The Merarites. Hosah's sons and brothers. חוסה has been already mentioned (1 Chronicles 16:38) along with Obed-edom as doorkeeper. Hosah made Shimri head of the Merarites, who served as doorkeepers, because there was no first-born, i.e., because his first-born son had died without leaving any descendant, so that none of the families descended from Hosah had the natural claim to the birthright. All the sons and brothers of Hosah were thirteen. Meshelemiah had eighteen (cf. 1 Chronicles 26:9), and Obed-edom sixty-two (1 Chronicles 26:8); and all taken together they make ninety-three, whom we are (according to 1 Chronicles 26:12.) to regard as the heads of the 4000 doorkeepers. In 1 Chronicles 9:22 the number of the doorkeepers appointed by David is stated to be 212, but that number most probably refers to a different time (see on 1 Chronicles 9:22). Bertheau further remarks: "According to 1 Chronicles 16:38, sixty-eight are reckoned to Obed-edom and Hosah, in our passage seventy-five; and the small difference between the numbers is explained by the fact that in the first passage only the doorkeepers before the ark are referred to." Against this we have already shown, in our remarks on 1 Chronicles 16:38, that the number there mentioned cannot be held with certainty to refer to the doorkeepers.

1 Chronicles 26:16 Parallel Commentaries

Hosah

1 Chronicles 25:10,11 The third to Zaccur, he, his sons, and his brothers, were twelve...

Shallecheth That is, ejection; probably the gate through which all the filth which from time to time might accumulate in the temple and its courts, was cast out.

causeway

1 Kings 10:5 And the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel, and his cupbearers...

2 Chronicles 9:4 And the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel; his cupbearers also...

ward against ward That is, their stations were opposite to each other; as the north to the south, and the east to the west.

1 Chronicles 25:12 The fifth to Nethaniah, he, his sons, and his brothers, were twelve:

1 Chronicles 25:8 And they cast lots, ward against ward, as well the small as the great, the teacher as the scholar.

Nehemiah 12:24 And the chief of the Levites: Hashabiah, Sherebiah, and Jeshua the son of Kadmiel, with their brothers over against them...