however, are only treated of from 1Ch 26:10 and onwards. אדם וּלעבד (1Ch 26:4) corresponds to ולמשׁלמיהוּ (1Ch 26:2), and is consequently thereby brought under לקּרהים (1Ch 26:1). Here, 1Ch 26:4, 1Ch 26:5, eight sons with whom God had blessed him (cf. 1Ch 13:14), and in 1Ch 26:6 and 1Ch 26:7 his grandchildren, are enumerated. The verb נולד is used in the singular, with a subject following in the plural, as frequently (cf. Ew. §316, a). The grandchildren of Obed-edom by his first-born son Shemaiah are characterized as המּמשׁלים, the dominions, i.e., the lords (rulers) of the house of their fathers (ממשׁל, the abstract dominion, for the concrete משׁל; cf. Ew. §160, b), because they were חיל גּבּורי, valiant heroes, and so qualified for the office of doorkeepers. In the enumeration in 1Ch 26:7, the omission of the ו cop. with אחיו אלזבד is strange; probably we must supply ו before both words, and take them thus: And Elzabad and his brethren, valiant men, (viz.) Elihu and Semachiah. For the conjecture that the names of the אחיו are not given (Berth.) is not a very probable one.
Verses 8-9
The whole number of doorkeepers of Obed-edom's family, his sons and brethren, was sixty-two; able men with strength for the service. The singular חיל אישׁ, after the preceding plural, is most simply explained by taking it to be in apposition to the כּל at the beginning of the verse, by repeating כּל mentally before אישׁ. - In 1Ch 26:9 the number of Meshelemiah's sons and brothers is brought in in a supplementary way.
Verses 10-11
The Merarites. Hosah's sons and brothers. חוסה has been already mentioned (1Ch 16:38) along with Obed-edom as doorkeeper. Hosah made Shimri head of the Merarites, who served as doorkeepers, because there was no first-born, i.e., because his first-born son had died without leaving any descendant, so that none of the families descended from Hosah had the natural claim to the birthright. All the sons and brothers of Hosah were thirteen. Meshelemiah had eighteen (cf. 1Ch 26:9), and Obed-edom sixty-two (1Ch 26:8); and all taken together they make ninety-three, whom we are (according to 1Ch 26:12.) to regard as the heads of the 4000 doorkeepers. In 1Ch 9:22 the number of the doorkeepers appointed by David is stated to be 212, but that number most probably refers to a different time (see on 1Ch 9:22). Bertheau further remarks: “According to 1Ch 16:38, sixty-eight are reckoned to Obed-edom and Hosah, in our passage seventy-five; and the small difference between the numbers is explained by the fact that in the first passage only the doorkeepers before the ark are referred to.” Against this we
