God, which the Levites that kept the doors had gathered of the hand of
Manasseh and Ephraim, and of all the remnant of Israel, and of all
Judah and Benjamin; and they returned to Jerusalem. 10. And they put
it in the hand of the workmen that had the oversight of the house of
the Lord, and they gave it to the workmen that wrought in the house of
the Lord, to repair and amend the house: 11. Even to the artificers
and builders gave they it, to buy hewn stone, and timber for
couplings, and to floor the houses which the kings of Judah had
destroyed. 12. And 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; and other of the Levites, all that could skill of instruments
of musick. 13. Also they were over the bearers of burdens, and were
overseers of all that wrought the work in any manner of service: and
of the Levites there were scribes, and officers, and porters.'--2
CHRON. xxxiv. 1-13.


Another boy king, even younger than his grandfather Manasseh had been
at his accession, and another reversal of the father's religion! These
vibrations from idolatry to Jehovah-worship, at the pleasure of the
king, sadly tell how little the people cared whom they worshipped, and
how purely a matter of ceremonies and names both their idolatry and
their Jehovah-worship were. The religion of the court was the religion
of the nation, only idolatry was more congenial than the service of
God. How far the child monarch Josiah had a deeper sense of what that
service meant we cannot decide, but the little outline sketch of him
in verses 2 and 3 is at least suggestive of his having it, and may
well stand as a fair portrait of early godliness.