Chapters Xxiii.–xxix — The Conclusion of David’s Reign
Chapter XXIII
1.
Solomon made King.
¹Now David was old and full of days; and he made Solomon his son king over Israel.
The Chronicler unhistorically ignores the struggle between the parties of Solomon and of Adonijah for the throne (compare xxix. 22 f.; 1 Kings i. 5 ff.), and makes the reign of David culminate in the appointment of Solomon as David’s successor and in a grand organisation of the ecclesiastical and other authorities of the realm. chapter xxiii. 1 intimates the appointment of Solomon and the assembling by royal command of the princes, priests, and Levites of Israel. The topics thus suggested are then, after the prevailing fashion of Chronicles, treated in the reverse order; first the Levites, chapter xxiii.; then the priests, xxiv. (followed by the singers, xxv.; and the doorkeepers, xxvi.); then the civil and military orders. chapters xxviii., xxix. are occupied with the concluding exhortations of King David. Compare xxix. 22–24; 1 Kings i. 5–53.
2–23.
Organisation of the Levites (first account).
²And he gathered together all the princes of Israel, with the priests and the Levites. ³And the Levites were numbered from thirty years old and upward: and their number by their polls, man by man, was thirty and eight thousand.
3. the Levites were numbered from thirty years] Two accounts are here given of the organisation of the Levites. According to the first the Levites were admitted to service at thirty years of age; verse 3; compare Numbers iv. 3, 23, 30, where the period from thirty to fifty is fixed as the period for service. According to the second account (verses 24–27) the Levites were taken from twenty years old and upwards; this was apparently the later custom; compare 2 Chronicles xxxi. 17; Ezra iii. 8. The discrepancy probably arises from an actual variation in practice. The original age of admission for Levites was probably thirty, but owing to the scarcity of their numbers it seems to have been necessary to reduce the limit of age to twenty. But see also the note on pp. 51 f.
by their polls] Literally by their skulls. “Poll” is an almost obsolete word for “head,” retained in the compound word, “poll-tax.”
thirty and eight thousand] Numbers iii. 39 gives 22,000, and Numbers xxvi. 62, 23,000, as the number of male Levites from a month old and upwards in the time of Moses.
⁴Of these, twenty and four thousand were to oversee the work of the house of the Lord; and six thousand were officers and judges:
4. twenty and four thousand] These were divided into courses (verse 6), serving by turn, apparently twenty-four in number, consisting each of a thousand men. See, however, the note on verses 6–23 below.
to oversee the work] It is true that there were some Temple servants subordinate to the Levites—see note on the Nethinim, ix. 2. But the duty of the Levites was to perform the work of the Temple (as is said e.g. in verses 24, 28), not to act as overseers of the work of others. It is therefore to be inferred that the “work” spoken of here and in verse 5 is not the routine duties of the Temple but the work of its construction. Adding the Levites of verse 4 to the officers, doorkeepers, and musicians of verse 5, we have a total of 38,000 overseers: that the number is incredibly large is no objection in Chronicles.
officers and judges] Compare 2 Chronicles xix. 8, 11. According to Deuteronomy xvii. 9 (compare Deuteronomy xvi. 18) the harder causes were reserved for “the priests the Levites,” ordinary causes being decided by judges who were not Levites.
⁵and four thousand were doorkeepers; and four thousand praised the Lord with the instruments which I made, said David, to praise therewith.
5. doorkeepers] The courses and duties of these are given in xxvi. 1–19.
four thousand praised the Lord] Compare xxv. 1–31, which tells of a picked choir consisting of 288 persons, divided into twenty-four courses, whose special duty was psalmody.
the instruments which I made] Compare 2 Chronicles xxix. 26.
6–23. It is natural to expect that twenty-four heads of fathers’ houses will appear in this list (compare note on verse 4), in harmony with the twenty-four courses of priests, of musicians, and of doorkeepers referred to in the chapters following. The present text, however, appears to yield but twenty-two, and the various emendations suggested in order to obtain twenty-four are all precarious. The best suggestion is that of Curtis, for which see note on verse 22.
⁶And David divided them into courses¹ according to the sons of Levi; Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.
¹ Hebrew divisions.
6. the sons of Levi] Compare vi. 1, 16.
⁷Of the Gershonites; Ladan¹ and Shimei. ⁸The sons of Ladan; Jehiel the chief, and Zetham, and Joel, three.
¹ In chapter vi. 17, Libni.
7. Ladan and Shimei] For “Ladan” here and in xxvi. 21 we have in vi. 17 and Exodus vi. 17 “Libni.”
⁹The sons of Shimei; Shelomoth, and Haziel, and Haran, three. These were the heads of the fathers’ houses of Ladan.
9. The sons of Shimei] This Shimei in distinction from the Shimei of verses 7, 10 might conceivably be a descendant of Ladan, although the relationship is not indicated; but it is more probable that some confusion has come into the text of verses 8, 9, 10—as e.g. that verse 9b “These were... of Ladan” is a gloss, and that for Shimei in verse 10 we should read Shelomoth.
¹⁰And the sons of Shimei; Jahath, Zina¹, and Jeush, and Beriah. These four were the sons of Shimei. ¹¹And Jahath was the chief, and Zizah the second: but Jeush and Beriah had not many sons; therefore they became a fathers’ house in one reckoning.
¹ In verse 11, Zizah.
10. Zina] Better, as in verse 11, Zizah; the two words are readily confused in Hebrew writing.
¹²The sons of Kohath; Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel, four.
12. The sons of Kohath] Compare vi. 2; Exodus vi. 18.
¹³The sons of Amram; Aaron and Moses: and Aaron was separated, that he should sanctify¹ the most holy things, he and his sons, for ever, to burn incense before the Lord, to minister unto him, and to bless in his name, for ever.
¹ Or, to sanctify as most holy him &c.
13. separated] i.e. set apart, sometimes with the additional meaning of making a distinction between sacred and common. Compare Romans i. 1, where St Paul describes himself as separated unto the gospel of God; Acts xiii. 2; Galatians i. 15.
the most holy things] Such for instance as the altar of incense (Exodus xxx. 1–10), or again the shewbread (Leviticus xxiv. 5–9).
to bless] compare Numbers vi. 23–27.
¹⁴But as for Moses the man of God, his sons were named among the tribe of Levi.
14. among the tribe of Levi] The descendants of Moses as distinguished from those of Aaron had the standing, not of priests but of Levites.
¹⁵The sons of Moses; Gershom and Eliezer.
15. Gershom and Eliezer] Compare Exodus xviii. 3, 4.
¹⁶The sons of Gershom; Shebuel¹ the chief.
¹ In chapter xxiv. 20, Shubael.
16. The sons] compare the following verse; also ii. 31, where the plural, The sons, is thrice followed by a single name only.
Shebuel] rather, as in xxiv. 20, Shubael; so LXX. here.
¹⁷And the sons of Eliezer were, Rehabiah the chief. And Eliezer had none other sons; but the sons of Rehabiah were very many.
17. Rehabiah] Compare xxiv. 21.
¹⁸The sons of Izhar; Shelomith¹ the chief.
¹ In chapter xxiv. 22, Shelomoth.
18. Shelomith] In xxiv. 22, Shelomoth.
¹⁹The sons of Hebron; Jeriah the chief, Amariah the second, Jahaziel the third, and Jekameam the fourth.
19. The sons of Hebron] Compare xxiv. 23.
²⁰The sons of Uzziel; Micah the chief, and Isshiah the second.
20. The sons of Uzziel] Compare xxiv. 24. Nine Kohathite families seem to be here reckoned.
²¹The sons of Merari; Mahli and Mushi. The sons of Mahli; Eleazar and Kish.
21. The sons of Merari] Compare xxiv. 26.
The sons of Mahli] Compare xxiv. 28, 29.
²²And Eleazar died, and had no sons, but daughters only: and their brethren the sons of Kish took them to wife.
22. their brethren] Their kinsmen.
took them to wife] i.e. in accordance with the law stated in Numbers xxvii. 4, compare Numbers xxxvi. 6, whereby daughters had a right of inheritance in hope of perpetuating the name of him who died without male heirs. Thus Eleazar, by his family through the female line, may be reckoned one of the heads of fathers’ houses. If this view be correct, the list contains not twenty-two but twenty-three “heads”; and it may be conjectured that the one name more required to make up the desired total of twenty-four has been lost in the transmission of the text.
²³The sons of Mushi; Mahli, and Eder, and Jeremoth, three.
23. The sons of Mushi] Compare xxiv. 30.
24–27.
Organisation of the Levites (second account).
²⁴These were the sons of Levi after their fathers’ houses, even the heads of the fathers’ houses of those of them that were counted, in the number of names by their polls, who did the work for the service of the house of the Lord, from twenty years old and upward. ²⁵For David said, The Lord, the God of Israel, hath given rest unto his people; and he dwelleth in Jerusalem for ever: ²⁶and also the Levites shall no more have need to carry the tabernacle and all the vessels of it for the service thereof. ²⁷For by the last words¹ of David the sons of Levi were numbered, from twenty years old and upward.
¹ Or, in the last acts.
24. from twenty years old and upward] The striking divergence between this verse and verse 3, where thirty is given as the minimum age for service as a Levite, has given rise to much discussion—see the note to verse 3. No doubt the concluding remarks of that note are true historically: a change in the inferior age limit of the Levites did take place at some time on account of the need for larger numbers in office. But neither that fact, nor the theory (which is hardly borne out by other considerations) that the Chronicler has used varying traditions from two different sources, suffices to explain why he left the evident contradiction in his narrative. The desirability of explaining this circumstance strongly favours the view urged by Curtis, that in verses 3 ff. the Chronicler meant to describe the Levitical organisation during and for the purpose of the preparation and erection of the Temple, whilst verses 24 ff. relate to the period when the Temple was completed and the duties of the Levites, being both more numerous and at the same time of a more mechanical nature, might well seem to call for an increase in the number of those officiating. When the reduction of the age limit to twenty actually took place is of course immaterial; but it is quite in keeping with the manner of the Chronicler that he should thus carry both arrangements back to the time of David.
28–32.
Duties of the Levites.
²⁸For their office¹ was to wait on the sons of Aaron for the service of the house of the Lord, in the courts, and in the chambers, and in the purifying of all holy things, even the work of the service of the house of God;
¹ Hebrew their station was at the hand of the sons of Aaron. See Nehemiah xi. 24.
28. their office was to wait on] Literally, as margin, their station was at the hand of. For the phrase at the hand of compare Psalms cxxiii. 2, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their master.
the chambers] compare ix. 26, note.
²⁹for the shewbread also, and for the fine flour for a meal offering, whether of unleavened wafers, or of that which is baked in the pan, or of that which is soaked, and for all manner of measure and size;
29. for the shewbread] i.e. for the preparation of the shewbread (compare ix. 32).
that which is soaked] Compare Leviticus vi. 21 [14, Hebrew].
for all manner of measure and size] i.e. for measuring the component parts of the meal-offering, etc.
³⁰and to stand every morning to thank and praise the Lord, and likewise at even;
30. every morning... and likewise at even] Corresponding with the daily morning and evening sacrifice; compare Exodus xxix. 38, 39.
³¹and to offer all burnt offerings unto the Lord, in the sabbaths, in the new moons, and on the set feasts, in number according to the ordinance concerning them, continually before the Lord:
31. to offer all burnt offerings] This was the duty not of the Levites, who were to stand near-by praising Jehovah (verse 30), but of the priests. The apparent difficulty is due to a mistranslation: render and (to stand, i.e. assist) at every offering of burnt offerings.
the set feasts] i.e. the yearly feasts; Exodus xxiii. 14–17.
³²and that they should keep the charge of the tent of meeting, and the charge of the holy place, and the charge of the sons of Aaron their brethren, for the service of the house of the Lord.
32. the charge of the holy place] This duty is assigned to Levites in Numbers iii. 28, 32; is restricted and confined to such Levites as were sons of Kohath in Numbers iv. 15; and according to a variant tradition in Numbers xviii. 5 is assigned to the priests.
the charge of the sons of Aaron] Compare Numbers xviii. 1–7.