Attributed commentary excerpt
Keil & Delitzsch on 1 Chronicles 6:20
A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.
Commentary on the Old Testament
C. F. Keil & F. Delitzsch · 19th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.
(6:5-15). The three lists of the descendants of Gershon, Kohath, and Merari are similar to one another in plan, and in all, each name is connected with the preceding by בּנו, "his son," but they differ greatly in the number of the names. Ch1 6:20-21 (6:5-6). The ל before גּרשׁום is introductory: "as to Gershom." Those of his descendants who are here enumerated belong to the family of his oldest son Libni, which is traced down through seven generations to Jeaterai, a name not elsewhere met with. Of the intermediate names, Johath, Zimmah, and Zerah occur also among the descendants of Asaph, who is descended from the line of Shimei, Ch1 6:39. Ch1 6:22-28 (6:7-13). The genealogy of the descendants of Kohath consists of three lists of names, each of which commences afresh with בּני, Ch1 6:22, Ch1 6:35, and Ch1 6:38; yet we learn nothing from it as to the genealogical connection of these three lines. The very beginning, "The sons of Kohath, Amminidab his son, Korah his son, Assir his son," is somewhat strange. For, according to Exo 6:18, Exo 6:21, and Exo 6:24, Kohath's second son is called Izhar, whose son was Korah, whose sons were Assir, Elkanah, and Abiasaph. Amminidab is nowhere met with as a son of Kohath; but among the descendants of Uzziel, a prince of a father's-house is met with in the time of David who bore this name. The name Amminidab occurs also in the time of Moses, in the genealogies of the tribe of Judah, Ch1 2:10; Num 1:7; Rut 1:19, as that of the father of the prince Nahshon, and of Elisheba, whom Aaron took to wife, Exo 6:23. But since the names Korah and Assir point to the family of Izhar, the older commentators supposed the Amminidab of our verse to be only another name for Izhar; while Bertheau, on the contrary, conjectures "that as an Amminidab occurs in the lists of the descendants of Kohath as father-in-law of Aaron, Amminidab has been substituted for Izhar by an ancient error, which might very easily slip into an abridgment of more detailed lists." But we have here no trace of an abridgment of more detailed lists. According to Exo 6:21 and Exo 6:24, Korah was a son of Izhar, and Assir a son of Korah; and consequently in our genealogies only the name Izhar is wanting between Korah and Kohath, while instead of him we have Amminidab. An exchange or confusion of the names of Izhar and Amminidab the father-in-law of Aaron, is as improbable as the supposition that Amminidab is another name for Izhar, since the genealogies of the Pentateuch give only the name Izhar. Yet no third course is open, and we must decide to accept either one or the other of these suppositions. For that our verses contain a genealogy, or fragments of genealogies, of the Kohathite line of Izhar there can be no doubt, when we compare them with the genealogy ( Ch1 6:33) of the musician Heman, a descendant of Kohath, which also gives us the means of explaining the other obscurities in our register. In Ch1 6:22 and Ch1 6:23 the names of Assir, Elkanah, and Abiasaph, and again Assir, follow that of Korah, with בּנו after each. This בּנו cannot be taken otherwise than as denoting that the names designate so many consecutive generations; and the only peculiarity in the list is, that the conjunction w is found before Abiasaph and the second Assir, while the other names do not have it. But if we compare the genealogy in Ex 6 with this enumeration, we find that there, in Ch1 6:39, the same three names, Assir, Elkanah, and Abiasaph, which are here enumerate…
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