The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Chronicles — Section 394

ing to the order of. The Hebrew words are go with the latter pntt of the verae, while " to the hnnd of" and " to the hands of." the conjunction (vau) in 11;)'.l opens it. The Between the signification of these two possible order may be, .A.U these sons were to forms, the one expressed in the singular Heman, the king's seer, by the wo1·ds of God, number and the other in the plural, there to lift up tlie horn. The absenoe of the does not seem to be any distinction, and third personal pronoun suffix to PR- is accordingly they might be better translated, noticeable, place the olause where we will . .,.,uu,r the direction of . . . under the The statement of the fourteen sons and directions of. The latter form is that found three daughters belonging to Heman, in in vers. 3, 6. this verse, shows that up to this point the '-'er. 2.-Su: sons a.re here said to be word " sons " is used in its stricter sense, under the <1ir..enon ot Jeduthun (or Ethan, however true it may be that the sense is eh. vi. 44). The name missing is Shimei, amplified in vers. 10-31. supplied by ver. 17, and which the Alex- Ver. 6.-This verse need~ nothing except andrine Septuagint places fourth in this exact translation to make its meaning clear list. This is clear from the list of vers. and consistent, All these (i.e. the no.mes of 9-31, which contains all the same names vers. 2-4) were under the direotions of as are found in the present vers. 2-4, and their father, in the song of the house of the one more, Shimei, which therefore offers to Lord, with oymbals, psalteries, and harps, supply the place vacant here. The name for the servioe of the house of God, under Zeri reappears in ver. 11 a.s lzri. Who the directions of the king, Asaph, and prophesied (see headings to Ps. xxxix.; J'eduthun and Heman. !xii. ; lxxvii. : we do not know, however, Ver. 7.-This verse introduces I\ large that Jeduthun composed any of these, nor additional number of those called for tbe does the word "prophesy" necessitate it), present brethren of the foregoing twenty- Ver. 4.-The two names Uzziel and four. These brethren (partly composed of Shebuel, in this verse, reappear respectively their sons, as appears from vers. 9-31) in vers. 18, 20, a.s .Azareel and Shubael. It were to aid in the songs of the Lord, and is remarkable that the ninth and tenth were apparently under instruction for that names of this list, with the twelfth, thirteenth, purpose. Each one of the twenty-four had and fourteenth, when put together, run into eleven associated subordinates with him, two lines of verse, which may be translated, and for whose instruction and service he "These bestowed great and high help; I was probably answerable. These would, of have abundantly uttered oracles." Ewald course, multiply up to the two hundred four suggests that these may be the commencing score and eight mentioned in the verse. lines of some ancient prophet's oracles This verse appears (contrary to the interpre- (Ewald • Lehrbuch der H. Spr.,' § 274, B. tation of Keil, Bertheau, and others) with 672, 7th edit., cited by Keil). sufficient precision to mark two classes Ver. 5.-For the expression, the king's -,,:t'-,17?~1'• and ]':;i7!1;:i, the latter not em- seer and as other instances of the office, bracing the former, but the two together see ~h. xxi. 9; 2 Chron. xxxv. 15, in neither making up the two hundred and eight_y- of which places, however, have we the eight spoken of. These two classes will attendant phrase, in the words of God. Yet surely satisfy the "teacher and the scholar" we have the same sense strictly implied in classification of the following verse; the eh. xxi. 9, 19. The expression needs not t~ classes o.re denoted by the same Hebrew be generalized into''. in the matters of God, roots. In ver. 7 the passive Pua.I po.rticiple but evidently descnbes the seer (Heman, of the instruoted and the Hiphil po.rticiple Gad orJeduthun)as the authorized medium of the cunning, or skilled, correspond of v~rbal communication between God and exactly with the "scholar" (1•,;,~~) and the the king. There is difficulty in assigning "teacher" ()':)D.) of ver. 8, The contents the right place of the clause, to lift up the horn. There can be no doubt at all that of vers. 9-31 point to the same, being as it contains no allusion whatever to the they are without an alluaion to. any other Lorn as an instrument of sound (the almost outsiders-to any but the alreo.cly mtroduced 110litary approach to which use of_ the wo~d names of " sons" o.nd " brethren." The is found in J o•h. vi. 5), but thot 1t falls ID supposing, therefore, of any allu~(?n here to with the very frequent figurative use of the the "four thousand" of eh. xxm. 5 seems phrase as it occurs in the very same__words unnecessary and unnatural in whatever (Ps. lxxv. 5, 6; lxxxix. 18, 25; xcu. ~2; way they were distributed-and prohu.bly cxii. 9; 1 Sum. ii. 1, 10, etc.), and wh1c?, enough it was in !n analogous manner-no means "to add to the strength" or" honour distinct reference 1s made to them here. of any one. The allusion is to the number Ver. 8.-This verse should be translated, of lieman's children being a mark of the And they oast lot& of attendanoe, email and honour God set on him. The words cannot great equally, teaoher with Boholar. Th@ CH. :u:v. 1-31.] THE FIRST BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. 397