1 Chronicleschapter 24
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Speaks with:1 Chronicles 23×13Nehemiah 12×61 Chronicles 26×4Ezra 2×4Exodus 6×3Numbers 3×3
Summary
Chapter summary
The priests are divided into their courses. Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu died before their father and had no children, so the line runs through Eleazar and Ithamar; sixteen chief houses from one and eight from the other are sorted 'by lot, one sort with another,' with Zadok and Ahimelech and David presiding so no house can claim precedence by favor. The twenty-four names are read out in order: Jehoiarib first, and eighth in the list Abijah, the course of a certain priest named Zacharias when the angel stood by the altar of incense (Luke 1:5). The rest of the Levites are cast in lots the same way, 'even as their brethren the sons of Aaron.'
Context
History · Ezra — 1 Chronicles overview
- A. 1–19 Twenty-four priestly courses settled by lot
- B. 20–31 The remaining Levites and their fathers' houses
The outline
A.Twenty-four priestly courses settled by lotvv. 1 to 19
Read vv. 1 to 19 →B.The remaining Levites and their fathers' housesvv. 20 to 31
Read vv. 20 to 31 →
The world behind this chapter
1 Chronicles 24The history
Aaron had four sons. Two of them, Nadab and Abihu, died before their father with no children, so the entire priesthood descends from the other two, Eleazar and Ithamar. Eleazar's line had more households, so it received sixteen of the divisions and Ithamar's line eight — twenty-four in all.
The order was fixed by lot, and the writer is careful to record who watched: the king, the officials, Zadok the priest, Ahimelech, the heads of the priestly and Levite households, and a scribe who wrote it down in their presence. Casting lots removed patronage from the process. No family could claim it had bought the better week.
The system that resulted ran for a thousand years. Each course came up to Jerusalem for one week at a time, twice a year, and all twenty-four served together at the three pilgrim feasts when the crowds were largest. The rabbis' later records describe the same rotation, and the New Testament assumes it — Zechariah, John the Baptist's father, was serving in the eighth course, the course of Abijah, which is the eighth name on this list.
What it meant to them
For the returning priests this was the duty roster, and it settled the most explosive question a rebuilt temple faced: who serves when, and who gets the great days.
The answer was a lot cast in public before witnesses. Honor in God's house was assigned, not negotiated — which is exactly the protection a small and quarrelsome community needed.
Sources cited
- Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions
- The Mishnah (Danby translation)
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on 1 Chronicles 24. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.