Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Chronicles 26:12
Among these [were] the divisions of the porters, [even] among the chief men, [having] wards one against another, to minister in the house of the LORD.
12. Among these another ] R.V. Of these were the courses of the doorkeepers, even of the chief man, having charges like as their brethren. In 1Ch 26:8-9; 1Ch 26:11 taken together ninety-three doorkeepers are enumerated, who are presumably the heads of the four thousand mentioned in 1Ch 23:5. In 1Ch 9:22 again the total number (as it seems) of doorkeepers is given as two hundred and twelve. The discrepancy is probably due to the use of different documents belonging to different dates by the Chronicler.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
This verse is obscure, but its probable meaning is the following: To these divisions of the porters, principal men, (were assigned) the watches, together with their brethren, for service in the house of the Lord; i. e., the chief men 1Ch 26:1-11, amounting to no more than 93, kept the watch and ward of the house, together with a further number of their brethren (4,000, 1Ch 23:5), who assisted them from time to time.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 12. The rest of this chapter, with the whole of the xxviiith, is wanting both in the Syriac and Arabic.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Having wards one against another; Heb. having wards against or answerably to their brethren, to wit, the other Levites, who were divided into twenty-four courses, as the priests also were, and so it seems were the porters.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
12. Among these were the divisionsof the porters, even among the chief menThese were chargedwith the duty of superintending the watches, being heads of thetwenty-four courses of porters.
1Ch26:13-19. THE GATESASSIGNED BY LOT.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Among these were the divisions of the porters, even among the chief men,…. These before named were the principal men of the porters, among which was a division or distribution of them into classes or courses, in which they served weekly in turn:
having wards one against another, to minister in the house of the Lord; meaning either to watch in, as on the north against the south, and the east against the west, and “vice versa”. The Jews say t, the priests kept ward in three places in the house of the sanctuary; in the house of Abtines, in the house of Nitzotz, and in the house of Moked; and the Levites in twenty one places, five at the five gates of the mountain of the house, four at the four corners of it within, five at the five gates of the court, four at the four corners of it without, one at the chamber of the offering, one at the chamber of the vail, and another behind the house of atonement, the holy of holies; but rather the sense is, that they had wards or courses answerable to those of the priests, and the other Levites, the singers, and were distributed into twenty four classes or courses as they, which are thus reckoned by Kimchi; at the east six, at the north four, at the south four, at Asuppim two and two, which were four, at the west four, and at Parbar two; lo, twenty four; see 1Ch 26:17.
t Misn. Middot, c. 1. sect. 1.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The division of the doorkeepers according to their posts of service. 1Ch 26:12. “To these classes of doorkeepers, viz., to the heads of the men, (were committed) the watches, in common with their brethren, to serve in the house of Jahve.” By it is placed beyond doubt that the above-mentioned names and numbers give us the classes of the doorkeepers. By the apposition , the meaning of which is discussed in the commentary on 1Ch 24:4, is so defined as to show that properly the heads of the households are meant, only these having been enumerated in the preceding section, and not the classes.
1Ch 26:13 The distribution of the stations by lot followed (cf. 1Ch 25:8), the small as the great; i.e., the younger as the older cast lots, according to their fathers’-houses, “for door and door,” i.e., for each door of the four sides of the temple, which was built so that its sides corresponded to the points of the compass.
1Ch 26:14 The lot towards the east, i.e., for the guarding of the east side, fell to Shelemiah (cf. 1Ch 26:1, 1Ch 26:2); while that towards the north fell to his first-born Zechariah. Before , is to be repeated. To him the title is given, for reasons unknown to us. , (for him) they threw lots.
1Ch 26:15 To Obed-edom (fell the lot) towards the south, and to his sons it fell (to guard) the house Asuppim. As to , called for brevity in 1Ch 26:17, i.e., house of collections or provisions (cf. Neh 12:25), we can say nothing further than that it was a building used for the storing of the temple goods, situated in the neighbourhood of the southern door of the temple in the external court, and that it probably had two entrances, since in 1Ch 26:19 it is stated that two guard-stations were assigned to it.
1Ch 26:16 The word is unintelligible, and probably has come into the text merely by a repetition of the two last syllables of the preceding word, since the name (1Ch 7:12) has no connection with this passage. To Hosah fell the lot towards the west, by the door Shallecheth on the ascending highway. is the way which led from the lower city up to the more lofty temple site. Instead of the door on this highway, in 1Ch 26:18, in the statement as to the distribution of the guard-stations, Parbar is named, and the highway distinguished from it, four doorkeepers being appointed for the , and two for . . , probably identical with , 2Ki 23:11, a word of uncertain meaning, was the name of an out-building on the western side, the back of the outer court of the temple by the door Shallecheth, which contained cells for the laying up of temple goods and furniture. , Bttcher translates, Proben, S. 347, “refuse-door;” see on 2Ki 23:11. Nothing more definite can be said of it, unless we hold, with Thenius on 2Ki 23:11, that Ezekiel’s temple is in all its details a copy of the Solomonic temple, and use it, in an unjustifiable way, as a source of information as to the prae-exilic temple. (as in Neh 12:24), guard with (over against?) guard, or one guard as the other (cf. on , 1Ch 26:12 and 1Ch 25:8), Bertheau connects with Hosah, according to the Masoretic punctuation, and explains it thus: “Because it was Hosah’s duty to set guards before the western gate of the temple, and also before the gate Shallecheth, which lay over against it.” Clericus, on the contrary, refers the words to all the guard-stations: cum ad omnes januas essent custodiae, sibi ex adverso respondebant . This reference, according to which the words belong to what follows, and introduce the statement as to the number of guards at the individual posts which follows in 1Ch 26:17., seems to deserve the preference. So much is certain in any case, that there is no ground in the text for distinguishing the gate Shallecheth from the western gate of the temple, for the two gates are not distinguished either in 1Ch 26:16 or in 1Ch 26:18.
1Ch 26:17-18 Settlement of the number of guard-stations at the various sides and places. Towards morning (on the east side) were six of the Levites (six kept guard); towards the north by day (i.e., daily, on each day), four; towards the south daily, four; and at the storehouse two and two, consequently four also; at Parbar towards the west, four on the highway and two at Parbar, i.e., six. In all, therefore, there were twenty-four guard-stations to be occupied daily; but more than twenty-four persons were required, because, even supposing that one man at a time was sufficient for each post, one man could not stand the whole day at it: he must have been relieved from time to time. Probably, however, there were always more than one person on guard at each post. It further suggests itself that the number twenty-four may be in some way connected with the divisions or classes of doorkeepers; but there is only a deceptive appearance of a connection. The division of the priests and musicians each into twenty-four classes respectively is no sufficient analogy in the case, for these classes 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.
1Ch 26:19 Subscription, in which it is again stated that the classes of doorkeepers were taken from among the Korahites and Merarites.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(12) Among these were the divisions of the porters.Rather, To these, the courses (1Ch. 23:6) of porters, that is, to the heads of the men (1Ch. 24:4), were watches or charges (1Ch. 25:8) in common with their brethren (1Ch. 24:31), to minister in the house of Jehovah (1Ch. 16:37). The statement of this verse makes it evident that the names in 1Ch. 26:2-11 represent the courses of the porters or warders. As the twenty-four sons of Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun represented the twenty-four courses of musicians in 1 Chronicles 25, a similar classification might naturally be expected here. Accordingly, we actually find seven sons of Meshelemiah (1Ch. 26:2-3), eight sons of Obed-edom (1Ch. 26:4-5), and four sons of Hosah (1Ch. 26:10-11), which together make nineteen heads and classes. It remains to add the sons of Shemaiah son of Obed-edom. As the text stands, these appear to be six in number, which would give a total of twenty-five (7 + 8 + 4 + 6). But the connection of the Hebrew in 1Ch. 26:7 is so unusual as to suggest at once that something is wrong: and if we assume Obed-Elzabad to represent one original composite name, like Obed-edom, we get five sons of Shemaiah, and so a total of twenty-four classes or courses of warders. (From this verse to the end of chapter 27 the Syriac and Arabic versions fail us.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
wards: That is, classes against each other. Ward formerly signified a class or division: we still apply the term to the different apartments in hospitals, and to the more extensive districts into which the city of London is divided. 1Ch 25:8
Reciprocal: 1Ch 9:18 – they 1Ch 26:16 – ward against ward 2Ch 31:14 – the porter Neh 12:25 – keeping
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Ch 26:12. Wards Hebrew, having wards answerably to their brethren the other Levites, who were divided into twenty-four courses, as the priests also, and the porters were.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
26:12 Among these [were] the divisions of the porters, [even] among the chief men, [having] wards one {e} against another, to minister in the house of the LORD.
(e) According to their turns as well the one as the other.