1 Chronicleschapter 23
32 verses · Ezra, by tradition · 450 to 400 BC · History
Key verse
These were the sons of Levi after the house of their fathers; even the chief of the fathers, as they were counted by number of names by their polls, that did the work for the service of the house of the Lord, from the age of twenty years and upward.
It stands in New work for Levites now the tent no longer moves, verses 24 to 32.
The chapter
Chapter summary
David, old and full of days, makes Solomon king and organizes the Levites for a settled sanctuary. Thirty-eight thousand are numbered and assigned: twenty-four thousand to oversee the work of the house, six thousand as officers and judges, four thousand doorkeepers, and four thousand to praise Jehovah 'with the instruments which I made, said David, to praise therewith.' The reason for the reorganization is stated openly: Jehovah has given rest unto his people and dwells in Jerusalem for ever, so the Levites no longer need to carry the tabernacle and its vessels. Their standing order is set: to stand every morning to thank and praise Jehovah, and likewise at even, and at every sabbath and new moon and set feast.
Context
History · Ezra · 1 Chronicles overview
The world behind this chapter
1 Chronicles 23The history
The chapter is David's, and it records the last ordinance of a king described in its first verse as old and full of years. He had already installed Solomon, and he now gathers the leaders of Israel with the priests and the Levites.
The setting is Jerusalem, where the ark had come to rest and where the temple would stand. The tabernacle no longer moved.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
The occasion is a change of job description. The Levites had been counted from thirty years old, the age Numbers 4 set for men who carried the tabernacle and its furniture on the march. David lowers the entry age to twenty and gives his reason openly, that the LORD has given rest to His people and the Levites no longer need to carry the tent or its articles.
A first hearer knew what the new assignments meant in practice, and a reader today has to be told. Levites were set over the courts and the side rooms, and over the purification of the holy things. They also kept the rows of showbread, the fine flour for the grain offering, the wafers of unleavened bread, the baking and the mixing. They also kept all measurements of quantity and size, which means the official weights and measures of the sanctuary were in their hands.
The numbers divide the body into four departments: 24,000 over the work of the house, 6,000 officers and judges, 4,000 gatekeepers and 4,000 musicians on instruments David says he made for giving praise.
The daily rhythm is stated at the end. The Levites were to stand every morning to give thanks and praise, and again every evening. They were to serve at every burnt offering on the Sabbaths, the New Moons and the appointed feasts, in the numbers prescribed for them.
What it meant to them
The men who first heard this served that rota. Their department, their week and their entry age all came from these verses, which is why the chapter is preserved in such administrative detail.
The reason given for the change carried its own lesson. When the ark came to rest, the job was rewritten, so the service asked of them was the service the present moment required.
Sources cited
- Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions
- C. F. Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Chronicles , 1872
Where the chapter sits
1 Chronicles 23 falls in David's reign: temple-framed (chapters 10–29). Saul's death framed as judgment; David's consolidation; the ark brought to Jerusalem; the Davidic covenant (ch. 17); the military victories; the census and the threshing-floor site (ch. 21); temple preparation; Solomon's charge; David's doxology.
Before it: Genealogies from Adam to Saul, chapters 1–9.
The whole shape of 1 Chronicles→The structure of this chapter
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A. Solomon made king, and the Levites divided into courses
1. (vv. 1-2)
1 Chronicles 23:1
“So when David was old and full of days,.... Perhaps was now in the last year of his age, about seventy years old, though before he was bedridden; see 1Ch 28:2, he made Solomon his son king over Israel; declared him to be his successor; this was before the affair of Adonijah, for then he ordered him to be anointed king, and placed on the throne; and this aggravated the rebellion of Adonijah, that it was against the declared and known will of his father.”
1 Chronicles 23:2
“And he gathered together all the princes of Israel,.... Ordered them to be assembled, partly to acquaint them with his will and pleasure, that Solomon should succeed him in the kingdom; and partly to settle the order of the work and service of the temple; and therefore these were convened with the priests and Levites; to assign to them their respective places and offices.”
he made Solomon his son king: David's last recorded act as king is administrative: he crowns Solomon and then convenes the princes, priests and Levites before he turns to the temple's structure. Succession is settled first, and only then does the king reorganize the house of worship his son will build. Chronicles gives this scene no parallel in Kings; the Chronicler's own material begins here and runs to the book's end.
2. (vv. 3-5)
1 Chronicles 23:3
“Thirty years and upward - The enumeration of the Levites made in the desert, Num 4:3, was from thirty years upwards to fifty years. In this place, the latter limit is not mentioned, probably because the service was not so laborious now; for the ark being fixed they had no longer any heavy burdens to carry, and therefore even an old man might continue to serve the tabernacle. David made another ordinance afterwards; see on 1Ch 23:24-27 (note).”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 23:3
“It was, in all likelihood, this vast increase that suggested and rendered expedient that classification, made in the last year of David's reign, which the present and three subsequent chapters describe. by their polls, man by man--Women and children were not included.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 Chronicles 23:4
“Officers - To take care that all the work of the temple about sacrifices should be punctually performed, either by themselves or others: which they were not to do all at once, but by courses, a thousand at a time.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 Chronicles 23:5
“Moreover four thousand were porters,.... At the east, north, and south gates of the temple, in their turns: and four thousand praised the Lord with the instruments; were singers in the temple, which in all made up 38,000: which I made, said David, to praise therewith; which instruments he devised and ordered to be made to praise the Lord with; see 2Ch 29:26.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 23:5
“Four thousand praised the Lord - David made this distribution according to his own judgment, and from the dictates of his piety; but it does not appear that he had any positive Divine authority for such arrangements. As to the instruments of music which he made they are condemned elsewhere; see Amo 6:5, to which this verse is allowed to be the parallel.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
numbered from the age of thirty: The Levites number thirty eight thousand, counted from age thirty as Numbers 4 had set, and David sorts them by task: twenty four thousand for the temple's work, six thousand as officers and judges, four thousand as gatekeepers, and four thousand as musicians on instruments David says he made himself. No earlier text gives Israel's worship a standing body of musicians on this scale, and the claim of authorship stands in the text without further comment. Adam Clarke reads the phrase against Amos 6:5, which faults instruments made for luxury, and takes David's claim as distinct in purpose from the sin the prophet later names.
3. (v. 6)
1 Chronicles 23:6
“David divided them into courses among the sons of Levi--These are enumerated according to their fathers' houses, but no more of these are mentioned here than the twenty-four thousand who were engaged in the work connected with the Lord's house.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 Chronicles 23:6-11
divided them into courses among: The thirty eight thousand are sorted into courses by the three Levitical houses, Gershon, Kohath and Merari, and a family register follows in the terse form the genealogies use: names, sons, and which family absorbed which when a line ran too small to stand alone. Shimei's sons Jeush and Beriah are folded into one reckoning with their kin for exactly that reason, verse 11 states. The register fixes every family's place ahead of the working divisions Chronicles builds through chapters 24 to 27.
B. The houses of Gershon, Kohath, and Merari
1. (vv. 7-11)
1 Chronicles 23:7
“Of the Gershonites were Laadan and Shimei. These two were the immediate posterity of Gershon; are the same with Libni and Shimhi, and heads of families, Exo 6:17.”
1 Chronicles 23:8
“The sons of Laadan; the chief was Jehiah, and Zetham, and Joel. Not his immediate sons, but some that descended from him.”
1 Chronicles 23:9
“The sons of Shimei,.... Not him that was the son of Gershon, but a descendant of Laadan, his son, as Kimchi observes: Shelomith, and Haziel, and Haran, these were the chief of the fathers of Laadan; of the families that sprang from him.”
1 Chronicles 23:10
“And the sons of Shimei,.... The son of Gershon, and brother of Laadan, according to Kimchi, which seems right: were Jahath, Zina, and Jeush, and Beriah; these four were the sons of Shimei; descendants of his in the times of David.”
1 Chronicles 23:11
“And Jahath was the chief,.... The prince and head of a family: and Ziza the second; the same with Zina in 1Ch 23:10, and is there read Ziza in the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions: but Jeush and Beriah had not many sons; so as to constitute distinct families: therefore they were in one reckoning, according to their father's house; made one family with their brethren.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 23:11
“Therefore they were in one reckoning - The family of Shimei, being small, was united with that of Laadan, that the two families might do that work which otherwise belonged to one, but which would have been too much for either of these separately.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2. (vv. 12-17)
1 Chronicles 23:12
“The sons of Kohath,.... The second son of Levi: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel, four; see Exo 6:18.”
1 Chronicles 23:13
“Sanctify - That he might keep them from pollution: for these most holy things were polluted when they were touched by any other person. He and his - Not only his eldest sons the high-priests successively, but all his posterity or all the priests; for the works here following were not peculiar to the high-priest, but common to all the priests.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 Chronicles 23:14
“Now concerning Moses the man of God,.... Raised up by him as a prophet, admitted to great familiarity with him, a lawgiver from him, and the ruler and guide of Israel under him through the wilderness: his sons were named of the tribe of Levi; were only common Levites; Moses had no ambition to gratify; he sought no honour for his posterity; the civil government was left to Joshua, and the priesthood to Aaron.”
1 Chronicles 23:15
“The sons of Moses were Gershom and Eliezer. See Exo 18:3.”
1 Chronicles 23:16
“Of the sons of Gershom, Shebuel was the chief. Of the posterity of Gershom in the times of David, called Shubael, 1Ch 24:20, the Targum makes him to be the same with Jonathan, Jdg 18:30. (l). (l) So in Hieron. Trad. Heb. in Paralipom. fol. 84. c.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 23:16
To this verse the Targum adds, “The same Jonathan, who became a false prophet, repented in his old age; and David made him his chief treasurer.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Chronicles 23:17
“And the sons of Eliezer were Rehabiah the chief,.... The first and only begotten, as it follows: and Eliezer had none other sons; before nor after him: but the sons of Rehabiah were very many; or greatly multiplied; not, as the Targum says, above 600,000; the number of Israel, as the Jewish writers (m) fancy; which they gather from Exo 1:7, and that though Moses deprecated the multiplication of his seed, God fulfilled it. (m) T. Bab Beracot, fol. 7. 1, 2, Bemidbar Rabba, sect. 16. fol. 220. 4.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 23:17
“When God proposed to him that, if he would let fall his intercession for Israel, he would make of him a great nation, he generously refused it, in recompence for which his family is here greatly increased, and makes up in number what it wants in figure, in the tribe of Levi. The levelling of Moses' family with the rest is an evidence of his self-denial.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel: Kohath's family carries the chapter's one narrative turn. Aaron is separated to sanctify the most holy things for ever, while his brother Moses is named only to record that Moses' own sons were counted as common Levites, no priesthood and no standing rank attached to the lawgiver's name. Chronicles states the contrast without comment, the same restraint Numbers already keeps toward Moses' family. Matthew Henry reads it as a mark of Moses' own self denial, the man who refused a nation built from his own line at Exodus 32:10 and is here counted level with the tribe he led.
3. (vv. 18-23)
1 Chronicles 23:18
“Of the sons of Izhar,.... Another son of Kohath, the son of Levi, 1Ch 23:12. Shelomith the chief; the principal descendant of Izhar at this time.”
1 Chronicles 23:19
“Of the sons of Hebron,.... A third son of Kohath, 1Ch 23:12, Jeriah the first, Amariah the second, Jahaziel the third, and Jekameam the fourth: of the sons of Uzziel; another son of Kohath, 1Ch 23:12, Micah the first, Jesiah the second: the sons of Merari, Mahli and Mushi, Exo 6:19, the sons of Mahli, Eleazar and Kish: of whom see 1Ch 24:28.”
1 Chronicles 23:22
“Their brethren the sons of Kish took them - This was according to the law made Num 27:1, etc., and Num 36:5-9, in favor of the daughters of Zelophehad, that women who were heiresses should marry in the family of the tribe of their father, and that their estates should not be alienated from them.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Chronicles 23:23
“And the sons of Mushi,.... The other son of Merari: Mahli; so called from his uncle, his father's brother: and Eder and Jerimoth, three; mentioned again 1Ch 24:30.”
Of the sons of Izhar: The remaining Kohathite and Merarite lines close out with Izhar, Hebron, Uzziel, and Merari's own sons Mahli and Mushi, kept to the same chief-and-number form as chapter one's tables. One line breaks the pattern: Eleazar dies leaving daughters and no sons, and his brethren the sons of Kish take them in marriage, the same provision Numbers 27 and 36 make for Zelophehad's daughters so a family's inheritance stays inside its own tribe. The detail is small, but it keeps a line from vanishing out of the record when there is no son to carry the name.
C. New work for Levites now the tent no longer moves
1. (vv. 24-27)
1 Chronicles 23:24
“Twenty years and upward - It appears that this was a different ordinance from that mentioned 1Ch 23:3. At first he appointed the Levites to serve from thirty years and upward; now from twenty years. These were David’s last orders; see 1Ch 23:27. They should begin at an earlier age, and continue later. This was not a very painful task; the ark being now fixed, and the Levites very numerous, there could be no drudgery.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Chronicles 23:26
“And also unto the Levites,.... Or with respect to them: they shall no more carry the tabernacle: on their shoulders, from place to place, as they had done: nor any vessels of it for the service thereof; and so the service of it did not require men at their full strength, but such as were but twenty years of age might be employed in it.”
1 Chronicles 23:27
“By the “last words of David” some understand an historical work on the latter part of his reign, drawn up probably by Gad or Nathan (compare 1Ch 27:24; 1Ch 29:29). Others suppose that he left behind him a work containing directions for the service of the sanctuary.”
after the house of their fathers: The chapter states its own theology plainly: David lowers the service age from thirty to twenty because the Lord God of Israel hath given rest unto his people, and the Levites shall no more carry the tabernacle. The change is structural, not sentimental. Carrying gear on the march required a man's full strength, so Numbers 4 began the count at thirty; standing service in a settled house needs no such threshold, so David's last recorded ordinance opens the office at twenty and multiplies the hands available for a permanent temple.
2. (vv. 28-32)
1 Chronicles 23:28
“Holy things - Holy places, and garments, and vessels, and sacrifices, which were to be washed and cleansed from any filthiness that might cleave to them.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 Chronicles 23:29
“Both for the shew-bread - It was the priests’ office to place this bread before the Lord, and it was their privilege to feed on the old loaves when they were replaced by the new. Some of the rabbins think that the priests sowed, reaped, ground, kneaded, and baked the grain of which the shew-bread was made. This appears to be a conceit.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Chronicles 23:30
“And to stand every morning to thank and praise the Lord,.... The office of others of them was to sing the praises of God, both vocally and with instruments of music, at the time of the morning sacrifice: and likewise at even; at the time of the evening sacrifice, by way of thankfulness for the mercies of the night and of the day.”
1 Chronicles 23:31
“Though the Levites were not allowed by themselves to offer sacrifice, yet there were many respects in which they assisted the priests when sacrifice was offered. See 2Ch 29:34; 2Ch 35:11-12. The set feasts - The Passover, Feast of Pentecost, and Feast of Tabernacles (marginal reference).”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 23:31
“Moses appointed that they should blow with trumpets over their burnt offerings and other sacrifices, and on their solemn days, Num. x. The sound of the trumpet was awful, and might be affecting to the worshippers, but was not articulate, nor such a reasonable service as this which David appointed, of singing psalms on those occasions.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Chronicles 23:32
“They were likewise to keep the charge of the sons of Aaron, to be at their beck and go on their errands, who are yet called their brethren, to be a memorandum to the priests that, though they were advanced to a high station, yet they were hewn out of the same rock with common Levites, and therefore must not lord it over them, but in all instances treat them as brethren.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 23:32
“The charge of the sons of Aaron - It was the priests’ business to kill, flay, and dress, as well as to offer, the victims, but being few, they were obliged to employ the Levites to flay those animals. The Levites were, properly speaking, servants to the priests, and were employed about the more servile part of Divine worship.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
to wait on the sons of Aaron: The chapter's last section lists what the Levites do now that they carry nothing: assist the priests in the courts and chambers, purify the holy vessels, prepare the shewbread and the meal offerings, and stand every morning and evening to thank and praise the Lord. That standing praise carries forward the refrain planted at 16:34, praise the Lord, for his mercy endureth for ever, now sung daily rather than once at the ark's homecoming. Verse 32 closes the assignment by calling the priests their brethren, a word Matthew Henry reads as a check on the priesthood's rank rather than a ground for it.
This page carries no textual note on 1 Chronicles 23. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.