1 Chronicles 15:5

Of the sons of Kohath; Uriel the chief, and his brethren an hundred and twenty:

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(5) Of the sons of Kohath.—Kohath comes first, as the senior clan, to which the priestly house of Aaron itself belonged.

(5-7) Uriel (El is light), Asaiah (Iah made), Joel (Iah is El) occur as Levitical names in 1Chronicles 6:24; 1Chronicles 6:30; 1Chronicles 6:33, and elsewhere.

Benson Commentary

1 Chronicles 15:5. Of the sons of Kohath; Uriel the chief — The sons of Kohath are mentioned Exodus 6:17-18, and Uriel is not one of them: therefore he must have been his grandson, and a person so famous that his descendants are mentioned in the first place.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

15:1-24 Wise and good men may be guilty of oversights, which they will correct, as soon as they are aware of them. David does not try to justify what had been done amiss, nor to lay the blame on others; but he owns himself guilty, with others, of not seeking God in due order

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The sons of Kohath - The order of the sons of Levi according to primogeniture is, Gershom, Kohath, Merari Genesis 46:11; Exodus 6:16. But the Kohathites, of whom came the priestly family of the Aaronites, had precedence in all respects. To them especially was committed the attendance upon the ark and the bearing of it. Of the six Levitical families mentioned 1 Chronicles 15:5-10 one only was descended from Gershom, one from Merari, and four (Uriel, Elizaphan, Hebron, and Uzziel) from Kohath.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

4. David assembled the children of Aaron, and the Levites—The children of Aaron were the two priests (1Ch 15:11), Zadok and Abiathar, heads of the two priestly houses of Eleazar and Ithamar, and colleagues in the high priesthood (2Sa 20:25). The Levites were the chiefs of their father's house (1Ch 15:12); four belonging to the Kohathite branch, on whose shoulders the ark was to be borne; namely, Uriel, Shemaiah—descended from Elizaphan or Elzaphan—(Ex 6:22), Hebron (Ex 6:18; 1Ch 6:2), and Amminadab from Uzziel (Ex 6:22).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Of the sons of Kohath, to wit, of Amram or Izhar, Kohath’s sons, Numbers 3:27. Otherwise Elizaphan, 1 Chronicles 15:8, and Hebron, 1 Chronicles 15:9, and Uzziel, 1 Chronicles 15:10, were Kohath’s children; of which see Exodus 6:17,18,22.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And David assembled the children of Aaron, and the Levites. Whose business it was to bear the ark when there was any occasion for it: and from hence to the end of 1 Chronicles 15:10 an account is given of the Levites, and their number employed in this affair:

of the sons of Kohath; a son of Levi, that is, of his posterity; for his immediate sons, and so those of the rest after mentioned, had been dead ages ago; the principal of those, at this present time, was Uriel, and his kindred, or those of the same family with him, were one hundred and twenty: of those of Merari, another son of Levi, the chief was Asaiah, with two hundred and twenty of his relations: of those of Gershon, another son of Levi, was Joel, and his brethren were one hundred and thirty: of the posterity of Elizaphan, a grandson of Kohath, Exodus 5:18, the most noted was Shemaiah, who had two hundred of his family with him: and of those of Hebron, the son of Kohath, Exodus 6:18, Eliel was the most famous, and he had eighty of his kindred with him: and of those of Uzziel, another son of Kohath in a different line from Elizaphan, who also was a son of Uzziel, was Amminadab the chief, who had one hundred and twelve of his kindred with him: the number of Levites, in all, gathered together, were eight hundred and sixty two, besides their chiefs.

Geneva Study Bible

Of the sons of Kohath; Uriel the chief, and his brethren an hundred and twenty:

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

5. the sons of Kohath: Uriel] Kohath had four sons (Exodus 6:18 = 1 Chronicles 6:18) Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel. Here the descendants of Amram (exclusive of the priests, the Aaronites) represented by Uriel head the list (1 Chronicles 15:5), and the descendants of Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel appear in 1 Chronicles 15:8-10 respectively. Elizaphan (1 Chronicles 15:8), either stands for the Izhar of Exodus 6:18, or is the name of some prominent descendant of Izhar after whom the whole family was named. As regards number the Kohathites were 512 against 350 of the sons of Merari and the sons of Gershom combined. In 1 Chronicles 6:60-63 (45–48 Heb. division) 23 cities are reckoned to Kohath against 25 to Merari and Gershom combined. The Kohathites formed the largest and most important of the three divisions of the Levites.

1 Chronicles 15:5

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

From among assembled Israel David then specially gathered together the heads of the priests and Levites, to determine upon the details of this solemn procession. "The sons of Aaron" are the high priests Zadok and Abiathar, 1 Chronicles 15:11; and the "Levites" are the six princes named in 1 Chronicles 15:5-10, with their brethren, viz., (1 Chronicles 15:5-7) the three heads of the families into which the tribe of Levi was divided, and which corresponded to the three sons of Levi, Gershon, Kohath, and Merari, respectively (Exodus 6:16): Uriel head of the Kohathites, Asaiah of the Merarites, and Joel head of the Gershonites, with their brethren. Kohath is first enumerated, because Aaron the chief of the priests was descended from Kohath, and because to the Kohathites there fell, on account of their nearer relationship to the priests, the duty of serving in that which is most holy, the bearing of the holiest vessels of the tabernacle. See Numbers 4:4, Numbers 4:15; Numbers 7:9; as to Uriel, see on Numbers 6:24; for Asaiah, see 6:30; and as to Joel, see 1 Chronicles 6:33. Then in 1 Chronicles 15:8, 1 Chronicles 15:9 we have the heads of three other Kohathite families: Shemaiah, chief of the sons of Elizaphan, i.e., Elizaphan son of the Kohathite Uzziel (Exodus 6:22); Eliel, chief of the sons of Hebron the Kohathite (Exodus 6:18); and Amminadab, chief of the sons of Uzziel. The sons of Uzziel, consequently, were divided into two fathers'-houses: the one founded by Uzziel's son Elizaphan, and named after him (1 Chronicles 15:8); the other founded by his other sons, and called by his name. Of the fathers'-houses here enumerated, four belong to Kohath, and one each to Merari and Gershon; and the Kohathites were called to take part in the solemn act in greater numbers than the Merarites and Gershonites, since the transport of the ark was the Kohathites' special duty.