And the sons of Mushi,.... The other son of Merari:

Mahli; so called from his uncle, his father's brother:

and Eder and Jerimoth, three; mentioned again 1 Chronicles 24:30.

Of the sons of Mushi, three founded fathers'-houses, so that the Merarites formed only four fathers'-houses in all. If we compare the enumeration of the Merarites in 1 Chronicles 24:26-30, we find there in 1 Chronicles 24:30 Eleazar and Kish called sons of Mahli, with the remark that Eleazar had no sons. In 1 Chronicles 24:26, however, of the same passage we read, "sons of Merari (were) Mahli and Mushi, sons of Jaaziah his son;" and 1 Chronicles 24:27, "sons of Merari by Jaaziah his son; and Shoham, and Zaccur, and Ibri." From this Bertheau concludes that Merari had really three sons, and that the name of the third has been dropped out of 1 Chronicles 23; but in this he is incorrect, for 1 Chronicles 23:26 and 1 Chronicles 23:27 of the 24th chapter are at once, from their whole character, recognisable as arbitrary interpolations. Not only is it strange that בּנו יעזיּהוּ בּני should follow the before-mentioned sons of Merari in this unconnected way (Vav being omitted before בּני), but the form of the expression also is peculiar. If יעזיּהוּ be a third son of Merari, or the founder of a third family of Merarites, coordinate with the families of Mahli and Mushi, as we must conclude from the additional word בּנו, we should expect, after the preceding, simply the name with the conjunction, i.e., ויעזיּהוּ. The יעזיּהוּ בּני is all the more surprising that the names of the sons of Jaaziah follow in 1 Chronicles 24:27, and there the name of the first son שׁהם is introduced by the Vav copulative. This misled the older commentators, so that they took בּנו for a proper name. The repetition of מררי בּני, too, at the beginning of the second verse is strange, and without parallel in the preceding enumeration of the fathers'-houses founded by Amram's sons (1 Chronicles 24:20-25). We must, then, as the result of all this, since the Pentateuch knows only two descendants of Merari who founded families of fathers'-houses,

(Note: Bertheau, on the contrary, proceeding on the hypothesis that we may presume the list of Merari's descendants which is given in our verses to have been originally in perfect agreement with that in 1 Chronicles 24:26-31, would emend our text according to 1 Chronicles 23:21, for it cannot be doubted that in our passage also Jaaziah and his three sons were named. But since elsewhere only the two sons Mahli and Mushi occur, one can easily see why the third son Jaaziah came to be omitted from our passage, while we cannot conceive any motive which would account for the later and arbitrary interpolation of the names in 1 Chronicles 24:26. This argumentation is weak to a degree, since it quite overlooks the main difficulty connected with this hypothesis. Had we no further accounts of the descendants of Merari than those in the two passages of the Chronicle (1 Chronicles 23:11. and 1 Chronicles 24:26-29), it would be natural to suppose that in 1 Chronicles 23:21. the additional names which we find in 1 Chronicles 24 had been dropped out. But in the genealogical lists in the Pentateuch also (Exodus 6:19 and Numbers 3:33), only two sons of Merari are named; and according to them, the Merarites, when Moses' census of the Levites was taken, formed only two families. Had Merari had yet a third son besides the two - Mahli and Mushi, who alone were known in the time of Moses - who left descendants, forming three fathers'-houses in David's time, the omission of this third son in the family register in the Pentateuch would be quite incomprehensible. Or are we to suppose that in Exodus 6:19 also the name Jaaziah had been dropped out, and that in consequence of that the family descended from him has been omitted from Numbers 3:33? Supported by the Pentateuch, the text of our verses is presumably entire, and this presumption of its integrity is confirmed by the character of the additions in 24:26, 27, as above exhibited.)

regard the additions in 1 Chronicles 24:26-27 as later glosses, although we are not in a position to explain the origin or the meaning of the interpolation. This inability arises from the fact that, of the names Jaaziah, Shoham, Zaccur, and Ibri, only Zaccur again occurs among the Asaphites (1 Chronicles 25:2), and elsewhere of other persons, while the others are nowhere else to be met with. The three families of Levi numbered therefore 9 + 9 + 4 equals 22 fathers'-houses, exclusive of the priests.

The sons of Mushi; Mahli, and Eder, and Jeremoth, three.

23:1-23 David, having given charge concerning the building of the temple, settles the method of the temple service, and orders the officers of it. When those of the same family were employed together, it would engage them to love and assist one another.