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 courses¹ according to the sons of Levi; Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.
6. the sons of Levi] Compare vi. 1, 16.
⁷Of the Gershonites; Ladan¹ and Shimei. ⁸The sons of Ladan; Jehiel the chief, and Zetham, and Joel, three.
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, Zina¹, 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.
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 sanctify¹ 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.
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.
¹⁴But as for Moses the man of God, his sons were named among the tribe of Levi.
14. among the tribe of Levi] The descendants of Moses as distinguished from those of Aaron had the standing, not of priests but of Levites.
¹⁵The sons of Moses; Gershom and Eliezer.
15. Gershom and Eliezer] Compare Exodus xviii. 3, 4.
¹⁶The sons of Gershom; Shebuel¹ the chief.
16. The sons] compare the following verse; also ii. 31, where the plural, The sons, is thrice followed by a single name only.
Shebuel] rather, as in xxiv. 20, Shubael; so LXX. here.
¹⁷And the sons of Eliezer were, Rehabiah the chief. And Eliezer had none other sons; but the sons of Rehabiah were very many.
17. Rehabiah] Compare xxiv. 21.
¹⁸The sons of Izhar; Shelomith¹ the chief.
18. Shelomith] In xxiv. 22, Shelomoth.
¹⁹The sons of Hebron; Jeriah the chief, Amariah the second, Jahaziel the third, and Jekameam the fourth.
19. The sons of Hebron] Compare xxiv. 23.
²⁰The sons of Uzziel; Micah the chief, and Isshiah the second.
20. The sons of Uzziel] Compare xxiv. 24. Nine Kohathite families seem to be here reckoned.
²¹The sons of Merari; Mahli and Mushi. The sons of Mahli; Eleazar and Kish.
21. The sons of Merari] Compare xxiv. 26.
The sons of Mahli] Compare xxiv. 28, 29.
²²And Eleazar died, and had no sons, but daughters only: and their brethren the sons of Kish took them to wife.
22. their brethren] Their kinsmen.
took them to wife] i.e. in accordance with the law stated in Numbers xxvii. 4, compare Numbers xxxvi. 6, whereby daughters had a right of inheritance in hope of perpetuating the name of him who died without male heirs. Thus Eleazar, by his family through the female line, may be reckoned one of the heads of fathers’ houses. If this view be correct, the list contains not twenty-two but twenty-three “heads”; and it may be conjectured that the one name more required to make up the desired total of twenty-four has been lost in the transmission of the text.
²³The sons of Mushi; Mahli, and Eder, and Jeremoth, three.
23. The sons of Mushi] Compare xxiv. 30.
24–27.
Organisation of the Levites
(second account).
²⁴These were the sons of Levi after their fathers’ houses, even the heads of the fathers’ houses of those of them that were counted, in the number of names by their polls, who did the work for the service of the house of the Lord, from twenty years old and upward. ²⁵For David said, The Lord, the God of Israel, hath given rest unto his people; and he dwelleth in Jerusalem for ever: ²⁶and also the Levites shall no more have need to carry the tabernacle and all the vessels of it for the service thereof. ²⁷For by the last words¹ of David the sons of Levi were numbered, from twenty years old and upward.
24. from twenty years old and upward] The striking divergence between this verse and verse 3, where thirty is given as the minimum age for service as a Levite, has given rise to much discussion—see the note to verse 3. No doubt the concluding remarks of that note are true historically: a change in the inferior age limit of the Levites did take place at some time on account of the need for larger numbers in office. But neither that fact, nor the theory (which is hardly borne out by other considerations) that the Chronicler has used varying traditions from two different sources, suffices to explain why he left the evident contradiction in his narrative. The desirability of explaining this circumstance strongly favours the view urged by Curtis, that in verses 3 ff. the Chronicler meant to describe the Levitical organisation during and for the purpose of the preparation and erection of the Temple, whilst verses 24 ff. relate to the period when the Temple was completed and the duties of the Levites, being both more numerous and at the same time of a more mechanical nature, might well seem to call for an increase in the number of those officiating. When the reduction of the age limit to twenty actually took place is of course immaterial; but it is quite in keeping with the manner of the Chronicler that he should thus carry both arrangements back to the time of David.
28–32.
Duties of the Levites.
²⁸For their office¹ was to wait on the sons of Aaron for the service of the house of the Lord, in the courts, and in the chambers, and in the purifying of all holy things, even the work of the service of the house of God;
28. their office was to wait on] Literally, as margin, their station was at the hand of. For the phrase at the hand of compare Psalms cxxiii. 2, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their master.
the chambers] compare ix. 26, note.
²⁹for the shewbread also, and for the fine flour for a meal offering, whether of unleavened wafers, or of that which is baked in the pan, or of that which is soaked, and for all manner of measure and size;
29. for the shewbread] i.e. for the preparation of the shewbread (compare ix. 32).
that which is soaked] Compare Leviticus vi. 21 [14, Hebrew].
for all manner of measure and size] i.e. for measuring the component parts of the meal-offering, etc.
³⁰and to stand every morning to thank and praise the Lord, and likewise at even;
30. every morning ... and likewise at even] Corresponding with the daily morning and evening sacrifice; compare Exodus xxix. 38, 39.
³¹and to offer all burnt offerings unto the Lord, in the sabbaths, in the new moons, and on the set feasts, in number according to the ordinance concerning them, continually before the Lord:
31. to offer all burnt offerings] This was the duty not of the Levites, who were to stand near-by praising Jehovah (verse 30), but of the priests. The apparent difficulty is due to a mistranslation: render and (to stand, i.e. assist) at every offering of burnt offerings.
the set feasts] i.e. the yearly feasts; Exodus xxiii. 14–17.
³²and that they should keep the charge of the tent of meeting, and the charge of the holy place, and the charge of the sons of Aaron their brethren, for the service of the house of the Lord.
32. the charge of the holy place] This duty is assigned to Levites in Numbers iii. 28, 32; is restricted and confined to such Levites as were sons of Kohath in Numbers iv. 15; and according to a variant tradition in Numbers xviii. 5 is assigned to the priests.
the charge of the sons of Aaron] Compare Numbers xviii. 1–7.
1–19.
David’s Organisation of the Priests
by courses.
¹And the courses of the sons of Aaron were these. The sons of Aaron; Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.
1. the sons of Aaron] So vi. 3; Exodus vi. 23.
²But Nadab and Abihu died before their father, and had no children: therefore Eleazar and Ithamar executed the priest’s office.
2. Nadab and Abihu died] by fire from heaven as a punishment for sacrilege—so Leviticus x. 1, 2; Numbers iii. 4.
³And David¹ with Zadok of the sons of Eleazar, and Ahimelech of the sons of Ithamar, divided them according to their ordering in their service.
3. Ahimelech of the sons of Ithamar] The colleague of Zadok in the priesthood is variously named in different passages:—
1 Chronicles xxiv. 3. Ahimelech of the sons of Ithamar.
1 Chronicles xxiv. 6. Ahimelech the son of Abiathar.
1 Chronicles xviii. 16. Abimelech the son of Abiathar.
Probably the same person is meant throughout, the confusion springing from a false reading in 2 Samuel viii. 17, Ahimelech the son of Abiathar for Abiathar the son of Ahimelech; see the notes on xv. 11, xviii. 16.
according to their ordering] i.e. according to the arrangement which follows; compare verse 19.
⁴And there were more chief men found of the sons of Eleazar than of the sons of Ithamar; and thus were they divided: of the sons of Eleazar there were sixteen, heads of fathers’ houses; and of the sons of Ithamar, according to their fathers’ houses, eight.
4. more chief men found of the sons of Eleazar than ... of Ithamar] The superiority of the Zadokites (sons of Eleazar) in the post-exilic period is read back into the days of David, and construed in the terms of a right of primogeniture: thus the proportion assigned here is sixteen to eight, i.e. Eleazar’s descendants have a double portion, besides the right of the High-priesthood.
⁵Thus were they divided by lot, one sort with another; for there were princes of the sanctuary, and princes of God, both of the sons of Eleazar, and of the sons of Ithamar.
5. one sort with another] i.e. sons of Eleazar with sons of Ithamar.
there were princes of the sanctuary, and princes of God, both of the sons, etc.] The princes of the sanctuary (Isaiah xliii. 28) are probably the same as the princes of God and as the chiefs of the priests (2 Chronicles xxxvi. 14). The Hebrew expression in 2 Chronicles xxxv. 8 is different (rulers of the house of God).
⁶And Shemaiah the son of Nethanel the scribe, who was of the Levites, wrote them in the presence of the king, and the princes, and Zadok the priest, and Ahimelech the son of Abiathar, and the heads of the fathers’ houses of the priests and of the Levites: one fathers’ house being taken for Eleazar, and one taken¹ for Ithamar.
6. the scribe, who was of the Levites] so designated in order to distinguish him from the king’s scribe (compare 2 Chronicles xxiv. 11).
one taken] This rendering involves a simple and entirely probable correction of the Hebrew The alternate drawing here described could have lasted only for the first sixteen lots; in the last eight drawings the descendants of Eleazar must have drawn against each other only; compare verse 4, and the similar procedure described in xxv. 9–31.
⁷Now the first lot came forth to Jehoiarib, the second to Jedaiah;
7. Jehoiarib] Lists of the priestly families occur also Nehemiah x. 2–8, xii. 1–7, 12–21. Compare Ryle (on Nehemiah xii. 1) for a discussion of the names. For Jehoiarib see ix. 10, note.
⁸the third to Harim, the fourth to Seorim;
8. Harim] So Nehemiah x. 5, xii. 15, but in Nehemiah xii. 3, “Rehum.” The confusion of form is easy in Hebrew writing.
⁹the fifth to Malchijah, the sixth to Mijamin;
9. Mijamin] So Nehemiah x. 7, xii. 5; but xii. 17, “Miniamin.”
¹⁰the seventh to Hakkoz, the eighth to Abijah;
10. Hakkoz] Called “Koz” in Ezra ii. 61; Nehemiah iii. 4, 21 (Revised Version “Hakkoz” in all three places; so also in 1 Chronicles iv. 8 where a Calebite Koz is mentioned). Unable to trace their genealogy in the records after the Return, this family is stated in Ezra (ii. 61) to have been deprived of their right to the priesthood.
Abijah] So Nehemiah x. 7, xii. 4, 17. Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, was of the course of Abiah (Revised Version Abijah); Luke i. 5.
¹¹the ninth to Jeshua, the tenth to Shecaniah;
11. Jeshua] This is the Hebrew name expressed by Ἰησοῦς in Greek, and by “Jesus” in English. The high-priest under whom the second Temple was built bore this name according to Ezra iii. 2, v. 2.
Shecaniah] So Nehemiah xii. 3; but Nehemiah x. 4, xii. 14, “Shebaniah.” The Hebrew letters transliterated b and c are easily confused.
¹²the eleventh to Eliashib, the twelfth to Jakim; ¹³the thirteenth to Huppah, the fourteenth to Jeshebeab;
12. Eliashib] A priest of this name is mentioned Nehemiah xiii. 4–7.
¹⁴the fifteenth to Bilgah, the sixteenth to Immer; ¹⁵the seventeenth to Hezir, the eighteenth to Happizzez;
14. Bilgah] “Bilgah” (Nehemiah xii. 5) appears as a priest or priestly family in the time of the Return, and (under the form “Bilgai,” Nehemiah x. 8) in the time of Nehemiah.
Immer] compare ix. 12; Ezra ii. 37; Jeremiah xx. 1.
¹⁶the nineteenth to Pethahiah, the twentieth to Jehezkel;
16. Jehezkel] a more correct form of “Ezekiel,” the name of the priest-prophet of the Captivity.
¹⁷the one and twentieth to Jachin, the two and twentieth to Gamul;
17. Jachin] Compare ix. 10 (= Nehemiah xi. 10).
¹⁸the three and twentieth to Delaiah, the four and twentieth to Maaziah. ¹⁹This was the ordering of them in their service, to come into the house of the Lord according to the ordinance given unto them by the hand of Aaron their father, as the Lord, the God of Israel, had commanded him.
18. Maaziah] Nehemiah x. 8 (x. 9, Hebrew).
20–31 (compare xxiii. 13–23).
Families of the Levites.
These verses repeat the list of Levitic families given in xxiii. 6–23 with the important omission of the whole of the Gershonites (xxiii. 6–11), but with some additions to the Kohathite and Merarite families. Further, six “heads” of classes mentioned in xxiii. are here replaced by new names. These features, together with several details, point to the conclusion that the present list is the work of a later writer than the Chronicler.
²⁰And of the rest of the sons of Levi: of the sons of Amram, Shubael¹; of the sons of Shubael, Jehdeiah.
20 And of the rest of the sons of Levi: of, etc.] These are probably the words of the glossator, introducing the list which follows and which he intended as a corrective to the list in xxiii. 6–23.
Amram] The four Kohathite families are now noticed in order, viz. Amram, Izhar (verse 22), Hebron (verse 23), Uzziel (verse 24).
Shubael] Called “Shebuel” in xxiii. 16, xxvi. 24.
²¹Of Rehabiah: of the sons of Rehabiah, Isshiah the chief.
21. Of Rahabiah] He (like Shubael) was descended from Moses; xxiii. 15–17.
²²Of the Izharites, Shelomoth¹; of the sons of Shelomoth, Jahath.
22. Shelomoth] Called “Shelomith” in xxiii. 18.
²³And the sons of Hebron; Jeriah the chief, Amariah the second, Jahaziel the third, Jekameam the fourth. ²⁴The sons of Uzziel, Micah; of the sons of Micah, Shamir. ²⁵The brother of Micah, Isshiah: of the sons of Isshiah, Zechariah.
23. And the sons of Hebron; Jeriah the chief] The words of Hebron and the chief which are printed in italics in the text above have been omitted in the Hebrew by some error of transmission. They are rightly restored in accordance with xxiii. 19.
²⁶The sons of Merari; Mahli and Mushi: the sons of Jaaziah; Beno. ²⁷The sons of Merari; of Jaaziah, Beno, and Shoham, and Zaccur, and Ibri.
26. The sons of Merari] In xxiii. 21 only two families of Merari are mentioned, viz., Mahli and Mushi. Here however a third family “the sons of Jaaziah” is mentioned. Probably the fuller text is right to this extent that there was a family tracing their ancestry to Jaaziah and claiming that this Jaaziah was of Merarite descent; but is wrong in making Jaaziah an immediate son of Merari, parallel with the famous Mahli and Mushi. Hence the following word Beno (literally his son) should probably be struck out as an erroneous gloss (see also verse 27).
of Jaaziah; Beno] Either delete Beno (see previous note) or perhaps read Bani.
²⁸Of Mahli; Eleazar, who had no sons. ²⁹Of Kish; the sons of Kish, Jerahmeel.
28. Eleazar] Compare xxiii. 22.
³⁰And the sons of Mushi; Mahli, and Eder, and Jerimoth. These were the sons of the Levites after their fathers’ houses.
30. Jerimoth] Spelt “Jeremoth” in xxiii. 23.
These were ... houses] = xxiii. 24a.
³¹These likewise cast lots even as their brethren the sons of Aaron in the presence of David the king, and Zadok, and Ahimelech, and the heads of the fathers’ houses of the priests and of the Levites; the fathers’ houses of the chief even as those of his younger brother.
31. and Ahimelech] We expect and Abiathar; compare verse 3, xv. 11, xviii. 16, with the notes.