2 Chronicles 23:4
New International Version
Now this is what you are to do: A third of you priests and Levites who are going on duty on the Sabbath are to keep watch at the doors,

New Living Translation
This is what you must do. When you priests and Levites come on duty on the Sabbath, a third of you will serve as gatekeepers.

English Standard Version
This is the thing that you shall do: of you priests and Levites who come off duty on the Sabbath, one third shall be gatekeepers,

Berean Standard Bible
This is what you are to do: A third of you priests and Levites who come on duty on the Sabbath shall keep watch at the doors,

King James Bible
This is the thing that ye shall do; A third part of you entering on the sabbath, of the priests and of the Levites, shall be porters of the doors;

New King James Version
This is what you shall do: One-third of you entering on the Sabbath, of the priests and the Levites, shall be keeping watch over the doors;

New American Standard Bible
This is the thing which you shall do: a third of you, of the priests and Levites who come in on the Sabbath, shall be gatekeepers,

NASB 1995
“This is the thing which you shall do: one third of you, of the priests and Levites who come in on the sabbath, shall be gatekeepers,

NASB 1977
“This is the thing which you shall do: one third of you, of the priests and Levites who come in on the sabbath, shall be gatekeepers,

Legacy Standard Bible
This is the thing which you shall do: one-third of you, of the priests and Levites who come in on the sabbath, shall be gatekeepers at the thresholds,

Amplified Bible
This is what you shall do: a third of you, of the priests and Levites who are resuming service on the Sabbath, shall be gatekeepers,

Christian Standard Bible
This is what you are to do: a third of you, priests and Levites who are coming on duty on the Sabbath, are to be gatekeepers.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
This is what you are to do: a third of you, priests and Levites who are coming on duty on the Sabbath, are to be gatekeepers.

American Standard Version
This is the thing that ye shall do: a third part of you, that come in on the sabbath, of the priests and of the Levites, shall be porters of the thresholds;

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
This is the thing that you shall do: a division of you in the going in of the Sabbath, of the Priests and of the Levites, and of the Guards of the doors

Brenton Septuagint Translation
Now this is the thing which ye shall do. Let a third part of you, even of the priests and of the Levites, enter in on the sabbath, even into the gates of the entrances;

Contemporary English Version
Here is what we will do. Three groups of priests and Levites will be on guard duty on the Sabbath--one group will guard the gates of the temple,

Douay-Rheims Bible
And this is the thing that you shall do:

English Revised Version
This is the thing that ye shall do: a third part of you, that come in on the sabbath, of the priests and of the Levites, shall be porters of the doors;

GOD'S WORD® Translation
This is what you must do: One third of you, the priests and Levites who are on duty on the day of worship, must guard the gates.

Good News Translation
This is what we will do. When the priests and Levites come on duty on the Sabbath, one third of them will guard the Temple gates,

International Standard Version
So here's what you'll need to do: One third of you priests and descendants of Levi who are on duty during the Sabbath will serve as guards at the temple gates.

JPS Tanakh 1917
This is the thing that ye shall do: a third part of you, that come in on the sabbath, of the priests and of the Levites, shall be porters of the doors;

Literal Standard Version
This [is] the thing that you do: the third of you, going in on the Sabbath, of the priests, and of the Levites, [are] for gatekeepers of the thresholds,

Majority Standard Bible
This is what you are to do: A third of you priests and Levites who come on duty on the Sabbath shall keep watch at the doors,

New American Bible
This is what you must do: a third of your number, both priests and Levites, who come on duty on the sabbath must guard the thresholds,

NET Bible
This is what you must do. One third of you priests and Levites who are on duty during the Sabbath will guard the doors.

New Revised Standard Version
This is what you are to do: one-third of you, priests and Levites, who come on duty on the sabbath, shall be gatekeepers,

New Heart English Bible
This is the thing that you shall do. A third part of you, who come in on the Sabbath, of the priests and of the Levites, shall be gatekeepers of the thresholds.

Webster's Bible Translation
This is the thing that ye shall do: A third part of you entering on the sabbath, of the priests, and of the Levites, shall be porters of the doors;

World English Bible
This is the thing that you must do: a third part of you, who come in on the Sabbath, of the priests and of the Levites, shall be gatekeepers of the thresholds.

Young's Literal Translation
This is the thing that ye do: The third of you, going in on the sabbath, of the priests, and of the Levites, are for gatekeepers of the thresholds,

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Joash Anointed King in Judah
3the whole assembly made a covenant with the king in the house of God. “Behold, the king’s son!” said Jehoiada. “He must reign, just as the LORD promised concerning the descendants of David. 4This is what you are to do: A third of you priests and Levites who come on duty on the Sabbath shall keep watch at the doors, 5a third shall be at the royal palace, and a third at the Foundation Gate, while all the others are in the courtyards of the house of the LORD.…

Cross References
2 Kings 7:10
So they went and called out to the gatekeepers of the city, saying, "We went to the Aramean camp and no one was there--not a trace--only tethered horses and donkeys, and the tents were intact."

1 Chronicles 9:25
Their relatives came from their villages at fixed times to serve with them for seven-day periods.

2 Chronicles 23:5
a third shall be at the royal palace, and a third at the Foundation Gate, while all the others are in the courtyards of the house of the LORD.


Treasury of Scripture

This is the thing that you shall do; A third part of you entering on the sabbath, of the priests and of the Levites, shall be porters of the doors;

entering

1 Chronicles 23:3-6
Now the Levites were numbered from the age of thirty years and upward: and their number by their polls, man by man, was thirty and eight thousand…

1 Chronicles 24:3-6
And David distributed them, both Zadok of the sons of Eleazar, and Ahimelech of the sons of Ithamar, according to their offices in their service…

Luke 1:8,9
And it came to pass, that while he executed the priest's office before God in the order of his course, …

porters

1 Chronicles 26:13-16
And they cast lots, as well the small as the great, according to the house of their fathers, for every gate…

doors [heb] thresholds

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Doors Duty Entering Gatekeepers Keepers Levites Part Porters Priests Sabbath Third Thresholds Watch
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Doors Duty Entering Gatekeepers Keepers Levites Part Porters Priests Sabbath Third Thresholds Watch
2 Chronicles 23
1. Jehoiada, having set things in order, makes joash king
12. Athaliah is slain
16. Jehoiada restores the worship of God














(4) This is the thing that ye shall do.--2Kings 11:5 : "And he charged them saying, This is the thing," (&c. There he charges the captains of the guard as being the leaders of the conspiracy.

A third.--The third. So 2Chronicles 23:5. "The third of you who come in on the Sabbath" is read also in 2Kings 11:5. The chronicler has added the explanatory words: "belonging to the priests and to the Levites." This can hardly be harmonised with 2Kings 12:4-12 - The chronicler may have misunderstood the words, which in the older account designate the royal guard; and it might have appeared to him impossible that any but members of the sacred orders would be called together in the Temple by the high priest. (Comp. 2Chronicles 23:5-6 with 2Kings 11:4 : "brought them into the house of the Lord.") But he may also have had before him an account in which the part taken by the sacerdotal caste in the revolution was made much more of than m the account of Kings. Moreover the priests and Levites would be likely to play a considerable part in a movement tending to the overthrow of a cultus antagonistic to their own, especially when that movement originated with their own spiritual head, and was transacted in the sanctuary to which they were attached. The chronicler, therefore, cannot with fairness be accused of "arbitrary alterations," unless it be presupposed that his sole authority in writing this account was the Second Book of Kings. The priests and Levites used to do duty in the Temple from Sabbath to Sabbath, so that one course relieved another at the end of each week. (See 1 Chronicles 24; Luke 1:5.) That the companies of the royal guards succeeded each other on duty in the same fashion is clear from the parallel narrative. . . .

Verse 4. - The first thing that is to be observed is the distinct and repeated mention of the Levites, as those on whom the critical and onerous service that came of Jehoiada's resolution was devolved, while the parallel does not so much as mention them. It may next be noted that our first and second verses state the part that "the captains of hundreds" were called to perform in collecting the requisite number of Levites from the provincial cities of Judah. And once more it may be noted that whereas, while we abide close by our own text alone, nothing in the description of our vers. 4-10 occasions material difficulty, even when the perplexity, which is considerable, does enter, on consulting and endeavouring to reconcile the parallel, it is with extreme probability due to our not making sufficient allowance for the fact that the matter of the two accounts does not so much offer itself for reconciliation as for concurrent acceptance. We have now to follow the description of our own text. Of you entering on the sabbath; i.e. of you who enter on your period of duty on such a sabbath. See ver. 8, the "men that were to come in on the sabbath, with them that were to go out on the sabbath." This alludes, as the next clause definitely says, to the weekly courses of the Levites, as described in 1 Chronicles 9:25; 1 Chronicles 24; 1 Chronicles 25. - the incoming and outgoing companies. Porters of the doors; i.e. "keepers of the doors of the temple" (1 Chronicles 9:19). This may correspond with the middle clause of ver. 6 in the parallel.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
This
זֶ֥ה (zeh)
Pronoun - masculine singular
Strong's 2088: This, that

is what
אֲשֶׁ֣ר (’ă·šer)
Pronoun - relative
Strong's 834: Who, which, what, that, when, where, how, because, in order that

you are to do:
תַּעֲשׂ֑וּ (ta·‘ă·śū)
Verb - Qal - Imperfect - second person masculine plural
Strong's 6213: To do, make

A third
הַשְּׁלִשִׁ֨ית (haš·šə·li·šîṯ)
Article | Number - ordinal feminine singular
Strong's 7992: Third, feminine a, third, a third, a third-story cell)

of you
מִכֶּ֜ם (mik·kem)
Preposition | second person masculine plural
Strong's 4480: A part of, from, out of

priests
לַכֹּֽהֲנִים֙ (lak·kō·hă·nîm)
Preposition-l, Article | Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 3548: Priest

and Levites
וְלַלְוִיִּ֔ם (wə·lal·wî·yim)
Conjunctive waw, Preposition-l | Noun - proper - masculine plural
Strong's 3881: Levites -- descendant of Levi

who come on duty
בָּאֵ֣י (bā·’ê)
Verb - Qal - Participle - masculine plural construct
Strong's 935: To come in, come, go in, go

on the Sabbath
הַשַּׁבָּ֗ת (haš·šab·bāṯ)
Article | Noun - common singular
Strong's 7676: Intermission, the Sabbath

shall keep watch
לְשֹֽׁעֲרֵ֖י (lə·šō·‘ă·rê)
Preposition-l | Noun - masculine plural construct
Strong's 7778: A gatekeeper

at the doors,
הַסִּפִּֽים׃ (has·sip·pîm)
Article | Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 5592: A vestibule, a dish


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OT History: 2 Chronicles 23:4 This is the thing that you shall (2 Chron. 2Ch iiCh ii ch 2 chr 2chr)
2 Chronicles 23:3
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