Bible Strands
2 Chronicles 34:11
They also gave money to the carpenters and builders to buy dressed stone, as well as timbers for couplings and beams for the buildings that the kings of Judah had allowed to deteriorate.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The text describes Judah’s officials distributing collected funds to carpenters and builders during King Josiah’s temple restoration campaign. This occurs at the moment when repair work resumes after years of neglect under previous monarchs.
The words — מַחְצֵ֔ב (mach.Tzev) means hewing or dressed stone, and לַֽ/מְחַבְּר֑וֹת (la/m.cha.be.Rot) refers to couplings or clamps used to join wooden structural beams. These terms specify the exact materials purchased with the temple funds.
The thread — The deteriorated buildings connect directly to the idolatrous reigns that damaged the temple (2 Chronicles 33:4; 33:22), while the organized distribution of resources mirrors the broader biblical pattern of temple repair under covenant-keeping kings.
Why it lands — The text requires readers to recognize that physical restoration follows deliberate reform and demands accountable stewardship of resources. It places the burden of maintenance on those who control funds and those who execute the labor.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- 2 Chronicles 33:4 Manasseh also built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, “My Name will remain in Jerusalem forever.”
- 2 Chronicles 33:22 And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, as his father Manasseh had done. Amon served and sacrificed to all the idols that his father Manasseh had made,