The books of Chronicles : $b With maps, notes and introductionElmslie, W. A. L. (William Alexander Leslie)
History
The books of Chronicles : $b With maps, notes and introduction
Elmslie, W. A. L. (William Alexander Leslie)
Bible. Chronicles -- Commentaries
=2.= _None ... but the Levites_] Numbers i. 50, vii. 9. Nothing is said
in the parallel place (2 Samuel vi. 13) of the Levites, but bearers
(and not a cart) are spoken of with regard to this second attempt.
Compare 2 Chronicles v. 4, note.
³And David assembled all Israel at Jerusalem, to bring up the
ark of the LORD unto its place, which he had prepared for it.
⁴And David gathered together the sons of Aaron, and the Levites:
=3.= _assembled all Israel_] It was a solemn religious _assembly_
(Hebrew _Ḳāhāl_, Greek ἐκκλησία).
⁵of the sons of Kohath; Uriel the chief, and his brethren an
hundred and twenty: ⁶of the sons of Merari; Asaiah the chief,
and his brethren two hundred and twenty: ⁷of the sons of Gershom;
Joel the chief, and his brethren an hundred and thirty: ⁸of
the sons of Elizaphan; Shemaiah the chief, and his brethren
two hundred: ⁹of the sons of Hebron; Eliel the chief, and his
brethren fourscore: ¹⁰of the sons of Uzziel; Amminadab the chief,
and his brethren an hundred and twelve.
=5‒10.= Remark that besides the three great Levitical divisions,
Kohathites, Gershonites, and Merarites, three additional classes (sons
of Elizaphan, of Hebron, and of Uzziel) are given in verses 8‒10. This
unusual sixfold division, and the smallness of the numbers of Levites
have been taken as indicating that the whole passage xv. 1‒15 is drawn
by the Chronicler from an earlier source, but the argument is not
convincing. “The text does not imply that Elizaphan, Hebron, and Uzziel
were coordinated with Kohath, Gershom, and Merari”; and the small
numbers are accounted for by the view that only selected Levites were
chosen for the task (so Curtis, _Chronicles_, p. 127).
=5.= _the sons of Kohath; Uriel_] Kohath had four sons (Exodus vi.
18 = 1 Chronicles vi. 18): Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel. Here
the descendants of Amram (exclusive of the priests, the Aaronites)
represented by Uriel head the list (verse 5), and the descendants
of Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel appear in verses 8, 9, 10 respectively.
_Elizaphan_ (verse 8) either stands for the _Izhar_ of Exodus vi. 18,
or is the name of some prominent descendant of Izhar after whom the
whole family was named. He is mentioned again in 2 Chronicles xxix. 13.
As regards number the Kohathites were 512 against 350 of the sons of
Merari and the sons of Gershom combined. In vi. 60‒63 (45‒48, Hebrew)
23 cities are reckoned to Kohath against 25 to Merari and Gershom
combined. The Kohathites formed the largest and most important of the
three divisions of the Levites.
¹¹And David called for Zadok and Abiathar the priests, and for
the Levites, for Uriel, Asaiah, and Joel, Shemaiah, and Eliel,
and Amminadab,
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