1 Chronicles 9:25

And their brethren, which were in their villages, were to come after seven days from time to time with them.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(25) And their brethren, which were in their villages.—The families of the Temple warders, like those of the singers, lived on their farms in the villages round Jerusalem, and came up for their duties in weekly rotation (1Chronicles 9:16; Nehemiah 12:29).

After seven days.—Every seventh day; that is, on the Sabbath, when each class entered on its duties.

Benson Commentary

1 Chronicles 9:25. Their brethren were to come — From their several villages to the place of worship. After seven days — Every seventh day the courses were changed, and the new-comers were to tarry till the next sabbath day. From time to time with them — To be with them, with the chief porters, who always abode in the place of God’s worship.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

9:1-44 Genealogies. - This chapter expresses that one end of recording all these genealogies was, to direct the Jews, when they returned out of captivity, with whom to unite, and where to reside. Here is an account of the good state into which the affairs of religion were put, on the return from Babylon. Every one knew his charge. Work is likely to be done well when every one knows the duty of his place, and makes a business of it. God is the God of order. Thus was the temple a figure of the heavenly one, where they rest not day nor night from praising God, Re 4:8. Blessed be His name, believers there shall, not in turn, but all together, without interruption, praise him night and day: may the Lord make each of us fit for the inheritance of the saints in light.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

See the marginal references. If the number of warders was, as stated in Nehemiah (Nehemiah 11:19) 172 (i. e. 168 besides the four chief warders), and the number employed at any one time was, as under David 1 Chronicles 26:17-18, twenty-four, then the turn of the courses to keep ward came every seven weeks.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

18. the king's gate—The king had a gate from his palace into the temple (2Ki 16:18), which doubtless was kept constantly closed except for the monarch's use; and although there was no king in Israel on the return from the captivity, yet the old ceremonial was kept up, probably in the hope that the scepter would, ere long, be restored to the house of David. It is an honor by which Eastern kings are distinguished, to have a gate exclusively devoted to their own special use, and which is kept constantly closed, except when he goes out or returns (Eze 44:2). There being no king then in Israel, this gate would be always shut.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

From their several villages to the place of worship.

After seven days: every sabbath or seventh day the courses were changed, and the new comers were to tarry till the next sabbath day. See 2 Kings 11:5,7,9.

With them, i.e. to be with them, i.e. with the chief porters, who always abode in the place of God’s worship, and to minister to them.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And their brethren, which were in their villages,.... Assigned them to dwell in:

were to come after seven days from time to time with them; there was a new course of them every week; the old ones went off of duty, and another course succeeded, which came out of the villages where they dwelt, and the old course retired to theirs.

Geneva Study Bible

And their brethren, which were in their villages, were to come after {g} seven days from time to time with them.

(g) They served weekly, as in Ex 29:30.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

25. which were in their villages] R.V. in their villages. No special villages inhabited by porters are mentioned, but perhaps porters as well as singers dwelt in the “villages of the Netophathites” (1 Chronicles 9:16; Nehemiah 12:28, R.V.).

after seven days] R.V. every seven days.

with them] R.V. to be with them.

1 Chronicles 9:25

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

"And their brethren in their villages (cf. 1 Chronicles 9:22) were bound to come the seventh day, from time to time, with these." The infinitive בּוא with ל expresses duty, as in 1 Chronicles 5:1. The seventh day is the Sabbath of the week, on which each class in order had to take charge of the services. אלּה עם are the chiefs mentioned in 1 Chronicles 9:17 who dwelt in Jerusalem, and of whom it is said in 1 Chronicles 9:26, "for they are on their fidelity, the four mighty of the doorkeepers." In explanation of the גּבּרי, Bertheau very fittingly compares σταρτηγοῖ τοῦ Ἱεροῦ, Luke 22:52. The words הלויּם הם, which may be translated, "they are the Levites," or "they (viz., the Levites)," are somewhat surprising. The Masoretic punctuation demands the latter translation, when the words would be an emphatic elucidation of the preceding המּה. Were they a subscription, we should expect אלּה instead of הם; while, on the other hand, the circumstance noticed by Bertheau, that in the following verses the duties not merely of the doorkeepers, but of the Levites in general, are enumerated, would seem to favour that sense. Even in the second half of the 1 Chronicles 9:22 it is not the doorkeepers who are spoken of, but the Levites in general. May we not suppose that the text originally stood היוּ הלויּם וּמן (cf. 1 Chronicles 9:14) instead of והיוּ הויּם והם, and that the reading of our present text, having originated in a transcriber's error, found acceptance from the circumstance that 1 Chronicles 9:27 apparently still treats of, or returns to, the service of the doorkeepers? So much is certain, that from 1 Chronicles 9:26 onward the duties of the Levites in general, no longer those of the doorkeepers, are spoken of, and that consequently we must regard the Levites (הלויּם), and not the before-mentioned four doorkeepers, as the subject of והיוּ: "and the Levites were over the cells of the storehouses of the house of God." The cells in the outbuildings of the temple served as treasure-chambers and storehouses for the temple furniture. האוצרות with the article in the stat. constr. (Ew. 290, d.), because of the looser connection, since the genitive בּית־הא also belongs to הלּשׁכוה.