⁹And Meshelemiah had sons and brethren, valiant men, eighteen. =9.= _Meshelemiah_] Compare verses 1‒3 to which verse 9 is a supplement. ¹⁰Also Hosah, of the children of Merari, had sons; Shimri the chief, (for though he was not the firstborn, yet his father made him chief;) ¹¹Hilkiah the second, Tebaliah the third, Zechariah the fourth: all the sons and brethren of Hosah were thirteen. =10.= _Hosah_] He is mentioned as a doorkeeper along with Obed-edom in xvi. 38. ¹²Of these were the courses of the doorkeepers, even of the chief men, having charges¹ like as their brethren, to minister in the house of the LORD. ¹ Or, _wards over against their brethren_. =12.= _Of these ... even of the chief men_] In verses 8, 9, 11 taken together ninety-three doorkeepers are enumerated, who are presumably the heads of the four thousand mentioned in xxiii. 5. In ix. 22 again the total number (as it seems) of doorkeepers is given as two hundred and twelve. The discrepancy may be due to the Chronicler having used different documents belonging to different dates: for other possibilities see note on ix. 22. =13‒19= (compare ix. 23‒26). THE STATIONS OF THE DOORKEEPERS. Remark how naïvely the Chronicler names various parts of the Temple as if it had been already in existence at this time. ¹³And they cast lots, as well the small as the great, according to their fathers’ houses, for every gate. ¹⁴And the lot eastward fell to Shelemiah¹. Then for Zechariah his son, a discreet counsellor, they cast lots; and his lot came out northward. ¹⁵To Obed-edom southward; and to his sons the storehouse. ¹ In verse 1, _Meshelemiah_. =14.= _Shelemiah_] i.e. Meshelemiah, verses 1, 2. ¹⁶To Shuppim and Hosah westward, by the gate of Shallecheth¹, at the causeway that goeth up, ward against ward. ¹⁷Eastward were six Levites, northward four a day, southward four a day, and for the storehouse two and two. ¹ That is, _Casting forth_. =16.= _To Shuppim and Hosah_] Read, =To Hosah=. The word “Shuppim” should be omitted from the text. It is merely an accidental repetition (in a corrupt form) of the last word in verse 15, namely “Asuppim,” rendered _storehouse_. _by the gate of Shallecheth_] There is no other mention in the Bible of a gate “Shallecheth,” but it is perhaps to be identified with “the entering in of the house of the LORD ... which was in the precincts” (“Parvārim” _Hebrew_) mentioned 2 Kings xxiii. 11; compare note on verse 18. Possibly the text should be corrected and we should read, following the LXX., “by the gate of the chamber.”