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This book is written by a teacher for teachers. It demystifies the notion
that Lean is only beneficial to the business world by utilizing a
common-sense approach with intentionality. It is a must-read “How
To” guide that enables teachers to be more efficient and more effective
for the students they serve.

Dr. David B. Smith

Superintendent
Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation
Evansville, IN

Betty and Joe have elevated the profession of teaching through illumi-
nating the art and science of teaching. The emphasis on process
demonstrates a breakthrough to new levels of thinking and planning
that are imperative to 21st century learners.

Dr. Eleni Roulis

Professor of Education
University of St. Thomas College of Education
St. Paul, MN
Author
Transforming Learning for the Workplace
of the New Millennium: Students and
Workers as Critical Learners

If you’ve ever looked at your curriculum and wondered, “How can I fit this
all in?” then Lean Learning© is for you. This book lays out a proven and
practical approach to teaching that allows a teacher to leverage high-impact
instructional strategies while helping students improve their learning.

Peter Kupfer
Assistant Principal for Curriculum
Warren Township High School District 121
Gurney, IL
This amazing book is filled with practical ideas for helping students take
control of their own learning — clearly describing the steps to make
learning easier and more effective for every student!

Dr. Boyce Heidenreich

Retired Elementary School Teacher, Principal
Assistant Superintendent, and
Education Staff Development Training Program Manager
for the Bureau of Education and Research
Bremerton, WA
Optimizing Student
Learning
This page intentionally left blank
Optimizing Student
Learning
A Lean Systems Approach to
Improving K-12 Education,
Second Edition

By Betty Ziskovsky
and Joe Ziskovsky
Published in 2019
by Routledge/Productivity Press
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, 11th Floor New York, NY 10017
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN, UK
© 2019 by Betty Ziskovsky and Joe Ziskovsky
Routledge/Productivity Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an
Informa business
No claim to original U.S. Government works
Printed on acid-free paper
International Standard Book Number-13: 978-1-138-33023-8 (Hardback)
International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-429-44797-6 (eBook)
This book contains information obtained from authentic and highly regarded sources. Reasonable
efforts have been made to publish reliable data and information, but the author and publisher
cannot assume responsibility for the validity of all materials or the consequences of their use. The
authors and publishers have attempted to trace the copyright holders of all material reproduced in
this publication and apologize to copyright holders if permission to publish in this form has not
been obtained. If any copyright material has not been acknowledged please write and let us know
so we may rectify in any future reprint.
Except as permitted under U.S. Copyright Law, no part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced,
transmitted, or utilized in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
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Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Ziskovsky, Betty, author. | Ziskovsky, Joe, author.

Title: Optimizing student learning : a lean systems approach to improving k-12 education / Betty
Ziskovsky and Joe Ziskovsky.
Description: Second edition. | Boca Raton : Taylor & Francis, 2019. | “A Routledge title, part of the
Taylor & Francis imprint, a member of the Taylor & Francis Group, the academic division of T&F
Informa plc” – Title page. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018047470 (print) | LCCN 2018060577 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780429447976 (e-Book) | ISBN 9781138330238 (hardback : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Teaching. | Classroom management. | Lesson planning. | Learning.
Classification: LCC LB1025.3 (ebook) | LCC LB1025.3 .Z57 2019 (print) | DDC 372.1102–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018047470

Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at

www.taylorandfrancis.com

and the CRC Press Web site at

http://www.crcpress.com
Contents
About the Authors ............................................................................................ix
Prologue..............................................................................................................xi
Foreword ......................................................................................................... xiii
Acknowledgments............................................................................................xv
Introduction................................................................................................... xvii
What Is Lean? ..................................................................................................xix
How Can Lean Be Applied to Education? ..................................................xxi

Chapter 1 How It All Began.......................................................................1

Chapter 2 Embarking on the Journey.......................................................7

Chapter 3 Defining the Curriculum........................................................11

Chapter 4 Bill’s First Lesson.....................................................................15

Chapter 5 Establishing the Syllabus ........................................................19

Chapter 6 Zeroing In.................................................................................27

Chapter 7 Establishing “Standard Work” ..............................................33

Chapter 8 Fleshing Out the Details.........................................................43

Chapter 9 What Is a Week?......................................................................49

Chapter 10 The Report Out........................................................................53

Chapter 11 Winning Approval ..................................................................65

Chapter 12 The First Day of School..........................................................77

Chapter 13 Introducing Lean and the Load-Leveling Plan

to Students................................................................................83

vii
viii • Contents
Chapter 14 Settling In .................................................................................89

Chapter 15 The First Problem Arises .......................................................95

Chapter 16 Improving the Improvement.................................................99

Chapter 17 Carpe Diem ............................................................................107

Chapter 18 Setting the Stage.....................................................................111

Chapter 19 The Principal’s Due Diligence.............................................115

Chapter 20 Introducing Lean Learning© ...............................................121

Chapter 21 The Regimen of Process Improvement..............................133

Chapter 22 Revelation ...............................................................................137

Chapter 23 A Final Meeting, a New Beginning ....................................145

Lisa’s Epilogue ................................................................................................149

Bill’s Epilogue .................................................................................................151
Appendix .........................................................................................................153
Glossary ...........................................................................................................157
Additional Reading and Resources .............................................................169
Index ................................................................................................................171
About the Authors
Betty Ziskovsky, BS, MAT is a retired professional educator and nation-
ally recognized expert in applying Lean principles and methods to educa-
tion processes. As a practicing middle school teacher working with
learning-challenged students, Betty demonstrated success in achieving
measurable improvement in both instructional and student learning per-
formances, and administrative efficiency. She and her husband, Joe, pro-
vide consultation services for K-12 schools seeking to improve student
learning, reduce learning gaps, and improve operational efficiency.
Joe Ziskovsky, BS, MBA, CLM is the retired Director of Operational
Excellence for a multinational company. He had served as an executive
business administrator and manager for more than 26 years. He served as
the enterprise Lean executive for more than 12 years. He is certified as a
Lean practitioner, Lean master, and Lean trainer. In addition to leading
Lean efforts on the domestic and international levels, he also served as a
peer Lean auditor for a large number of major Minnesota companies. Joe
particularly enjoys helping K-12 school administrators and teachers realize
performance increases and cost savings using Lean.

ix
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Prologue

This second edition of Optimizing Student Learning – A Lean Systems

Approach To Improving K-12 Education came about as the result of a
desperate phone call from a stranger. One evening, a lady from some-
where in Arizona, whose name I never got, called to beg me to help her
help her son. The anguishing story was all too familiar.
Her son was twelve, in sixth grade, and in his fifth year struggling to
find a way to be successful at learning. He had been tested in multiple
child study groups over the years — no problem could be pinpointed.
Mom had initiated conferences early on with each new teacher asking
for strategies to help her boy be successful. She and her son tried
everything the teachers threw at them. For years. Extra help didn’t
produce the desired results. “Study harder!” was the continuous refrain,
she explained as she related her story between sobs she could no longer
contain. What in the world, she asked me, does “study harder” mean?
Her son’s current teacher flat out told Mom that very afternoon that she
had no other strategies to suggest, that Mom and her son just needed to
keep on trying. “Trying what!?” she lamented.
This lady was at her wits’ end, and it sounded like her son had pretty
much given up. He was, Mom said, willing to try anything, but
frustrated that nothing ever seemed to work more than once. And
then the hopes crashed for both of them when a success could not be
replicated. Although I couldn’t see this woman’s face through my
phone, I could hear the anguish and the complete fatigue in her voice.
She was thoroughly spent and so was her son.
The reason for her call, she said — she tracked my phone number
down on the internet — was that she had read the first edition of our
book and was disappointed not to find the answer to how she could
optimize her student’s learning as the title promised.
“I got really hopeful when I started the chapter on Lean Learning©,
but you gave no details! I need those details! I’m begging you! His
teachers don’t seem to know how to help him. I as a parent need to
know how. Please help me help my son!”

xi
xii • Prologue
Perhaps you can imagine how I felt hearing that plaintive plea. I’d
never met her son, but I knew his face. I knew hers, too.
During my career as a teacher, I found myself working a lot with
underperforming children. My fulfillment was in helping them learn to
“fly.” Finding out how to accomplish that was the focus of my work. It
brought me to my understanding of the fundamental steps necessary to
get better at learning. First, discover how you as an individual learn,
what your individual learning process is. (Nobody teaches that in
schools, sadly. The $64,000 question is, why not?) Second, simply
apply process improvement principles to refine your learning process
to make it more effective and efficient. It’s a simple application of the
scientific method, not complicated rocket science. But it takes time to
do it. You have to be persistent and faithful in your execution. There
seems to be no time for that nowadays in the average classroom with all
the pressures both on students and their teachers. In addition, very few
educators have been introduced to the powerful process improvement
principles shared in this book.
And so, it is to that valiant but despairing Mom and her frustrated
son whose self-image and confidence has been all but destroyed by not
knowing how to improve, that this second edition is dedicated.
Mom, the details you requested are included. This is your self-help
edition. It’s written for parents and students, as well as professional
educators. So whatever category you as a reader fall into, if you follow
the model faithfully, it’s guaranteed to improve learning performance.
No exceptions. Don’t give up. Be persistent. This works.
Betty
Foreword
K-12 education can be viewed as a 13-station production line, each
station representing a year of foundational learning built upon the
cumulative learning obtained from the previous stations. Ideally, stu-
dents leave the 13th station as high school graduates having the benefits
of a fully delivered curriculum. However, that is routinely not the case.
Any teacher within the K-12 grade span who completes the entire
delivery of their assigned curriculum is a rarity. This happens for any
number of reasons. Whether your school or district uses a textbook, a
standards-based curriculum map, or something in between as the basis
for its curriculum, it is inherently assumed by the scope and sequence
authors and designers as well as the individual school that each grade
level’s work will be completed. It just doesn’t happen that way. The fact
of the matter is that most students advance to the next year’s curricu-
lum without having finished learning the curriculum they were assigned
this year. For core content teachers, this usually means that precious
instructional time to teach their grade level’s curriculum must be spent
in reviewing or actually introducing the previous year’s curriculum as
necessary foundation learning for this year’s content. Cumulatively, over
13 years, this failure represents significant lost learning.
This story is a fictionalized account of Betty Ziskovsky’s real-life effort
to complete her teaching assignment and not contribute to the cumula-
tive learning deficiency. Lisa’s story is based on Betty’s actual teaching
practice as both an intermediate and middle school teacher. While Betty
explored her way through trial and error in improving her teaching and
her students’ learning performance, this book eliminates the need for that
by clearly explaining the powerful techniques and tools she developed
and used to boost student learning. Lisa’s story incorporates an unusual
partnership with another fictional character, a continuous improvement
specialist named Bill, whose role in the story is to clarify the details of
how the Lean waste elimination approach can be applied to classroom
teaching and learning. Lisa’s story reflects and details Betty’s personal
experience utilizing the Lean approach to improve instruction and
student learning. She completely delivered her entire assigned curriculum
each school year in a way that allowed students to master the material, as

xiii
xiv • Foreword
evidenced by significant growth in student performance scores on the
standardized achievement test in her content area, and significantly
improved individual student performance on classroom assessments
over the course of the school year. Regardless of how your school/district
curriculum is structured, the intent, functionality, and end result of Lean
application to learning and instruction is the same.
The methods and tools described are based on proven Lean techni-
ques and sound education practice. There is no reason the Betty/Lisa
story cannot be replicated across America. Wouldn’t that be grand?
Acknowledgments
Lean is a commonsense approach to any endeavor. If you get rid of
things that aren’t necessary to forward the task (waste), you can do the
job more efficiently and more effectively. It’s an approach that embraces
experimentation, actively solicits improvement ideas from everyone, and
promotes collaboration, accountability, and systems thinking.
Learning is a process. Like all processes, learning can be improved.
Improving is all about embellishing and refining existing understanding.
So introducing Lean into a K-12 classroom was not the result of a
clairvoyant “Eureka! moment” — it was, in assessing the task ahead,
simply the most logical way to accomplish the goal of learning. As
much as I as the teacher put into the Lean implementation, my students
put in more. What they did with their empowerment as Lean practi-
tioners was what optimized our success. Stepping up to the plate as
equal partners in teaching and learning, it was the students who
provided the critical feedback on what was working and what wasn’t,
offered the creative ideas for how to forward learning, and embraced
their new-found power to improve themselves. To all my students over
the years who enlightened me on how learning progress is really made
and life skills are built using Lean, I offer both my sincere gratitude as
well as my endearing affection.
Mrs. Z

We would like to acknowledge those who contributed their assistance

and support to the success of this endeavor.
To the Arizona mom who made the initial case for this edition about
as clear-cut as a case could be. Thanks for being the catalyst.
Outstanding for the many phone and written conversations and
detailed feedback is Boyce Heidenreich, whose dual insight as both
teacher and administrator was invaluable in his role as the editorial
devil’s advocate. Thanks to Norman Bodek, who enthusiastically
embraced Lean’s new application to K-12 education as long overdue.
Sincere thanks to Chris Partyka of CPImages.MN whose graphic cover
design succinctly captures exactly what this book is designed to do.

xv
xvi • Acknowledgments
We would also like to acknowledge the contributions of the profes-
sional educators who reviewed this second edition of the book and
offered constructive feedback from their diverse backgrounds as well as
their unwavering support: Missy Unklesby, middle school teacher and Lean
practitioner (Ohio); Todd Trick, elementary school teacher (Minnesota);
Peter Kupfer, Assistant Principal of Curriculum (Illinois); Dr. David Smith,
Superintendent (Indiana), Dr. Eleni Roulis, Professor, College of Education,
Leadership and Counseling, University of St. Thomas (Minnesota) and Deb
Craigmile, mom.
To the education visionaries who enthusiastically advocate for the
powerful potential they see in Lean as an approach to better the
education process — we so appreciate your interest, support, recom-
mendations, suggestions, and thought-provoking questions.
And finally, to Michael Sinocchi and Katherine Kadian at Productivity
Press, for seeing the value of providing this information to parents and
students as well as to professional educators.
Betty and Joe Ziskovsky
Introduction

I started Productivity Press, Inc. in 1979, went to Japan and discovered the
Toyota Production System (JIT or Lean), and published close to 250 books
on the best of Japanese management practices. Most recently, I taught a
course on Japanese management at Portland State University. After my
first trip to Japan (75 to date of this writing) I became fascinated with
finding ways to help American organizations improve their efficiency and
effectiveness in producing their products and services. At first we thought
Lean only applied to manufacturing companies, but through the years we
found that the concepts can be understood and applied in any industry,
including many hospitals. And now along comes this wonderful book on
how to begin to apply Lean to teaching and educating students.
This is really where Lean should have started.
If you ask a manager what is their most important asset, they would
invariably say, “people.” But, ironically, people are not found on a financial
balance sheet. You can find inventory, machines, products, investments,
but not people. Nor are the majority of workers treated as valuable
participants in the process of producing products or delivering services. I
think it all starts with our educational system.
So, happily, we finally have an easy-to-read but very interesting book
written by Betty and Joe Ziskovsky on how to apply Lean principles to the
field of education. The heart of Lean is the elimination of “muda” — wastes
— and the biggest waste is the underutilization of people’s talents. This is
what the authors address, and to educate students properly, first the teacher
has to be proficient in the planning and organizing of the course material.
We learn from the authors: how to improve our skills, to manage our
time, load-leveling, planning the year ahead to ensure that instruction is
balanced and everything is covered in a way that ensures students master
the material. As a teacher, I learned from the book the power of giving
weekly tests to see that real learning was taking place “exactly when it is
needed, in the right quantity, and at the highest level of quality.”
We can see how 5S works in the classroom, how standardized work
applies, how to measure the progress of learning, and how to use plan–
do–check–adjust (PDCA) to improve both the teaching and learning
processes.

xvii
xviii • Introduction
So, read the book slowly; have fun and see Lean brighten the days for
all of your students.
Norman Bodek
President, PCS Inc.
Former owner of Productivity Press, Inc.
Author of How To Do Kaizen
What Is Lean?
Lean is a term used to describe a value-added approach to process manage-
ment of personal and work tasks. It considers the expenditure of time,
effort, money, or other resources for any goal. If they do not create value, as
it is perceived by the customer/end user, they are considered wasteful, and
thus a target for elimination.

xix
This page intentionally left blank
How Can Lean Be Applied
to Education?
Lean is a program of organizational improvement that empowers each and
every worker in a school system — from student to superintendent — to
increase his or her personal performance and job satisfaction through
process improvement. Lean engages everyone in streamlining his or her
work processes by identifying and eliminating the steps within each
process that are wasteful, unnecessary, or do not contribute value to —
and may even prohibit the person from doing or completing — the work.
By incorporating a value-adding approach systemwide, schools can
become more efficient in their operations, and more effective at delivering
their services, optimizing the learning performance of all students, and
creating a culture of success and satisfaction for all.

xxi
This page intentionally left blank
1
How It All Began

The school year was coming to an end for Metro Middle School.
Students had been dismissed for the summer the previous afternoon.
This morning, Todd, the principal, had gathered his faculty in the
library for a final staff meeting before they tackled the breakdown
and cleanup of their classrooms. Routine end-of-the-year housekeep-
ing items had been addressed, and the final topic of discussion on
the agenda was a familiar one at this time of year; namely, whether
students at each grade level had learned everything they were sup-
posed to.
“Well, we had to spend a tremendous amount of time on research
writing. I tried to get everything in, but there just wasn’t enough time to
get everything done,” commented Margaret, an eighth-grade language arts
teacher.
“We covered probably three-fourths of the science text,” added Judy.
“I didn’t even get to start the sixth-grade math curriculum in my
remedial class until December so, no, they don’t have what they should
have,” stated Don.
Todd looked around the room of tired faces. “Why do you think this
is happening? And what are we going to do to correct it?”
The group was silent for a few moments.
“These kids come in with learning deficits that we have to take time
to shore up. If they had learned what they were supposed to in the
previous grades we wouldn’t be having this discussion,” piped in Leo,
the PE/English instructor.
“All these pullouts are stealing instructional time. I can’t get every-
thing done!”
The floodgate was opened and Todd heard all too clearly how things
outside of classroom control were preventing the full scope of learning

1
2 • Optimizing Student Learning
from happening. However, Lisa, a seventh-grade social studies teacher,
offered a different insight.
“I couldn’t complete my curriculum either. Like other people have
pointed out, there really were a lot of interruptions to our instructional
time. That needs to be addressed. But I think I have to shoulder some
responsibility for what happened or didn’t happen in my classes.
Personally, I’m pretty exasperated with myself. I know there are things
beyond my control, but I’m not sure I managed the things within my
control very well. After we hit mid-April and I saw where I was in the
curriculum schedule, I started questioning whether I had planned and
managed my time well enough. Frankly, I’m frustrated and disap-
pointed in myself for being in this boat two years in a row now.”
“You can’t plan around everything, Lisa!” admonished Colleen, her
social studies colleague. “We all just have to do the best we can.”
“But that’s just it, Colleen,” interrupted Lisa. “I’m not so sure that
what I’ve been doing is the best that I can.”
“What do you mean?” Todd interjected.
“Well, as part of my master’s coursework I have been reading about
this Lean process-improvement approach used in manufacturing and
now in service industries like healthcare, insurance, and law enforce-
ment. In fact, I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately and I’ve come to
the conclusion that education really is a combination of developing and
constructing a product and processing a lot of paperwork.”
“What!?” Several voices exploded simultaneously.
Lisa patiently went on. “Think about it for a moment. What we do is
take a student at a given stage of education and add prescribed learning
— our individual curriculum — that ultimately results in the develop-
ment and production of an educated individual. We’re all part of a 13-
year production line, and each of us is responsible for doing the work
assigned to one of those 13 years.”
“Are you serious?”
“I sure am!”
“So what does this have to do with our problem?” asked Judy.
“It has everything to do with it,” explained Lisa. “We did not deliver
our product — a student educated to grade-level standards — on time
in a complete form. It’s just like ordering a car and not getting it when
promised, and when you got it, it was missing items you ordered.”
“Lisa, we’ve all tried, but none of us, including you, got the curricu-
lum done,” countered Judy.
 How It All Began •3
Intrigued, Todd interjected, “Lisa, what do you propose we do?”
“From my reading, and in discussing how Lean process improvement
works with actual practitioners, I think a tool that is used to smooth
production might be useful to us in helping us keep on track so we can
complete our curriculum by year’s end. It will mean some changes in
how we plan and deliver our instruction and even how we interact with
the students, but I think it will work.”
“I don’t think learning can be equated with a production line, Lisa,”
commented Leo.
Mumbles rose from within the group.
Todd motioned for quiet. He wanted to hear more and encouraged
Lisa to explain further.
“It is called level loading. I propose we take one class and apply this
tool and its techniques as a trial for next year.”
Skepticism abounded.
“How do you know it will work?” queried Leo. “I’m uncomfortable
changing what I have done all these years without proof.”
Committed to exploring improvement possibilities, Todd took a
positive and supportive stance. “Lisa, since this is your idea, are you
willing to develop and pilot this in one of your own classes starting in
the fall?”
Lisa nodded her acceptance of the challenge.
“Well, then, we are done here, folks,” concluded Todd. “Thank you
all for the hard work and dedication you’ve put in throughout the
year. I appreciate your efforts very much. Don’t forget to finalize and
submit your grades and student cumulative files before you leave.
Have a great summer!” Then turning to Lisa he added, “Can you
come down to my office for a few minutes? I’d like to hear more
about your idea.”
Seated in her principal’s office and encouraged by his interest in
trying something new, Lisa briefly explained that the load-leveling tool
she wanted to apply was a technique used to smooth out the flow of
work to help keep a process on schedule. “That’s essentially the problem
everyone, including me, was talking about, Todd. Interruptions in the
teaching schedule have prevented the curriculum delivery process from
being completed,” she pointed out.
“I’m looking at what I can do to reduce those interruptions for next
year, but I simply can’t eliminate all of them,” offered Todd.
4 • Optimizing Student Learning
“I know,” Lisa assured him, “but I think load-leveling will help me
plan more effectively for them and how to work around them. And if
this will enable us to complete each year’s curriculum, then everyone
will be able to start the year teaching their assigned curriculum rather
than finishing up the curriculum from a previous year.”
“Yes, I can definitely see the longitudinal benefit if it works. Okay,
Lisa, let’s try it. I’m hoping you’ll be willing to develop your plan this
summer. I know your stated goal is to finish delivering your assigned
curriculum, and I assume it will be done in such a way that the kids
learn it.”
“Oh, yes, the student mastery component is equally important to me
in this.”
“What class do you propose to pilot this in?”
“Well,” Lisa thought out loud, “I think I’d like to tackle world
geography. No one who has taught that class here has ever completed
the curriculum, including me. I’d like to see if I can be the first. Plus, as
you know, our school score in geography on the state performance
assessment was in the ‘Needs Improvement’ category. If I can finish the
curriculum, I’m sure our score will be higher. We can easily measure
whether I complete the curriculum, and next spring’s school score in
geography will tell us whether or not learning was improved at the same
time.”
“That sounds like a good check,” agreed Todd. “Is there anything
further I can provide or do to support you in this? I want you to be able
to succeed.”
“I know you do. I’d like to be able to get in the building during the
summer to have access to everything while I work on this.”
“That’s fine, keep your key. You just won’t have access on weekends.”
“Thank you, Todd. I can’t think of anything else right now,”
replied Lisa, “but I’ll let you know if I do. I just need to figure out
how to do this. I have a friend who is a Lean master, and he’s been
explaining to me how this load-leveling works in his business. He has
volunteered to be my Lean teacher and coach to guide me if I want
to try it. I know already it’s going to be a lot of work. He’s said that
most of the effort is in the pre-planning. We both know this will have
to be a collaborative learning effort — he’ll be learning about the
education process, and I’ll learn how to improve my abilities and
complete the curriculum on time, completely, and with student
mastery. That’s my goal.”
 How It All Began •5
“And it’s an admirable one! We do have some finite funds for profes-
sional development of this nature. I will email you with the amount of the
subsidy I can offer. Keep me updated on your progress, Lisa, and let me
know if you need anything during the summer. I’m proud of you for
taking this on — it shows real leadership and genuine concern for your
students’ learning.” Todd walked Lisa to the door. “Good luck.”
Lisa smiled. “Thank you. I have every confidence that this is going to
work, Todd.”
This page intentionally left blank
Another random document with
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 why will he be a cause of guilt unto Israel?] Compare Leviticus iv.
3, “if the anointed priest shall sin so as to bring guilt on the people”
(Revised Version). The community is a unit, and the guilt of one falls
on all.

⁴Nevertheless the king’s word prevailed

against Joab. Wherefore Joab departed, and
went throughout all Israel, and came to
Jerusalem.
4. came to Jerusalem] In 2 Samuel xxiv. 4‒8 the route is
described and the time taken in the numbering is stated, nine
months and twenty days.

⁵And Joab gave up the sum of the numbering

of the people unto David. And all they of Israel
were a thousand thousand and an hundred
thousand men that drew sword: and Judah
was four hundred threescore and ten
thousand men that drew sword.
5. they of Israel] Chronicles gives Israel as 1,100,000 and Judah
as 470,000; 2 Samuel gives Israel as 800,000 and Judah as
500,000. It is difficult to correlate these figures. There are, however,
reasons for thinking that the last part of the verse and Judah was
470,000, etc., may be a gloss. If so, then the 200,000 less in
Chronicles (1,300,000 in Samuel; 1,100,000 in Chronicles, where
Israel would as so often denote both Israel and Judah) might well be
explained as an allowance for the exclusion of Levi and Benjamin
(see verse 6).

that drew sword] All males over twenty years of age; compare
Numbers i. 20.
 ⁶But Levi and Benjamin counted he not among
them: for the king’s word was abominable to
Joab.
6. Levi] In Numbers i. 49 it is ordained that Levi is not to be
numbered among the children of Israel, i.e. treated as liable to
military service. The Levites were, however, numbered separately:
Numbers iii. 15, xxvi. 57. In 2 Samuel there is nothing to correspond
with this verse, Levi and Benjamin being there reckoned in the
census. Why the Chronicler excludes Benjamin as well as Levi it is
not easy to see.

⁷And God was displeased with this thing;

therefore he smote Israel.
7. he smote Israel] with the plague.

⁸And David said unto God, I have sinned

greatly, in that I have done this thing: but now,
put away, I beseech thee, the iniquity of thy
servant; for I have done very foolishly.
8. put away ... the iniquity] Render perhaps, remove the
punishment; compare Genesis iv. 13, Revised Version with margin:
also 1 Samuel xxviii. 10.

⁹And the Lord spake unto Gad, David’s seer,

saying,
9. And the Lord spake] The historian now retraces his steps to
describe the circumstances which heralded the approach of the
plague.
 Gad] He is three times mentioned in Chronicles, each time as a
“seer,” viz. xxi. 9 (= 2 Samuel xxiv. 11); xxix. 29; 2 Chronicles xxix.
25. He was perhaps an older contemporary of Nathan, who bears
the more modern title of “prophet” (compare 1 Samuel ix. 9).

¹⁰Go and speak unto David, saying, Thus saith

the Lord, I offer ¹ thee three things; choose
thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee.
¹¹So Gad came to David, and said unto him,
Thus saith the Lord, Take which thou wilt;
¹ Hebrew stretch out unto.

10. I offer thee three things] The offer is a test of David’s

character, just as God’s different offer in 2 Chronicles i. 7 was a test
of Solomon’s.

¹²either three years of famine; or three months

to be consumed before thy foes, while that the
sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee; or
else three days the sword of the Lord, even ¹
pestilence in the land, and the angel of the
Lord destroying throughout all the coasts of
Israel. Now therefore consider what answer I
shall return to him that sent me.
¹ Or, and.

12. three years of famine] 2 Samuel, seven years of famine (LXX.

however three, as Chronicles).
 three months to be consumed] The correct text, however, is
probably that found in 2 Samuel xxiv. 13, or wilt thou flee three
months?

the angel of the Lord] Compare 2 Kings xix. 35; Acts xii. 23.

coasts] Render, borders, i.e. through the whole land.

¹³And David said unto Gad, I am in a great

strait: let me fall now into the hand of the
Lord; for very great ¹ are his mercies: and let
me not fall into the hand of man.
¹ Or, many.

13. into the hand of the Lord] The answer reveals the sincerity
and efficacy of David’s penitence: a right spirit is renewed within him.
He now chooses to trust in God.

¹⁴So the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel:

and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men.
14. there fell of Israel] 2 Samuel adds, from Dan even to Beer-
sheba. The pestilence was throughout the whole land.

¹⁵And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to

destroy it: and as he was about to destroy, the
Lord beheld, and he repented him of the evil,
and said to the destroying angel, It is enough;
now stay thine hand. And the angel of the
Lord stood by the threshing-floor of Ornan ¹
the Jebusite.
 ¹ In 2 Samuel xxiv. 16, &c., Araunah.

15. unto Jerusalem] The peril of the plague extends until

Jerusalem itself is threatened.

he repented him] Compare Genesis vi. 6; 1 Samuel xv. 11, 35;

Jonah iii. 10, etc.

It is enough] The sudden cessation of this pestilence has

numerous parallels in the history of epidemics.

the threshing-floor of Ornan] The Chronicler makes this

threshing-floor the site of the Temple. The author of Samuel is silent
on the point. Compare notes on verses 25, 28, and especially xxii. 1.

Ornan] This is the form of the name throughout this chapter, but
in 2 Samuel xxiv. the Ḳerī gives everywhere Araunah. The Kethīb of
Samuel, however, offers various forms, one of which (to be read
Ornah, verse 16) approximates to the form given in Chronicles
Variation in reproducing foreign names is common; see note on xviii.
5 (Damascus), and on 2 Chronicles xxxvi. 6 (Nebuchadnezzar).

¹⁶And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the

angel of the Lord stand between the earth
and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his
hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then
David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell
upon their faces.
16. saw the angel] The full description of the vision is peculiar to
Chronicles; compare 2 Samuel xxiv. 17.

and the elders, clothed in sackcloth] The wearing of sackcloth

was doubtless accompanied by fasting; compare Jonah iii. 5.
 ¹⁷And David said unto God, Is it not I that
commanded the people to be numbered?
even I it is that have sinned and done very
wickedly; but these sheep, what have they
done? let thine hand, I pray thee, O Lord my
God, be against me, and against my father’s
house; but not against thy people, that they
should be plagued. ¹⁸Then the angel of the
Lord commanded Gad to say to David, that
David should go up, and rear an altar unto the
Lord in the threshing-floor of Ornan the
Jebusite. ¹⁹And David went up at the saying of
Gad, which he spake in the name of the Lord.
17. let thine hand ... be against me] Compare Moses’
intercession in Exodus xxxii. 32; but Moses was innocent, David
guilty.

²⁰And Ornan turned back, and saw the angel;

and his four sons that were with him hid
themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat.
20. hid themselves] in fear, lest they too should see the angel of
Jehovah and their lives be thereby imperilled, compare Judges vi.
22, xiii. 22.

²¹And as David came to Ornan, Ornan looked

and saw David, and went out of the threshing-
floor, and bowed himself to David with his face
to the ground.
 21. was threshing wheat] By driving oxen over it; compare verse
23.

²²Then David said to Ornan, Give me the

place of this threshing-floor, that I may build
thereon an altar unto the Lord: for the full
price shalt thou give it me: that the plague
may be stayed from the people.
22. the place of this threshing-floor] The expression implies
perhaps that David bought more than the mere area of the threshing-
floor.

for the full price] Genesis xxiii. 9 (Revised Version).

²³And Ornan said unto David, Take it to thee,

and let my lord the king do that which is good
in his eyes: lo, I give thee the oxen for burnt
offerings, and the threshing instruments for
wood, and the wheat for the meal offering; I
give it all. ²⁴And king David said to Ornan,
Nay; but I will verily buy it for the full price: for I
will not take that which is thine for the Lord,
nor offer a burnt offering without cost.
23. the meal offering] Compare Leviticus ii. 1‒16.

²⁵So David gave to Ornan for the place six

hundred shekels of gold by weight.
25. gave ... for the place six hundred shekels of gold by weight] In
2 Samuel xxiv. 24, bought the threshing-floor and the oxen for fifty
shekels of silver. The huge discrepancy here between Chronicles
and Samuel is noteworthy. If the price in Samuel, 50 shekels of silver
for threshing-floor and oxen, seems somewhat small (compared with
the 400 shekels paid by Abraham for the cave of Machpelah,
Genesis xxiii. 15‒17), the 600 shekels of gold in Chronicles is
extravagantly large. It is accounted for by the fact that the Chronicler
regarded the transaction, not as the acquisition merely of the site for
the altar but of the area on which the Temple was afterwards built
(see verse 22). No sum could well seem too large for the purchase
of ground destined to be so holy. The figure 600 may have been
chosen on the ground that it was equal to a payment of 50 shekels
for each tribe.

²⁶And David built there an altar unto the Lord,

and offered burnt offerings and peace
offerings, and called upon the Lord; and he
answered him from heaven by fire upon the
altar of burnt offering. ²⁷And the Lord
commanded the angel; and he put up his
sword again into the sheath thereof.
26. peace offerings] See xvi. 1, note. At the end of the verse LXX.
(compare Peshitṭa) adds, and consumed the burnt offering. Compare
Leviticus ix. 24; 1 Kings xviii. 38. The fire is not mentioned in 2
Samuel.

Chapter XXI. 28‒Chapter XXII. 1.

The Selection of the Site of the Temple.

²⁸At that time, when David saw that the

Lord had answered him in the threshing-floor
of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed
there.
 28. At that time, etc.] The construction of this section must be
carefully noted. chapter xxi. 28 is continued by chapter xxii. i, verses
29, 30 of chapter xxi. being a parenthesis. The division of chapters
here is unfortunate.

At that time] The phrase is taken up by “Then” of xxii. 1. The

Chronicler wishes us to note that David regarded the success of his
intercession at the floor of Ornan as an indication that this floor was
God’s approved site for the Temple.

²⁹For the tabernacle of the Lord, which Moses

made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt
offering, were at that time in the high place at
Gibeon.
29. For] The beginning of a parenthesis.

the tabernacle of the Lord] See the prefatory note to chapter xiii.;
also compare xvi. 1, 39, and 2 Chronicles i. 3.

³⁰But David could not go before it to inquire of

God: for he was afraid because of the sword
of the angel of the Lord.
30. he was afraid] Or, he was terrified. The Hebrew word is
unusual.

Chapter XXII.
¹Then David said, This is the house of the
Lord God, and this is the altar of burnt
 offering for Israel.
1. Then] The word refers back to xxi. 28, At that time.

David said] The king acts in conformity with the law contained in
Deuteronomy xii. 5, 6.

This is the house of the Lord, etc.] Hence the necessity for
relating the story of David’s sinful action in taking the census. The
Chronicler’s desire to show only the idealistic aspect of David’s life
has frequently been pointed out. The present section, then, is
notable as showing very clearly how even this desire was made to
yield to the supreme object of relating the Divinely-guided origin and
growth of the Temple and its worship.

2‒19.
David’s Preparations for Building the Temple. His charge to
Solomon and to the Princes.

It is of course quite probable that preparations for a Temple were

begun in David’s time, but the picture given in this chapter must not
be taken as historically true, the material being of a general
character such as the imagination could readily supply, and the
figures mentioned in verse 14 being impossibly exaggerated. The
chapter in fact is the outcome of the Chronicler’s zealous but
uncritical mind working in the belief that, not Solomon, but the pious
David was the “moving spirit in the great enterprise.” As Moses led
Israel to Jordan’s brink, so David (he thought) must stop short only at
the actual building of the Temple.

²And David commanded to gather together

the strangers that were in the land of Israel;
and he set masons to hew wrought stones to
build the house of God. ³And David prepared
iron in abundance for the nails for the doors of
 the gates, and for the couplings; and brass in
abundance without weight;
2. the strangers] Compare 2 Chronicles ii. 17; viii. 7‒9. Hewing of
stone was regarded as task-work unfit for free men. This verse is
simply an anticipation of the preparations recorded in Solomon’s
reign: see 2 Chronicles ii. 1, 17.

wrought stones] All the stone used for the building of the Temple
was previously cut to the right size; compare 1 Kings vi. 7.

⁴and cedar trees without number: for the

Zidonians and they of Tyre brought cedar
trees in abundance to David.
4. Zidonians and they of Tyre] Compare 1 Kings v. 1‒6 (15‒20,
Hebrew).

⁵And David said, Solomon my son is young

and tender, and the house that is to be builded
for the Lord must be exceeding magnifical, of
fame and of glory throughout all countries: I
will therefore make preparation for it. So David
prepared abundantly before his death.
⁶Then he called for Solomon his son, and
charged him to build an house for the Lord,
the God of Israel.
5. exceeding magnifical] The Temple took seven years in
building, and it was richly overlaid with gold, but its proportions were
small, viz., about 90 ft. × 45 ft. × 30 ft. These small proportions, are
not surprising, for the Temple itself required only to be big enough to
hold its furniture. The courts, however, were of large extent, that they
might afford room for worshippers at the times of the great feasts.

Note the archaic magnifical = splendid, stately (magnificent). It is

found of course in the Authorized Version (1611), and also in the
Geneva Bible (1560); compare Starkey, England, ii. i. 176 (1538),
“Gudly cytes and townys wyth magnyfycal and gudly housys.”

⁷And David said to Solomon his son ¹, As for

me, it was in my heart to build an house unto
the name of the Lord my God.
¹ According to another reading, My son, as for me &c.

7. said to Solomon his son] So Kethīb; the margin, said to

Solomon, My son, follows the Ḳerī.

unto the name] Compare Deuteronomy xii. 5; 2 Samuel vii. 13.

⁸But the word of the Lord came to me,

saying, Thou hast shed blood abundantly, and
hast made great wars: thou shalt not build an
house unto my name, because thou hast shed
much blood upon the earth in my sight:
8. Thou hast shed blood abundantly] Compare xxviii. 3; in 1
Kings v. 3 Solomon tells Hiram that David wished to build a temple,
but was hindered from his design by war.

⁹behold, a son shall be born to thee, who shall

be a man of rest; and I will give him rest from
all his enemies round about: for his name shall
 be Solomon ¹, and I will give peace and
quietness unto Israel in his days:
¹ That is, Peaceful.

9. I will give him rest] Compare 1 Kings v. 4. The promise here

made is of a period of peace sufficiently long for the work of Temple-
building. Solomon’s reign was not wholly peaceful; compare 1 Kings
xi. 14, 23, 26.

¹⁰he shall build an house for my name; and he

shall be my son, and I will be his father; and I
will establish the throne of his kingdom over
Israel for ever. ¹¹Now, my son, the Lord be
with thee; and prosper thou, and build the
house of the Lord thy God, as he hath
spoken concerning thee. ¹²Only the Lord give
thee discretion and understanding, and give
thee charge concerning Israel; that so thou
mayest keep the law of the Lord thy God.
10. for ever] Compare 2 Samuel vii. 13‒16.

¹³Then shalt thou prosper, if thou observe to

do the statutes and the judgements which the
Lord charged Moses with concerning Israel:
be strong, and of good courage; fear not,
neither be dismayed.
13. be strong, and of good courage] Compare Joshua i. 9.
 ¹⁴Now, behold, in my affliction ¹ I have prepared
for the house of the Lord an hundred
thousand talents of gold, and a thousand
thousand talents of silver; and of brass and
iron without weight; for it is in abundance:
timber also and stone have I prepared; and
thou mayest add thereto.
¹ Or, low estate.

14. in my affliction] LXX. κατὰ τὴν πτωχείαν μου, and so margin in

my low estate. The exact meaning of the phrase is not quite certain.
Does it refer to the comparative slenderness of David’s resources (in
my poverty), or to the difficulties of the wars and rebellions which
marked his reign, or does it cover both ideas? Render perhaps in
my straitened circumstances. Some translate by my strenuous
labour (compare xxix. 2), but there is insufficient evidence for
rendering the Hebrew word by labour.

an hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand thousand

talents of silver] This sum is incredibly large. In 1 Kings x. 14 it is told
in illustration of the riches of Solomon—a wealthier king than David
—that he received in one year 666 talents of gold, but even at this
rate David would have amassed only 26,640 talents in forty years,
and further the sum assigned to Solomon as his yearly revenue is
fantastically large, see note 2 Chronicles ix. 13. The passage
illustrates the exaggeration which is so characteristic of midrashic
style; compare xxix. 4, and the note on 2 Chronicles xvii. 14.

¹⁵Moreover there are workmen with thee in

abundance, hewers and workers of stone and
timber, and all men that are cunning in any
manner of work; ¹⁶of the gold, the silver, and
 the brass, and the iron, there is no number;
arise and be doing, and the Lord be with
thee. ¹⁷David also commanded all the princes
of Israel to help Solomon his son, saying,
15, 16. any manner of work; of the gold ... there is no number]
Render in every work of gold ... without number; i.e. the two
verses are to be read in close connection.

¹⁸Is not the Lord your God with you? and hath
he not given you rest on every side? for he
hath delivered the inhabitants of the land into
mine hand; and the land is subdued before the
Lord, and before his people.
18. the inhabitants of the land] Compare xi. 4, the Jebusites, the
inhabitants of the land. The remnant of the earlier inhabitants of
Canaan is meant.

¹⁹Now set your heart and your soul to seek

after the Lord your God; arise therefore, and
build ye the sanctuary of the Lord God, to
bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and
the holy vessels of God, into the house that is
to be built to the name of the Lord.
19. and the holy vessels of God] Compare 1 Kings viii. 4.
 Chapters XXIII.‒XXIX.
The Conclusion of David’s Reign.

Chapter XXIII.
1.
Solomon made King.

¹Now David was old and full of days; and he

made Solomon his son king over Israel.
The Chronicler unhistorically ignores the struggle between the
parties of Solomon and of Adonijah for the throne (compare xxix. 22
f.; 1 Kings i. 5 ff.), and makes the reign of David culminate in the
appointment of Solomon as David’s successor and in a grand
organisation of the ecclesiastical and other authorities of the realm.
chapter xxiii. 1 intimates the appointment of Solomon and the
assembling by royal command of the princes, priests, and Levites of
Israel. The topics thus suggested are then, after the prevailing
fashion of Chronicles, treated in the reverse order; first the Levites,
chapter xxiii.; then the priests, xxiv. (followed by the singers, xxv.;
and the doorkeepers, xxvi.); then the civil and military orders.
chapters xxviii., xxix. are occupied with the concluding exhortations
of King David. Compare xxix. 22‒24; 1 Kings i. 5‒53.

2‒23.
Organisation of the Levites (first account).
 ²And he gathered together all the princes of
Israel, with the priests and the Levites. ³And
the Levites were numbered from thirty years
old and upward: and their number by their
polls, man by man, was thirty and eight
thousand.
3. the Levites were numbered from thirty years] Two accounts are
here given of the organisation of the Levites. According to the first
the Levites were admitted to service at thirty years of age; verse 3;
compare Numbers iv. 3, 23, 30, where the period from thirty to fifty is
fixed as the period for service. According to the second account
(verses 24‒27) the Levites were taken from twenty years old and
upwards; this was apparently the later custom; compare 2
Chronicles xxxi. 17; Ezra iii. 8. The discrepancy probably arises from
an actual variation in practice. The original age of admission for
Levites was probably thirty, but owing to the scarcity of their numbers
it seems to have been necessary to reduce the limit of age to twenty.
But see also the note on pp. 51 f.

by their polls] Literally by their skulls. “Poll” is an almost obsolete

word for “head,” retained in the compound word, “poll-tax.”

thirty and eight thousand] Numbers iii. 39 gives 22,000, and

Numbers xxvi. 62, 23,000, as the number of male Levites from a
month old and upwards in the time of Moses.

⁴Of these, twenty and four thousand were to

oversee the work of the house of the Lord;
and six thousand were officers and judges:
4. twenty and four thousand] These were divided into courses
(verse 6), serving by turn, apparently twenty-four in number,
consisting each of a thousand men. See, however, the note on
verses 6‒23 below.
 to oversee the work] It is true that there were some Temple
servants subordinate to the Levites—see note on the Nethinim, ix. 2.
But the duty of the Levites was to perform the work of the Temple (as
is said e.g. in verses 24, 28), not to act as overseers of the work of
others. It is therefore to be inferred that the “work” spoken of here
and in verse 5 is not the routine duties of the Temple but the work of
its construction. Adding the Levites of verse 4 to the officers,
doorkeepers, and musicians of verse 5, we have a total of 38,000
overseers: that the number is incredibly large is no objection in
Chronicles.

officers and judges] Compare 2 Chronicles xix. 8, 11. According

to Deuteronomy xvii. 9 (compare Deuteronomy xvi. 18) the harder
causes were reserved for “the priests the Levites,” ordinary causes
being decided by judges who were not Levites.

⁵and four thousand were doorkeepers; and

four thousand praised the Lord with the
instruments which I made, said David, to
praise therewith.
5. doorkeepers] The courses and duties of these are given in
xxvi. 1‒19.

four thousand praised the Lord] Compare xxv. 1‒31, which tells
of a picked choir consisting of 288 persons, divided into twenty-four
courses, whose special duty was psalmody.

the instruments which I made] Compare 2 Chronicles xxix. 26.

6‒23. It is natural to expect that twenty-four heads of fathers’

houses will appear in this list (compare note on verse 4), in harmony
with the twenty-four courses of priests, of musicians, and of
doorkeepers referred to in the chapters following. The present text,
however, appears to yield but twenty-two, and the various
emendations suggested in order to obtain twenty-four are all
precarious. The best suggestion is that of Curtis, for which see note
on verse 22.

⁶And David divided them into courses ¹

according to the sons of Levi; Gershon,
Kohath, and Merari.
¹ Hebrew divisions.

6. the sons of Levi] Compare vi. 1, 16.

⁷Of the Gershonites; Ladan ¹ and Shimei. ⁸The

sons of Ladan; Jehiel the chief, and Zetham,
and Joel, three.
¹ In chapter vi. 17, Libni.

7. Ladan and Shimei] For “Ladan” here and in xxvi. 21 we have in

vi. 17 and Exodus vi. 17 “Libni.”

⁹The sons of Shimei; Shelomoth, and Haziel,

and Haran, three. These were the heads of
the fathers’ houses of Ladan.
9. The sons of Shimei] This Shimei in distinction from the Shimei
of verses 7, 10 might conceivably be a descendant of Ladan,
although the relationship is not indicated; but it is more probable that
some confusion has come into the text of verses 8, 9, 10—as e.g.
that verse 9b “These were ... of Ladan” is a gloss, and that for
Shimei in verse 10 we should read Shelomoth.

¹⁰And the sons of Shimei; Jahath, Zina ¹, and

Jeush, and Beriah. These four were the sons
 of Shimei. ¹¹And Jahath was the chief, and
Zizah the second: but Jeush and Beriah had
not many sons; therefore they became a
fathers’ house in one reckoning.
¹ In verse 11, Zizah.

10. Zina] Better, as in verse 11, Zizah; the two words are readily
confused in Hebrew writing.

¹²The sons of Kohath; Amram, Izhar, Hebron,

and Uzziel, four.
12. The sons of Kohath] Compare vi. 2; Exodus vi. 18.

¹³The sons of Amram; Aaron and Moses: and

Aaron was separated, that he should sanctify ¹
the most holy things, he and his sons, for ever,
to burn incense before the Lord, to minister
unto him, and to bless in his name, for ever.
¹ Or, to sanctify as most holy him &c.

13. separated] i.e. set apart, sometimes with the additional

meaning of making a distinction between sacred and common.
Compare Romans i. 1, where St Paul describes himself as
separated unto the gospel of God; Acts xiii. 2; Galatians i. 15.

the most holy things] Such for instance as the altar of incense
(Exodus xxx. 1‒10), or again the shewbread (Leviticus xxiv. 5‒9).

to bless] compare Numbers vi. 23‒27.