2 Chronicles 31:16

16. This verse should be translated thus: Except the register of males from three years old and upward, belonging to all such as had come to the house of Jehovah, to the daily portion for their service in their offices, according to their courses. That is, the sons three years old and upward of those priests who went to Jerusalem to serve their course, usually accompanied their fathers, and ate their daily portions with them in the holy place, so that no distribution was made in the Levitical cities for those who were at the time on service at the temple.

The exact grammatical construction of 2 Chronicles 31:17-19 is not clear, but the meaning of the writer seems to connect itself with the phrase in 2 Chronicles 31:15 rendered “in their set office.” The six Levites there named were set in the cities of the priests, not merely “to give,” or distribute what belonged to the priests and Levites, but also to attend “to the genealogy of the priests by the house of their fathers, and the Levites from twenty years old and upward,” (2 Chronicles 31:17,) “and to the genealogy of all their little ones,” etc., (2 Chronicles 31:18,) and also to attend to all similar matters appertaining to “the sons of Aaron the priests.” 2 Chronicles 31:19. Thus did king Hezekiah succeed in making all practicable arrangements for the permanent organization and support of the priestly and Levitical orders.