1 Chronicles 27:1

1 Forsooth the sons of Israel by their number, the princes of families, the tribunes, and centurions, and prefects, that ministered to the king by their companies of knights, entering in and going out by each month in the year, were sovereigns, each by himself, upon four and twenty thousand. (Now the number of Israelites, that is, the leaders of the families, and the tribunes, and the centurions, and the prefects, who served the king with their companies of horsemen, coming in and going out each month of the year, was twenty-four thousand in each company, or division.)

1 Chronicles 27:1 Meaning and Commentary

1 Chronicles 27:1

Now the children of Israel after their number
Not the whole body of the people, but the militia of the nation; for after the account of the division of the priests and Levites into courses, follows an account of the militia of the nation, being divided also into monthly courses; which, though done in the beginning of David's reign, as Kimchi and Jarchi observe, yet is here related; and that it was so soon is clear from the instance of Asahel, who was killed while David was king in Hebron, ( 1 Chronicles 27:7 ) to wit,

the chief fathers;
the chief men in the tribes, the princes of them, not the natural fathers of the soldiers in each course, as a learned man suggests ^F9: since it can never be thought that such a number sprung from those as made a course of 24,000; for they are distinct from the captains and officers after mentioned, under which the soldiers were; besides, why should they be called "chief fathers?" these, no doubt, were the general officers or princes, under which the captains and inferior officers were:

and captains of thousands and hundreds;
in the several tribes:

and their officers;
that were under them:

that served the king in any matter of the courses, which came in and
went out month by month, throughout all the months of the year;
by which it appears that the militia of the kingdom was divided into twelve courses, which served each month by turns; when one went out another came in; by which means the king was well supported and guarded, and had an army at once at command upon any insurrection or war that might arise; and each course serving but one month in a year, it was no great burden upon them, even if they maintained themselves, since they were at leisure, the other eleven months, to attend to their business; and especially if it was, as Jarchi observes, that not the poor but the rich were selected for this service:

of every course were twenty and four thousand;
so that the twelve courses amounted to 288,000 men.

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FOOTNOTES:

F9 Delaney's Life of King David, vol. 1. p. 319.

1 Chronicles 27:1 In-Context

1 Forsooth the sons of Israel by their number, the princes of families, the tribunes, and centurions, and prefects, that ministered to the king by their companies of knights, entering in and going out by each month in the year, were sovereigns, each by himself, upon four and twenty thousand. (Now the number of Israelites, that is, the leaders of the families, and the tribunes, and the centurions, and the prefects, who served the king with their companies of horsemen, coming in and going out each month of the year, was twenty-four thousand in each company, or division.)

2 Jashobeam, the son of Zabdiel, was sovereign of the first company in the first month, and under him were four and twenty thousand; (Jashobeam, the son of Zabdiel, was the leader of the first company in the first month, and under him were twenty-four thousand;)

3 of the sons of Pharez, was the prince of all [the] princes in the host, in the first month. (of the sons of Perez, he was the leader of all the leaders in the army, in the first month.)

4 Dodai (the) Ahohite had the company of the second month, and after himself he had another man, Mikloth by name, that governed a part of the host of four and twenty thousand. (Dodai the Ahohite led the second company in the second month, and he had another man, named Mikloth, who helped him govern his division of twenty-four thousand./And Eleazar, the son of Dodai the Ahohite, led the second company in the second month, and he governed his division of twenty-four thousand.)

5 And Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, the priest, was duke of the third company in the third month, and four and twenty thousand were in his parting; (And Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, the priest, was the leader of the third company in the third month, and twenty-four thousand were in his division;)