1 Chronicles 6:29

The sons of Merari; Mahli, Libni his son, Shimei his son, Uzza his son,

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(29, 30) A short list of Merarite names. (Comp. Numbers 3:20, and 1Chronicles 6:14, supra, for the two sons of Merari, Mahli and Mushi, after whom the clans of the Merarites were designated. The present list traces the line of Mahli to the seventh generation; all the names are alike unknown. Below, 1Chronicles 6:44-47, we have another line going back to Mushi, brother of Mahli. Why has the chronicler preserved the three lists of 1Chronicles 6:19-30? The process from Levi to the worthless sons of Samuel, and the utterly unknown names of Jeaterai and Asaiah, reads like an anti-climax. But it is not to be forgotten that these no longer significant fragments are genuine relics of ancient family registers, and as such may have had more than a merely antiquarian value in the days of the chronicler.

1Chronicles 6:31-32 are a prelude to the pedigrees of Heman, Asaph, and Ethan, the three great masters of David’s choirs (33-48). The nature, time, and place of their special duties are described.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

6:1-81 Genealogies. - We have an account of Levi in this chapter. The priests and Levites were more concerned than any other Israelites, to preserve their descent clear, and to be able to prove it; because all the honours and privileges of their office depended upon their descent. Now, the Spirit of God calls ministers to their work, without any limit as to the families they came from; and then, as now, though believers and ministers may be very useful to the church, none but our great High Priest can make atonement for sin, nor can any be accepted but through his atonement.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Vashni - The true name of Samuel's first-born, which was "Joel" (see the margin and references), has here dropped out; and the word properly meaning "and his second (son)" has been taken as the name of the first.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

28. the sons of Samuel—The sons of Samuel are here named Vashni and Abiah. The first-born is called Joel (1Sa 8:2); and this name is given to him in 1Ch 6:33. It is now generally thought by the best critics that, through an error of the copyists, an omission has been made of the oldest son's name, and that Vashni, which is not the name of a person, merely signifies "and the second." This critical emendation of the text makes all clear, as well as consistent with other passages relating to the family of Samuel.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

The sons of Merari; Mahli,.... The posterity of his brother Mushi are omitted; his genealogy is drawn thus, Libni, Shimei, Uzza, Shimea, Haggiah, Asaiah.

Geneva Study Bible

The sons of Merari; Mahli, Libni his son, Shimei his son, Uzza his son,

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 29, 30. - (C) In ver. 19 the two sons of Merari, viz. Mahli and Mushi, are given. Here one of them, Mahli, is repeated, with six descendants, of no one of whom have we any other information. From comparison of Numbers 3:20 and Numbers 26:58 there can be no doubt that Mahli and Mushi were brothers, each of whom founded a family. The descending line of Mushi, unalluded to here, comes to the surface in vers. 44-47. 1 Chronicles 6:29

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

(1 Chronicles 6:10-15). "And the sons of Elkanah, Amasai and Ahimoth." As it is clear that with אלק וּבני אל a new list begins, and that the preceding enumeration is that of the descendants of Abiasaph, it is at once suggested that this Elkanah was the brother of the Abiasaph mentioned in 1 Chronicles 6:15. If, however, we compare the genealogy of Heman, we find there (1 Chronicles 6:36 and 1 Chronicles 6:35) a list of the descendants of Joel in an ascending line, thus, - Elkanah, Amasai, Mahath, Elkanah, Zuph; from which it would seem to follow that our Elkanah is the son of Moel mentioned in 1 Chronicles 6:36, for Ahimoth may be without difficulty considered to be another form of the name Mahath. This conclusion would be assured if only the beginning of 1 Chronicles 6:26 were in harmony with it. In this verse, indeed, בּנו אלקנה, as we read in the Kethibh, may be without difficulty taken to mean that Elkanah was the son of Ahimoth, just as in 1 Chronicles 6:20 Elkanah is introduced as son of Mahath. But in this way no meaning can be assigned to the אלקנה which follows בני, and Bertheau accordingly is of opinion that this אלקנה has come into the text by an error. The Masoretes also felt the difficulty, and have substituted for the Kethibh בנו the Keri בּני, but then nothing can be made of the first אלקנה in 1 Chronicles 6:26. Beyond doubt the traditional text is here corrupt, and from a comparison of 1 Chronicles 6:35 and 1 Chronicles 6:34 the only conclusion we can draw with any certainty is that the list from צופי onwards contains the names of descendants of Elkanah the son of Mahath, which is so far favourable to the Keri אלקנה בּני. The name Elkanah, on the contrary, which immediately precedes בנו, seems to point to a hiatus in the text, and gives room for the conjecture that in 1 Chronicles 6:10 the sons of Elkanah, the brother of Abiasaph and Assir, were named, and that there followed thereupon an enumeration of the sons or descendants of the Elkanah whom we meet with in 1 Chronicles 6:36 as son of Joel, after which came the names Elkanah בּנו, Zophai בּנו, etc. נחת and אליאב we consider to be other forms of תּוח and אליאל, 1 Chronicles 6:34, and צופי is only another form of צוּף. The succeeding names, Jeroham and Elkanah (1 Chronicles 6:27), agree with those in 1 Chronicles 6:34; but between the clauses "Elkanah his son" (1 Chronicles 6:27), and "and the sons of Samuel" (1 Chronicles 6:28), the connecting link בּנו שׁמוּאל, cf. 1 Chronicles 6:33, is again wanting, as is also, before or after הבּכר (1 Chronicles 6:28), the name of the first-born, viz., Joel; cf. 1 Chronicles 6:33 with 1 Samuel 8:2. Now, although the two last-mentioned omissions can be supplied, they yet show that the enumeration in 1 Chronicles 6:22 is not a continuous list of one Kohathite family, but contains only fragments of several Kohathite genealogies. - In 1 Chronicles 6:29 and 1 Chronicles 6:30, descendants of Merari follow; sons of Mahli in six generations, who are not mentioned elsewhere. Bertheau compares this list of names, Mahli, Libni, Shimei, Uzza, Shimea, Haggiah, and Asaiah, with the list contained in 1 Chronicles 6:44, Mushi, Mahli, Shamer, Bani, Amzi, Hilkiah, and Amaziah, and attempts to maintain, notwithstanding the great difference in the names, that the two lists were originally identical, in order to find support for the hypothesis "that the three lists in 1 Chronicles 6:20 have not found a place in the Chronicle from their own intrinsic value, or, in other words, have not been introduced there in order to give a register of the ancestors of Jeaterai, the sons of Samuel and Asaiah, but have been received only because they bring us to Heman, Asaph, and Ethan, 1 Chronicles 6:34, 1 Chronicles 6:39, 1 Chronicles 6:44, in another fashion than the lists of names in 1 Chronicles 6:33." But this hypothesis is shown to be false, apart altogether from the other objections which might be raised against it, by the single fact of the total discrepancy between the names of the Merarites in 1 Chronicles 6:29 and 1 Chronicles 6:30 and those found in 1 Chronicles 6:44-47. Of all the six names only Mahli is found in both cases, and he is carefully distinguished in both - in the genealogy of Ethan as the son of Mushi and grandson of Merari; in our list as the son of Merari. When we remember that Merari had two sons, Mahli and Mushi, after whom the father's-houses into which his descendants divided themselves were named (Numbers 3:20; Numbers 26:58), and that the same names very frequently occur in different families, it would never suggest itself to any reader of our register to identify the line of Mushi with the line of Mahli, seeing that, except the name of Mahli the son of Mushi, which is the same as that of his uncle, all the other names are different. 1 Chronicles 6:29 and 1 Chronicles 6:30 contain a register of the family of Mahli, while the ancestors of Ethan, 1 Chronicles 6:44-47, belonged to the family of Mushi. Our list then absolutely cannot be intended to form a transition to Ethan or Ethan's ancestors. The same may be said of the two other lists 1 Chronicles 6:20-22 and 1 Chronicles 6:23-28, and this transition hypothesis is consequently a mere airspun fancy. The three lists are certainly not embodied in the Chronicle on account of the persons with whose names they end-Jeaterai, the sons of Samuel, and Asaiah; but the author of the Chronicle has thought them worthy of being received into his work as registers of ancient families of the three sons of Levi which had been transmitted from ancient times.