Nehemiah 12:9

Also Bakbukiah and Unni,.... Two other Levites; the first is mentioned in Ne 11:17, their brethren, were over against them in the watches; the Levites were divided into twenty four wards, and these

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

i.e. In the places where they were appointed to stand, and wait, and perform their office, one standing over against another, as it is explained, , ward over against ward; for the Hebrew word is the same there and here. Others, according to their turns, or courses, of which see .

Nehemiah 12:9 Also Bakbukiah and Unni, their brethren, [were] over against them in the watches.Ver. 9. In the watches] In the order of their functions, taking their turns.

9. and Unni] R.V. and Unno. The K’ri reads ‘and Unni,’ the C’thib ‘and Unno.’ The C’thib reading might, however, be rendered as the verb which occurs in Ezra 3:11, ‘And they sang one to another’ (cf. Deuteronomy 21:7; Deuteronomy 27:14), with the sense of ‘And their brethren responded to them in choral antiphon.’ This suggestion, however, apart from grammatical objections, requires us to suppose that Bakbukiah’s name has been interpolated. For this there is no evidence; and so far as the sense is concerned, the idea of antiphonal singing is sufficiently expressed in our own text. The confusion between ‘Unno’ and ‘Unni’ arises from the commonest source of variation in the Hebrew text, the similarity of Yod and Vβv (ι and ε). But the original reading was very probably ‘Also Bakbukiah and Unni [and] their brethren;’ Yτd, the last letter of Unni, having fallen out before the Vβv, the Vβv became, instead of the copula, the last letter of ‘Unno.’ Another conjectural and less probable emendation of the text is to read ‘Obadiah’ instead of ‘Unni,’ in order to bring the verse in closer correspondence with Nehemiah 12:25. over against them] The same expression as in 2 Chronicles 7:6, ‘The priests sounded trumpets before them,’ where probably the meaning is ‘over against, i.e. in answer to, the Levites:’ See also Nehemiah 12:24. in the watches] R.V. in wards. LXX. εἰςτὰςἐφημερίας. Vulg. ‘in officio suo.’ The Hebrew could equally well be rendered ‘as watches, i.e. for the purpose of keeping watch.’ But the sense required is more probably ‘according to wards,’ ‘in wards by rotation.’ Cf. Nehemiah 13:14.