Bible Commentaries
1 Chronicles 16

Verse 1

The first three verses form part of the narrative commenced at 1 Chronicles 15:25. Compare 2 Samuel 6:17-19, where the passage is not torn from its proper context.

Verses 4-42

This passage is interposed by the writer of Chronicles between two sentences of the parallel passage in Samuel. It contains a detailed account of the service which David instituted at this time, a service out of which grew the more elaborate service of the temple. The language of much of the passage is remarkably archaic, and there can be no reasonable doubt that it is in the main an extract from a record of the time of David.

1 Chronicles 16:5

The occurrence of the name “Jeiel” twice in this list is considered suspicious. Hence, the first “Jeiel” is thought to be a corrupt reading for “Aziel” 1 Chronicles 15:20, or “Jaaziel” 1 Chronicles 15:18.

1 Chronicles 16:8

The Psalm here put before us by the Chronicler, as sung liturgically by Asaph and his brethren on the day of the ark’s entrance into Jerusalem, accords closely with the passages in the present Book of Psalms noted in the marg reff.

It is, apparently, a thanksgiving service composed for the occasion out of Psalms previously existing.

1 Chronicles 16:39

This is the first mention that we have of Gibeon as the place at which the tabernacle of the congregation now rested. Previously it had been at Nob 1 Samuel 21:1-6, from where it was removed probably at the time of the slaughter of the priests by Doeg 1 Samuel 22:18-19. It is uncertain whether Gibeon was regarded as a “high place” before the transfer to it of the tabernacle: hut thenceforth, until the completion of Solomon’s Temple, it was the “great high place” 1 Kings 3:4 - a second center of the national worship which for above 50 years was divided between Gibeon and Jerusalem.

1 Chronicles 16:40

Upon the altar of the burnt offering - The original altar of burnt-offering Exodus 27:1-8 continued at Gibeon with the tabernacle 2 Chronicles 1:3, 2 Chronicles 1:5. David must have erected a new altar for sacrifice at Jerusalem 1 Chronicles 16:1. The sacrifices commanded by the Law were, it appears, offered at the former place; at the latter were offered voluntary additional sacrifices.

1 Chronicles 16:41

The rest ... - Rather, “the rest of the chosen ones, who were mentioned by name.” The “chosen ones” were “mentioned by name” in 1 Chronicles 15:17-24. A portion of them, namely, those named in 1 Chronicles 16:5-6, conducted the service in Jerusalem; the remainder were employed in the worship at Gibeon.