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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - 1 Chronicles 6:16 - 6:16
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(Ch. 6). The families and cities of the Levites. - Vv. 1-34. Register of the families of the Levites. - This is introduced by an enumeration of the sons and grandsons of Levi (1Ch 6:16-19), which is followed by lists of families in six lines of descent: (a) the descendants of Gershon (1Ch 6:20-21), of Kohath (1Ch 6:22-28), and of Merari (1Ch 6:29-30); and (b) the genealogies of David's chief musicians (1Ch 6:31, 1Ch 6:32), of Heman the Kohathite (1Ch 6:33-38), of Asaph the Gershonite (1Ch 6:39-43), and of Ethan the Merarite (1Ch 6:44-47); and in 1Ch 6:48, 1Ch 6:49, some notes as to the service performed by the other Levites and the priests are added.
(6:1-4). The sons of Levi are in 1Ch 6:1 again enumerated as in 1Ch 6:1; then in 1Ch 6:16-22 the sons of these three sons, i.e., the grandsons of Levi, are introduced, while in 1Ch 6:1 only the sons of Kohath are mentioned. The only object of this enumeration is to make quite clear the descent of the Levitic families which follow. The name of the first son of Levi is in 1Ch 6:16, 1Ch 6:17, 1Ch 6:20, etc. of this chapter גֵּרְשֹׁם, which was the name of Moses' son, cf. 1Ch 23:15.; whereas in 1Ch 6:1 and in the Pentateuch we find a different pronunciation, viz., גֵּרְשֹׁון. The names of Levi's grandsons in 1Ch 6:17-22 coincide with the statements of the Pentateuch, Exo 6:17-19, and Num 3:17-20, cf. Num 26:57. Bertheau and other commentators consider the words in 1Ch 6:17, “and these are the families of Levi according to their fathers,” to be a “concluding subscription” to the statements of 1Ch 6:15-17, and would remove וְ before אֵלֶּה, as not compatible with this supposition. But in this he is wrong: for although the similar statement in Exo 6:20 is a subscription, yet it is in Num 3:20 a superscription, and must in our verse also be so understood; for otherwise the enumeration of the descendants of Gershon, Kohath, and Merari, which follows, would be brought in very abruptly, without any connecting particle, and the וְ before אֵלֶּה points to the same conclusion.