The Pulpit Commentary — Exodus — Volume 1 — Section 172

EXPOSITION. Vera. 13-27.-At this point the narrative of Shaul, on the other hand, increaBed and is interrupted The author, or (it may be) multiplied (1 Chr. iv. 25--27). the final compiler-perhaps J oshue,-thought Ver. 16.-The sons of Levi. The same three sons ere given in Gen. xlvi. 11; Num. it desirable to insert here e. genealogical sec- iii. 17 ; and 1 Chr. vi. 2. According to their tion, to.king up the family history of Israel generations. This phrase is introduced be- from the point e.t which it was left in eh. i. 5, cause the writer does not here.stop at the sons, where the sons of Jo.cob were enumerated. but proceeds on to the grandsons, great-grand- The whole political system of Israel was based sons, and other descendant.'i. (Seevers. 17- 25.) He is concerned especially in this place upon the tribal rele.tion ; and it was of the with the descent of Moses, and therefore with last importance, politically, to hand down the the genealogy of the tribe of Levi, and has divisions and subdivisions of families. The only inserted any account of the families de- lists here given, probably prepared by Moses scended from Reuben and Simeon, that he in e. separate document, had to be inserted might not seem to disregard the claims of pri- mogeniture. The years of the life of Levi. somewhere. The present seemed a fitting These began about forty or fifty years before place. The narrative had reached e. turning- the descent into Egypt, which took place after point. All the preliminaries were over-the the birth of e.ll his three sons, e.s appears from action of the Exodus itself was about to begin. Gen. xlvi. 8-11. The length of Levi's life is A dramatist would have made Act I. end and recorded, not from any chronological conside- rations, bnt to show God's blessing upon the Act u. commence. A poet would have begun family of Moses, which gave such length of e. new canto. In the imperfect bibliography days to so many of his ancestors. of the time, it was thought best to make e. Ver. 17.-The sons of Gershon. The line division by e. parenthetic insertion. of Gershon, e.s the eldest, is taken first. Moses and Aaron are descended from the second. son. Ver. 13 seems to belong to what follows Shimi is called " Shi.mei" in 1 Chr. vi. 17 ; rather than to what precedes. There is no but there is no difference in the original. emphasis on the words and to Aaron, e.s if Ver. 18.-The sons of Kohath. The same God, having found Moses singly to be irre- no.mes are given in 1 Chr. vi. 2 and li>. The sponsive, had now given a charge to both the years of the life of Kohe.th. Kohath, who brothers conjointly (Re.shi). Rather the verse was probably about twenty at the time of the is a concise summary of chs. iii.-v., prefixed descent into Egypt, must have considerably to the genealogy when it was e. separate docu- outlived Joseph, who died about seventy years ment, and preserved when the compiler ple.ced e.fter the descent. His eldest son, Amram. is the document in the text not likely to have been born much later than his Ver. H. -These be the heads of their father's thirtieth year. (See Gen. xi. 12-2!.) fathers' ho11Ses. By " fathers' houses " are Amre.m would thus have been contemporary n1eant "families" (see I Chr. iv. 38; v. 13; with Joseph for above fifty years. vii. 40; ix. 9, etc.); and "the heads of fathers' Ver. 19.-The sons of Merari. The same houses" are simply the acknowledged chiefs no.mes occnr in 1 Chr. vi. 19 and :u.ii.i. 21, and founders of families. The main families Mahali, by e. difference of pointing, becoming of the tribe of Reuben were those of Hanooh, Muhli. The Mahlites and Mnshites ,vere Palin, Hezron, and Ce.rmi, actual sons of the o.mong th.e most important of the Levitical patriarch (See Gen. xlvi. 9 ; and compare families (Num. iii. 33; icr.vi. 58). I Chr. v. 3.) Ver. 20.-A.mram. That this Amrum i~ Ver. 15.-The sons of Simeon. The list the " man of the house of Levi " mentioned in corresponds exactly, both in the no.mes and in eh. ii. 1, cannot be doubted; but it is scarcely the order, with that given in Gen. xlvi. 10, possible that he should be the Am.ram of but differs considere.bly from I Chr. iv. 24, and ver. 18, the actual son of Kohe.th aud contem- Num. xz.vi. 12. In both the latter places porary of Joseph. He is probal;iy a descen- J emuel 11.ppears e.s Nemuel, and Zahar as Zero.h, dant of the sixth or seventh generation, who while Ooe.d is omitted. In 1 Chr. iv. 24, Juchin bore the so.me no.me, and was the head.a_! the app~ as Jo.rib. It would seem that the Amre.mite house. That house, ut the tilne of fo.mi.ly of Obe.d died out and disupr_Pe.red soon the Exodus, nwnbered above two thousnuJ. after the Israelites quitted Egypt. The family . males (Num. iii. 27, 28). See the excellent  156 TIIE DOOK OF EXODUS. [c1t. \"!, 13--27,