1 Chronicles 25: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

David and the army commanders set apart members of three families (the sons of Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun) to prophesy with stringed instruments and cymbals in the worship of the LORD. The chapter names the men in each family, notes that they served under their fathers and under the king's direction, and gives their total as 288 trained singers. They then cast lots for their order of duty, teacher and student alike, and the result is listed as twenty-four groups of twelve.

Claim by Claim

1. 25:1
   • David and the commanders of the army set apart certain of the sons of Asaph, of Heman, and of Jeduthun for the service.
   • Those set apart were to prophesy with lyres, harps, and cymbals.
   • A count was made of the men who did this work, according to their service.
2. 25:2
   • The sons of Asaph were Zaccur, Joseph, Nethaniah, and Asarelah.
   • These sons of Asaph were under the direction of Asaph.
   • Asaph prophesied under the direction of the king.
3. 25:3
   • The sons of Jeduthun named were Gedaliah, Zeri, Jeshaiah, Hashabiah, and Mattithiah.
   • They are said to be six.
   • They were under the direction of their father Jeduthun.
   • Jeduthun prophesied with the lyre.
   • Jeduthun's prophesying was for giving thanks and praise to the LORD.
4. 25:4
   • The sons of Heman were Bukkiah, Mattaniah, Uzziel, Shebuel, Jerimoth, Hananiah, Hanani, Eliathah, Giddalti, Romamti-ezer, Joshbekashah, Mallothi, Hothir, and Mahazioth.
5. 25:5
   • All these were sons of Heman.
   • Heman was the king's seer in the words of God.
   • The purpose stated is to lift up the horn; whose horn is not specified.
   • God gave Heman fourteen sons.
   • God gave Heman three daughters.
6. 25:6
   • All these were under the direction of their father for song in the house of the LORD.
   • Their music was made with cymbals, harps, and lyres.
   • Their music was for the service of the house of God.
   • Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman were under the direction of the king.
7. 25:7
   • They were counted together with their kinsmen who were trained in song for the LORD.
   • All of them were skilled.
   • Their number was two hundred eighty-eight.
8. 25:8
   • They cast lots for their duties, division against division.
   • The small and the great were treated alike in the casting of lots.
   • The teacher and the pupil were treated alike in the casting of lots.
9. 25:9
   • The first lot came out for Asaph, to Joseph.
   • The second lot came to Gedaliah.
   • Gedaliah with his brothers and his sons were twelve.
10. 25:10
    • The third lot came to Zaccur.
    • He, his sons, and his brothers were twelve.
11. 25:11
    • The fourth lot came to Izri.
    • He, his sons, and his brothers were twelve.
12. 25:12
    • The fifth lot came to Nethaniah.
    • He, his sons, and his brothers were twelve.
13. 25:13
    • The sixth lot came to Bukkiah.
    • He, his sons, and his brothers were twelve.
14. 25:14
    • The seventh lot came to Jesharelah.
    • He, his sons, and his brothers were twelve.
15. 25:15
    • The eighth lot came to Jeshaiah.
    • He, his sons, and his brothers were twelve.
16. 25:16
    • The ninth lot came to Mattaniah.
    • He, his sons, and his brothers were twelve.
17. 25:17
    • The tenth lot came to Shimei.
    • He, his sons, and his brothers were twelve.
18. 25:18
    • The eleventh lot came to Azarel.
    • He, his sons, and his brothers were twelve.
19. 25:19
    • The twelfth lot came to Hashabiah.
    • He, his sons, and his brothers were twelve.
20. 25:20
    • The thirteenth lot came to Shubael.
    • He, his sons, and his brothers were twelve.
21. 25:21
    • The fourteenth lot came to Mattithiah.
    • He, his sons, and his brothers were twelve.
22. 25:22
    • The fifteenth lot came to Jeremoth.
    • He, his sons, and his brothers were twelve.
23. 25:23
    • The sixteenth lot came to Hananiah.
    • He, his sons, and his brothers were twelve.
24. 25:24
    • The seventeenth lot came to Joshbekashah.
    • He, his sons, and his brothers were twelve.
25. 25:25
    • The eighteenth lot came to Hanani.
    • He, his sons, and his brothers were twelve.
26. 25:26
    • The nineteenth lot came to Mallothi.
    • He, his sons, and his brothers were twelve.
27. 25:27
    • The twentieth lot came to Eliathah.
    • He, his sons, and his brothers were twelve.
28. 25:28
    • The twenty-first lot came to Hothir.
    • He, his sons, and his brothers were twelve.
29. 25:29
    • The twenty-second lot came to Giddalti.
    • He, his sons, and his brothers were twelve.
30. 25:30
    • The twenty-third lot came to Mahazioth.
    • He, his sons, and his brothers were twelve.
31. 25:31
    • The twenty-fourth lot came to Romamti-ezer.
    • He, his sons, and his brothers were twelve.

Words Worth Explaining

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

25:1

"Prophesy" here does not mean predicting the future. In Chronicles the word covers inspired public performance, singing and playing sacred song under God's prompting, which is why it is done "with" instruments. The instruments are the kinnor, a small hand-held lyre (KJV "harp"), the nebel, a larger stringed instrument (KJV "psaltery"), and bronze cymbals.

25:2

"Under the hands of" is a Hebrew way of saying under someone's direction or authority, the way a section of an orchestra plays under a conductor. "According to the order of the king" means by the king's arrangement or appointment, not a single command shouted once.

25:3

Five names are listed but the total is given as six. The Hebrew text as it stands is short one name; some ancient copies and translations supply "Shimei," who does turn up in the list of duty-groups at verse 17. The gap is in the manuscripts, not in the rendering.

25:4

The last nine of these names are unusual: read in order in Hebrew, Hananiah, Hanani, Eliathah, Giddalti, Romamti-ezer, Joshbekashah, Mallothi, Hothir, Mahazioth form a short prayer, roughly "Be gracious to me, LORD, be gracious to me; you are my God; I have magnified and exalted help; sitting in trouble I spoke; grant abundant visions." Scholars disagree whether these were real personal names that happen to line up, or a line from a song that was later broken into names.

25:5

A "seer" is a prophet; the older English word reflects the Hebrew term for one who "sees" what God shows him. "To lift up the horn" is a Hebrew idiom: an animal's horn stood for strength and standing, so lifting it up means to raise someone's status or make him strong. The Hebrew here is ambiguous: it can mean God gave Heman these sons to exalt him, or that the sons' role was to lift up the horn in praise, or even to sound a horn.

25:6

The "house of the LORD" is the temple. In David's lifetime it had not yet been built; Chronicles describes David organizing in advance the staff for the building his son Solomon would erect, while worship continued at the tent that housed the ark.

25:7

288 is 24 groups of 12, the arrangement set out in the rest of the chapter.

25:8

Casting lots meant throwing marked stones or sticks and reading the result, a standard way of assigning duties without anyone being able to claim favoritism. The KJV's "ward against ward" means division matched against division: each group drew for its turn of duty in the same way as every other.

25:9

The twenty-four groups here match the twenty-four groups of priests listed in the previous chapter, so a singing group was on duty alongside each rotation of priests. The names in this list are the sons named in verses 2 to 4, though several appear in slightly different spellings (Izri for Zeri, Jesharelah for Asarelah, Shubael for Shebuel, Azareel for Uzziel).

25:11

Several names in this roster are spelled differently from the way the same men appear in verses 2 to 4: Izri here is Zeri there, Jesharelah is Asarelah, Shubael is Shebuel, and Jeremoth is Jerimoth. Hebrew names often had more than one accepted written form, much as Jon and John are one name today.

25:31

Twenty-four groups of musicians matched the twenty-four groups of priests listed in the chapter before. The music and the priests' work were meant to run on the same schedule.