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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - 1 Chronicles 29:6 - 29:6
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The princes follow the example, and willingly respond to David's call. הָאָבֹות שָׂרֵי = הָאָבֹות רָאשֵׁי, 1Ch 24:31; 1Ch 27:1, etc. הם מְלֶאכֶת וֻלְשָׂרֵי, and as regards the princes of the work of the king. The לַמֶּלֶךְ וּמִקְנֶה רְכוּשׁ שָׂרֵי, 1Ch 28:1, the officials enumerated in 1Ch 27:25-31 are meant; on לְ see on 1Ch 28:21. They gave 5000 talents of gold (22 1/2 or 11 1/2 millions of pounds), and 1000 darics = 11 1/2 millions of pounds. אֲדַרְכֹּון, with א prosth. here and in Ezr 8:27, and דַּרְכְּמֹון, Ezr 2:69; Neh 7:70., does not correspond to the Greek δραχμή, Arab. dirhem, but to the Greek δαρεικός, as the Syrian translation derîkônā', Ezr 8:27, shows; a Persian gold coin worth about 22s. 6d. See the description of these coins, of which several specimens still exist, in Cavedoni bibl. Numismatik, übers. von A. Werlhof, S. 84ff.; J. Brandis, das Münz-Mass und Gewishtssystem in Vorderasien (1866), S. 244; and my bibl. Archäol. §127, 3. “Our historian uses the words used in his time to designate the current gold coins, without intending to assume that there were darics in use in the time of David, to state in a way intelligible to his readers the amount of the sum contributed by the princes” (Bertheau). This perfectly correct remark does not, however, explain why the author of the Chronicle has stated the contribution in gold and that in silver in different values, in talents and in darics, since the second cannot be an explanation of the first, the two sums being different. Probably the sum in darics is the amount which they contributed in gold pieces received as coins; the talents, on the other hand, probably represent the weight of the vessels and other articles of gold which they brought as offerings for the building. The amount contributed in silver is not large when compared with that in gold: 10,000 talents = £3,500,000, or one half that amount. The contribution in copper also, 18,000 talents, is not very large. Besides these, those who had stones, i.e., precious stones, also brought them. אִתּוֹ הַנִּמְצָא, that was found with him, for: that which he (each one) had of stones they gave. The sing. אִתּוֹ is to be taken distributively, and is consequently carried on in the plural, נָתְֽנוּ; cf. Ew. §319, a. אֲבָנִים is accus. of subordination. יַד עַל נָתַן, to give over for administration (Ew. §282, b). יְחִיאֵל, the Levite family of this name which had the oversight of the treasures of the house of God (1Ch 26:21.).