1st Chronicles Chapter 26 verse 14 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerses 14-16. - The casting of lots for the four chief names and the four chief aspects of gates, now proceeds. A special note is made of the care taken for the house of Asuppim; i.e. of "gatherings" or "stores." For all that we know of this "house," we seem to be left to the verses (15, 17) of this passage, and to the expression (Nehemiah 12:25), "the storehouses, or stores of the gates" (though the Authorized Version, the "thresholds" of the gates), which would have been more intelligible had it been reversed, "the gates of the stores." Presumably it was a building for keeping safe certain of the sacred property, and was situated south of the temple, and, judging from ver. 17, had two doorways. The Vulgate translates seniorum concilium. To Shuppim. Nothing can be made of this word in this connection, as a proper name, though we have it (1 Chronicles 7:12, 15) as such. It is now generally rejected, as probably due to the error of some transcriber, whose eye may have been caught again by the last two syllables of the closely preceding "Asuppim." But some would place it as the last word of the previous verse, and make it amplify the meaning of Asuppim, e.g. "gatherings for stores." Shallecheth. By derivation, this word means "sending or throwing down." Hence some call it, "the refuse gate." The situation of it is, however, defined here, as by the causeway of the going up, and would seem to render such an interpretation less likely. According to Grove (in Smith's 'Bible Dictionary'), this causeway is still traceable: it runs up from the central valley of the town to the sacred site west of the temple (1 Kings 10:5; 2 Chronicles 9:4); and Grove would identify the "gate of Shallecheth" with the present Bab Silsileh. The Septuagint translates ἡ πυλὴ παστοφορίου, i.e. the gate of the temple-cell, which word they could get from the inverting of the order of the first two letters of the Hebrew Shallecheth. The Septuagint then mutts the following word, מְסִלָּה, Ward against ward; i.e. watch with watch. The expression up- pears to refer to the fact that Hosah's lot threw to him the charge of a double position.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(14) And the lot eastward fell to Shelemiah.--The courses of the sons of Shelemiah (Meshelemiah 1Chronicles 26:1; 1Chronicles 26:9, and Shallum 9:19) received by lot the post of honour on the east side of the Sanctuary.Then for Zechariah his son.--Heb., And Zechariah his son, counselling with sagacity, they cast lots. The preposition for may have fallen out before Zechariah; or perhaps Zechariah is the real subject of the verb "cast lots," which is plural, because Zechariah is the name of a clan or guild. (Comp. 1Chronicles 24:31; xxv, 8). Zechariah, the firstborn of Meshelemiah (1Chronicles 26:2), obtained the charge of the north side "They cast lots" may mean drew a lot from the urn.A wise counsellor.--This little touch is obviously a mark of truth. The chronicler could have had no motive for so characterising a warder of the Temple, unless he had found it in some older source, of which he has only given extracts.