The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Chronicles — Section 374

CHA..l'Th:R xxm. key-note of whu.t rewe.ins in this book. De.vid made his son king, as he himself This chapter is the first of fonr employed acknowledges (eh. xxvili. 5), under the on the subject of the Levites e.nd the ser- superintending direction of God, The vices distributed among them. The twenty• me.nner in which the formal event was pre- cipitated by the conduct of Adonije.h is fonr orders of priests, sons of Aaron, occupy found e.t length in 1 Kings i. 11-53. The eh. :u:iv. The twenty-fonr orders of the origine.l occasion alluded to there more than t1ingers and musicians occupy the contents once, on which David promised, " e.nd of eh. xxv. And the divisions of the sware" to Bathsheba., that her son should porters, with their go.tea ; e.nd of those be his chief heir e.nd successor to the throne, is not distinctly recorded. We ce.n Levites who bad the keeping of the tree.- easily e.ssign one convenient place in the Bures of the house of God ; e.nd the officers history for it to he.ve found meution, viz. in and judges, fill np eh. xxvi. After which 2 Sam. xii. 25. The brevity of the state- the compiler is a.go.in awhile clear of the ment which composes this verse, when com- Levitical tribe. pared with a.II the deeply interesting matter recorded in 1 Kings i. 11-53, is one among Returning to our present che.pter, it gives many other very clee.r illustrations of tho e.n e.ccount of the numbers of the Levites, purposed silence of our present history in of their cle.ssification, of David's fresh carte.in directions. arrangement of them e.nd fresh distri- Ver. 2.-He ga.thored togethor e.11 the bution of their work (vers. 1-6). But princes of Isra.el, with the priests a.nd the altogether the largest portion of the che.pter Levites. As on an occasion of supreme importe.nce, De.vid, in view of' his own (vcra. 6-32) is occupied with the rehee.rsal death nnd of his son's succession at the of the heads of houses corn posing the four present time, ce.Ils togct~er the full council, Levite families, a.nu their offices. awl tho highest possible represcntntive Vere. 1-5.-The numbering and the council of the ne.tion. So eh. xxii. 17; cumifwation of tlie Levites. xxiv. 6; xxv. 1; in which lust pnsso.ge tho \'or. 1.-De.vid . . . made Solomon his son word "cupte.ins" should have he.ve l.,een king over Isre.eL These wor,]ij give tho rtmderetl "princes" (•~b). 'l'ho arre.ngc• ott, xxttt. 1-32.J 1 rnm F!RS'r :aooK OF '!'HE CHRONICLES. ment of the Levites, and the distribution of ward work, for the "outward busineBB of their functions in the presence of the Israel," is distinctly stated in eh. xxvi. 29; princes, as here described, and as it is even 2 Chron. xix, 5-11. These officers aro more strongly put (eh. x.xv. 1), "by" them, mentioned under the same Hebrew tenn in simply points to the fact that the ultimate Exod. v. 6, in a very different connection. outer authority, us between Church and It is plain that they were generally foremen, state, lay with the state. The Church we.a or overseers ; while the judges took cog- made for it, not it for the Church. And it nizance of mu.tters which involved the was the duty of the state to defend the interests of religion. This verse u.nd the Church. following give between them the four divi- Ver. 3.-Now the Levites were numbered sions of Levites, afterwards to be more from the age of thirty years and upward. fully described. The fuller account of tho The thing which Joe.b had rightly resisted "twenty-four thousand" priests (including (oh. x.xi 3---6) e.nd shrunk from doing was attendants) occupies eh. x.xiv.; the "six now rightly done. There was now a prac- thousand" officers and judges, eh. xxvi. tical e.nd e. legitimate object for doing it. 20-32 ; the " four thousand '' porters, eh. This consideration helps to determine what xxvi 1-19; and the "four thousand who it was that "displeased the Lord " in the praised the Lord with the instruments," former general census of David. In con- oh. xxv. nection with this clause, eh. xxvii. 23 Ver, 5.-Porters (Hebrew o•:,y'd): door- should be noted, where we read, "But keepers. The word is eo tre.nslu.ied in eh. David took not the number of them from xv. 23, 24. It wu.s the duty of these to twenty years old e.nd under: because the keep the entrances of the sanctuary, by du.y Lord had said he would increase Israel and night, in their cour:;es (see e.lso i like to the stars of the heavens." The Kings vii. 10, 11). The Cho.ldu.ic equivalent period from the age of thirty years up to of this word is 11il'I (Ezra. vii. 24; Dan. ii. fifty (Numb. iv. 3, 23, 85, 39) we.a fixed 49). There is no 'o~nnection between either under Mose~, for those " that came to do the the word or ideu. we hu.ve here, u.nd those service of the ministry, e.nd the service of of Ps. lxxxiv. 11, where the Hithp. conju- the burden in the te.berne.cle of the congre- gation of 9~9 is used, u.nd the sense of resi- gation" (Numb. i'I'. 47). It is not certain, dence probably intended to be conveyed. however, that this census d::d not inquire, in The instruments whioh I me.de , , . to point of fa.et, respecting some below ~ d praise, Possibly the quotation of a short limit of age, For we me.y note ver. 24 m sentence often on Do.vid'e lips. l\Ion given the first place, e.nd this is partly explained to music mu.y ho.ve been very consclous of it, by Numb. viii. 23 - 25. 'fhe number in u.ncient days, as well o.s in modern. The " thirty and eight thousand " of our present languo.go, however, does not necesscirily verso may be compared with the " eight assert thnt David cl11imed the inventing or thousand e.nd five hundred e.nJ four score " in o.ny similur sense the making of these of Numb. iv. 47, 4S, It is to be observed musicu.l instruments, but tho.t ho appointed how promptly the national council did on thaw for the service of prnise. Whu.t soma this occasion commence with the arrauge- of them wore mu.y be seen in 2 Chron. v. 12- meut of the ministers of religion, " the " cymbu.ls, pso.lterios, harps, trumpets" (see Levites." As we rc.,ad (Numb. iv. 8) of also 2 Chron. xxix. 25-27; Neh. xii. 35, 36; "thirty years" of nge as the appointed o.ge Amos vi. 5). for the commencement of their ministry, 11nd Ver. 6.-Here begin the families of the (Numb. vii. 8) of the present or "offering" Levites, as orrauged in comses by Dtwid. of "•ix covered wo.ggous and twelve oxen," Theso o.rrnngernents woro scrupulously which the twelve "princes of Israel, heads observed by Solomon (2 Chron. viii. H; of the house of their fathers, pl'inces of the xxix. 25), tribes" offered "before the Lorcl," whicl1 Ver. 7.-The heo.ds of the houses of the b'Teo.tiy lessened the laborious wor~ of the first Levite fo.mily, viz., of Gershon, nre now Levites; so we find the commencmg age enumerated. 1'ho subject occupies the ttvo reduced from time to time, to "twenty-five" verses thu.t close with tho eleventh. 'rho years (Numb. viii. 24), and to "twenty family of Gershon brunches into two-the years" of age, as in our present chapter no.me of the ono Lu.u.dan (so written o.gain in ( vers. 24-28). eh. xxvi. 21: hut in eh. vi. 17, 20, o.s well ns Ver. 4.-To set forward (Hebrew i:i'Jd,, in Exod. vi. 17 o.nd Numb. iii. 18, writleu Piel conjugo.tion). The etrict meaning of Lib11i), and the no.me of the other Shi.mei. the word here is to superintend. Tho word Ver. 8.-This vorso conto.ins tho no.mes of hue already occurred in tho so.me eenee in the three so-called ■ons of Lau.du.n, but (eh. eh. xv. 21. Officers and judges (Hebrew xxvi. 22) the Inst two nppco.r lo ho.vo Lccu o•~D:!'1 o•:,z;ill')). The explanu.tiou of the grandsons. nu.tiuc or tho' work or these, us really out- Ver. 9,-This verso purports to give tho  THE PIRST BOOK OF 'l.'lIE CH1lONICtES. ten. x:tnt. 1-a~.