1) they burnt the offerings on the altar of burnt-offering and on the altar of incense, cf. Num 18:1-7; (2) they looked after all the service of the holy place; (3) they had to atone for Israel by offering the atoning-sacrifices, and performing the cleansings according to all that Moses commanded. This last clause refers to all the three above-mentioned duties of the priests. Moses is called the servant of God, as in Deu 34:5; Jos 1:1, Jos 1:13.
Verses 50-53
1Ch 6:50-53 (Hebrew_Bible_6:35-38). The remarks as to the service of the priests are followed by a catalogue of the high priests, which runs from Eleazar to Ahimaaz the son of Zadok (cf. 2Sa 15:27), who probably succeeded his father in the high-priesthood even in the time of Solomon. This genealogy is similar in form to the genealogies given in 1Ch 6:20-30, and has therefore most probably been derived from the same source as this, and has been drawn in here to form a transition to the enumeration of the cities of the Levites; for it begins in 1Ch 6:44 with the dwelling-places of the sons of Aaron, and the אהרן לבני...מושׁבותם ואלּה of 1Ch 6:44 corresponds to the אהרן בּני ואלּה of 1Ch 6:49. The order of the names coincides exactly with that of the longer register in 1 Chr 5:30-34.
Verse 54
1Ch 6:54 (Hebrew_Bible_6:39-66). Register of the cities of the Levites, which agrees on the whole with the register in Josh 21, if we except different forms of some names of cities, and many corruptions of the text, but differing in many ways from it in form; whence we gather that it is not derived from the book of Joshua, but from some other ancient authority.
Verse 54
1Ch 6:54 (Hebrew_Bible_6:39). 1Ch 6:54 contains the superscription, “These are their dwelling-places according to their districts, in their boundaries.” So far the superscription belongs to the whole catalogue of cities. The suffixes point back to the לוי בּני, 1Ch 6:1. טירה, from טוּר, to surround in a circle, signifies in the older language a “nomad village” (cf. Gen 25:16; Num 31:10); here, on the contrary, it is sued in a derivative sense for “district,” to denote the circle of dwellings which were granted to the Levites in the cities of the other tribes. The following words, “For the sons of Aaron of the family of Kohath,” etc., are the superscription to 1Ch 6:54-61, and together with the confirmatory clause, “for to him the (first) lot had fallen,” are a repetition of Jos 21:10, where, however, ראשׁנה is found after הגּורל, and has perhaps been here dropped out.
Verses 55-56
1Ch 6:55-56 (Hebrew_Bible_6:40-41). 1Ch 6:55 and 1Ch 6:56 correspond almost verbally with Jos 21:11 and Jos 21:12, as 1Ch 6:57-60 also do with Jos 21:13-19. As we have already in our remarks on Joshua
