1 Chronicles 27

1Ch 27:1-15.

TWELVE

CAPTAINS FOR

EVERY

MONTH.

1. came in and went out month by month--Here is an account of the

standing military force of Israel. A militia formed, it would seem, at

the beginning of David's reign (see

1Ch 27:7)

was raised in the following order: Twelve legions, corresponding to the

number of tribes, were enlisted in the king's service. Each legion

comprised a body of twenty-four thousand men, whose term of service was

a month in rotation, and who were stationed either at Jerusalem or in

any other place where they might be required. There was thus always a

force sufficient for the ordinary purposes of state, as well as for

resisting sudden attacks or popular tumults; and when extraordinary

emergencies demanded a larger force, the whole standing army could

easily be called to arms, amounting to two hundred eighty-eight

thousand, or to three hundred thousand, including the twelve thousand

officers that naturally attended on the twelve princes

(1Ch 27:16-24).

Such a military establishment would be burdensome neither to the

country nor to the royal treasury; for attendance on this duty being a

mark of honor and distinction, the expense of maintenance would be

borne probably by the militiaman himself, or furnished out of the

common fund of his tribe. Nor would the brief period of actual service

produce any derangement of the usual course of affairs; for, on the

expiry of the term, every soldier returned to the pursuits and duties

of private life during the other eleven months of the year. Whether the

same individuals were always enrolled, cannot be determined. The

probability is, that provided the requisite number was furnished, no

stricter scrutiny would be made. A change of men might, to a certain

degree, be encouraged, as it was a part of David's policy to train all

his subjects to skill in arms; and to have made the enlistment fall

always on the same individuals would have defeated that purpose. To

have confined each month's levy rigidly within the limits of one tribe

might have fallen hard upon those tribes which were weak and small. The

rotation system being established, each division knew its own month, as

well as the name of the commander under whom it was to serve. These

commanders are styled, "the chief fathers," that is, the hereditary

heads of tribes who, like chieftains of clans, possessed great power

and influence.

captains of thousands and hundreds--The legions of twenty-four

thousand were divided into regiments of one thousand, and these again

into companies of a hundred men, under the direction of their

respective subalterns, there being, of course, twenty-four captains of

thousands, and two hundred forty centurions.

and their officers--the Shoterim, who in the army performed the duty

of the commissariat, keeping the muster-roll, &c.

2, 3. Jashobeam the son of Zabdiel--(See on

1Ch 11:11;

2Sa 23:8).

Hachmoni was his father, Zabdiel probably one of his ancestors; or

there might be different names of the same individual. In the rotation

of the military courses, the dignity of precedence, not of authority,

was given to the hero.

4. second month was Dodai--or, "Dodo." Here the text seems to require

the supplement of "Eleazar the son of Dodo"

(2Sa 23:9).

7. Asahel--This officer having been slain at the very beginning of

David's reign

[2Sa 2:23],

his name was probably given to this division in honor of his memory,

and his son was invested with the command.

1Ch 27:16-24.

PRINCES OF THE

TWELVE

TRIBES.

16. over the tribes of Israel: the ruler--This is a list of the

hereditary chiefs or rulers of tribes at the time of David's numbering

the people. Gad and Asher are not included; for what reason is unknown.

The tribe of Levi had a prince

(1Ch 27:17),

as well as the other tribes; and although it was ecclesiastically

subject to the high priest, yet in all civil matters it had a chief or

head, possessed of the same authority and power as in the other tribes,

only his jurisdiction did not extend to the priests.

18. Elihu--probably the same as Eliab

(1Sa 16:6).

23. But David took not the number of them from twenty years old and

under--The census which David ordered did not extend to all the

Israelites; for to contemplate such an enumeration would have been to

attempt an impossibility

(Ge 28:14),

and besides would have been a daring offense to God. The limitation to

a certain age was what had probably quieted David's conscience as to

the lawfulness of the measure, while its expediency was

strongly pressed upon his mind by the army arrangements he had in

view.

24. neither was the number put in the account of the chronicles of

King David--either because the undertaking was not completed, Levi

and Benjamin not having been numbered

(1Ch 21:6),

or the full details in the hands of the enumerating officers were not

reported to David, and, consequently, not registered in the public

archives.

the chronicles--were the daily records or annals of the king's reign.

No notice was taken of this census in the historical register, as from

the public calamity with which it was associated it would have stood as

a painful record of the divine judgment against the king and the

nation.

25. over the king's treasures--Those treasures consisted of gold,

silver, precious stones, cedar-wood, &c.; those which he had in Jerusalem as distinguished from others without the city.

the storehouses in the fields--Grain covered over with layers of straw

is frequently preserved in the fields under little earthen mounds, like

our potato pits.

27. the vineyards--These seem to have been in the vine growing

districts of Judah, and were committed to two men of that quarter.

wine-cellars--The wine is deposited in jars sunk in the court of the

house.

28. olive trees and the sycamore trees . . . in the low plains--that

is, the Shephela, the rich, low-lying ground between the Mediterranean

and the mountains of Judah.

29. herds that fed in Sharon--a fertile plain between Cæsarea and

Joppa.

30. camels--These were probably in the countries east of the Jordan,

and hence an Ishmaelite and Nazarite were appointed to take charge of

them.

31. rulers of the substance that was king David's--How and when the

king acquired these demesnes and this variety of property--whether it

was partly by conquests, or partly by confiscation, or by his own

active cultivation of waste lands--is not said. It was probably in all

these ways. The management of the king's private possessions was

divided into twelve parts, like his public affairs and the revenue

derived from all these sources mentioned must have been very large.