and the Levites: 5of the sons of Kohath; Uriel the chief, and his brethren an hundred and twenty: 6of the sons of Merari; Asaiah the chief, and his brethren two hundred and twenty: 7of the sons of Gershom; Joel the chief, and his brethren an hundred and thirty: 8of the sons of Elizaphan; Shemaiah the chief, and his brethren two hundred: 9of the sons of Hebron; Eliel the chief, and his brethren fourscore: 10of the sons of Uzziel; Amminadab the chief, and his brethren an hundred and twelve. 11And David called for Zadok and Abiathar the priests, and for the
5—10. Remark that besides the three great Levitical divisions, Kohathites, Gershonites, and Merarites, three additional classes (sons of Elizaphan, of Hebron, and of Uzziel) are given in vv. 8—10. This unusual sixfold division, and the smallness of the numbers of Levites have been taken as indicating that the whole passage xv. 1—15 is drawn by the Chronicler from an earlier source, but the argument is not convincing. "The text does not imply that Elizaphan, Hebron, and Uzziel were coordinated with Kohath, Gershom, and Merari"; and the small numbers are accounted for by the view that only selected Levites were chosen for the task (so Curtis, ad loc.).
5. the sons of Kohath; Uriel] Kohath had four sons (Ex. vi. 18 = 1 Chr. vi. 18): Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel. Here the descendants of Amram (exclusive of the priests, the Aaronites) represented by Uriel head the list (ver. 5), and the descendants of Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel appear in vv. 8, 9, 10 respectively. Elizaphan (ver. 8) either stands for the Izhar of Ex. vi. 18, or is the name of some prominent descendant of Izhar after whom the whole family was named. He is mentioned again in 2 Chr. xxix. 13. As regards number the Kohathites were 512 against 350 of the sons of Merari and the sons of Gershom combined. In vi. 60—63 (45—48, Heb.) 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.
11. Zadok and Abiathar] This double priesthood (2 Sam. viii. 17, xv. 29, 35, xix. 11, xx. 25) came to an end in the reign of Solomon (1 Kin. ii. 27, 35). Zadok is always mentioned first as being descended from Eleazar the third son of Aaron, while Ithamar from whom Abiathar (Ahimelech) was descended through Eli (1 Kin. ii. 27) was the fourth son (xxiv. 1, 3). In two of the passages quoted in this note Abiathar (probably being confused with his father) is called Ahimelech or Abimelech (2 Sam. viii. 17 = 1 Chr. xviii. 16; 1 Chr. xxiv. 3). Conversely in Mark ii. 26 Ahimelech is called Abiathar. In the Chronicler's list of high-priests (vi. 4—14) Zadok alone is mentioned, the line of Eleazar alone being given.
