The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Chronicles — Section 389

altered form, Bilgai, in Neh. x. 8. The Vers. 20-81.-The distribution of the latter is the name of a family J..11own al- other Levites. ready (eh. ix. 12), and which became Ver. 20.-The rest of the sons of Levi much better ln1own (Ezra ii. 37; x. 20; designated here are exploined sufficiently Neh. iii. 29; '\"ii. 40; xi. 13; Jer. xx. 1). clearly by ver. 30. They were those who The notices parallel to one another (Ezra were not c,f the sons of Aaron, not priests, ii. 59; Neh. vii. 61) are interesting, but ob- but whose "office was to we.it on the sons scure. They probably speak of e. place of Aaron for the service of the house of the called Immer, but even this is not quite Lord" (oh. xxiii. 28), for certain specified clear. work, some of which wee of the more Ver. 15.-Hezir . . . Aphses. The for- menial oharacter. These, of course, do not mer name, e.s that of e. layman, is found exhaust the whole of the non-priestly a!!;ain in Neh. x. 20. Of the latter, spelt Levites; for we rend distinctly in the follow- in the Hebrew Hapizez, nothing more is ing two chnpters of other detachments known. of the non-priestly Levites, whose office Ver. 16.-Pethahiah ... Jehezekel. The was as singers, doorkeepers, and treasure- former narue reappears as one of those who keepers. And this consideration may of fepe.rated themselves from the alliances itself possibly be a sufficient account of the they had contracted in the land of their absence of nny of the family of Gershon- captivity (Ezra x. 23; Neh. ix. 5). The ites in the list of the present chapter, latter is in its characters (St-tj?.1':1:) the same though they do appear to view for other work in eh. xxvi. 21, etc. Am.ram . . . Shu- wilh those of Ezekiel, though here Eng- bael. The latter of these two names marks lished Jehezekel I Ver. 17.-Jachin . . . Gamul. The latter the line of Moses, in his elder son, Gershon, of these names is not found again in any whose son we.a Shebuel (eh. xxiii. 15, 16), RB the former is the no.me of the father of connection with e. priest-family. lJf the Moses, and eldest son of Kohe.th. former we read as well in eh. ix. 10 as in Ver. 21.-Rehabiah. This no.me marks the Neh. xi. 10, and probably he is the Achim line of Moses, in the person of his younger of Matt. i 14. son, Eliezer, father of Rehabiah. And the Ver. 18.-Delaia.h . . . Ma.a.zia.h. The practice.I result of these two verses is to give spelling of the former of these names, as it us the two "chiefs," or heads, or representa- a.ppears here anrl in Jer. xxxvi. 12, 25, tives, Jehdeiah aud IBBhiah, both Arora.mites. differs by the addition of a shurek (,) from Ver. 22.-Jahath. Here follows in order the name, spelt the same in the English e.fter the Amramites, Jahath, e. descendant Version, found in eh. iii. 24; Neh. vi. 10; from lzhar, Kohath's second son (eh. xxiii. Yii. 62 ; Ezra ii. 60. The latter no.me re- 12, 18), through Shelomoth (otherwise curs in N eh. L 8, etc., though without a fine.I Shelnmith). This Ja.bath furnishes for us shurek. the third no.me of this series of "other sons Ver. 19.-The order has been thus given of Levi." And Keil plausibly argues, from of the twenty-four cle.ases or courses of the nbsence of these three no.mes from the the priests. Ea.eh course served a week list of eh. xxiii. 6-23, that, while that list from the seventh day to the seventh (2 is occupied with fathers' houses, this list is Kings xi. 9 ; 2 Chron. niii 8). An occupied with the oillcial classes of the interesting allusion to this order of courses Levites who were to be engaged in the way is tacitly made in Ezek. viii. 16-18, where already stated. the twenty-fifth idolater may be supposed Ver. 23.-This verse is manifestly im- to be the high priest. Some have, on very perfect. Whnt fa necessary to fill up the insufficient grounds, supposed that this . evident gaps is to be found, however, in oh. "ordering" of courses was not really the xxiii. 19; also the pointed allusion to the institutio11 of David, but attributed to him time of David, in eh. xxvi. 31, is deserving after the Exile for the sake of the authority of especial notice. The four no.mes of this of his name. In Neh. xii. 1-7, moreover, verse, then, nre descendants of Kohath's the name• do not appear as even twenty< third son, Hebron (eh. xxiii. 12). fuur, but twenty-two-deficient by two 1-e. Vers. 24, 25.-These verses give us thing most easily to be accounted for. In Shamir and Zeoha.riah, descendants of 11ddition to the direct scripture.I witness on Uzziel, Kohe.th's foorth son (eh, xxiii. 12), thb subject, Josephus's (' An1'..,' vii. 14) tes- the former through Miche.h (eh. xxiii. 20), timony confirms the account ,f our present and the latter through Michnh's brother, chapter, while Movers (in '()hronik.,' 279) lsshiah ( eh. xxiii. 20), called here "sons of and Dehler (in Herzog's 'R. E.,' xii. 185) Uzziel,'' but presumably not intended for effectively combat the positions of De Wette immediate sons (Exod. vi. 22). In all these and Gramberg, e.ud of Herzberg, in his fourteen heads 'Yere drawn from the four ' Ristury of the People of Iare.eL' sons of Kohnth OH, x.x1v. 1-31.J 'l'HE FIRB'l' BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. 891