high places and the altars out of all Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh until they had utterly destroyed them all. Then all the children of Israel each returned to his possession into their own cities.
2 And Hezekiah appointed the courses of the priests and the Levites after their courses, every man according to his service, the priests and Levites for burnt-offerings and for peace-offerings, to minister, to give thanks, and to praise in the gates of the tents of the LORD.
3 He also appointed the king's portion of his substance for the burnt-offerings, namely, for the morning and evening burnt-offerings, and the burnt-offerings for the sabbaths, for the new-moons, and for the set feasts, as it is written in the law of the LORD. 4 Moreover, he commanded the people who dwelt in Jerusalem to give the portion of the priests and the Levites so that they might be encouraged in the law of the LORD. 5 And as soon as the commandment came abroad, the children of Israel brought in abundance the first-fruits of grain, wine, oil, honey, and of all the increase of the field. And the tithe of all things they brought in abundantly. 6 And the children of Israel and Judah who dwelt in the cities of Judah, they also brought in the tithe of oxen and sheep, and the tithe of holy things which were consecrated to the LORD their God, and laid them by heaps. 7 In the third month they began to lay the foundation of the heaps, and finished them in the seventh month. 8 And when Hezekiah and the princes came and saw the heaps, they blessed the LORD and his people Israel. 9 Then Hezekiah questioned with the priests and the Levites concerning the heaps. 10 And Azariah the chief priest of the house of Zadok answered him and said, "Since the people began to bring the offerings into the house of the LORD, we have had enough to eat and have left plenty, for the LORD has blessed his people. And that which is left is this great abundance."
11 Then Hezekiah commanded to prepare chambers in the house of the LORD. And they prepared them, 12 And brought in the offerings and the tithes and the dedicated things faithfully, over which Conaniah the Levite was ruler and Shimei his brother was next. 13 And Jehiel, Azaziah, Nahath, Asahel, Jerimoth, Jozabad, Eliel, Ismachiah, Mahath, and Benaiah were overseers under the hand of Conaniah and Shimei his brother, at the commandment of Hezekiah the king and Azariah the ruler of the house of God. 14 And Kore the son of Imnah the Levite, the gatekeeper toward the east, was over the voluntary-offerings of God to distribute the oblations of the LORD and the most holy things. 15 And under him were Eden, Miniamin, Jeshua, Shemaiah, Amariah, and Shecaniah, in the cities of the priests, in their set office, to give to their brothers by courses, to the great as well as to the small, 16 Besides their genealogy of males, from three years old and upward, even to everyone who enters into the house of the LORD, his daily portion for their service in their charges according to their courses. 17 This is the distribution of the priests by the house of their fathers and the Levites from twenty years old and upward, in their charges by their courses, 18 And to the genealogy of all their little ones, their wives, their sons, and their daughters, through all the congregation. For in their set office they sanctified themselves in holiness. 19 Also, of the sons of Aaron the priests who were in the fields of the suburbs of their cities, in every single city, there were men who were expressed by name to give portions to all the males among the priests and to all who were reckoned by genealogies among the Levites.
20 And thus Hezekiah did throughout all Judah, and performed that which was good and right and truth before the LORD his God. 21 And in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, and in the law and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart and prospered.
Matthew Henry Commentary - 2nd Chronicles, Chapter 31[➚]