Matthew Henry on 1 Chronicles 26:1-19
Observe, I. There were porters appointed to attend the temple, who guarded all the avenues that let to it, opened and shut all the outer gates and attended at them, not only for the state, but for service, to direct and instruct those who were going to worship in the courts of the sanctuary in the decorum they were to observe, to encourage those that were timorous, to send back the strangers and unclean, and to guard against thieves and others that were enemies to the house of God. In allusion to this office, ministers are said to have the keys to the kingdom of heaven committed to them (Mat 16:19), that they may admit, and exclude, according to the law of Christ.
II. Of several of those tha…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on 1 Chronicles 26:5
God blessed him--that is, Obed-edom. The occasion of the blessing was his faithful custody of the ark (Sa2 6:11-12). The nature of the blessing (Psa 127:5) consisted in the great increase of progeny by which his house was distinguished; seventy-two descendants are reckoned.
Adam Clarke on 1 Chronicles 26:5
For God blessed him - "That is, Obed-edom; because of the ark of the Lord which was in his house; and to him was given the honor that he should see his children and grand-children, even fourscore and two, masters of the Levites." - T. In Ch1 26:8, we have only sixty-two mentioned.
John Gill on 1 Chronicles 26:4
Moreover, the sons of Obededom,.... The same at whose house the ark was, before it was brought by David to Zion; his sons were porters also, as himself, 1 Chronicles 15:24, mention is made of eight sons of his, according to their birth:
Shemaiah, Jehozabad, Joah, Sacar, Nethaneel, Ammiel, Issachar, Peulthai; for God blessed him; as with wealth and riches, so with a numerous offspring, and that because of his entertainment of the ark at his house; the great increase of his family is aggravated by the Jews (q) beyond all credit, that all in his family brought eight at a birth; the Targum here makes them eighty two in all.
(q) Hieron. Trad. Heb. in 2. Reg. fol. 77. M.
