And Joab the son of Sarvia was over the army: and Josaphat the son of Ahilud was recorder:

And Joab the son of Zeruiah was over the host; and Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was chronicler;

and Joab son of Zeruiah is over the host, and Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud is remembrancer,

And Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was chief of the army; and Jehoshaphat, the son of Ahilud, was keeper of the records;

Now Joab, the son Zeruiah, was over the army. And Jehoshaphat, the son of Ahilud, was the keeper of records.

For a similar account of the officers of Solomon's kingdom, see 1-Kings 4:1-6, where Jehoshaphat is still the recorder, and Benaiah is advanced to be captain of the host in the room of Joab. The recorder seems to have been a high officer of state, a kind of chancellor, whose office was to keep a record of the events of the kingdom for the king's information, and hence, he would naturally be the king's adviser. See Esther 6:1-2; Isaiah 36:22; 2-Chronicles 34:8. Such an officer is found among the ancient Egyptians and Persians.
Ahimelech the son of Abiathar - According to 1-Samuel 22:9-23, Abiathar, Zadok's colleague, was the son of Ahimelech. Abiathar the son of Ahimelech continued to be priest through the reign of David. (Compare also 1-Kings 1:7, 1-Kings 1:42; 1-Kings 2:22-27.) It almost necessarily follows that there is some error in the text.
The scribe - Or secretary of state 2-Kings 12:10; 2-Kings 18:37, different from the military scribe (Judges 5:14 note).

Joab - was over the host - General and commander-in-chief over all the army.
Ahilud - recorder - מזכיר mazkir, remembrancer; one who kept a strict journal of all the proceedings of the king and operations of his army; a chronicler. Or, remembrancer, or, writer of chronicles.

And Joab the son of Zeruiah was over the host,.... Which was not only owing to his relation to David, being his sister's son, but to his promise that whoever smote the Jebusites first should be chief and captain; that is, should have the command of the army under him; this Joab did; and so was entitled to this office, and was put into it, and continued in it, 1-Chronicles 11:6,
and Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was recorder; of memorable events, who kept a diary of whatsoever remarkable happened, which were digested into a chronicle, history, or annals; see Esther 6:1; so the Targum, he"was appointed over the memorials;''or book of memorials, as Kimchi interprets it; that is, to take care of it, and see that everything worthy of notice was inserted in it; or was "remembrancer" (g); one that put the king in mind what was to be done every day, or in certain cases, and so R. Isaiah explains it, the king's counsellor; some take him to be chancellor, as Luther and others (h).
(g) "commemorans", Montanus; "commemorator", Syr. Ar. "memorans, sive reducens in memoriam", Vatablus. (h) Vid. Beckium in Targ. 1 Chron. xviii. 15.

Joab . . . was over the host--by virtue of a special promise (2-Samuel 5:8).
recorder--historiographer or daily annalist, an office of great trust and importance in Eastern countries.

The chief ministers were the following: - Joab (see at 2-Samuel 2:18) was "over the army," i.e., commander-in-chief. Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud, of whom nothing further is known, was mazcir, chancellor; not merely the national annalist, according to the Septuagint and Vulgate (ἐπὶ τῶν ὑπομνημάτην, ὑπομνηματόγραφος; a commentariis), i.e., the recorder of the most important incidents and affairs of the nation, but an officer resembling the magister memoriae of the later Romans, or the waka nuvis of the Persian court, who keeps a record of everything that takes place around the king, furnishes him with an account of all that occurs in the kingdom, places his vis upon all the king's commands, and keeps a special protocol of all these things (vid., Chardin, Voyages v. p. 258, and Paulsen, Regierung der Morgenlnder, pp. 279-80).

Recorder - The treasurer, who examined all the accounts, and kept records of them.