1 Chronicles 23: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

David, now old, makes his son Solomon king over Israel and gathers the leaders, priests, and Levites. The Levites thirty and older are counted at 38,000, and David assigns them as supervisors of the work on the LORD's house, officers and judges, gatekeepers, and musicians. The chapter then lists the Levite families descended from Levi's three sons, Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. It closes with David's ruling that, since the tent no longer has to be carried from place to place, Levites are counted from age twenty, and their job is to assist Aaron's descendants with the temple service.

Claim by Claim

1. 23:1
   • David was old.
   • David was full of days.
   • David made his son Solomon king over Israel.
2. 23:2
   • David gathered together all the princes of Israel.
   • David gathered together the priests.
   • David gathered together the Levites.
3. 23:3
   • The Levites were counted from thirty years old and upward.
   • Their number, counted head by head, man by man, was thirty-eight thousand.
4. 23:4
   • Twenty-four thousand of them were to oversee the work of the house of the LORD.
   • Six thousand were officers and judges.
5. 23:5
   • Four thousand were gatekeepers.
   • Four thousand praised the LORD with the instruments that were made for praising.
   • David said that he made the instruments to praise with.
6. 23:6
   • David divided them into divisions according to the sons of Levi.
   • The sons of Levi were Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.
7. 23:7
   • The Gershonites were Laadan and Shimei.
8. 23:8
   • The sons of Laadan were Jehiel the chief, Zetham, and Joel.
   • The sons of Laadan were three.
9. 23:9
   • The sons of Shimei were Shelomith, Haziel, and Haran.
   • The sons of Shimei were three.
   • These were the heads of the fathers' houses belonging to Laadan.
10. 23:10
    • The sons of Shimei were Jahath, Zina, Jeush, and Beriah.
    • These four were the sons of Shimei.
11. 23:11
    • Jahath was the chief.
    • Zizah was the second.
    • Jeush and Beriah did not have many sons.
    • Jeush and Beriah were reckoned as one father's house in a single assignment.
12. 23:12
    • The sons of Kohath were Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel.
    • The sons of Kohath were four.
13. 23:13
    • The sons of Amram were Aaron and Moses.
    • Aaron was set apart to be consecrated as most holy.
    • Aaron and his sons were set apart forever.
    • Aaron was set apart to burn incense before the LORD.
    • Aaron was set apart to minister to the LORD.
    • Aaron was set apart to bless in the LORD's name forever.
14. 23:14
    • Moses was the man of God.
    • The sons of Moses were named among the tribe of Levi.
15. 23:15
    • The sons of Moses were Gershom and Eliezer.
16. 23:16
    • Of the sons of Gershom, Shebuel was the chief.
17. 23:17
    • The sons of Eliezer were Rehabiah the chief.
    • Eliezer had no other sons.
    • The sons of Rehabiah were very many.
18. 23:18
    • Of the sons of Izhar, Shelomith was the chief.
19. 23:19
    • Of the sons of Hebron, Jeriah was the first.
    • Amariah was the second.
    • Jahaziel was the third.
    • Jekameam was the fourth.
20. 23:20
    • Of the sons of Uzziel, Micah was the first.
    • Jesiah was the second.
21. 23:21
    • The sons of Merari were Mahli and Mushi.
    • The sons of Mahli were Eleazar and Kish.
22. 23:22
    • Eleazar died.
    • Eleazar had no sons, only daughters.
    • The sons of Kish, their brethren, took the daughters of Eleazar as wives.
23. 23:23
    • The sons of Mushi were Mahli, Eder, and Jeremoth.
    • The sons of Mushi were three.
24. 23:24
    • These were the sons of Levi according to their fathers' houses.
    • These were the heads of the fathers' houses as they were registered.
    • They were counted by number of names, head by head.
    • They did the work for the service of the house of the LORD.
    • They were counted from twenty years old and upward.
25. 23:25
    • David said that the LORD God of Israel had given rest to his people.
    • David said that they might dwell in Jerusalem forever.
26. 23:26
    • The Levites would no longer carry the tabernacle.
    • The Levites would no longer carry any of the vessels of the tabernacle used for its service.
27. 23:27
    • By the last words of David the Levites were numbered from twenty years old and above.
28. 23:28
    • The office of the Levites was to attend on the sons of Aaron for the service of the house of the LORD.
    • Their duty covered the courts.
    • Their duty covered the chambers.
    • Their duty covered the purifying of all holy things.
    • Their duty covered the work of the service of the house of God.
29. 23:29
    • Their duty covered the showbread.
    • Their duty covered the fine flour for the grain offering.
    • Their duty covered the unleavened wafers.
    • Their duty covered what was baked in the pan.
    • Their duty covered what was mixed or fried.
    • Their duty covered all manner of measure and size.
30. 23:30
    • They were to stand every morning to thank and praise the LORD.
    • They were to do likewise in the evening.
31. 23:31
    • They were to offer all burnt offerings to the LORD on the sabbaths, new moons, and set feasts.
    • They were to do so by number, according to the ordinance commanded them.
    • They were to do so continually before the LORD.
32. 23:32
    • They were to keep the charge of the tent of meeting.
    • They were to keep the charge of the holy place.
    • They were to keep the charge of the sons of Aaron their brethren.
    • This was for the service of the house of the LORD.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

23:1

Kings often named their successor before they died. David crowned Solomon while he was still alive so the change would go smoothly.

23:2

The Levites were the tribe of Levi, set apart for work connected with the sanctuary. Within that tribe, only the descendants of Aaron served as priests, offering sacrifices and burning incense; the rest of the Levites were their assistants, carrying, guarding, singing, and maintaining the building and its equipment. The chapter turns on that distinction.

23:3

Thirty was the age at which Levites began sanctuary service in the older law (Numbers 4), which describes the physically demanding job of dismantling and carrying the portable tent. Verse 24 lowers the age to twenty, and verses 25–27 explain why.

23:4

"The house of the LORD" here means the temple that Solomon has not yet built. David is organizing staff in advance for a building that exists only as a plan and a stockpile of materials.

23:5

Gatekeepers were not simply doorkeepers: they controlled access to the sanctuary and its courts, decided who and what could come in, and were responsible for the storerooms and the treasure kept there.

23:6

The King James word is "courses", rotating shifts. Rather than all serving at once, the divisions took turns on duty in a fixed cycle, so that the sanctuary was always staffed but no family served continuously.

23:7

Long lists of names look dull, but they mattered a great deal. A Levite's job was decided by which family he belonged to, so the family records had to be kept straight.

23:8

In these lists, "sons" can also mean grandsons and later children in the family.

23:10

This Shimei appears to be a different man from the Shimei of verses 7 and 9, though the text does not say so. The Hebrew of these verses is difficult, and the same name is spelled two ways: "Zina" here and "Zizah" in verse 11.

23:11

The rota was assigned by family, so a family with few men still owed a full turn of duty. Combining two small families into one unit meant they shared a single slot in the rotation instead of each being stretched to cover its own. Zina in verse 10 and Zizah here are two spellings of the same man's name.

23:13

Burning incense and pronouncing blessing "in his name" were duties reserved to Aaron's line alone; the blessing referred to is the set formula of Numbers 6:24–26. "Set apart" translates a word meaning separated off for exclusive use, the same idea behind calling something holy.

23:14

"Man of God" is a standard title for a prophet, not a comment on Moses' character. The point of the verse is the opposite of praise: Moses' own sons received no special rank and were simply enrolled among ordinary Levites, unlike Aaron's sons, who inherited the priesthood.

23:21

This Kish is not Saul's father, who belonged to the tribe of Benjamin. The name was a common one.

23:22

When a man died leaving only daughters, marrying them to relatives within the same tribe kept his land and share from passing to another tribe (the rule set out in Numbers 36). "Their brethren" in the King James means their male relatives, here their cousins.

23:24

Verse 3 counted from age thirty and this verse counts from twenty. The writer explains the difference in the next three verses: the old starting age fitted work that involved physically carrying a heavy tent from place to place, and once the temple made that unnecessary, younger men could begin.

23:25

"Rest" in this idiom means an end to war and to moving from place to place: a settled land with no enemies pressing on it. It is the standard word for what a king achieves when his campaigns are over.

23:26

Before the temple, Israel's sanctuary was a portable tent that was taken apart, carried, and reassembled at each stopping place, the Levites' original and defining job. A permanent building in Jerusalem abolishes that work, which is why younger men could now be enrolled.

23:28

"Purifying" here is not cleaning in the household sense. Objects used in the sanctuary had to be kept in a state of ritual fitness, and anything that had lost it had to be restored by prescribed procedures before it could be used again. The "chambers" were side rooms built against the temple, used for storage and for the priests on duty.

23:29

The showbread was twelve loaves set out on a table inside the sanctuary and replaced each Sabbath. The grain offering was an offering of flour and oil rather than an animal. Bread made without yeast was required for certain offerings and festivals. The "measure and size" clause refers to the fixed quantities the law prescribed for each of these, the Levites were responsible for getting them right.

23:31

Burnt offerings were animals burned whole on the altar rather than eaten. The new moon, the first day of each lunar month, was a regular holy day, since Israel's calendar ran by the moon. The "set feasts" are the annual festivals fixed by law, chiefly Passover, Weeks, and Booths.

23:32

The Tent of Meeting was the portable sanctuary of the wilderness years; "the holy place" is the sanctuary building proper, the room housing the lampstand, the incense altar, and the table of showbread. "Keep the charge of" is a King James phrase for holding responsibility for something and standing guard over it.