1 Chronicleschapter 24
31 verses · Ezra, by tradition · 450 to 400 BC · History
Key verse
Thus were they divided by lot, one sort with another; for the governors of the sanctuary, and governors of the house of God, were of the sons of Eleazar, and of the sons of Ithamar.
It stands in Twenty-four priestly courses settled by lot, verses 1 to 19.
The chapter
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
The world behind this chapter
1 Chronicles 24The history
The chapter belongs to David acting with two priests, Zadok of Eleazar's line and Ahimelech of Ithamar's. Aaron had four sons, and Nadab and Abihu died before their father with no children, so the whole priesthood descends from the other two.
The place is the sanctuary court in Jerusalem, in the last year of the reign, about 970 BC on the dating the earlier rows carry.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
The occasion is the settling of turns. Eleazar's line had sixteen heads of families and Ithamar's had eight, and the twenty-four courses were still drawn by lot, one house against the other in turn.
A first hearer knew who was watching, because the text names them. They are the king, the officers, Zadok, Ahimelech, the heads of the priestly and Levite families, and Shemaiah the scribe who recorded the result. Casting lots in public took patronage out of the process, and no family could claim it had bought the better week.
A reader today has to be told how long the system ran. Each course came up to Jerusalem for a week at a time, and all twenty-four served together at the pilgrim feasts when the crowds were largest. The rabbis' later records describe the same rotation, and the New Testament assumes it. Zechariah the father of John the Baptist was serving in the course of Abijah, which is the eighth name on this list.
The arrangement has a wider parallel. Organising a large sanctuary by family into rotating shares was ordinary across the ancient Near East, and the Babylonian prebend archives of Uruk and Sippar record the same practice.
What it meant to them
For the returning priests this was the duty roster, and it settled the most difficult question a rebuilt temple faced, which was who serves when and who takes the great days.
The answer was a lot cast in public before witnesses, so honour in God's house was assigned rather than negotiated. That was the protection a small and quarrelsome community needed.
Sources cited
- Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions
- The Mishnah , Danby translation
- The Babylonian temple prebend records, the Eanna archive at Uruk and the Ebabbar archive at Sippar, 6th to 5th centuries BC
Where the chapter sits
1 Chronicles 24 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. Twenty-four priestly courses settled by lot
1. (vv. 1-3)
1 Chronicles 24:1
“Now these are the divisions of the sons of Aaron,.... Into the classes or courses following: the sons of Aaron; Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar; 1Ch 6:3, these were the immediate sons of Aaron; but the division or distribution of them into classes are of their posterity in the times of David, who descended from the two latter.”
1 Chronicles 24:2
“But Nadab and Abihu died before their father,.... While he was living, see Lev 10:1. and had no children, therefore Eleazar and Ithamar executed the priests' office: otherwise, as Jarchi observes, had their brethren left children, they would have come into the office before them.”
2 more voices on this verse
1 Chronicles 24:2
“Nadab and Abihu died before their father--that is, not in his presence, but during his lifetime (see Nu 3:4; 26:61). therefore Eleazar and Ithamar executed the priest's office--In consequence of the death of his two oldest sons without issue, the descendants of Aaron were comprised in the families of Eleazar and Ithamar.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 Chronicles 24:2
“Nadab and Abihu died before their father - That is, during his lifetime. Eleazar and Ithamar executed the priest’s office - These two served the office during the life of their father Aaron; after his death Eleazar succeeded in the high priesthood. And under Eli the high priest, the family of Ithamar re-entered into that office.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Chronicles 24:3
“And David distributed them,.... The posterities of Eleazar and Ithamar into certain classes or courses: both Zadok of the sons of Eleazar, and Ahimelech of the sons of Ithamar; these were the two principal men of the respective families, the one was high priest, and the other "sagan" or deputy; or they both officiated as high priests alternately, until the one was removed in Solomon's time, and the other established alone.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 24:3
“Zadok and Ahimelech (rather Abiathar, see 1Ch 24:6) assisted David in drawing up the priestly courses, as the “captains of the host” assisted him in making the divisions of the singers 1Ch 25:1.”
these are the divisions of: Aaron had four sons, but Nadab and Abihu die without children under the fire of Leviticus 10, so the priesthood David organizes here descends through Eleazar and Ithamar alone. David pairs Zadok from Eleazar's line with Ahimelech from Ithamar's to distribute the courses, the same two men Chronicles later credits with helping number the singers at 1 Chr 25:1. Some texts of Samuel name Abiathar rather than Ahimelech beside Zadok in David's day, a detail the commentators note without resolving it.
2. (vv. 4-6)
1 Chronicles 24:4
“And there were more chief men found of the sons of Eleazar than of the sons of Ithamar,....”
1 Chronicles 24:5
“One sort with another - i. e., “the assignment of their order in the courses was made by lot to the families belonging to Eleazar, and to the families belonging to Ithamar, equally.” Both houses had furnished functionaries of the highest class, and therefore no preference was now given to either over the other.”
2 more voices on this verse
1 Chronicles 24:5
“The lot is an appeal to God, and ought to be managed with corresponding reverence and sincerity. Matthias was chosen to the apostleship by lot, with prayer ( Acts i. 24, 26 ), and I know not but it might be still used in faith in parallel cases, as an instituted ordinance.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Chronicles 24:5
“Thus were they divided by lot--This method of allocation was adopted manifestly to remove all cause of jealousy as to precedence and the right of performing particular duties.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 Chronicles 24:6
“And Shemaiah - “Moses the great scribe, who is called Shemaiah, the son of Nethaneel, of the tribe of Levi, wrote them down.” - T. One principal household - for Eleazar - The family of Eleazar was the most illustrious of the sacerdotal families, because Eleazar was the first-born of Aaron, Ithamar’s family was the second in order and dignity; therefore one of the principal families of Eleazar was first taken, and then one of Ithamar’s, and thus alternately till the whole was finished.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
there were more chief men found: The imbalance stands unresolved in the text itself, sixteen chief men from Eleazar's house against eight from Ithamar's, yet the courses divide by lot without regard to the numbers, one house drawn against another in turn. Shemaiah the scribe records the assignment in the presence of David, the princes, Zadok and Ahimelech, so the courses stand as public record rather than private arrangement. The commentators note that casting lots to settle a sacred office recurs later at Acts 1:26, when the apostles choose Matthias the same way.
3. (vv. 7-13)
1 Chronicles 24:7
“Now the first lot came forth to Jehoiarib,....”
the first lot came forth: The twenty-four lots run through both priestly houses mixed together rather than kept apart, so a name's place in the list carries no rank of honor. The eighth lot falls to Abijah, and Luke 1:5 introduces Zacharias the father of John the Baptist as a priest of the course of Abia, the same rotation set here centuries before Christ. This administrative roster is the machine that dates the New Testament's opening scene, since Zacharias was serving his division's turn in the temple when Gabriel met him at the altar.
4. (vv. 14-19)
1 Chronicles 24:19
These were the orderings ... - i. e., “this was the numerical order fixed for their ministerial attendance in the house of the Lord - an attendance which was after the manner determined for them by their forefather Aaron, according to instructions which he received from God.”
The fifteenth to Bilgah: The roster runs to its twenty-fourth lot, Maaziah, and verse 19 closes it with a claim about its own authority, that this order was set as the LORD God of Israel had commanded Aaron, not invented by David for his own convenience. Only a few of these course names, Jedaiah, Harim and Immer among them, resurface in Ezra's list of priests who returned from exile, so the scheme David set up here served the second temple in reduced form. The chapter tells no story in this stretch of names; its case is the order itself, fair to every house whichever place it drew.
B. The remaining Levites and their fathers' housesvv. 20-31
the rest of the sons: A second census follows for the rest of the Levites, the singers' and gatekeepers' own kin, organized under the houses of Amram, Izhar, Hebron, Uzziel and Merari and counted by household exactly as the priests were. Barnes counts twenty-five family heads named here against the twenty-four priestly courses, one more than the pattern would predict, and the text itself does not explain the difference. Verse 31 closes the chapter by restating its whole method, that these houses too cast lots in David's presence and the older families drew no advantage over the younger, precedence settled by lot rather than birth.
1 Chronicles 24:20
“The object of this second enumeration of the Levitical families (compare 1 Chr. 23:7-23) seems to be the designation of the heads of the families in David’s time. The omission of the Gershonites is curious, and can only be accounted for by supposing that the author did not find any account of their heads in his authorities. The addition to the Merarites 1Ch 24:26-27 is also curious. It brings the number of families up to twenty-five, which is one more than we should have expected.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 24:20
“The particular account of these establishments is of little use to us now; but, when Ezra published it, it was of great use to direct their church affairs after their return from captivity into the old channel again.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Chronicles 24:23
“Neither “Hebron” nor “the first” is found in the present Hebrew text; but they seem to have been rightly supplied by our translators from 1Ch 23:19. The four persons named appear to have been contemporaries of David, the heads of the Hebronite houses in his time (compare 1Ch 26:31).”
1 Chronicles 24:26
“The sons of Jaaziah, Beno - Beno is not really a name. It is the Hebrew for “his son,” and is to be attached to Jaaziah. Translate 1Ch 24:27, “and the sons of Merari by Jaaziah his son (were) Shoham and Zaccur, and Ibri.” The meaning of the whole passage 1Ch 24:26-30 seems to be that there were three branches of the Merarites the Beni-Mahli, the Beni-Mushi, and the Beni-Jaaziah.”
1 Chronicles 24:31
“The principal fathers over against their younger brethren - i. e., “all the Levitical houses enumerated drew lots in their courses on equal terms, the older families having no advantage over the younger ones.” As there were 24 courses of the priests, so we must suppose that there were 24 of the Levites, though the number of the families as given in the text 1 Chr. 23:7-23; 1Ch 24:20-30 is 25.”
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 →
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; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; Keil, The Books of the Chronicles and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.