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(2.) An inhabitant of Kirjath-jearim who was “sanctified” to take charge of the ark, although not allowed to touch it, while it remained in the house of his father Abinadab (1 Samuel 7:1, 2; comp. Numbers 3:31; 4:15).
(3.) The son of Dodo the Ahohite, of the tribe of Benjamin, one of the three most eminent of David’s thirty-seven heroes (1 Chronicles 11:12) who broke through the Philistine host and brought him water from the well of Bethlehem (2 Samuel 23:9, 16).
(4.) A son of Phinehas associated with the priests in taking charge of the sacred vessels brought back to Jerusalem after the Exile (Ezra 8:33).
(5.) A Levite of the family of Merari (1 Chronicles 23:21, 22).
The ground of this election to salvation is the good pleasure of God (Ephesians 1:5, 11; Matthew 11:25, 26; John 15:16, 19). God claims the right so to do (Romans 9:16, 21).
It is not conditioned on faith or repentance, but is of soverign grace (Romans 11:4-6; Ephesians 1:3-6). All that pertain to salvation, the means (Ephesians 2:8; 2 Thessalonians 2:13) as well as the end, are of God (Acts 5:31; 2 Timothy 2:25; 1 Corinthians 1:30; Ephesians 2:5, 10). Faith and repentance and all other graces are the exercises of a regenerated soul; and regeneration is God’s work, a “new creature.”
Men are elected “to salvation,” “to the adoption of sons,” “to be holy and without blame before him in love” (2 Thessalonians 2:13; Galatians 4:4, 5; Ephesians 1:4). The ultimate end of election is the praise of God’s grace (Ephesians 1:6, 12). (See PREDESTINATION.)