1 Chronicles 25:7

This verse introduces a large additional number of those called for the present brethren of the foregoing twenty-four. These brethren (partly composed of their sons, as appears from 1 Chronicles 25:9-31 ) were to aid in the songs of the Lord, and were apparently under instruction for that purpose. Each one of the twenty-four had eleven associated subordinates with him, and for whose instruction and service he was probably answerable. These would, of course, multiply up to the two hundred four score and eight mentioned in the verse. This verse appears (contrary to the interpretation of Keil, Bertheau, and others) with sufficient precision to mark two classes מְלֻמְּדֵי־שִׁיר , and הַמֵּבִּין , the latter not embracing the former, but the two together making up the two hundred and eighty-eight spoken of. These two classes will surely satisfy the "teacher and the scholar" classification of the following verse; the classes are denoted by the same Hebrew roots. In 1 Chronicles 25:7 the passive Pual participle of the instructed and the Hiphil participle of the cunning, or skilled, correspond exactly with the "scholar" ( תַלְמִיד ) and the "teacher" ( מֵּבִין ) of 1 Chronicles 25:8 . The contents of 1 Chronicles 25:9-31 point to the same, being as they are without an allusion to any other outsiders—to any but the already introduced names of "sons" and "brethren." The supposing, therefore, of any allusion here to the "four thousand" of 1 Chronicles 23:5 seems unnecessary and unnatural in whatever way they were distributed—and probably enough it was in an analogous manner—no distinct reference is made to them here.