Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - 1 Chronicles 26:29 - 26:29

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Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - 1 Chronicles 26:29 - 26:29


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The officials for the external business. - 1Ch 26:29. “As to the Izharites, Chenaniah (see on 1Ch 15:22) with his sons was for the outward business over Israel for scribes and judges.” According to this, the external business of the Levites consisted of service as scribes and judges, for which David had set apart 6000 Levites (1Ch 23:4). Without sufficient reason, Bertheau would refer the external business to the exaction of the dues for the temple, because in Neh 11:16 הַהִיצֹנָה הַמְּלָאכָה for the temple is spoken of. But it does not at all follow that in our verse the external work had any reference to the temple, and that the scribes and judges had only this narrow sphere of action, since here, instead of the house of God, יִשְׂרָאֵל עַל is mentioned as the object with which the external service was connected.

1Ch 26:30

Of Hebronites, Hashabiah and his brethren, 1700 valiant men, were ישׂ פְּקֻדַּת עַל, for the oversight (inspection) of Israel this side Jordan, for all the business of Jahve and the service of the king. Bertheau takes פְּקֻדָּה to mean “due,” “fixed tribute,” a meaning which the word cannot be shown to have. The lxx have translated correctly, ἐπὶ τῆς ἐπισκέψεως τοῦ Ἰσραὴλ, ad inspectionem Israelis, i.e., praefecti erant (J. H. Mich.). For פְּקֻדַּת עַל is in 1Ch 26:32 rendered by עַל יַפְקִיד. לַיַּרְדֵּן מֵעֵבֶר is shown by the addition מַעֲרָבָה to refer to the land of Canaan, as in Jos 5:1; Jos 22:7, since Israel, both under Joshua and also after the exile, had come from the eastward over Jordan into Canaan. The words מְלֶאכֶת and עֲבֹדַת are synonymous, and are consequently both represented in 1Ch 26:32 by דְּבַר.

1Ch 26:31-32

David set another branch of the Hebronites, under the head Jeriah (cf. 1Ch 23:9), over the East-Jordan tribes. Between the words “Jeriah the head,” 1Ch 26:31, and וְאֶחָיו, 1Ch 26:32, a parenthesis is inserted, which gives the reason why David made these Hebronites scribes and judges among the East-Jordan tribes. The parenthesis runs thus: “As to the Hebronites, according to their generations, according to fathers, they were sought out in the fortieth year of David's rule, and valiant heroes were found among them in Jazer of Gilead.” Jazer was a Levite city in the tribal domain of Gad, assigned, according to Jos 21:39, to the Merarites (see on 1Ch 6:81). The number of these Hebronites was 2700 valiant men (1Ch 26:32). The additional הָאָבֹות רָאשֵׁי is obscure, for if we take אָבֹות to be, as it often is in the genealogies, a contraction for בֵּית־עָבֹות rof no, the number given does not suit; for a branch of the Hebronites cannot possibly have numbered 2700 fathers'-houses (πατριαὶ, groups of related households): they must be only 2700 men (גְּבָרִים), or heads of families, i.e., households. Not only the large number demands this signification, but also the comparison of this statement with that in 1Ch 26:30. The 1700 חַיִל בְּנֵי of which the Hebronite branch, Hashabiah with his brethren, consisted, were not so many πατριαὶ, but only so many men of this πατριά. In the same way, the Hebronite branch of which Jeriah was head, with his brethren, 2700 חַיִל בְּנֵי, were also not 2700 πατριαὶ, but only so many men, that is, fathers of families. It is thus placed beyond doubt that אָבֹות רָאשֵׁי cannot here denote the heads of fathers'-houses, but only heads of households. And accordingly we must not understand לְאָבֹות (1Ch 26:31) of fathers'-houses, as the lxx and all commentators do, but only of heads of households. The use of the verb נִדְרְשׁוּ also favours this view, for this verb is not elsewhere used of the legal census of the people, i.e., the numbering and entering of them in the public lists, according to the great families and fathers'-houses. There may therefore be in נִדְרְשׁוּ a hint that it was not a genealogical census which was undertaken, but only a numbering of the heads of households, in order to ascertain the number of scribes and judges to be appointed. There yet remain in this section three things which are somewhat strange: 1. Only 1700 scribes and judges were set over the cis-Jordanic land, inhabited as it was by ten and a half tribes, while 2700 were set over the trans-Jordanic land with its two and a half tribes. 2. Both numbers taken together amount to only 4400 men, while David appointed 6000 Levites to be scribes and judges. 3. The scribes and judges were taken only from two fathers'-houses of the Kohathites, while most of the other Levitical offices were filled by men of all the families of the tribe of Levi. On all these grounds, it is probable that our catalogue of the Levites appointed to be scribes and judges, i.e., for the external business, is imperfect.