Also Bakbukiah and Unni,.... Two other Levites; the first is mentioned in Nehemiah 11:17,

their brethren, were over against them in the watches; the Levites were divided into twenty four wards, and these were placed one against another, 1 Chronicles 23:6.

Bakbukiah and Unni (Chethiv ענּו), their brethren, were before them (opposite them) למשׁמרות, at the posts of service, i.e., forming in service the opposite choir. Nehemiah 12:24 forbids us to understand משׁמרות as watch-posts, though the omission of the doorkeepers (comp. Ezra 2:42) is remarkable. Bakbukiah recurs Nehemiah 12:24; the name Unni is not again met with, though there is no occasion, on this account, for the inapt conjecture of Bertheau, that the reading should be וענוּ or ויּענוּ.

Also Bakbukiah and Unni, their brethren, were over against them in the {d} watches.

(d) They kept the wards and watches according to their turns, 2Ch 23:6.

9. their brethren, were over against them in the watches-that is, according to some, their stations-the places where they stood when officiating-"ward over against ward" (Ne 12:24); or, according to others, in alternate watches, in course of rotation.

12:1-26 It is a debt we owe to faithful ministers, to remember our guides, who have spoken to us the word of God. It is good to know what our godly predecessors were, that we may learn what we should be.