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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - 1 Chronicles 23:24 - 23:24
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Concluding remarks. - 1Ch 23:24. “These (the just enumerated) are the sons of Levi according to their fathers'-houses, according to those who were counted (Num 1:21.; Exo 30:14) in the enumeration by name (Num 1:18; Num 3:43), by the head, performing the work for the service of the house of Jahve, from the men of twenty years and upwards.” הַמְּלָאכָה עֹשֵׂה is not singular, but plural, as in 2Ch 24:12; 2Ch 34:10, 2Ch 34:13; Exo 3:9; Neh 2:16, cf. 2Ch 11:1. It occurs along with עֹשֵׁי, with a similar meaning and in a like position, 2Ch 24:13; 2Ch 34:17; Neh 11:12; Neh 13:10. It is only another way of writing עֹשֵׁי, and the same form is found here and there in other words; cf. Ew. §16, b. The statement that the Levites were numbered from twenty years old and upwards is accounted for in 1Ch 23:25 thus: David said, The Lord has given His people rest, and He dwells in Jerusalem; and the Levites also have no longer to bear the dwelling (tabernacle) with all its vessels. From this, of course, it results that they had not any longer to do such heavy work as during the march through the wilderness, and so might enter upon their service even at the age of twenty. In 1Ch 23:27 a still further reason is given: “For by the last words of David was this, (viz.) the numbering of the sons of Levi from twenty years old and upwards.” There is a difference of opinion as to how הָעַחֲרֹונִים דָוִיד בְּדִבְרֵי are to be understood. Bertheau translates, with Kimchi, “in the later histories of David are the number = the numbered,” and adduces in support of his translation 1Ch 29:29, whence it is clear that by “the later histories of David” a part of a historical work is meant. But the passage quoted does not prove this. In the formula וְהָאַחֲרֹנִים וְהָאַחֲרֹנִים דִּבְרֵי... (1Ch 29:29; 2Ch 9:29; 2Ch 12:15; 2Ch 16:11, etc.), which recurs at the end of each king's reign, דִּבְרֵי denotes not historiae, in the sense of a history, but res gestae, which are recorded in the writings named. In accordance with this, therefore, דָוִיד דִּבְרֵי cannot denote writings of David, but only words or things (= deeds); but the Levites who were numbered could not be in the acts of David. We must rather translate according to 2Ch 29:30 and 2Sa 23:1. In the latter passage דָוִיד דִּבְרֵי are the last words (utterances) of David, and in the former דָוִיד בְּדִּבְרֵי, “by the words of David,” i.e., according to the commands or directions of David. In this way, Cler. and Mich., with the Vulg. juxta praecepta, have already correctly translated the words: “according to the last commands of David.” הֵמָּה is nowhere found in the signification sunt as the mere copula of the subject and verb, but is everywhere an independent predicate, and is here to be taken, according to later linguistic usage, as neutr. sing. (cf. Ew. §318, b): “According to the last commands of David, this,” i.e., this was done, viz., the numbering of the Levites from twenty years and upwards. From this statement, from twenty years and upwards, which is so often repeated, and for which the reasons are so given, it cannot be doubtful that the statement in 1Ch 23:3, “from thirty years and upwards,” is incorrect, and that, as has been already remarked on 1Ch 23:3, שְׁלֹשִׁים has crept into the text by an error of the copyist, who was thinking of the Mosaic census.
(Note: The explanation adopted from Kimchi by the older Christian commentators, e.g., by J. H. Mich., is an untenable makeshift. It is to this effect: that David first numbered the Levites from thirty years old and upwards, according to the law (Num 4:3; Num 23:30), but that afterwards, when he saw that those of twenty years of age were in a position to perform the duties, lightened as they were by its being no longer necessary for the Levites to bear the sanctuary from place to place, he included all from twenty years of age in a second census, taken towards the end of his life; cf. 1Ch 23:27. Against this Bertheau has already rightly remarked that the census of the Levites gave the number at 38,000 (1Ch 23:3), and these 38,000 and no others were installed; it is nowhere said that this number was not sufficient, or that the arrangements based upon this number (1Ch 23:4, 1Ch 23:5) had no continued existence. He is, however, incorrect in his further remark, that the historian clearly enough is desirous of calling attention to the fact that here a statement is made which is different from the former, for of this there is no trace; the contrary, indeed, is manifest. Since אֵלֶּה (1Ch 23:24) refers back to the just enumerated fathers'-houses of the Levites, and 1Ch 23:24 consequently forms the subscription to the preceding register, the historian thereby informs us plainly enough that he does not communicate here a statement different from the former, but only concludes that which he has formerly communicated. We cannot very well see how, from the fact that he here for the first time adduces the motive which determined David to cause the Levites from twenty years old and upwards to be numbered and employed in the service, it follows that he derived this statement of David's motive from a source different from that account which he has hitherto made use of. Nor would it be more manifest if 1Ch 23:27 contained - as it does not contain - a reference to the source from which he derived this statement.)
In 1Ch 23:28-32 we have, in the enumeration of the duties which the Levites had to perform, another ground for the employment of those from twenty years old and upwards in actual service.