Korah is elsewhere referred to in Numb, xxvi, 9-11 ; xxvii, 3; 1 Chron. vi, 22, 87; ix, 19. See Joum. Sac. Lit. App. 1852, p. 195; Forster, Israel in the Wilderness (Lond. 1865). On the Korachida;. see Carpzov. Ivtro- duct. ii, 105 ; Van Iperen, De Jiliis Korachi psalmor. quorund. auctorib., in the Bihl. //af/an.ll,'i, 99 sq. ; comp. Eichhorn, Bibl. d. bihl. Lit. i, 911 sq. ; Bauer. Hebr. My- tholog. i, 302 ; Krkldr. d. Mund. d. A . Test, i, 219 sq. On the Arabic legends, see Fleischer, Hist, anteislam. p. 321.
KORAHITE
150
KORAN
3. The first named of the fimr sons of Hebron, of the family of Caleb, of the tribe of Jiidah (1 Chron. ii, 43). B.C. considerably post 1012.
Ko'rahite (Hebrew Korchi', ^ty}^, Exod. vi, 24; Numb, xxvi, 58; 1 Chron. ix, 31 ; xxvi, 19; plur. Kor- chini', C^nip, 1 Chron. ix, 19 ; xii, G ; xxvi, 1 ; 2 Chron. XX, 19; Septuag. Kopt'r/jt,-, 1 Chron. ix, 31 ; Koplrai, 1 Chron. ix, 19 ; xii, (5 ; elsewhere paraphrases viol, nji-ioc, or yeyiffHQ Kope ; Auth. Vers. '• Korahites," 1 Chron. ix, 19; "Korahite," 1 Chron. ix, 31 ; " Korathites," Numb. xxvi, 58; "Kore," 1 Chron. xxvi, 19; elsewhere " Kor- hites"), the patronymic designation of that portion of the Kohathites who were descended from Korah, and are frequently styled by the synonymous phrase Sons of Korah (q. v.). Comp. Asaph. It would appear at lirst sight, from Exod. vi, 24, that Korah had three sons — Assir, Elkanah, and Abiasaph— as AViner, Rosenmiil- ler, etc., also understand it; but as we learn from 1 Chron. vi, 22. 23, 37, that Assir, Elkanah, and Abiasaph were respectively the son, grandson, and great grand- son of Korah, it seems obvious that Exod. vi, 24 gives us the chief houses sprung from Korah, and not his ac- tual sons, and therefore that Elkanah and Abiasaph were not the sons, but later descendants of Korah. See Sam- VKU The offices tilled by the sons of Korah, as far as we are informed, are the following :
1. They were an important branch of the singers in the Kohathite division, Heman himself being a Korah- ite (1 Chron. vi, 33), and the Korahites being among those who, in Jehoshaphat's reign, " stood up to praise the Lord God of Israel with a loud voice on high" (2 Chron. xx, 19). See Hkman. Hence we find eleven psalms (or twelve, if Psa. xliii is included under the same title as Psa. xlii) dedicated or assigned to the sons of Korah, viz. Psa. xlii, xliv-xlix, Ixxxiv, Ixxxv, Ixxxvii, Ixxxviii. Winer describes them as some of the most beautiful in the collection, from their liigh lyric tone. Origcn says it was a remark of the old interpreters that all the psalms inscribed with the name of the sons of Korah are full of pleasant and chcerfid subjects, and free from anything sad or harsh {IJomil. on 1 Kings, i. e. 1 Sam.), and on Matt, xviii, 20 he ascribes the authorship of these psalms to " the three sons of Korah," who, " be- cause they agreed together, had the Word of God in the midst of them" (Homil. xiv). St. Augustine has a still more fanciful conceit, which he thinks it necessary to repeat in almost every homily on the eleven psalms in- scribed to the sons of Kore. Adverting to the interpre- tation of Korah, Calvities, he finds in it a great mystery. Under this term is set forth Christ, who is entitled Cal- vus because he was crucified on Calvary, and was mock- ed by the by-standers, as Elisha had been by the chil- dren who cried after him ^' Calve, cali:e!" and who, when they said " Go up, thou bald pate," had prefigured the crucifixion. The sons of Korah are therefore the children of Christ the bridegroom (JInmil. on Psalms). Of moderns, Kosenmuller thinks that the sons of Korali, especially Heman, were the authors of these psalms, which, he says, rise to greater sublimity and breathe more vehement feelings than the Psalms of David, and quotes Hensler and Eicliliorn as agreeing. De Wette also considers the sons of Korah as the authors of them {Einl. p. 335-339), and so does Just. Olshausen on the Psalms {Exeg. Ilandh. Einl. p. 22 ). As, however, the lan- guage of several of these psalms, e. g. of xlii, Ixxxiv, etc., is most appropriate to the circumstances of David, it has seemed to other interpreters much simpler to ex- plain the title "for the sons of Korah" to mean that they were given to them to sing in the Temple services. If their style of music, vocal and instrumental, was of a more sublime and lyric character tlian that of the sons of Merari or Gershon, and Htnian had mwre fire in his execution tlian Asaph and Jeduthun, it is perfectly nat- ural that David should have given his more poetic and elevated strains to Heman anil his choir, and the sim- pler and quieter psalms to the other choirs. A serious
objection, however, to this view is that the same titles contain another phrase dedicating the psalms in ques- tion " to the chief musician," so that the following ex- pression must be rendered bg (5 " auctoris") the Korah- ites. See Psalms. J. van Iperen (ap. RosenmiiUer) as- signs these psalms to the times of Jehoshaphat; others to those of the Maccabees; Ewald attributes the 42d Psalm to Jeremiah. The piUT^ose of many of the Ger- man critics seems to be to reduce the antiquity of the Scriptures as low as possible.