of the hand of Manasseh, etc.] In 2 Kings simply “of the people”: i.e. Kings thinks only of the Southern Kingdom; the Chronicler includes the remnant of the northern tribes. But see also the note on xv. 9.
and of the inhabitants of Jerusalem] So one reading of the Hebrew (the Kethīb), in agreement with the LXX. The margin and they returned to Jerusalem follows the other reading (the Ḳerī).
¹⁰And they delivered it into the hand of the workmen that had the oversight of the house of the Lord; and the workmen[¹] that wrought in the house of the Lord gave it to amend and repair the house;
[¹] Or, they gave it to the workmen &c. See 2 Kings xxii. 5.
10. and the workmen that wrought in the house of the Lord gave it] The “workmen” are distinguished from the “carpenters and builders” (verse 11); overseers of some kind are meant. To oversee the work and to do the work may be synonymous phrases here as in 1 Chronicles xxiii. 4 and 1 Chronicles xxiii. verse 24. On the other hand 2 Kings xxii. 5 favours the rendering “And they (i.e. Shaphan, etc., and Hilkiah, verses 8, 9) delivered it into the hand of the workmen that had the oversight ... and they (i.e. these overseers) gave it to the workmen that wrought....” (Compare the margin.)
¹¹even to the carpenters and to the builders gave they it, to buy hewn stone, and timber for couplings, and to make beams for the houses which the kings of Judah had destroyed.
11. the houses] Compare 1 Chronicles xxviii. 11.
¹²And the men did the work faithfully: and the overseers of them were Jahath and Obadiah, the Levites, of the sons of Merari; and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the sons of the Kohathites, to set it forward[¹]: and other of the Levites, all that could skill of instruments of music. ¹³Also they were over the bearers of burdens, and set forward all that did the work in every manner of service: and of the Levites there were scribes, and officers, and porters.
[¹] Or, to preside over it.
12. the overseers] There is no parallel in 2 Kings for the rest of this verse and for verse 13. The addition is characteristic of the Chronicler, exemplifying (1) his habit of inserting proper names, (2) his interest in the Levites, particularly the musical class.