1 Chronicles 23:2-12

2 And he gathered together all the leaders of Israel, with the priests and the Levites.
3 Now the Levites were numbered from the age of thirty years and above; and the number of individual males was thirty-eight thousand.
4 Of these, twenty-four thousand were to look after the work of the house of the Lord, six thousand were officers and judges
5 four thousand were gatekeepers, and four thousand praised the Lord with musical instruments, "which I made," said David, "for giving praise."
6 Also David separated them into divisions among the sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.
7 Of the Gershonites: Laadan and Shimei.
8 The sons of Laadan: the first Jehiel, then Zetham and Joel--three in all.
9 The sons of Shimei: Shelomith, Haziel, and Haran--three in all. These were the heads of the fathers' houses of Laadan.
10 And the sons of Shimei: Jahath, Zina, Jeush, and Beriah. These were the four sons of Shimei.
11 Jahath was the first and Zizah the second. But Jeush and Beriah did not have many sons; therefore they were assigned as one father's house.
12 The sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel--four in all.

1 Chronicles 23:2-12 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 1 CHRONICLES 23

In this chapter David makes Solomon king, 1Ch 23:1, calls together the princes, priests, and Levites, numbers the latter, and assigns them their proper work, 1Ch 23:2-5, divides them into three classes, 1Ch 23:6-23, when the number of them was taken from twenty years of age, and upwards; the reasons of which are given, partly from the rest the land enjoyed, and partly from the several branches of their work and office in the temple, 1Ch 23:24-32.

Footnotes 2

  • [a]. Spelled Libni in Exodus 6:17
  • [b]. Septuagint and Vulgate read Zizah (compare 1 Chronicles 23:11).
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.