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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - 1 Chronicles 26:10 - 26:10
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The Merarites. Hosah's sons and brothers. חֹוסָה has been already mentioned (1Ch 16:38) along with Obed-edom as doorkeeper. Hosah made Shimri head of the Merarites, who served as doorkeepers, because there was no first-born, i.e., because his first-born son had died without leaving any descendant, so that none of the families descended from Hosah had the natural claim to the birthright. All the sons and brothers of Hosah were thirteen. Meshelemiah had eighteen (cf. 1Ch 26:9), and Obed-edom sixty-two (1Ch 26:8); and all taken together they make ninety-three, whom we are (according to 1Ch 26:12.) to regard as the heads of the 4000 doorkeepers. In 1Ch 9:22 the number of the doorkeepers appointed by David is stated to be 212, but that number most probably refers to a different time (see on 1Ch 9:22). Bertheau further remarks: “According to 1Ch 16:38, sixty-eight are reckoned to Obed-edom and Hosah, in our passage seventy-five; and the small difference between the numbers is explained by the fact that in the first passage only the doorkeepers before the ark are referred to.” Against this we have already shown, in our remarks on 1Ch 16:38, that the number there mentioned cannot be held with certainty to refer to the doorkeepers.