John Gill's Bible Commentary Ver. 6. And Shemaiah the son of Nethaneel the scribe , etc.] The Targum is, Moses the chief scribe, so called: one of the Levites wrote them : the lots, and the names upon them, put into the urn, and as they came out, which was first, second, etc. and this was done before the king, and the princes, and Zadok the priest, and Ahimelech the son of Abiathar, and before the chief of the fathers of the priests and Levites ; and in this public manner, before such great personages, and in the presence of those that were interested in the affair, that it might appear plainly no fraudulent methods were taken, and that there might be no suspicion of any: one principal household being taken for Eleazar, and one for Ithamar ; the sense of Jarchi as above, and other Jewish writers, is, that one was added to each family of Eleazar, and so made sixteen, and Ithamar’s were retained, and left as at first, eight: but the sense is, that first one family of Eleazar was taken, and then one of Ithamar’s family, and then one of Eleazar’s again, and so on until sixteen were gone through; and then the other eight were divided under so many heads of the family of Eleazar.
Matthew Henry Commentary
- The divisions of the priests and Levites.
--When every one has, knows, and keeps his place and work, the mor there are the better. In the mystical body of Christ, every member ha its use, for the good of the whole. Christ is High Priest over the house of God, to whom all believers, being made priests, are to be in subjection. In Christ, no difference is made between bond and free elder and younger. The younger brethren, if faithful and sincere, shal be no less acceptable to Christ than the fathers. May we all be children of the Lord, fitted to sing his praises for ever in his templ above _________________________________________________
Original Hebrew ויחלקום2505 בגורלות1486 אלה428 עם5973 אלה428 כי3588 היו1961 שׂרי8269 קדשׁ6944 ושׂרי8269 האלהים430 מבני1121 אלעזר499 ובבני1121 איתמר׃385
