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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - 1 Chronicles 24:4 - 24:4
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As the sons of Eleazar proved to be more numerous in respect of the heads of the men than the sons of Ithamar, they (David, Zadok, and Ahimelech) divided them thus: “For the sons of Eleazar, heads of fathers'-houses, sixteen; and for the sons of Ithamar, (heads) of fathers'-houses, eight.” הַגְּבָרִים לְרָאשֵׁי means neither in respect to the number of the men by the head (cf. 1Ch 23:3), nor with respect to the chiefs of the men, divided according to their fathers'-houses (Berth.). The supplying of the words, “divided according to their fathers'-houses,” is perfectly arbitrary. The expression הַגְּבָרִים רָאשֵׁי is rather to be explained by the fact that, according to the natural articulations of the people, the fathers'-houses, i.e., the groups of related families comprehended under the name בֵּית־אָבֹות, divided themselves further into individual households, whose heads were called גְּבָרִים, as is clear from Jos 7:16-18, because each household had in the man, הַגֶּבֶר, its natural head. הַגְּבָרִים רָאשֵׁי are therefore the heads, not of the fathers'-houses, but of the individual households, considered in their relation to the men as heads of households. Just as בֵּית־אָב sa tsuJ .s is a technical designation of the larger groups of households into which the great families fell, so הַגֶּבֶר is the technical expression for the individual households into which the fathers'-houses fell.