For Teaching

1 Chronicles 26: What the Passage Says

118 claims across 32 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What 1 Chronicles 26 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

This chapter lists the divisions of the Levites who served as gatekeepers at the house of the LORD, naming the families of Meshelemiah, Obed-edom, and Hosah, and telling how lots were cast to assign each family a gate. It then names the Levites placed over the temple treasuries, including the gifts set apart from battle spoils by David, his commanders, and earlier leaders such as Samuel, Saul, Abner, and Joab. It ends with Levites given duties away from the temple as officials, judges, and administrators for the work of the LORD and the service of the king, both west and east of the Jordan.

Claim by Claim

26:1
- The divisions of the gatekeepers are stated.
- Meshelemiah belonged to the Korahites.
- Meshelemiah was the son of Kore.
- Kore was of the sons of Asaph.
26:2
- Meshelemiah had sons.
- Zechariah was the firstborn son of Meshelemiah.
- Jediael was the second son.
- Zebadiah was the third son.
- Jathniel was the fourth son.
26:3
- Elam was the fifth son.
- Jehohanan was the sixth son.
- Elioenai was the seventh son.
26:4
- Obed-edom had sons.
- Shemaiah was the firstborn son of Obed-edom.
- Jehozabad was the second son.
- Joah was the third son.
- Sacar was the fourth son.
- Nethanel was the fifth son.
26:5
- Ammiel was the sixth son.
- Issachar was the seventh son.
- Peullethai was the eighth son.
- God blessed Obed-edom.
26:6
- Sons were born to Shemaiah, the son of Obed-edom.
- Those sons ruled over their father's house.
- They were mighty men of valor.
26:7
- The sons of Shemaiah were Othni, Rephael, Obed, and Elzabad.
- Elzabad's brothers were able men.
- Elihu and Semachiah are named among them.
26:8
- All these were of the sons of Obed-edom.
- They, their sons, and their brothers were capable men with strength for the service.
- Those of Obed-edom numbered sixty-two.
26:9
- Meshelemiah had sons and brothers who were capable men.
- They numbered eighteen.
26:10
- Hosah was of the sons of Merari.
- Hosah had sons.
- Shimri was the chief.
- Shimri was not the firstborn.
- Shimri's father appointed him chief.
26:11
- Hilkiah was the second son.
- Tebaliah was the third son.
- Zechariah was the fourth son.
- All the sons and brothers of Hosah were thirteen.
26:12
- These were the divisions of the gatekeepers.
- The divisions were assigned by the chief men.
- They had watches corresponding to those of their brothers.
- Their duty was to minister in the house of the LORD.
26:13
- They cast lots, small and great alike.
- The lots were cast by their fathers' houses.
- The lots were cast for each gate.
26:14
- The lot for the east fell to Shelemiah.
- Zechariah was Shelemiah's son.
- Zechariah was a wise counselor.
- They cast lots for Zechariah.
- Zechariah's lot came out for the north.
26:15
- The south fell to Obed-edom.
- The storehouse fell to Obed-edom's sons.
26:16
- The west fell to Shuppim and Hosah.
- Their assignment included the gate Shallecheth on the ascending highway.
- Watch corresponded to watch.
26:17
- On the east there were six Levites.
- On the north there were four a day.
- On the south there were four a day.
- At the storehouses there were two and two.
26:18
- At Parbar on the west there were four at the causeway.
- There were two at Parbar.
26:19
- These were the divisions of the gatekeepers.
- They were among the sons of Korah and the sons of Merari.
26:20
- Ahijah was of the Levites.
- Ahijah was over the treasuries of the house of God.
- Ahijah was over the treasuries of the dedicated things.
26:21
- The sons of Laadan were sons of the Gershonites.
- The heads of the fathers' houses belonging to Laadan the Gershonite are named.
- Jehieli is named among them.
26:22
- Zetham and his brother Joel were sons of Jehieli.
- Zetham and Joel were over the treasuries of the house of the LORD.
26:23
- The Amramites, the Izharites, the Hebronites, and the Uzzielites are listed.
26:24
- Shebuel was the son of Gershom.
- Gershom was the son of Moses.
- Shebuel was ruler over the treasuries.
26:25
- Shebuel's brothers came by way of Eliezer.
- Rehabiah was the son of Eliezer.
- Jeshaiah was the son of Rehabiah.
- Joram was the son of Jeshaiah.
- Zichri was the son of Joram.
- Shelomith was the son of Zichri.
26:26
- This Shelomith and his brothers were over all the treasuries of the dedicated things.
- King David had dedicated those things.
- The heads of the fathers' houses had dedicated those things.
- The captains over thousands and over hundreds had dedicated those things.
- The commanders of the army had dedicated those things.
26:27
- They dedicated things out of the wars and out of the spoil.
- The dedication was to maintain the house of the LORD.
26:28
- Samuel the seer had dedicated things.
- Saul the son of Kish had dedicated things.
- Abner the son of Ner had dedicated things.
- Joab the son of Zeruiah had dedicated things.
- Everything anyone had dedicated was under the hand of Shelomith and his brothers.
26:29
- Chenaniah was of the Izharites.
- Chenaniah and his sons were over the outward business concerning Israel.
- They served as officers and judges.
26:30
- Hashabiah was of the Hebronites.
- Hashabiah and his brothers were men of valor.
- They numbered one thousand seven hundred.
- They had oversight of Israel west of the Jordan.
- Their oversight covered all the work of the LORD.
- Their oversight covered the service of the king.
26:31
- Jerijah was the chief of the Hebronites.
- The reckoning was according to the genealogies of his fathers' houses.
- In the fortieth year of David's reign they were sought out.
- Mighty men of valor were found among them at Jazer of Gilead.
26:32
- Jerijah's brothers were men of valor.
- They numbered two thousand seven hundred.
- They were heads of fathers' houses.
- King David appointed them over the Reubenites.
- King David appointed them over the Gadites.
- King David appointed them over the half tribe of Manasseh.
- Their charge covered every matter pertaining to God.
- Their charge covered the affairs of the king.

Words Worth Explaining

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

26:1: Gatekeepers (the King James "porters") were Levites posted at the entrances of the sanctuary: they opened and shut the gates, controlled who was allowed in, and guarded the stores and equipment. "Divisions" means the rotating shifts they served in, the same arrangement described for the priests and the singers in the preceding chapters. The Korahites were a Levite clan descended from Korah; the Asaph named here is probably not Asaph the temple singer but the Korahite ancestor called Ebiasaph elsewhere.
26:4: Obed-edom is the man in whose house the ark of the covenant (the gold-covered chest that was Israel's holiest object) was left for three months after David's first attempt to bring it to Jerusalem went wrong, and his household prospered while it was there (2 Samuel 6).
26:5: In this period a large and healthy family was read as visible evidence of God's favor, so the eight sons just listed are offered as the proof of the blessing on Obed-edom's household.
26:6: "Strong, capable men" renders a Hebrew phrase (literally "mighty men of valour") used of warriors but also more broadly of men of standing and ability. Here it marks men fit for the physical demands of guard duty.
26:8: "Threescore and two" is sixty-two. A score is twenty, so threescore is sixty. The King James counts this way throughout.
26:10: The oldest son normally held first rank in a family as a matter of course. Naming a younger son as head was a deliberate act by the father, and unusual enough that the text stops to explain it.
26:12: "The house of the LORD" is the temple. It had not been built in David's lifetime, the ark still stood in a tent, but Chronicles presents David as organizing in advance the staff for the building his son Solomon would put up.
26:13: Casting lots meant drawing or shaking out marked stones or sticks. The result was treated as God's decision rather than a human one, which is why the posts could be assigned without regard to which families were senior and which junior, or who was old and who young.
26:14: Shelemiah is a shortened form of Meshelemiah, the man named in verse 1.
26:15: The Hebrew word behind "storehouse building" (the King James leaves it untranslated as "Asuppim") is obscure. It is usually taken to mean storehouses or a store building on the south side, where supplies and donated goods were kept.
26:16: The road that goes up is a ramp or raised causeway climbing to the temple area from the valley below; Shallecheth is the name of the gate at its head. "Watch beside watch" means guard post set opposite guard post, each covering the next. The name Shuppim is uncertain: it may have arisen from a copying error in Hebrew, and some ancient versions do not have it.
26:17: The east side was the main approach to the temple, which is why it takes six guards where the other sides take four or two.
26:18: "Western court" translates the obscure Hebrew word left as "Parbar" in the King James. It seems to mean a court, colonnade or outbuilding on the west side of the temple precinct; its exact nature is unknown.
26:20: The treasuries were strongrooms within the temple complex. "Gifts set apart for God" renders a term for dedicated things, property made over permanently to the sanctuary and no longer available for ordinary use. The Hebrew here reads as a personal name, Ahijah; the ancient Greek translation read the same consonants as "their brothers", meaning their fellow Levites, and many modern versions follow that reading.
26:21: Levi had three sons (Gershon, Kohath and Merari) and every Levite family traced its line back to one of the three. Laadan's family belongs to the Gershon branch.
26:23: These four are the branches of the Kohath side of Levi, named after Kohath's sons. Amram was the father of Moses and Aaron, so the Amramites are Moses' own family line.
26:24: Gershom was a son of Moses, and is a different person from Gershon son of Levi in verse 21, despite the similar name. "A descendant of" can cover any number of generations; several would have passed between Moses and David's reign.
26:26: Commanders of a thousand and of a hundred were the officers of the army's standing units, roughly regiment and company level. The figures are the names of the units rather than exact head counts.
26:27: Handing a share of the plunder taken in war over to the sanctuary was standard practice. Here that fund is what pays for the upkeep and repair of the building.
26:28: A seer was an older word for a prophet, from the idea of seeing what others do not. Samuel led Israel in the years before it had a king and anointed both Saul and David; Saul was Israel's first king; Abner was Saul's army commander and Joab was David's.
26:29: "Outside the temple" renders a phrase meaning outward or external duties: administration and legal cases out among the people, as distinct from service inside the sanctuary.
26:30: The Jordan River split Israel's territory in two. The bulk of the tribes lived west of it, and two and a half tribes east. This group's responsibility was the western side; verse 32 covers the east.
26:31: David reigned forty years, so this is the last year of his reign. "The records were searched" means the family registers were consulted, descent was what established a Levite's line and his eligibility to serve. Jazer lay in Gilead, the hill country east of the Jordan.
26:32: Reuben, Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh were the tribes that settled east of the Jordan, outside the land west of the river dealt with in verse 30.

Read 1 Chronicles 26