Page:The Books of Chronicles (1916).djvu/214

150 though he was not the firstborn, yet his father made him chief;) Hilkiah the second, Tebaliah the third, Zechariah the fourth: all the sons and brethren of Hosah were thirteen. Of these were the courses of the doorkeepers, even of the chief men, having charges like as their brethren, to minister in the house of the . And they cast lots, as well the small as the great, according to their fathers' houses, for every gate. And the lot eastward fell to Shelemiah. Then for Zechariah his son, a discreet counsellor, they cast lots; and his lot came out northward. To Obed-edom southward; and to his sons the storehouse. To Shuppim and Hosah westward, by the gate of Shallecheth, at the causeway that goeth up, ward against ward. Eastward were six Levites,

12. Of these even of the chief men] In vv. 8, 9, 11 taken together ninety-three doorkeepers are enumerated, who are presumably the heads of the four thousand mentioned in xxiii. 5. In ix. 22 again the total number (as it seems) of doorkeepers is given as two hundred and twelve. The discrepancy may be due to the Chronicler having used different documents belonging to different dates: for other possibilities see note on ix. 22.

13—19 (cp. ix. 23—26).&emsp;

Remark how naïvely the Chronicler names various parts of the Temple as if it had been already in existence at this time.

14. Shelemiah] i.e. Meshelemiah, vv. 1, 2.

16. To Shuppim and Hosah] Read, To Hosah. The word "Shuppim" should be omitted from the text. It is merely an accidental repetition (in a corrupt form) of the last word in ver. 15, namely "Asuppim," rendered storehouse.

by the gate of Shallecheth] There is no other mention in the Bible of a gate "Shallecheth," but it is perhaps to be identified with "the entering in of the house of the  which was in the precincts" "Parvārim" Heb.) mentioned 2 Kin. xxiii. 11; cp. note on ver. 18. Possibly the text should be corrected and we should read, following the LXX., "by the gate of the chamber."

at the causeway that goeth up] "The causeway" led up to the Temple either from Ophel (on the S.) or from the Western City (across the Tyropœon Valley). Traces of two causeways have been discovered by excavation, viz., "Wilson's Arch" (Bädeker, Pal.$5$, p. 65) and "Robinson's Arch" (ib. p. 66). The second of these arches probably marks the site of a causeway belonging to the period of the Kings.