Attributed commentary excerpt
Keil & Delitzsch on 1 Chronicles 6:54
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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.
(6:39-66). 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. Ch1 6:54 (6:39). Ch1 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, Ch1 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 Ch1 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. Ch1 6:55-56 (6:40-41). Ch1 6:55 and Ch1 6:56 correspond almost verbally with Jos 21:11 and Jos 21:12, as Ch1 6:57-60 also do with Jos 21:13-19. As we have already in our remarks on Joshua commented upon the whole catalogue, it will not be necessary to do more here than to group together the errors and defects of our text. Ch1 6:57-60 (6:42-45). The plural המּקלט ערי is incorrect, for only one of the cities thereafter named, viz., Hebron, was a city of refuge for homicides, and in Jos 21:13 it is correctly written מקלט עיר. After יתּיר retfA the usual addition ואת־מגרשׁיה is omitted, Ch1 6:59. Before Bethshemesh the name Juttah has been lost, and before Geba ( Ch1 6:60) the name Gibeon, so that only eleven cities are mentioned, but the sum is rightly given as thirteen. Instead of the name חילן, Ch1 6:58, there is found in Jos 21:15 and Jos 15:51 חלן; instead of עין, Jos 21:16, we have in Ch1 6:59 the more correct name עשׁן; and the name עלּמת, Ch1 6:60, is in Jos 21:18 עלמון. Ch1 6:61-63 (6:46-48). Summary statements of the number of cities which the remaining Kohathites, the Gershonites, and the Merarites received in the domains of the various tribes, corresponding to Jos 21:5-7. In Ch1 6:61 occurs a hiatus; between המּטּה and ממּחצית the words "Ephraim and of the tribe of Dan and" have been omitted. In Ch1 6:48 the words "of the tribe of Manasseh in Bashan" are quite intelligible without חצי, which is found in Joshua. Ch1 6:64-65 (6:49-50). Ch1 6:64 and Ch1 6:65 are not here in their proper place; for their contents show that they should be in the middle of the thirty-ninth verse, after the general superscription, and before the words "for the sons of Aaron." They are found also in Jos 21:8-9, as a superscription before the enumeration by name of the cities assigned to the priests; but how the confusion has arisen in our text cannot be certainly ascertained. Bertheau thinks "the wish to make mention of the cities of the high-priestly family at the beginning of the enumeration, has induced the author of the Chronicle to communicate the introductory remarks belonging to the lists of cities with other statements as to the tribal domains, only after the enumeration of the cities of the sons of Aaron." By that supposition the position of Ch1 6:61 is c…
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