Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Chronicles 4:23
These [were] the potters, and those that dwelt among plants and hedges: there they dwelt with the king for his work.
23. those that dwelt amongst plants and hedges ] R.V. The inhabitants of Netaim and Gederah.
there they dwelt with the king for his work ] In the days of the kingdom the inhabitants of these villages were clients of the king and did his work; cp. 1Ki 7:46. The simplicity of this statement seems to have been a stumbling-block to the early translators; LXX. They were strong in his kingdom and dwelt there; Targ., They made their dwelling there with the Shekinah of the King of the World for the practice of the Law.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Among plants and hedges – Rather, in Netaim and Gederah Jos 15:36.
With the king – Or, probably, on the kings property. Both David and several of the later kings had large territorial possessions in various parts of Judaea 1Ch 27:25, 1Ch 27:31; 2Ch 26:10; 2Ch 27:4; 2Ch 32:28-29.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
1Ch 4:23
There they dwelt with the king for his work.
With the King for His work
(A motto for Sunday school teachers.) Work done well, however common, is accounted worthy of its wage, but work done for royalty generally has some special attraction to commend it. Such a man is privileged by appointment to be purveyor of this or that to her Majesty the Queen; and he takes good care to let us know it. It is published in his shop window. It is painted on his sign over the door. He is, By appointment to the Queen. Royalty seems to dignify him. Looking at my text I see three or four observations springing from it.
I. Our King has many kinds of servants.
1. Soldiers. It is their duty to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints.
2. Watchmen.
3. Heralds.
4. Scribes.
5. Musicians.
6. Potters.
These may supply a very good emblem of Sunday school teachers. The potters take the clay while it is pliable and soft, and put it on the wheel and make the wheel revolve, and then with thumb and finger fashion the clay as it revolves before them. If ever at any time the human mind is plastic it is while the child is young.
7. Gardeners.
This is just what a Sunday school teacher should be. He tries to get the plants out from the wild waste and bring them into the garden walled around. He knows that the Church is the garden of the Lord and he longs to plant many little slips in it.
II. All who live with our King must work. I have thought that some of our Church members imagined that the cause of Christ was a coach, and that they were to ride on it, and that they would prefer the box-seat, or else a very comfortable seat in the middle of the coach. But all who live with our King must work.
1. Because He works.
2. Because His company always inspires us with the desire to do something for Him.
3. Because there is so much to do that you cannot help doing something.
III. Those that work for our King ought to live with Him.
1. That they may gather strength. In the old fable, when Hercules fought with the giant he could not kill him. He flung him down with all his might, but every time the giant got up stronger than before. The old fable said that the earth was the giants mother, and every time that he fell he touched her and got new strength from her. So every time a Christian falls on his knees–draws near to God–he gets new strength.
2. To keep up their enthusiasm.
3. That they may be inspired with courage.
4. If they would cultivate the soft grace of patience.
IV. That which should reconcile us to any work is, that we are working for the King. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Certain members of the royal household
It is a matter of very common occurrence in this world, in forming our estimates of men and things, to ignore altogether the real and constant contributors to success, and to look only at him or them who represent the success. The commander of an ocean steamer is the person whose name is printed, who meets the public eye, and possesses the public confidence; the men who sweat and pant down deep in the ship before the hot and roaring fires, the men who climb the icy rigging, who with stiffening limbs battle with the frozen sails, and watch hour after hour amid cold and darkness for danger, are never thought of. We see the victorious leader of armies surrounded in the hour of triumph by a brilliant staff, while multitudes shout and cheer. How few ever think at such a time of the thousands of silent graves where men lie who paid the costly price of life for this hour of their leaders triumph! Because the world judges usually in this way the strong contrast of the text strikes us. The royal household is not alone the king with his victorious generals and stately nobles, but the potters and the dwellers or workers among plants and hedges. Our text teaches us–
I. That none are ignored, despised, or forgotten in the royal household of our King because of the apparent insignificance of the position they fill. The work of the Church analagous to that of the potters and hedgers is not in favour. Only a few are willing to do the humble and necessary work of the Church.
II. That the recognition of the value of labour of the humble workers is just as sure, and reward just as certain, as of that which is most prominent. In the service of the King of kings there is no respecting of persons. It is not the position but the work accomplished that obtains consideration from Him. The name of Luther, or even of Paul, is of no account before Him, nor the office of reformer or apostle, only as meaning mighty labour accomplished in and for the Church. The Hudson may be of far more importance to the country because of its deeper channel, broader bosom, than a little brook that meanders through the meadows of some country valley. One is a broad highway, bearing much of the commerce of great States; the other gives grass to the meadows, drink to cattle, and beauty to the landscape; but surely the Hudson is entitled to no more praise for being what it is than the brook for being what it is. No occupation that is right, however mean, can debar us from dwelling with our Lord. We see constantly earthern pots, of very little value in themselves, crowned with the sweetest, the most beautiful, the rarest flowers and plants. Cheap as the red clay is, it is about the only material that could be used. One great value is its cheapness; another is, that plants, with a singular want of taste, would refuse to flourish in pots of silver or gold; their very density and want of porosity render them nearly valueless for this purpose. Just so the very humbleness of work renders some peculiarly fitted to do it. Conclusion:
1. Here we have encouragement for all the Lords workers, in
(1) the satisfaction connected with the doing;
(2) in the present beneficent results of the work;
(3) in the certain future reward.
2. Here we may find reason for warm sympathy with all the workers of our King. (Henry W. F. Jones.)
Working for the King
I. How work links men to kings. There are many wrong ideas in the world about labour. Not a few people try to bring up their children without it, and you will see a man toil early and late to make money, getting no enjoyment out of it himself, and when you get at the reason it is that he may make his son a gentleman, which means, someone who can live without work. This is not according to the Divine idea: My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. It was not for nothing that Christ toiled at the carpenters bench. If you were to take out of the Bible all the stories of men who worked for their living, you would rob it of its greatest beauty. The men and women who work, whether with brain or hand, or both, are the people who save a nation from ruin. What is a mans religion worth if it does not teach him to labour? Are we not to work out our own salvation, and that for the best of reasons, It is God that worketh in us. The sunshine and the rain are useless to the fields that have not been tilled. He who has no plough needs not to trouble to sharpen his scythe. Bibles and sermons to the idle are not, cannot be, appreciated, and Sabbaths are but a weariness to the man who does no kind of Christian work. Do not mistake yourself for a Christian because you like some popular preacher; it is on the same principle that wasps like honey, but they will rather starve than make it. You would not have heard of these men if they had not worked. Their toil has bound up their life with the kings life. Why should you not act so that the story of God cannot be fully told without your name being mentioned?
II. Kings need different kinds of workers. There is a sense in which God needs us and cannot carry out His plans without us. Whatever your talent there is room for you. Not only genius, but dogged drudgery. We want the artist to paint the picture, and the workman to frame it; the author to write the book, and the printer to give it to the world. How true it is that no one man can do all that needs to be done, even with his own gifts. Does the gardener wish to send in a choice rose he has just cut? Does he wish his rose to stand on the kings table? Then he must have the help of the potter. He must have one of his vases. (Thomas Champness.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 23. These were the potters] “These are the disciples of the law, for whose sake the world was created; who preside in judgment, and establish the world; and they build and perfect the fallen down house of Israel: they dwelt there with the Shechinah of the King of the world, in the study of the law and the intercalation or months, and determining the commencement of years and festivals: and they computed the times from heaven in the days of Ruth, the mother of kingdoms, to the days of Solomon the king.” – T. I am afraid this paraphrase gives us as little light as the text itself, which speaks of potters, and those who dwelt among plants and hedges. They were probably brickmakers; perhaps potters also, who had their dwelling in low grounds, and fabricated the clay into pots and bricks that was digged up in forming fences in the king’s domains.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
These were the potters; or rather, these are; for he seems to oppose their present servitude to their former glory and to show their low and mean spirits, that had rather tarry among the heathen to do their drudgery, than return to Jerusalem to serve God and enjoy their freedom.
There they dwelt, or tarried or now dwell, when their brethren are returned.
With the king of Babylon or Persia; esteeming it a greater honour and happiness to serve that earthly monarch in the meanest employments, than to serve the King of kings in his temple, and in his most noble and heavenly work.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
These were the potters,…. Or are the potters; the posterity of those men, who were so famous in their day, are now of mean employments: some of them made earthen pots; and some of them
dwelt among plants and hedges; or were employed in planting gardens and orchards, and making fences for them; or, as others think, “dwelt in Netaim and Gadara”, cities in the tribe of Judah:
there they dwelt with the king for his work; to make pots, plant gardens, and set hedges for him; either for the king of Judah, or it may be for the king of Babylon, where they were carried captive, and now chose to remain, doing those servile works for the king, without the city, in the fields.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
“These are the potters and the inhabitants of Netaim and Gedera.” It is doubtful whether refers to all the descendants of Shelah, or only to those named in 1Ch 4:22. Bertheau holds the latter to be the more probable reference; “for as those named in 1Ch 4:21 have already been denominated Byssus-workers, it appears fitting that those in 1Ch 4:22 should be regarded as the potters, etc.” But all those mentioned in 1Ch 4:22 are by no means called Byssus-weavers, but only the families of Ashbea. What the descendants of Er and Laadan were is not said. The may consequently very probably refer to all the sons of Shelah enumerated in 1Ch 4:21 and 1Ch 4:22, with the exception of the families designated Byssus-weavers, who are, of course, understood to be excepted. signifies “plantings;” but since is probably the name of a city Gedera in the lowlands of Judah (cf. Jos 15:36; and for the situation, see on 1Ch 12:4), Netaim also will most likely denote a village where there were royal plantations, and about which these descendants of Shelah were employed, as the words “with the king in his business to dwell there” expressly state. is not an individual king of Judah, for we know not merely “of King Uzziah that he had country lands, 2Ch 26:10” (Berth.); but we learn from 1Ch 27:25-31 that David also possessed great estates and country lands, which were managed by regularly appointed officers.
We may therefore with certainty assume that all the kings of Judah had domains on which not only agriculture and the rearing of cattle, but also trades, were carried on.
(Note: From the arrangement of the names in vv. 2-20, in which Bertheau finds just twelve families grouped together, he concludes, S. 44f., that the division of the tribe of Judah into these twelve families did actually exist at some time or other, and had been established by a new reckoning of the families which the heads of the community found themselves compelled to make after deep and wide alterations had taken place in the circumstances of the tribe. He then attempts to determine this time more accurately by the character of the names. For since only a very few names in these verses are known to us from the historical books, from Genesis to 2 Kings, and the few thus known refer to the original divisions of the tribe, which may have maintained themselves till post-exilic times, while, on the contrary, a great number of the other names recur in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah; and since localities which in the earliest period after the exile were important for the new community are frequently met with in our verses, while such as were constantly being mentioned in prae-exilic times are nowhere to be found, – Bertheau supposes that a division of the tribe of Judah is here spoken of, which actually existed at some time in the period between Zerubbabel and Ezra. This hypothesis has, however, no solid foundation. The assumption even that the names in vv. 2-20 belong to just twelve families is very questionable; for this number can only be arrived at by separating the descendants of Caleb, 1Ch 4:15, from the descendants of Kenaz, 1Ch 4:13 and 1Ch 4:14, of whom Caleb himself was one, and reckoning them separately. But the circumstance that in this reckoning only the names in 1Ch 4:12-20 are taken into consideration, which no notice is taken of the descendants of Shelah the son of Judah, enumerated in 1Ch 4:21-23, is much more important . Bertheau considers this verse to be merely a supplementary addition, but without reason, as we have pointed out on 1Ch 4:21. For if the descendants of Shelah form a second line of families descended from Judah, co-ordinate with the descendants of Pharez and Zerah, the tribe of Judah could not, either before or after the exile, have been divided into the twelve families supposed by Bertheau; for we have no reason to suppose, on behalf of this hypothesis, that all the descendants of Shelah had died out towards the end of the exile, and that from the time of Zerubbabel only families descended from Pharez and Zerah existed. But besides this, the hypothesis is decisively excluded by the fact that in the enumeration, vv. 2-20, no trace can be discovered of a division of the tribe of Judah into twelve families; for not only are the families mentioned not ranger according to the order of the sons and grandsons of Judah mentioned in 1Ch 4:1, but also the connection of many families with Judah is not even hinted at. An enumeration of families which rested upon a division either made or already existing at any particular time, would be very differently planned and ordered. But if we must hold the supposition of a division of the tribe of Judah into twelve families to be unsubstantiated, since it appears irreconcilable with the present state of these genealogies, we must also believe the opinion that this division actually existed at any time between Zerubbabel and Ezra to be erroneous, and to rest upon no tenable grounds. The relation of the names met with in these verses to the names in the books from Genesis to 2 Kings on the one hand, and to the books of Ezra and Nehemiah on the other, is not really that which Bertheau represents it to be. If we turn our attention in the first place to the names of places, we find that, except a few quite unknown villages or towns, the localities mentioned in vv. 2-20 occur also in the book of Joshua, and many of them even here and there throughout Genesis, in the book of Judges, and in the books of Samuel and Kings. In these latter they are somewhat more rarely met with, but only because they played no great part in history. The fact of a disproportionate number of these towns occurring also in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah is connected with the peculiar character of the contents of these books, containing as they do a number of registers of the families of Judah which had returned out of exile. Then if we consider the names of persons in vv. 2-20, we find that not a few of them occur in the historical narratives of the books of Samuel and Kings. Others certainly are found only in the family registers of the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, while others again are peculiar to our verses. This phenomenon also is completely accounted for by the contents of the various historical books of the Old Testament. For example, had Nehemiah not received into his book the registers of all the families who had returned from Babylon, and who took part in the building of the walls of Jerusalem, no more names would be met with in his book than are found in the books of Samuel and Kings. Bertheau attempts to find support for his hypothesis in the way in which the names are enumerated, and their loose connection with each other, inasmuch as the disconnected statements abruptly and intermittently following one another, which to us bring enigma after enigma, must have been intended for readers who could bring a key to the understanding of the whole from an accurate knowledge of the relations which are here only hinted at; but the strength of this argument depends upon the assumption that complete family registers were at the command of the author of the Chronicle, from which he excerpted unconnected and obscure fragments, without any regard to order. But such an assumption cannot be justified. The character of that which is communicated would rather lead us to believe that only fragments were in the hands of the chronicler, which he has given to us as he found them. We must therefore pronounce this attempt at an explanation of the contents and form of vv. 2-20 to be an utter failure.)
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(23) These were the potters.Viz., the clans enumerated in 1Ch. 4:22.
And those that dwelt among plants and hedges.Rather, and inhabitants of Net aim and Gederah. Netaim means plantations (Isa. 17:10). Solomon had pleasure-gardens near Bethlehem. See also the notice of Uzziahs farms and vineyards (2Ch. 26:10). Gederah (Jos. 15:36), a town in the Shephelah.
There they dwelt with the king.Literally, with the king in his work they dwelt there. This seems to say that the potteries of Netaim and Gederah were a royal establishment, as those of Sevres used to be. Perhaps the linen-weaving of Beth-Ashbea (1Ch. 4:21) should be included.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
23. Dwelt among plants and hedges These words should be rendered as proper names, inhabitants of Netaim and Gederah.
They dwelt with the king for his work They occupied the royal lands and laboured in manual service for the king. In the excavations made at the southeast angle of the Haram enclosure, remains of ancient pottery were found, bearing in Phenician letters the words, To King Zepha; King Shat. On one piece was a part of the word “Melek,” king. On the other pieces the letters had become obliterated.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1Ch 4:23. Those that dwelt among plants and hedges Amongst the plantations, and at Gaderah. Houbigant. See the LXX.
REFLECTIONS.1st, Among the numerous descendants of Judah, in the line of Pharez, Jabez is especially taken notice of, who seems to be of the family of Aharhel.
1. His name was given him from the pangs of travail that his mother endured: a memorial of the mercy of God to herself, who restored her from the jaws of death; or to him, of the sorrow and trouble to which man is as naturally born, as the sparks fly upwards.
2. He was a great man, more honourable than his brethren, either for wealth, or courage, or wisdom; or, above all, as from his prayer it appears, for piety. Greatness, when united with goodness, is doubly distinguished.
3. His prayer and the answer are recorded to his honour; for, nothing is more truly noble, than in prayer to have power with God as a prince, and to prevail. (1.) The prayer is addressed to the God of Israel, his covenant God. Note; They who draw near to God with faith, as interested in a covenant of grace, may expect with confidence that they shall be heard and answered. (2.) The substance of it is, for God’s blessing; either temporal, as the enlargement of his border in the expulsion of the Canaanites; the support of God in his attempts against them, and preservation from danger; or spiritual blessings, as the enlargement of his heart in light and love, and every holy affection; the strength of divine grace to subdue his corruptions; and protection from that greatest of evils, sin, and its present and eternal consequences. Note; (1.) Every blessing, temporal and spiritual, comes from God, and should be sought in the way of prayer. (2.) They who wait upon God, will renew their strength, and be kept from the power of the evil one, the evil heart, and the evil world. (3.) Unless God strengthen us, we become a prey to the weakest of our enemies.
4. God granted his prayer: so ready is God to give to him that asketh, and to supply the largest desires of our souls.
2nd, We have here, among the descendants of Judah, two families distinguished as being craftsmen and weavers. These trades descended from father to son: one of these craftsmen was, it seems, nobly allied, 1Ch 4:18.; for it was not then counted mean to be an ingenious mechanic. Another family had, during the days of Moab’s subjection, been sent thither as governors for David; but since those ancient conquests, times were now sadly changed, and they were reduced to be potters and husbandmen to the king of Babylon, and earned their bread with the sweat of their brow. Note; This world is a changing scene: nothing substantial or enduring is to be expected in it. Let it quicken our diligence, then, to secure a better, where our dignity will be secure without variableness or shadow of turning.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
1Ch 4:23 These [were] the potters, and those that dwelt among plants and hedges: there they dwelt with the king for his work.
Ver. 23. Those that dwelt among plants and hedges. ] Hedge rogues, Mr Dyke a calleth them: the base brood of their degenerated forefathers, saith another; poor-spirited men; not like that late learned martyr, who in his banishment or flight for conscience, served the mason; nor like Musculus, forced to dig in the town ditch one while for a poor livelihood; but such as choose rather to abide under the hedges of Babylon, and there to plant gardens, make fences and flower pots for the king of Babylon, than to return to their own country, though Cyrus had proclaimed liberty for them so to do.
There they dwelt.
a Serm. on John v.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
1 Chronicles
THE KING’S POTTERS
1Ch 4:23
In these dry lists of names which abound in Chronicles, we now and then come across points of interest, oases in the desert, which need but to be pondered sympathetically to yield interesting suggestions. Here for example, buried in a dreary genealogical table, is a little touch which repays meditating on. Among the members of the tribe of Judah were a hereditary caste of potters who lived in ‘Netaim and Gederah,’ if we adhere to the Revised Version’s text, or ‘among plantations and hedges’ if we prefer the margin. But they are also described as dwelling ‘with the king.’ That can only mean on the royal estates, for the king himself resided in Jerusalem. He, however, held large domains in the territory of Judah, on some of which these ceramic artists were settled down and followed their calling. They were kept on the royal estates and kept in comfort, not needing to till, but fed and cared for, that they might be free to mould, out of common clay, forms of beauty and ‘vessels meet for the master’s use.’ Surely we may read into the brief statement of the text a meaning of which the writer of it never dreamt, and see in the description of these forgotten artisans, a symbol of our Christian relations to our Lord and of our life’s work.
I. We, too, dwell with the King.
But we find in this notice a hint that leads us in yet another direction. They ‘dwelt with the king’ in the sense that they were housed and cared for on his lands. And in like manner, the true conception of the Christian life is that each of us is ‘a sojourner with Thee,’ set down on Christ’s domains, and looked after by Him in regard to provision for outward wants. We have nothing in property, but all is His and held by His gift and to be used for Him. The slave owns nothing. The patch of ground which he cultivates for his food and what grows on it, are his master’ s. These workmen were not slaves, but they were not owners either. And we hold nothing as our own, if we are true to the terms on which it is given us to hold.
So if we rightly appreciate our position as dwelling on the King’s lands, our delusion of possession will vanish, and we shall feel more keenly the pressure of responsibility while we feel less keenly the grip of anxiety. We are for the time being entrusted with a tiny piece of the royal estates. Let us not strut about as if we were owners, nor be for ever afraid that we shall not have enough for our needs. One sometimes comes on a model village close to the gates of some ducal palace, and notes how the lordly owner’s honour prompts its being kept up to a high standard of comfort and beauty. We may be sure that the potters were well lodged and looked after, and that care for their personal wants was shifted from their shoulders to the king’ s. So should ours be. He will not leave His servants to starve. They should not dishonour Him and disturb themselves by worries and cares that would be reasonable only if they had no Provider. He has said, ‘All things are given to Me of My Father,’ and He gives us all that God has given Him.
II. We dwell with the King for His work.
Nor are we to forget that, in a very profound sense, dwelling with the King must go before doing His work. Unless we are living continually under the operation of the stimulus of communion with Jesus, we shall have neither quickness of ear to know what He wishes us to do, nor any resolute concentration of ourselves on our Christ-appointed tasks. The spring of all noble living is communion with noble ideals, and fellowship with Jesus sets men agoing, as nothing else will, in practical lives of obedience to Jesus. Time given to silent, retired meditation on that sweet, sacred bond that knits the believing soul to the redeeming Lord is not lost with reference to active work for Jesus. The meditative and the practical life are not antagonistic, but complementary, Mary and Martha are sisters, though sometimes they differ, and foolish people try to set them against each other.
But we must beware of a common misconception of what the King’s work is. The royal potters did not make only things of beauty, but very common vessels designed for common and ignoble uses. There were vessels of dishonour dried in their kilns as well as vessels ‘meet for the master’s use.’ There is a usual and lamentable narrowing of the term ‘Christian work,’ to certain conventional forms of service, which has done and is doing an immense amount of harm. The King’s work is far wider in scope than teaching in Sunday-schools, or visiting the sick, or any similar acts that are usually labelled with the name. It covers all the common duties of life. A shallow religion tickets some selected items with the name; a robuster, truer conception extends the designation to everything. It is not only when we are definitely trying to bring others into touch with Jesus that we are doing Him service, but we may be equally serving Him in everything. The difference between the king’s work and the poor potters’ own lay not so much in the nature as in the motive of it, and whatever we do for Christ’s sake and with a view to His will is work that He owns, while a regard to self in our motive or in our end decisively strikes any service tainted by it out of the category.
We are to hallow all our deeds by drawing the motive for them from the King and by laying the fruits of them at His feet. Thus, and only thus, will the most ‘secular’ actions be sanctified and the narrowest life be widened to contain a present Christ.
There are subsidiary motives which may legitimately blend with the supreme one. The potters would be stimulated to work hard and with their utmost skill when they thought of how well they were paid in house and store for their work. We have ample reasons for dedicating our whole selves to Jesus when we think of His gift of Himself to us, of His wages beforehand, of His joyful presence with His eye ever on us, marking our purity of motive and our diligence.
There is a final thought that may well stimulate us to put all our skill and effort into our work. The potters’ work went to Jerusalem. It was for the king. What can be too good for him? He will see it, therefore let us put our best into it. And we shall see it too, when we too enter ‘the city of the great King.’ Jars that perhaps were wrought by these very workmen of whom we have been speaking turn up to-day in the excavations in Palestine. So much has perished and they remain, speaking symbols of the solemn truth that nothing human ever dies. Our ‘works do follow us.’ Let us so live that these may be ‘found unto praise and honour and glory’ at the appearing of ‘the King.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
those that dwelt, &c. The inhabitants of Netaim and Gedera.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
1Ch 4:14, Psa 81:6
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
4:23 These [were] the potters, and those that dwelt among plants and hedges: {g} there they dwelt with the king for his work.
(g) They were David’s gardeners and served him in his works.