2 Chronicles 31:7

In the third month they began to lay the foundation of the heaps, and finished them in the seventh month.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(7) In the third month.—And so at the end of wheat-harvest, the third month (Sivan) answering to our May—June. Pentecost, the Feast of Harvest, or Firstfruits, fell in this month.

To lay the foundation.—To found, or lay. Heb., lîsôd, a curious form only met with here. (Comp. lîsôd, Isaiah 51:16.)

In the seventh month.—Tisri (September to October), in which was held the great Feast of Tabernacles, after all the fruits had been gathered in, and the vintage was over.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

31:1-21 Hezekiah destroys idolatry. - After the passover, the people of Israel applied with vigour to destroy the monuments of idolatry. Public ordinances should stir us up to cleanse our hearts, our houses, and shops, from the filth of sin, and the idolatry of covetousness, and to excite others to do the same. The after-improvement of solemn ordinances, is of the greatest importance to personal, family, and public religion. When they had tasted the sweetness of God's ordinance in the late passover, they were free in maintaining the temple service. Those who enjoy the benefit of a settled ministry, will not grudge the expense of it. In all that Hezekiah attempted in God's service, he was earnest and single in his aim and dependence, and was prospered accordingly. Whether we have few or many talents intrusted to us, may we thus seek to improve them, and encourage others to do the same. What is undertaken with a sincere regard to the glory of God, will succeed to our own honour and comfort at last.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The third month - Compare 2 Chronicles 29:3; 2 Chronicles 30:2, 2 Chronicles 30:13. The events hitherto described - the destruction of the high places, the re-appointment of the courses, and the re-establishment of the tithes followed so closely upon the Passover, that a month had not elapsed from the conclusion of the Feast before the gifts began to pour in. In the seventh month the harvest was completed; and the last tithes and first-fruits of the year would naturally come in then.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

6, 7. and laid them by heaps—The contributions began to be sent in shortly after the celebration of the passover, which had taken place in the middle of the second month. Some time would elapse before the king's order reached all parts of the kingdom. The wheat harvest occurred in the third month, so that the sheaves of that grain, being presented before any other, formed "the foundation," an under-layer in the corn stores of the temple. The first-fruits of their land produce which were successively sent in all the summer till the close of the fruit and vintage season, that is, the seventh month, continued to raise heap upon heap.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

In the third month, to wit, of the sacred year, Exodus 12:2 in which their harvest began.

In the seventh month; in which their harvest ended and the feast of tabernacles was kept, Exodus 23:16 Leviticus 23:34.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

In the third month they began to lay the foundation of the heaps..... The month Sivan, as the Targum, in which month was the feast of Pentecost, called the feast of the harvest, Exodus 23:16, for then barley harvest was ended, and wheat harvest began, and the firstfruits were brought:

and finished them in the seventh month; the month Tisri, as the Targum, in which was the feast of tabernacles, sometimes called the feast of ingathering, of the fruits of the earth, the wine, oil, &c. and so a proper time for bringing the tithes of all.

Geneva Study Bible

In the third month they began to lay the foundation of the heaps, and finished them in the seventh month.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

7. the third month] The Feast of Harvest took place at the beginning of this month and seven weeks later the Feast of Ingathering followed.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 7. - The third month... the heaps... the seventh month. The grain harvest closed with the Feast of Weeks, about the sixth day of the third month so that tithe in kind would be paid. The seventh month brought the Feast of Ingathering, when the vintage was over. For illustration of the despatch with which Hezekiah proceeded in his reforming works, comp. our 2 Chronicles 29:3; 2 Chronicles 30:2, 13. 2 Chronicles 31:7

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

In the third month, consequently immediately at the end of the grain harvest, they commenced to found the heaps (to lay the foundation of the heaps); and in the seventh month, i.e., at the end of the fruit and wine harvest, they completed them (the heaps). In the third month fell pentecost, or the harvest feast; in the seventh, the feast of tabernacles, after the gathering in of all the fruits. ליסּוד has Daghesh in ס, because this verb in the imperf. assimilates its י like נ to the second radical, and the infinitive is formed after the imperf.; cf. Ew. 245, a.