Page:03.BCOT.KD.HistoricalBooks.B.vol.3.LaterProphets.djvu/295

 had to perform the service in succession each for a week at a time, while the twenty-four doorkeepers' stations had to be all occupied simultaneously every day. - In 1Ch 26:2-11, then, twenty-eight heads in all are enumerated by name (Meshelemiah with seven sons, Obed-edom with eight sons and six grandsons, and Hosah with four sons); but the total number in all the three families of doorkeepers is stated at ninety-three, and neither the one nor the other of these numbers bears any relation to twenty-four. Finally, the posts are so distributed that Meshelemiah with his eighteen sons and brothers kept guard on the east and north sides with six posts; Obed-edom with his sixty-two sons and brothers on the south side with four and 2 x 2, that is, eight posts; and Hosah with his thirteen sons and brothers on the western side with four and two, that is, six; so that even here no symmetrical distribution of the service can be discovered.

Verse 19
Subscription, in which it is again stated that the classes of doorkeepers were taken from among the Korahites and Merarites.

Verse 20
1Ch 26:20The stewards of the treasures of the sanctuary. - 1Ch 26:20 appears to contain the superscription of the succeeding section. For here the treasures of the house of God and the treasures of the consecrated things are grouped together, while in 1Ch 26:22 and 1Ch 26:26 they are separated, and placed under the oversight of two Levite families: the treasures of the house of Jahve under the sons of the Gershonite Laadan (1Ch 26:21, 1Ch 26:22); the treasures of the consecrated things under the charge of the Amramites. But with this the words אחיּה הלויּם cannot be made to harmonize. According to the Masoretic accentuation, הלויּם alone would be the superscription; but הלויּם alone gives no suitable sense, for the Levites have been treated of already from 1 Chron 23 onwards. Moreover, it appears somewhat strange that there is no further characterization of אחיּה, for the name is a very common one, but has not before occurred in our chapter, whence we would expect a statement of his descent and his family, such as we find in the case of the succeeding chief overseers. All these things tend to throw doubt upon the correctness of the Masoretic reading, while the lxx, on the contrary, in καὶ οἱ Δευῖται ἀδελφοὶ αὐτῶν ἐπὶ τῶν θησαυρῶν κ.τ.λ, give a perfectly suitable superscription, which involves the reading אחיהם instead of אחיּה. This reading we, with J. D. Mich. and Berth., hold to be the original. On אהיהם הלויּם, cf. 1Ch 6:29; 2Ch 29:34. ==Verses