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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - 1 Chronicles 25:8 - 25:8
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They cast lots, מִשְׁמֶרֶת גֹּורָלֹות, κλήρους ἐφημερίων (lxx), by which the מִשְׁמֶרֶת, the waiting upon the service, was fixed, that is, the order of their succession in the official service. לְעֻמַּת is variously translated. As no name follows, R. Shel. and Kimchi would repeat the preceding מִשְׁמֶרֶת: one class as the other; and this is supported by 1Ch 26:16 and Neh 12:24, and by the fact that in 1Ch 17:5, after מִמִּשְׁכָּן, the words מִשְׁכָּן אֶל have been dropped out. But according to the accentuation מִשְׁמֶרֶת belongs to גֹּורָלֹות, and so the proposed completion is at once disposed of. Besides this, however, the thought “class like class” does not appear quite suitable, as the classes were only formed by the lots, and so were not in existence so as to be able to cast lots. We therefore, with Ewald, §360, a, and Berth., hold the clause כַּגָּדֹול כַּקָּטֹן to be the genitive belonging to לְעֻמַּת, since עֻמַּת is in Ecc 5:15 also connected with a clause: “in the manner of, as the small, so the great,” i.e., the small and the great, the older as the younger. This is further defined by “the skilled as the scholars.” From these words it is manifest that not merely the 288 cast lots, for these were כָּל־מֵבִין (1Ch 25:7), but also the other 3712 Levites appointed for the service of the singers; whence it further follows that only the 288 who were divided by lot into twenty-four classes, each numbering twelve persons, were thoroughly skilled in singing and playing, and the scholars were so distributed to them that each class received an equal number of them, whom they had to educate and train. These, then, were probably trained up for and employed in the temple music according to their progress in their education, so that the ἐφημερία which had at any time charge of the service consisted not only of the twelve skilled musicians, but also of a number of scholars who assisted in singing and playing under their direction.