And standing in front of them were seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, with Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan standing among them, each man with his censer in his hand, and the fragrance of the cloud of incense was rising up.
“seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel.” A parallel horror to the engravings and idols in a room of the Temple were these 70 men who were elders of Israel but not Levites or priests worshipping idols inside the Temple when the Law of Moses strictly forbade their being there. Thus, not only were the priests and Levites not doing their duty to keep the sanctity of the Temple, but the elders, who knew better, seem more than happy to elevate their status at the expense of the Law and worship idols in the Temple. The avarice of fallen man is such that it takes laws and people willing to enforce them to keep people civil and obedient.
