1Ch 27 | TSK | STEP | The twelve captains for every several month. The princes of the twelve tribes. The numbering of the people is hindered. David's several officers. the chief fathers.The patriarchs, chief generals, or generals of brigade. This enumeration is widely different from that of the preceding. In that, we have the order and course of the priests and Levites, in their ecclesiastical ministrations: in this, we have the account of the order of the civil service, what related simply to the political state of the king and kingdom. Twenty-four persons, chosen out of David's worthies, each of whom had a second, were placed over 24,000 men, who all served a month at a time, in turn; and this was the whole of their service during the year, after which they attended to their own affairs. Thus the king had always on foot a regular force of 24,000, who served without expense to him or the state, and were not oppressed by the service, which took up only a twelfth part of their time; and by this plan he could, at any time, bring into the field 12 times 24,000 or 288,000 fighting men, independently of the 12,000 officers, which made in the whole an effective force of 300,000 soldiers; and all these men were prepared, disciplined, and ready at a call, without the smallest expense to the state or the king. These were, properly speaking, the militia of the Israelitish kingdom. captains. served. any matter. month.

1 Chronicles 27

1 The twelve captains for every several month.

16 The princes of the twelve tribes.

23 The numbering of the people is hindered.

25 David's several officers.

the chief fathers.The patriarchs, chief generals, or generals of brigade. This enumeration is widely different from that of the preceding. In that, we have the order and course of the priests and Levites, in their ecclesiastical ministrations: in this, we have the account of the order of the civil service, what related simply to the political state of the king and kingdom. Twenty-four persons, chosen out of David's worthies, each of whom had a second, were placed over 24,000 men, who all served a month at a time, in turn; and this was the whole of their service during the year, after which they attended to their own affairs. Thus the king had always on foot a regular force of 24,000, who served without expense to him or the state, and were not oppressed by the service, which took up only a twelfth part of their time; and by this plan he could, at any time, bring into the field 12 times 24,000 or 288,000 fighting men, independently of the 12,000 officers, which made in the whole an effective force of 300,000 soldiers; and all these men were prepared, disciplined, and ready at a call, without the smallest expense to the state or the king. These were, properly speaking, the militia of the Israelitish kingdom.

captains.

13:1; Ex 18:25; De 1:15; 1Sa 8:12; Mic 5:2

served.

28:1; 2Ch 17:12-19; 26:11-13

any matter.

1Ki 5:14

month.

1Ki 4:7,27

Jashobeam.

11:11; 2Sa 23:8

Adino the Eznite.

Perez.

Ge 38:29; Nu 26:20

Pharez. the chief.

Ge 49:8-10; Nu 7:12; 10:14

Dodai.

11:12; 2Sa 23:9

Dodo.

Benaiah.Or, "Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada the chief priest:" it was Jehoiada, and not Benaiah, who was a priest.

18:17; 1Ki 4:4

chief priest. or, principal officer.

1Ki 4:5

mighty.

11:22-25; 2Sa 22:20-23; 23:20-23

Asahel.

11:26; 2Sa 2:18-23; 23:24

Shamhuth.If this person was the same as Shammoth the Hararite, or Shammah the Harodite, it is probable that he took the denomination Izrahite, from one of his progenitors of the name Izrah, and derived the other from the place of his residence.

11:27

Shammoth the Hararite.

26:29; 2Sa 23:25

Shammah the Harodite.

Ira.

11:28; 2Sa 23:26

Helez.

11:27

Pelonite.

2Sa 23:26

Paltite.

Sibbecai.

Zarhites.

Anetothite.

Antothite.

Anethothite.

Maharai.

11:30; 2Sa 23:28

Zarhites.

Benaiah.

Heldai.

Heled.

Heleb. Othniel.

Furthermore.These persons, called "princes of the tribes," in ver. 22, and ch. 28:1, appear to have been civil rulers over their several tribes, and honorary men, without pay, not unlike the lords lieutenants of our counties. In this enumeration there is no mention of the tribes of Gad and Asher, probably because they were joined to the neighbouring tribes; or perhaps, the account of these has been lost from the register.

Hashabiah.

26:30

of the Aaronites.

12:27,28; 24:4,31

Elihu.If Elihu be not a mistake for Eliab, it is probable that he was called by both names.

1Sa 16:6; 17:13,29

Eliab.

Iddo.

1Ki 4:14

Abner.

1Sa 14:50,51; 2Sa 3:27,37

David took not.It seems probable, from this passage, that Joab began, by David's order, to number the children, as well as adults, but was prevented from finishing the account, probably because the plague had begun. The numbering of the effective men might have been deemed a political expedient; but pride and ostentation alone could dictate the numbering of minors and infants, especially as God had pronounced the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, innumerable.

from twenty.

Nu 1:18

he would increase.

Ge 15:5; Heb 11:12

began to number.

21:1-17; 2Sa 24:1-15

was the number put. Heb. ascended the number.

the king's.

2Ki 18:15; 2Ch 16:2

the storehouses.

Ge 41:48; Ex 1:11; 2Ch 26:10; Jer 41:8

the increase of the vineyards. Heb. that which was of thevineyards.

And over.

1Ki 4:7

the sycamore trees.The Hebrew {shikmin,} Syriac {shekmo,} and Arabic {jummeez,} is the [sykomoros,] or sycomore, of the Greeks, so called from [sykos,] a fig-tree, and [moros] a mulberry- tree, because it resembles the latter in its leaves, and the former in its fruits. "The sycamore," says Mr. Norden, "is of the height of a beech, and bears its fruit in a manner quite different from other trees: it has them on the trunk itself, which shoots out little sprigs, in form of grape stalks, at the end of which grow the fruit close to one another, almost like a cluster of grapes. The tree is always green, and bears fruit several times in the year, without observing any certain seasons; for I have seen some sycamores that have given fruit two months after others. The fruit has the figure and smell of real figs, but is inferior to them in the taste, having a disgusting sweetness. Its colour is a yellow, inclining to an ochre, shadowed by a flesh colour. In the inside it resembles the common figs, excepting that it has a blackish colouring with yellow spots. This sort of tree is pretty common in Egypt; the people, for the greater part, live on its fruit, and think themselves well regaled when they have a piece of bread, a couple of sycamore figs, and a pitcher of water."

1Ki 20:27

Sharon.

5:16; Isa 65:10

the camels.

Job 1:3

the Ishmaelite.

Ge 47:6

uncle.

2Sa 13:3; 21:21

nephew. scribe.or, secretary.

son of Hachmoni. .

or, Hachmonite.