2 Samuel 8:17

17. Zadok… and Ahimelech… priests The one officiating at Gibeon, the other at the new tabernacle in Jerusalem. See on 2 Samuel 6:17.

Son of Abiathar But in 1 Samuel 22:20, Abiathar is called the son of Ahimelech; who, then, is this Ahimelech the son of Abiathar? Some have supposed that the names in the text have been transposed by the mistake of some copyist. Others, that Abiathar, son of the slain Ahimelech, had also a son named Ahimelech who performed the duties of high priest in connexion with his father. This latter supposition is strengthened by the fact that the associate priest of Zadok is called Ahimelech in 1 Chronicles 24:3; 1 Chronicles 24:6; 1 Chronicles 24:31, but the former supposition seems to us more plausible.

The scribe Persons of this order were, before the Babylonish exile, private secretaries of the king. Their work was distinct from that of the recorder in this, that the scribe first provided the materials which the recorder afterwards transcribed and preserved among the archives. Heeren, in his “Historical Researches,” thus speaks of the secretaries of the ancient Persian kings: “Whatever the monarch said or did was, of course, worthy of being recorded; and to this intent his person was usually surrounded by scribes or secretaries, whose office it was to register his words and actions. They were in almost constant attendance upon the sovereign, and especially when he appeared in public, on occasion of festivals, of public reviews, and even in the midst of the tumult of battle, and noted down the words which fell from him on such occasions. This institution was not peculiar to the Persians, but prevailed among all the principal nations of Asia. The king’s scribes are mentioned in the earliest records of the Mongol conquerors; and it is well known that Hyder Ali usually appeared in public surrounded by forty such secretaries.” At a later period the work of the scribes among the Jews was to write copies of the Scriptures and interpret the same.