1 Chronicles 27





      and their officers—the Shoterim, who in the army performed the duty of the commissariat, keeping the muster-roll, &c.

     2, 3. Jashobeam the son of Zabdiel—(See on 1Ch 11:11; 2Sa 23:8). Hachmoni was his father, Zabdiel probably one of his ancestors; or there might be different names of the same individual. In the rotation of the military courses, the dignity of precedence, not of authority, was given to the hero.

     4. second month was Dodai—or, "Dodo." Here the text seems to require the supplement of "Eleazar the son of Dodo" (2Sa 23:9).

     7. Asahel—This officer having been slain at the very beginning of David's reign [2Sa 2:23], his name was probably given to this division in honor of his memory, and his son was invested with the command.


     16. over the tribes of Israel: the ruler—This is a list of the hereditary chiefs or rulers of tribes at the time of David's numbering the people. Gad and Asher are not included; for what reason is unknown. The tribe of Levi had a prince (1Ch 27:17), as well as the other tribes; and although it was ecclesiastically subject to the high priest, yet in all civil matters it had a chief or head, possessed of the same authority and power as in the other tribes, only his jurisdiction did not extend to the priests.

     18. Elihu—probably the same as Eliab (1Sa 16:6).

     23. But David took not the number of them from twenty years old and under—The census which David ordered did not extend to all the Israelites; for to contemplate such an enumeration would have been to attempt an impossibility (Ge 28:14), and besides would have been a daring offense to God. The limitation to a certain age was what had probably quieted David's conscience as to the lawfulness of the measure, while its expediency was strongly pressed upon his mind by the army arrangements he had in view.

     24. neither was the number put in the account of the chronicles of King David—either because the undertaking was not completed, Levi and Benjamin not having been numbered (1Ch 21:6), or the full details in the hands of the enumerating officers were not reported to David, and, consequently, not registered in the public archives.


     25. over the king's treasures—Those treasures consisted of gold, silver, precious stones, cedar-wood, &c.; those which he had in Jerusalem as distinguished from others without the city.

      the storehouses in the fields—Grain covered over with layers of straw is frequently preserved in the fields under little earthen mounds, like our potato pits.

     27. the vineyards—These seem to have been in the vine growing districts of Judah, and were committed to two men of that quarter.

      wine-cellars—The wine is deposited in jars sunk in the court of the house.

     28. olive trees and the sycamore trees . . . in the low plains—that is, the Shephela, the rich, low-lying ground between the Mediterranean and the mountains of Judah.

     29. herds that fed in Sharon—a fertile plain between Cæsarea and Joppa.

     30. camels—These were probably in the countries east of the Jordan, and hence an Ishmaelite and Nazarite were appointed to take charge of them.

     31. rulers of the substance that was king David's—How and when the king acquired these demesnes and this variety of property—whether it was partly by conquests, or partly by confiscation, or by his own active cultivation of waste lands—is not said. It was probably in all these ways. The management of the king's private possessions was divided into twelve parts, like his public affairs and the revenue derived from all these sources mentioned must have been very large.

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