2 Chronicles 31:2

THE MAGNIFICENT GENEROSITY OF THE ISRAELITES

"And Hezekiah appointed the courses of the priests and the Levites after their courses, every man according to his service, both the priests and the Levites, for burnt-offerings and for peace-offerings, to minister, and to give thanks, and to praise in the gates of the camp of Jehovah. He appointed also the king's portion of his substance for the burnt-offerings, to wit, for the morning and evening burnt-offerings, and the burnt-offerings for the sabbaths, and for the new moons, and for the set feasts, as it is written in the law of Jehovah. Moreover he commanded the people that dwelt in Jerusalem to give the portion of the priests and the Levites, that they might give themselves to the law of Jehovah. And as soon as the commandment came abroad, the children of Israel gave in abundance the first-fruits of grain, and new wine, and oil, and honey, and of all the increase of the field; and the tithe of all things brought they in abundantly. And the children of Israel and Judah, that dwelt in the cities of Judah, they also brought in the tithe of oxen and sheep, and the tithe of dedicated things which were consecrated unto Jehovah their God, and laid them by heaps. In the third month they began to lay the foundation of the heaps, and finished them in the seventh month. And when Hezekiah and the princes came and saw the heaps, they blessed Jehovah, and his people Israel. Then Hezekiah and the princes questioned the priests and the Levites concerning the heaps. And Azariah the chief priest, of the house of Zadok, answered him and said, Since the people began to bring the oblations into the house of Jehovah, we have eaten and had enough, and have left plenty: for Jehovah hath blessed his people; and that which is left is this great store."

"This paragraph pictures Hezekiah, not only as a second Solomon, but as a second David."[1] There was a wholesale reordering of the religious life and personnel of Israel. The freedom provided by these events gave the Levites time to devote themselves to the Law of Jehovah, thus making it absolutely certain that during the times of Josiah, less than seventy-five years later, there would be countless persons left in Israel who were thoroughly familiar with the entire Mosaic covenant and the precious "Book of Moses" that attended it. This effectively refutes the notion that a reprobate priesthood could have gotten away with forging any kind of a brand new religious constitution of Israel so soon afterward. It is this mountain fact that leads the radical critics to write that, "The Chronicler writes (in these chapters) much that is quite unhistorical."[2] Where is the proof that any of this material is unhistorical? The only thing on earth that contradicts any of what is written here is that favorite fairy tale of unbelievers frequently referred to as the D Document. To allow that to be true is to allow that an HISTORICAL REPORT (CHRONICLES) can be nullified by an imaginary, fraudulent, and absolutely UNHISTORICAL REPORT. This writer cannot subscribe to any such proposition, nor can he accept the allegation that any scientifically minded scholar could be persuaded to do so.