The Merarites. Hosah's sons and brothers. חוסה has been already mentioned (1 Chronicles 16:38) along with Obed-edom as doorkeeper. Hosah made Shimri head of the Merarites, who served as doorkeepers, because there was no first-born, i.e., because his first-born son had died without leaving any descendant, so that none of the families descended from Hosah had the natural claim to the birthright. All the sons and brothers of Hosah were thirteen. Meshelemiah had eighteen (cf. 1 Chronicles 26:9), and Obed-edom sixty-two (1 Chronicles 26:8); and all taken together they make ninety-three, whom we are (according to 1 Chronicles 26:12.) to regard as the heads of the 4000 doorkeepers. In 1 Chronicles 9:22 the number of the doorkeepers appointed by David is stated to be 212, but that number most probably refers to a different time (see on 1 Chronicles 9:22). Bertheau further remarks: "According to 1 Chronicles 16:38, sixty-eight are reckoned to Obed-edom and Hosah, in our passage seventy-five; and the small difference between the numbers is explained by the fact that in the first passage only the doorkeepers before the ark are referred to." Against this we have already shown, in our remarks on 1 Chronicles 16:38, that the number there mentioned cannot be held with certainty to refer to the doorkeepers.

1 Chronicles 26:17 Parallel Commentaries

Eastward

1 Chronicles 9:24 In four quarters were the porters, toward the east, west, north, and south.

2 Chronicles 8:14 And he appointed, according to the order of David his father, the courses of the priests to their service...

Asuppim

1 Chronicles 26:15 To Obededom southward; and to his sons the house of Asuppim.