1 Chronicles 25:8

8 And they cast lots by their courses, the elder equally with the younger, the learned and the unlearned together.

1 Chronicles 25:8 Meaning and Commentary

1 Chronicles 25:8

And they cast lots, ward against ward
That is, which ward or course of the singers should answer to and attend on the first ward or course of the priests in their weekly service, and which the second, and so on: as well the small as the great, the teacher as the scholar;
no regard was had to the age of a person, his being the firstborn or a younger brother, or to his office and station, whether as a teacher or a learner in the science of singing; he was made the head of a course, as the lot came up; and it may easily be observed, by comparing the lots in the following verses with the sons of the chief singers, according to the order of them in ( 1 Chronicles 25:2-4 ) that the younger are often preferred in the courses by lot to the elder, of which even the first lot is an instance.

1 Chronicles 25:8 In-Context

6 All these under their father’s hand were distributed to sing in the temple of the Lord, with cymbals, and psalteries and harps, for the service of the house of the Lord near the king: to wit, Asaph, and Idithun, and Heman.

7 And the number of them with their brethren, that taught the song of the Lord, all the teachers, were two hundred and eighty-eight.

8 And they cast lots by their courses, the elder equally with the younger, the learned and the unlearned together.

9 And the first lot came forth to Joseph, who was of Asaph. The second to Godolias, to him and his sons, and his brethren twelve.

10 The third to Zachur, to his sons and his brethren twelve.