1Ch 27:25-31 | KD | STEP | The managers of David’s possessions and domains . - The property and the income of the king were ( ) divided into treasures of the king, and treasures in the country, in the cities, the villages, and the castles. By the “treasures of the king” we must therefore understand those which were in Jerusalem, i.e., the treasures of the royal palace. These were managed by Azmaveth. The remaining treasures are specified in 1Ch 27:26. They consisted in fields which were cultivated by labourers ( ); in vineyards ( ); plantations of olive trees and sycamores in the Shephelah , the fruitful plain on the Mediterranean Sea ( ); in cattle, which pastured partly in the plain of Sharon between Caesarea Palestina and Joppa, partly in various valleys of the country ( ); and in camels, asses, and sheep (1Ch 27:30.). All these possessions are called רכוּשׁ, and the overseers of them הרכוּשׁ שׂרי. They consisted in the produce of agriculture and cattle-breeding, the two main branches of Israelitish industry.

‏ 1 Chronicles 27:25-31

1Ch 27:25-26 The managers of David’s possessions and domains. - The property and the income of the king were (1Ch 27:25) divided into treasures of the king, and treasures in the country, in the cities, the villages, and the castles. By the “treasures of the king” we must therefore understand those which were in Jerusalem, i.e., the treasures of the royal palace. These were managed by Azmaveth. The remaining treasures are specified in 1Ch 27:26. They consisted in fields which were cultivated by labourers (1Ch 27:26); in vineyards (1Ch 27:27); plantations of olive trees and sycamores in the Shephelah, the fruitful plain on the Mediterranean Sea (1Ch 27:28); in cattle, which pastured partly in the plain of Sharon between Caesarea Palestina and Joppa, partly in various valleys of the country (1Ch 27:29); and in camels, asses, and sheep (1Ch 27:30.). All these possessions are called רכוּשׁ, and the overseers of them הרכוּשׁ שׂרי. They consisted in the produce of agriculture and cattle-breeding, the two main branches of Israelitish industry. 1Ch 27:27

Special officers were set over the vineyards and the stores of wine. The שׁ in שׁבּכּרמים is a contraction of אשׁר: “over that which was in the vineyards of treasures (stores) of wine.” The officer over the vineyards, Shimei, was of Ramah in Benjamin (cf. Jos 18:25); he who was over the stores of wine, Zabdi, is called השּׁפמי, probably not from שׁפם on the northern frontier of Canaan, Num 34:10, the situation of which has not yet been discovered, but from the equally unknown שׁפמוה in the Negeb of Judah, 1Sa 30:28. For since the vineyards, in which the stores of wine were laid up, must certainly have lain in the tribal domain of Judah, so rich in wine (Num 13:23.; Gen 49:11), probably the overseers of it were born in the same district. 1Ch 27:28-29

As to the שׁפלה, see on Jos 15:33. הגּדרי, he who was born in Geder, not Gedera, for which we should expect הגּדרתי (1Ch 12:4), although the situation of Gedera, south-east from Jabne (see on Jos 12:4), appears to suit better than that of גּדר or גּדור in the hill country of Judah; see Jos 12:13 and Jos 15:58. 1Ch 27:30-31

The name of the Ishmaelite who was set over the camels, Obil (אוביל), reminds us of the Arab. abila, multos possedit vel acquisivit camelos. המּרנמי, he of Meronoth (1Ch 27:30 and Neh 3:17). The situation of this place is unknown. According to Neh 3:7, it is perhaps to be sought in the neighbourhood of Mizpah. Over the smaller cattle (sheep and goats) Jaziz the Hagarite, of the people Hagar (cf. 1Ch 5:10), was set. The oversight, consequently, of the camels and sheep was committed to a Hagarite and an Ishmaelite, probably because they pastured in the neighbourhood where the Ishmaelites and Hagarites had nomadized from early times, they having been brought under the dominion of Israel by David. The total number of these officials amounted to twelve, of whom we may conjecture that the ten overseers over the agricultural and cattle-breeding affairs of the king had to deliver over the annual proceeds of the property committed to them to the chief manager of the treasures in the field, in the cities, and villages, and towns.