1 Chronicles 26:10

“Also Hosah, of the children of Merari, had sons, etc.] Who was a fellow porter of Obededom’s at the ark, (<131638>1 Chronicles 16:38). Simri the chief (for though he was not the firstborn, yet his father made him the chief); the firstborn being unfit for service, either through want of an intellectual capacity, or of strength of body, or through some defect or another; according to the Syriac version, he was dead; so some understand the words, he, the father, had no firstborn remaining or living.”

“Simri the chief . . . though . . . not the first-born--probably because the family entitled to the right of primogeniture had died out, or because there were none of the existing families which could claim that right.”

“Made him the chief - Not in inheriting the estate; (this was forbidden by the law) but in this service, for which he was better qualified than his elder brother. 1 Chronicles 26:12”

“Hosah: Ch1 16:38 his father: Ch1 5:1, Ch1 5:2 1 Chronicles 26:12”

“The Merarites. Hosah's sons and brothers. חוסה has been already mentioned ( Ch1 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. Ch1 26:9), and Obed-edom sixty-two ( Ch1 26:8); and all taken together they make ninety-three, whom we are (according to Ch1 26:12.) to regard as the heads of the 4000 doorkeepers. In Ch1 9:22 the number of the doorkeepers…”