26:1-32 The offices of the Levites. - The porters and treasurers of the temple, had occasion for strength and valour to oppose those who wrongly attempted to enter the sanctuary, and to guard the sacred treasures. Much was expended daily upon the altar; flour, wine, oil, salt, fuel, beside the lamps; quantities of these were kept beforehand, besides the sacred vestments and utensils. These were the treasures of the house of God. These treasures typified the plenty there is in our heavenly Father's house, enough and to spare. From those sacred treasuries, the unsearchable riches of Christ, all our wants are supplied; and receiving from his fulness, we must give him the glory, and endeavour to dispose of our abilities and substance according to his will. We have an account of those employed as officers and judges. The magistracy is an ordinance of God for the good of the church, as truly as the ministry, and must not be neglected. None of the Levites who were employed in the service of the sanctuary, none of the singers or porters, were concerned in this outward business; one duty was enough to engage the whole man. Wisdom, courage, strength of faith, holy affections, and constancy of mind in doing our duty, are requisite or useful for every station.

Verses 29-32. - The chapter closes with some enumeration of those who were appointed to the outward business (הַחִיעונָה לַמְּלָאכָה) over Israel i.e. the secular or civic rather than temple business. Verse 29. - Though the Authorized Version of 1 Chronicles 15:22 would make it appear very unlikely that the Chenaniah, a "chief of the Levites," here spoken of was identical with the present Chenaniah, yet the other translation of that passage, and the view that some take of it as describing one who had the special ordering of the carrying of the ark, would leave it more likely. For the officers and judges, see 1 Chronicles 23:4; 2 Chronicles 19:5-11. The too generic term "officers" (Exodus 5:6-19: Numbers 11:16, etc.) may be advantageously superseded by the word "scribes." These scribes and judges, it appears, were taken from the families of Izhar and Hebron alone, without any Amramite or Uzzielite of the other Kohathites, and without any Gershonite or Merarite of the other Levites.

Of the Izharites, Chenaniah and his sons were

for the outward business over Israel,.... Which was done out of the temple, and out of Jerusalem, in the several parts of the country:

for officers and judges; to administer justice and judgment, and to take care that the laws of God were observed, both with respect to things civil and religious, and delinquents punished; which is a better sense than what Jarchi and Kimchi put upon this:

outward business, as if it lay in taking care to have timber cut down in the forest, and stones dug and hewed in the mountains, for the building of the temple; and that the lands were ploughed, and the vineyards, gardens, and orchards, dressed, which were devoted to sacred uses.

1Ch 26:29-32. Officers and Judges.

29. officers and judges—The word rendered "officers" is the term which signifies scribes or secretaries, so that the Levitical class here described were magistrates, who, attended by their clerks, exercised judicial functions; there were six thousand of them (1Ch 23:4), who probably acted like their brethren on the principle of rotation, and these were divided into three classes—one (1Ch 26:29) for the outward business over Israel; one (1Ch 26:30), consisting of seventeen hundred, for the west of Jordan "in all business of the Lord, and in the service of the king"; and the third (1Ch 26:31, 32), consisting of twenty-seven hundred, "rulers for every matter pertaining to God, and affairs of the king."

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