Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Chronicles 23:1
So when David was old and full of days, he made Solomon his son king over Israel.
See the marginal references and notes. 1Ch 23:28-32 give the most complete account in Scripture of the nature of the Levitical office.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
1Ch 23:1
So when David was old and full of days.
I. An instructive view of life.
II. A touching picture of old age.
III. A solemn warning to all. (J. Wolfendale.)
How to employ old age
The pathos of Davids action will be more clearly recognised if we remember that the literal translation is, Now David had become satisfied with days. Satisfied with days, but not satisfied with labour. David had seen all the contents of time, in poverty, persecution, honour, end majesty, and yet he was anxious for the consolidation of his empire and the construction of the temple. When the heathen poet described the death of a philosopher it was under the image of a guest who had to the full enjoyed the feast. David as a guest of the Lord had himself sat long enough at the table of time, and now he was desirous that his son should take up the service and enjoyment of the empire, whilst he himself went forth to the mysteries of another state. Old age can do for the future what mere youth is not permitted to attempt. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER XXIII
David makes Solomon king, 1.
Numbers the Levites, and appoints them their work, 2-5.
The sons of Levi, Gershom, Kohath, Merari, and their
descendants, 6-12.
The sons of Amram, and their descendants, 13.
The sons of Moses, and their descendants, 14-24.
David appoints the Levites to wait on the priests for the
service of the sanctuary, 25-32.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXIII
Verse 1. David was old and full of days] On the phrase full of days, See Clarke on Ge 25:8.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Not that he did resign the kingdom to him, but that he declared his mind concerning his succession into the throne after his death. As David himself is called king, 1Sa 16:1, because he was appointed and anointed to be king after Sauls death, though till then he was only a subject.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. when David was old . . . he madeSolomon . . . kingThis brief statement, which comprises thesubstance of 1Ki 1:32-48,is made here solely to introduce an account of the preparationscarried on by David during the latter years of his life for providinga national place of worship.
1Ch23:2-6. NUMBER ANDDISTRIBUTION OF THELEVITES.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
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.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Number, duties, and fathers’-houses of the Levites. – This clear account of the state and the order of service of the tribe of Levi is introduced by the words, 1Ch 23:1, “David was old, and life weary; then he made his son Solomon king over Israel.” , generally an adjective, is here third pers. perf. of the verb, as in Gen 18:12, as also is, to which is subordinated in the accusative. Generally elsewhere is used, cf. Gen 35:29; Job 42:17, and also alone, with the same signification, Gen 25:8. These words are indeed, as Berth. correctly remarks, not a mere passing remark which is taken up again at a later stage, say 1Ch 29:28, but an independent statement complete in itself, with which here the enumeration of the arrangements which David made in the last period of his life begins. But notwithstanding that, it serves here only as an introduction to the arrangements which follow, and is not to be taken to mean that David undertook the numbering of the Levites and the arrangement of their service only after he had given over the government to his son Solomon, but signified that the arrangement of this matter immediately preceded Solomon’s elevation to the throne, or was contemporaneous with it. Our verse therefore does not contain, in its few words, a “summary of the contents of the narrative 1 Kings 1,” as Berth. thinks, for in 1 Kings 1 we have an account of the actual anointing of Solomon and his accession to the throne in consequence of Adonijah’s attempt to usurp it. By that indeed Solomon certainly was made king; but the chronicler, in accordance with the plan of his book, has withdrawn his attention from this event, connected as it was with David’s domestic relations, and has used in its more general signification, to denote not merely the actual elevation to the throne, but also his nomination as king. Here the nomination of Solomon to be king, which preceded the anointing narrated in 1 Kings 1, that taking place at a time when David had already become bed-rid through old age, is spoken of. This was the first step towards the transfer of the kingdom to Solomon; and David’s ordering of the Levitical service, and of the other branches of public administration, so as to give over a well-ordered kingdom to his successor, were also steps in the same process. Of the various branches of the public administration, our historian notices in detail on the Levites and their service, compressing everything else into the account of the army arrangements and the chief public officials, 1 Chron 27.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Numbering of the Levites. | B. C. 1015. |
1 So when David was old and full of days, he made Solomon his son king over Israel. 2 And he gathered together all the princes of Israel, with the priests and the Levites. 3 Now the Levites were numbered from the age of thirty years and upward: and their number by their polls, man by man, was thirty and eight thousand. 4 Of which, twenty and four thousand were to set forward the work of the house of the LORD; and six thousand were officers and judges: 5 Moreover four thousand were porters; and four thousand praised the LORD with the instruments which I made, said David, to praise therewith. 6 And David divided them into courses among the sons of Levi, namely, Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. 7 Of the Gershonites were, Laadan, and Shimei. 8 The sons of Laadan; the chief was Jehiel, and Zetham, and Joel, three. 9 The sons of Shimei; Shelomith, and Haziel, and Haran, three. These were the chief of the fathers of Laadan. 10 And the sons of Shimei were, Jahath, Zina, and Jeush, and Beriah. These four were the sons of Shimei. 11 And Jahath was the chief, and Zizah the second: but Jeush and Beriah had not many sons; therefore they were in one reckoning, according to their father’s house. 12 The sons of Kohath; Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel, four. 13 The sons of Amram; Aaron and Moses: and Aaron was separated, that he should sanctify the most holy things, he and his sons for ever, to burn incense before the LORD, to minister unto him, and to bless in his name for ever. 14 Now concerning Moses the man of God, his sons were named of the tribe of Levi. 15 The sons of Moses were, Gershom, and Eliezer. 16 Of the sons of Gershom, Shebuel was the chief. 17 And the sons of Eliezer were, Rehabiah the chief. And Eliezer had none other sons; but the sons of Rehabiah were very many. 18 Of the sons of Izhar; Shelomith the chief. 19 Of the sons of Hebron; Jeriah the first, Amariah the second, Jahaziel the third, and Jekameam the fourth. 20 Of the sons of Uzziel; Michah the first, and Jesiah the second. 21 The sons of Merari; Mahli, and Mushi. The sons of Mahli; Eleazar, and Kish. 22 And Eleazar died, and had no sons, but daughters: and their brethren the sons of Kish took them. 23 The sons of Mushi; Mahli, and Eder, and Jeremoth, three.
Here we have, I. The crown entailed, according to the divine appointment, v. 1. David made Solomon king, not to reign with him, or reign under him, but only to reign after him. This he did, 1. When he was old and full of days. He was but seventy years old when he died, and yet he was full of days, satur dierum–satisfied with living in this world. When he found himself going off, he made provision for the welfare of the kingdom after his decease, and pleased himself with the hopeful prospect of a happy settlement both in church and state. 2. He did it in parliament, in a solemn assembly of all the princes of Israel, which made Adonijah’s attempt to break in upon Solomon’s title and set it aside, notwithstanding this public recognition and establishment of it, the more impudent, impious, and ridiculous. Note, The settling or securing of the crown in the interests of the temple is a great blessing to the people and a great satisfaction to those who are themselves leaving the world.
II. The Levites numbered, according to the rule in Moses’s time, from thirty years old to fifty, Num 4:2; Num 4:3. Their number in Moses’s time. by this rule, was 8580 (Num 4:47; Num 4:48), but now it had increased above four-fold, much more in proportion than the rest of the tribes; for the serviceable men of Levi’s tribe were now 38,000, unless we suppose that here those were reckoned who were above fifty, which was not the case there. Joab had not numbered the Levites (ch. xxi. 6), but David now did, not in pride, but for a good purpose, and then he needed not fear wrath for it.
III. The Levites distributed to their respective posts (1Ch 23:4; 1Ch 23:5), that every hand might be employed (for, of all men, an idle Levite makes the worst figure), and that every part of the work might be carefully done. Now it was for the honour of God that so great a number of servants attended his house and the business of it. Much of the state of great men consists in the greatness of their retinue. When God kept house in Israel see what a great household he had, and all well fed and well taught. But what were these to the attendants of his throne above, and the innumerable company of angels? It was the happiness of Israel that they had among them such a considerable body of men who were obliged by their office to promote and keep up religion among them. If the worship of God go to decay in Israel, let it not be said that it was for want of due provision for the support of it, but that those who should have done it were careless and false. The work assigned the Levites was four-fold:– 1. Some, and indeed far the greater number, were to set forward the work of the house of the Lord: 24,000, almost two-thirds, were appointed for this service, to attend the priests in killing the sacrifices, flaying them, washing them, cutting them up, burning them, to have the meat-offerings and drink-offerings ready, to carry out dirt, and keep all the vessels and utensils of the temple clean, and every thing in its place, that the service might be performed both with expedition and with exactness. These served 1000 a-week, and so went round in twenty-four courses. Perhaps while the temple was in building some of these were employed to set forward that work, to assist the builders, at least to quicken them, and keep good order among them, and the decorum which became temple-work. 2. Others were officers and judges, not in the affairs of the temple, and in the controversies that arose there (for there, we may suppose, the priests presided), but in the country. They were magistrates, to give the laws of God in charge, to resolves difficulties, and to determine controversies that arose upon them. Of these there were 6000, in the several parts of the kingdom, that assisted the princes and elders of every tribe in the administration of justice. 3. Others were porters, to guard all the avenues of the house of God, to examine those that desired entrance, and to resist those that would force an entrance. These were the life-guards of the temple, and probably were armed accordingly. 4. Others were singers and players on instruments, whose business it was to keep up that part of the service; this was a new-erected office.
IV. The Levites mustered, and disposed of into their respective families and kindreds, that an account of them might the better be kept, and those that neglected their duty might be the more easily discovered, by calling over the roll, and obliging them to answer to their names, which each family might do for itself. When those of the same family were employed together it would engage them to love and assist one another. When Christ sent forth his disciples two and two he put together those that were brethren. Two families were here joined in one (v. 11) because they had not many sons. Those that are weak and little, separately, may be put together and appear considerable. That which is most observable in this account of the families of the Levites is that the posterity of Moses (that great man) stood upon the level with common Levites, and had no dignities or privileges at all peculiar to them; whilst the posterity of Aaron were advanced to the priest’s office, to sanctify the most holy things, v. 13. It is said indeed of the grandson of Moses, Rehabiah, that his sons were highly multiplied, v. 17, margin. 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. Now, 1. The levelling of Moses’ family with the rest is an evidence of his self-denial. Such an interest had he both with God and man that if he had aimed to raise his own family, to dignify and enrich that, he might easily have done so; but he was no self-seeking man, as appears from his leaving to his children no marks of distinction, which was a sign that he had the spirit of God and not the spirit of the world. 2. The elevation of Aaron’s family above the rest was a recompence for his self-denial. When Moses (his younger brother) was made a god to Pharaoh, and he only his prophet or spokesman, to observe his orders and do as he was bidden, Aaron never disputed it, nor insisted upon his seniority, but readily took the inferior post God put him in, submitted to Moses, and, upon occasion, called him his lord; and because he thus submitted himself, in his own person, to his junior, in compliance with the will of God, God highly exalted his family, even above that of Moses himself. Those that are content to stoop are in the fairest way to rise. Before honour is humility.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Gathering, 1Ch 23:1-2
Verse one ties the present ‘chapter, with what preceded in chapter 22. The advanced age of David is stressed, and his appointment of Solomon as his successor. This information here indicates that David had made perfectly clear, some time before his death, his desire that. Solomon be king after him. The account of First Kings, chapter one, shows that many of the leading men of the kingdom, and Adonijah the oldest surviving son of David, sought to thwart the plans of the old king and usurp the throne from Solomon for Adonijah. This great assembly included the prince of each tribe, as well as leading men, also called princes, with the spiritual leaders, the priests and Levites. This was a very important meeting.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES.] This and following three chapters contain an account of Levites and distribution of their services. Here their number, classification, and work (1Ch. 23:1-6). But 1Ch. 23:6-32 give heads of houses composing the four Levite families and their offices.
1Ch. 23:1.King. For full particulars cf. 1 Kings 1. The author of Chronicles, who does not concern himself with the domestic history of David, naturally omits the circumstances, and merely states the fact [Speak. Com.].
1Ch. 23:2-5.Number and distribution of the Levites. Princes. David made arrangements with Levites in their assembly (cf. 1Ch. 25:1). Thirty, Mosaic census followed (Num. 4:3). None counted who exceeded 50 years by man, i.e., reckoning men only. Judges, local magistrate (chap. 1Ch. 26:29). This office resembled that of the modern Mahometan Cadi [Speak. Com.]. Porters (1Ch. 23:5), door-keepers by night and day. Psalms 134 is the chant of the night sentries [Speak. Com.].
1Ch. 23:6-23.Houses or families of Levites. Enumeration of all Levites, afterwards distributed into their classes. Courses, divisions definitely numbered and arranged by David. 1Ch. 23:7-11. The Gershonites (Exo. 6:6). Laadan, called Libni (chap. 1Ch. 6:17, cf. use in Exo. 6:17; Num. 3:18). Shimei, not that of 1Ch. 23:7, but another, cf. 1Ch. 23:10. 1Ch. 23:10. Zina, marg. Zizah. 1Ch. 23:11. Not many and did not make separate houses. 1Ch. 23:12-20. The Kohathites (Exo. 6:16). Separated, therefore not counted in the number (1Ch. 23:8). Burn incense (cf. Exo. 30:7-8; Num. 6:23-27). Named (1Ch. 23:14) not like those of Aaron (1Ch. 23:13). 1Ch. 23:15. Moses (cf. Exo. 18:3-4). 1Ch. 23:16. Shebuel (cf. 1Ch. 24:20). 1Ch. 23:18. Shel., the founder or head. 1Ch. 23:21-23. Sons of Merari, two chiefly given (Num. 3:20; 1Ch. 6:19), but 1Ch. 24:26 seems to give a third son.
1Ch. 23:24-27.Sons of Levi. Polls (1Ch. 23:3). Twenty, thirty previously fixed. Certain lighter duties imposed at 25 (Num. 8:24), but only liable for full service at 30 years. David made a change. The temple would require a more numerous ministry since the ark ceased to be carried from place to place. This limit continue 1 in after times as David fixed it. 1Ch. 23:27. Last orders or arrangements Some understand a historical work, drawn up by Gad or Nathan, or a work of directions for the service of the sanctuary.
1Ch. 23:28-30.Purifying, i.e., washing holy things; shewbread (Lev. 24:5-9); fine flour, materials for all chief kinds of meat offerings (cf. Lev. 2:1-5; Lev. 6:14-15; Lev. 23:13); cakes, must be rightly made, &c.; measure of liquids and things dry fixed by law (Exo. 29:40; Lev. 6:20; Num. 15:4-10).
1Ch. 23:31.By number, exact number of cattle to be offered at various festivals fixed by law (Num. 28:9-11; Num. 29:8-13).
1Ch. 23:32.Keep, duties of Levites here summed up in words from Num. 18:3-6. This passage (1Ch. 23:8-32) gives the most complete account to be found in Scripture of the nature of the Levitical office [Speak. Com.].
HOMILETICS
THE SACRED TRIBE: ITS CALLING AND ITS DUTIES.1Ch. 23:2-5
In view of death, David called a representative assembly. Solomon succeeds him, and he wishes to arrange for the service of the temple. The Levites called to officiate; here classified in order and houses, with distribution and general regulations for work.
I. The sacred calling of the tribe. To set forward the work of the house of the lord. Their office to wait on the sons of Aaron (1Ch. 23:28-29), and to offerto help in the offering of burnt sacrifices (1Ch. 23:31-32). This a noble, a high calling. Notice
1. The legal age of entering the work. From thirty years old and upward, even until fifty years old (Num. 4:3); then reduced to twenty-five years (Num. 8:24), and now fixed from the age of twenty years and upward (1Ch. 23:24).
2. The numbers engaged in the work. Thirty-eight thousand, an increase of more than fourfold since the time of Moses (Num. 4:47-48). What a proof of Gods power and grace, who can make his servants a thousandfold more. Considered a privilege to belong to the retinue of an earthly monarch. What must it be to be numbered with the household of God on earth, and with the innumerable company in heaven!
II. The special duties of the tribe. We have four classes given (1Ch. 23:4-5), which are afterwards described in detail.
1. The overseers. Twenty-four thousand, including priests and attendants, to (set forward) superintend (1Ch. 23:4). They had under their charge the younger Levites and servants of the sanctuary, devoted to menial duties (1Ch. 9:2).
2. The judges. Administrators of civil affairs for the outward business of Israel (2Ch. 19:5-11). Officers mentioned early (Exo. 5:6), generally foremen; judges concerned with religious matters chiefly.
3. The musicians, who praised on instrumentscymbals, psalteries, harps, trumpets (2Ch. 5:12)which David might approve or appoint, but not invent for service. He was given to music, and desired, in his latter days, to give example of its use. Handel declared, when he finally resolved to consecrate himself to sacred music, that it was better suited to a man descending in the vale of years.
4. The porters. At gates, guarding entrance of improper persons, and keeping from profanation and divine displeasure. In such service we may engage, leading in the song, and perfecting the praise of the sanctuary; administering law and government; creating, preserving, and perpetuating reverence and truth in all things.
THE SACRED TRIBE: ITS HEADS AND ARRANGEMENTS.1Ch. 23:6-24
After giving number and divisions of Levi according to duties, we have next an enumeration of heads of houses into which the four families branched, with a brief account of their work.
I. The houses of Gershon (1Ch. 23:6-11). This branches into twosix families for Laadan, and three for Shimei; nine houses altogether.
II. The houses of Kohath (1Ch. 23:11-20). Aaron not reckoned because specially set apart. His sons form subject of ch. 1Ch. 25:1-19. Hence such descendants of Amram noticed which belonged to Moses, whose sons were numbered among Levites generally, and did not belong to that part to whom priestly duties were assigned. Kohath, the founder of nine fathers houses (mentioned ch. 1Ch. 24:20-25). To these must be added the priests through Aaron and his sons, two houses, making eleven in all.
III. The houses of Merari (1Ch. 23:21-23). Two sons as two leading branches, Machli and Mushi (Exo. 6:19; Num. 3:33). Merari is third son of Levi (Gen. 46:11). As there are four houses for him, nine for Gershon, and eleven for Kohath, we have twenty-four in all of the sons of Levi. Some give Merari six, and the others nine each, which makes the same number.
IV. The arrangements of the Levites (1Ch. 23:24-32). By the last words of David, at the end of his life, new arrangements were made. He thought it would contribute to the glory of God to have as many officers as possible in divine service.
1. The enrolment of office was changed. The rule was to begin at 30 years; for two reasons he relaxed this. First, Jerusalem was the chosen city, and there would be no more moving from place to place. Second, the carrying of the tabernacle was not needed any longer.
2. The duties of office are arranged. Detailed in a few items. Aarons sons had higher office in the service of the house of the Lord. Service in the courts (Exo. 27:9); the chambers as judges; and in religious work generally. Levites helped in this service, had to wait on the sons of Aaron. Several things mentioned
(1) Keeping things clean. Purifying, i.e., cleansing of all holy things (1Ch. 23:28). Holy places, garments, vessels, and sacrifices.
(2) Getting things ready. The shewbread for priests to arrange on the table; fine flour morning and evening in just quantity for meat-offering; unleavened cakes rightly made.
(3) Adjusting weights and measures. Standards of which were considered sacred, kept in the sanctuary, and not to be altered in liquids (wine, oil, &c.) or dry goods.
(4) Blowing with their instruments. Every morning and night to praise the Lord in sounding their trumpets (Num. 10:10).
(5) Offering sacrifices. To offer all burnt sacrifices (1Ch. 23:31). Priests alone sprinkled the blood, trimmed the fire on the altar, and lay the parts of the victim on it. Levites did everything preparatory and needful to these priestly acts. Sacrifices offered in right number (2Sa. 2:15; Num. 28:1-31), and at set feasts: Passover (Lev. 23:4-5); Pentecost (Lev. 23:15-17); and Tabernacles (Lev. 23:33-37).
(6) Guarding the tabernacle. Keep the charge of the tabernacle (1Ch. 23:32). Charge of the tent of meeting, of holy apparatus, to have everything fit, orderly, and ready for special functions of priests.
(7) Attendance on priests. The charge of the sons of Aaron, their brethren. Thus service honourable and menial, orderly and regular. Nothing a drudgery, but pleasant, joyful, and devout.
Who sweeps a room as for Gods laws
Makes that and the action fine [Herbert].
THE THREEFOLD FUNCTIONS.1Ch. 23:13
The posterity of Aaron advanced to dignity and the priests office to sanctify the most holy things. Their office here described as threefold.
1. To make atonement. Offer burnt incense upon the golden altar in the holy place. For a stranger to come near and do this would incur prompt punishment (Num. 16:40). Incense-burning a preliminary to morning and accompaniment of evening sacrifice (Exo. 30:7; Exo. 30:9; Luk. 1:9-10), and a special part of ceremony on Day of Atonement (Lev. 16:11-13). Amid sudden danger and impending wrath, the priest took the censer of incense to make atonement (Num. 16:46-47). No priesthood, no office like this now; but regarding this as typical of diffusive influence and specific intercession, the minister of the gospel may be an intercessor for his people, render acceptable service and point to the atonement for sin and the Mediator between God and man.
2. To minister to God for man. To minister unto him. This a privilege and within the power of every one. The Christian minister specially called, and set apart for this work. In prayer, preaching, and daily work, he should minister to God.
3. To bless man for God. To bless in his name. None have power to bless and bestow grace in themselves. But first receiving light and life they givespeak of Gods favour to men, offer pardon and assure of acceptance. They represent God in their ministry; bring down the influence of Heaven in their walk; and seek to recover fallen men from sin and death. Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying on this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel (Num. 6:23).
THE REST OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD.1Ch. 23:25
I. In the mysterious polity of the people of Israel, spiritual and temporal blessings were so closely allied that the same language might naturally be employed to signify either. II. Hence David hinted at profounder truths than lie on the surface of his words. III. It becomes us to secure the great blessingthe rest that remainethas the chief object of existence. IV. Rest and peace must fall on a Christian spirit
(1) From the imitation of Christ;
(2) The singleness of its object;
(3) The nature of the Christian affections;
(4) To support and exalt us, heaven must mingle with earth [A. Butler].
HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
1Ch. 23:1.
1. An instructive view of life. Old and full of days. Life made up of days, not years. Day by day given until the numbers appointed (Job. 14:5) are filled up, finished. There is no elixir of life, says one, that can prolong our days beyond that period. Soon we shall come to the outer limit; then we must die. Isaac died, being old and full of days.
2. A touching picture of old age. As a portrait made up of minute touches, so old age in character, habits, hopes, and condition. It has peculiar comeliness and attractiveness of its own when crowned with piety. Pitiable to see an old man who has missed the object of life and spent his days in folly. The sinner, being an hundred years old, shall be accursed. But the hoary head is a crown of gold, if it be found in the way of righteousness.
3. A solemn warning to all. The end sure in youthful days or full of days. Old age is near neighbour to death. Understand life before you leave it. If ready to depart we can say cheerfully, Nunc dimittis.
1Ch. 23:14. Moses the man of God; the honourable appellation. Given to Moses five times in the whole of Scriptureonce in the Pentateuch (Deu. 31:1), once in Joshua (1Ch. 14:6), twice in Chronicles (here and in 2Ch. 30:16), and once in Ezra (1Ch. 3:2). It is also assigned thrice to David (2Ch. 8:14; Neh. 12:24; Neh. 12:36), and once to the prophet Shemaiah (1Ki. 12:22). Man of God, without the article, is common [Speak. Com.].
1. Specially called and qualified for Gods work.
2. Privileged with close and familiar intercourse with God. Face to face with God and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold.
3. Divinely taught to declare the will of God. With him will I speak mouth to mouth. The law was given by Moses.
4. Faithfully carried on the work of God. My servant Moses who is faithful in all my house. God gave orders. Moses verily was faithful as a servant (Heb. 3:5), and obedient in carrying them out.
5. Wonderfully honoured by God at the end. God buried him. There arose not a prophet in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face. We must think and speak honourably of saints departed [Trapp].
1Ch. 23:28-32. Waiting in service.
1. In active work.
2. In orderly worship.
3. In devout supplication.
4. In watching attitude.
God doth not need
Either mans work or his own gifts; who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best; his state
Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed,
And post oer land and ocean without rest;
They also serve who only stand and wait
[Milton].
Rest an argument for service.
1. Rest affording opportunity.
2. Specially designed for service.
3. Service, individual, orderly, and varied. Service entered upon early, and patiently conducted. Morning and evening thanks. Needful, demanded, and should be willingly given. Every day will I praise thee. Evening, and morning, and at noon will I pray, and cry aloud (Psa. 55:17). Pray without ceasing.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 23
1Ch. 23:1. Old. I venerate old age, and I love not the man who can look without emotion upon the sunset of life, when the dusk of evening begins to gather over the watery eye, and the shadows of twilight grow broader and deeper upon the understanding [Longfellow].
1Ch. 23:6. Courses. If there be any beauty and comeliness in order, where should we most expect to find it than in the divine government, and in the conduct and management of the affairs of the supreme and the celestial kingdom, wherein only the remoteness of those things from our sense makes everything seem little and inconsiderable [J. Howe].
All things are infinite in parts, and the moral is as the material.
Neither is anything vast, but it is compacted of atoms [Martin Tupper].
1Ch. 23:6; 1Ch. 23:30. Instruments and praise. In order to the high result intended, the music of religion must be religious. There must be a distinction of sounds. As this language is given for the heart, it becomes a first principle that it must be of the heart, else it is an unknown tongue. And so true is this, that nothing really can fulfil the idea of religious music which is not the breathing of true love and worship. Even instruments without life will not speak the true notes of power unless the touch of faith is on them, and the breath of holy feeling is in them; how much less the voice itself, whose very qualities of sound are inevitably toned by the secret feeling of the spirit [Dr. H. Bushnell].
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
LESSON ELEVEN 2324
THE LEVITES AND THEIR DUTIES
15. THE LEVITES AND THEIR WORK (Chapter 23)
INTRODUCTION
The successful functioning of the Temple required a careful organization of the priesthood. All of the Levites were appointed special assignments with regard to the Temple.
TEXT
1Ch. 23:1. Now David was old and full of days; and he made Solomon his son king over Israel. 2. And he gathered together all the princes of Israel, with the priests and the Levites. 3. And the Levites were numbered from thirty years old and upward; and their number by their polls, man by man, was thirty and eight thousand. 4, Of these, twenty and four thousand were to oversee the work of the house of Jehovah; and six thousand were officers and Judges 5. and four thousand were doorkeepers; and four thousand praised Jehovah with the instruments which I made, said David, to praise therewith. 6. And David divided them into courses according to the sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.
7. Of the Gershonites: Ladan and Shimei. 8. The sons of Ladan: Jehiel the chief, and Zetham, and Joel, three. 9. The sons of Shimei: Shelomoth, and Haziel, and Haran, three. These were the heads of the fathers house of Ladan. 10. And the sons of Shimei: Jahath, Zina, and Jeush, and Beriah. These four were the sons of Shimei. 11. And Jahath was the chief, and Zizah the second; but Jeush and Beriah had not many sons; therefore they became a fathers house in reckoning.
12. The sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel, four. 13. The sons of Amram: Aaron and Moses; and Aaron was separated, that he should sanctify the most holy things, he and his sons, forever, to burn incense before Jehovah, to minister unto him, and to bless in his name forever. 14. But as for Moses the man of God, his sons were named among the tribe of Levi. 15. The sons of Moses: Gershom and Eliezer. 16. The sons of Gershom: Shebuel the chief. 17. And the sons of Eliezer were: Rehabiah the chief; and Eliezer had no other sons; but the sons of Rehabiah were very many. 18. The sons of Izhar: Shelomith the chief. 19. The sons of Hebron: Jeriah the chief, Amariah the second, Jahaziel the third, and Jekameam the fourth. 20. The sons of Uzziel: Micah the chief, and Isshiah the second.
21. The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi. The sons of Mahli: Eleazar and Kish. 22. And Eleazar died, and had no sons, but daughters only: and their brethren Kish took them to wife. 23. The sons of Mushi: Mahli, and Eder and Jeremoth, three.
24. There were the sons of Levi after their fathers houses, even the heads of the fathers houses of those of them that were counted, in the number of names by their polls, who did the work for the service of the house of Jehovah, from twenty years old and upward. 25. For David said, Jehovah, the God of Israel, hath given rest unto his people; and he dwelleth in Jerusalem for ever: 26. and also the Levites shall no more have need to carry the tabernacle and all the vessels of it for the service thereof. 27. For by the last words of David the sons of Levi were numbered, from twenty years old and upward. 28. For their office was to wait on the sons of Aaron for the service of the house of Jehovah, in the courts, and in the chambers, and in the purifying of all holy things, even the work of the service of the house of God; 29. for the showbread also, and for the fine flour for a meal-offering, whether of unleavened wafers, or of that which is baked in the pan, or of that which is soaked, and for all manner of measure and size; 30. and to stand every morning to thank and praise Jehovah, and likewise at even; 31. and to offer all burnt-offerings unto Jehovah, on the sabbaths, on the new moons, and on the set feasts, in number according to the ordinance concerning them, continually before Jehovah; 32. and that they should keep the charge of the tent of meeting, and the charge of the holy place, and the charge of the sons of Aaron their brethren, for the service of the house of Jehovah.
PARAPHRASE
1Ch. 23:1. By this time David was an old, old man, so he stepped down from the throne and appointed his son Solomon as the new king of Israel. 2. He summoned all the political and religious leaders of Israel for the coronation ceremony. 3. At this time a census was taken of the men of the tribe of Levi who were thirty years or older. The total came to 38,000. 4, 5. Twenty-four thousand of them will supervise the work at the Temple, David instructed, six thousand are to be bailiffs and judges, four thousand will be temple guards, and four thousand will praise the Lord with the musical instruments I have made. 6. Then David divided them into three main divisions named after the sons of Levithe Gershom division, the Kohath division and the Merari division.
7. Subdivisions of the Gershom corps were named after his sons Ladan and Shime-i. 8, 9. These subdivisions were still further divided into six groups named after the sons of Ladan: Jehiel the leader, Zetham, Joel; and the sons of Shime-iShelomoth, Haziel, and Haran. 10, 11. The subclans of Shime-i were named after his four sons: Jahath was greatest, Zizah was next, and Jeush and Beriah were combined into a single subclan because neither had many sons.
12. The division of Kohath was subdivided into four groups named after his sons Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel. 13. Amram was the ancestor of Aaron and Moses. Aaron and his sons were set apart for the holy service of sacrificing the peoples offerings to the Lord. He served the Lord constantly and pronounced blessings in his name at all times. 14, 15. As for Moses, the man of God, his sons Gershom and Eliezer were included with the tribe of Levi. 16. Gershoms sons were led by Shebuel, 17. and Eliezers only son, Rehabiah, was the leader of his clan for he had many children. 18. The sons of Izhar were led by Shelomith. 19. The sons of Hebron were led by Jeriah. Amariah was second in command, Jahaziel was third, and Jekameam was fourth. 20. The sons of Uzziel were led by Micah, and Isshiah was the second in command.
21. The sons of Merari were Mahli and Mushi. The sons of Mahli were Eleazar and Kish. 22. Eleazar died without any sons, and his daughters were married to their cousins, the sons of Kish. 23. Mushis sons were Mahli, Eder, and Jeremoth.
24. In the census, all the men of Levi who were twenty years old or older were classified under the names of these clans and sub clans; and they were all assigned to the ministry at the Temple. 25. For David said, The Lord God of Israel has given us peace, and he will always live in Jerusalem. 26. Now the Levites will no longer need to carry the Tabernacle and its instruments from place to place. 27. (This census of the tribe of Levi was one of the last things David did before his death.) 28. The work of the Levites was to assist the prieststhe descendants of Aaronin the sacrifices at the Temple; they also did the custodial work and helped perform the ceremonies of purification. 29. They provided the Bread of the Presence, the flour for the grain offerings, and the wafers made without yeast (either fried or mixed with olive oil); they also checked all the weights and measures. 30. Each morning and evening they stood before the Lord to sing thanks and praise to him. 31. They assisted in the special sacrifices of burnt offerings, the Sabbath sacrifices, the new moon celebrations, and at all the festivals. There were always as many Levites present as they required for the occasion. 32. And they took care of the Tabernacle and the Temple and assisted the priests in whatever way they were needed.
COMMENTARY
A further proof that David was deeply concerned about the Temple is evident in his careful organization of the Levites with respect to their Temple duties. When David became very old and his health failed, he proclaimed Solomon to be king in his place. Davids son, Adonijah, forced his hand in this matter (I Kings, chapter 1). The military census which Joab had taken did not include the Levites. It was necessary that a careful count of this tribe be made so proper work assignments could be given. The Levite males thirty years of age and older were counted. There were thirty eight thousand. Twenty four thousand had assigned responsibility with regard to the Temple. Six thousand would serve as officers and judges. The officers were overseers of work outside the Temple which pertained to the functioning of the Temple. The Levitical judges had responsibility in those matters which had to do with decisions pertaining to the Temple. The doorkeepers would be charged with the security of the Temple. Four thousand Levites had charge of the musical instruments such as harps and cymbals as these would be used in Temple services. The census would indicate the particular Levitical family to which each Levite belonged. Responsibilities were assigned which agreed with the kind of service that the Kohathite, Gershonite, or Merarite could perform. 1Ch. 23:7-11 name certain leaders of the Gershonite family. Nine households were counted. Three of these belonged to Shimei and six belonged to Ladan (Libni). In Moses day the Gershonites had charge of the tent materials in the moving of the Tabernacle. Now they were appointed other tasks relating to services at the Temple. 1Ch. 23:12-20 concern the Kohathites. Kohath, Levis son, had four sons. Amram was the father of Aaron, Moses, and Miriam. Aarons separation or selection for the high priesthood was an important event in Israels history. His responsibilites were to sanctify the most holy things, to regard Jehovahs appointments in the tabernacle as most sacred; to burn incense before Jehovah, the sweet odor of dutiful service, the symbol of prayer; to minister unto him, to carry out every detail of the ritual; to bless in his name forever, to be Jehovahs agent in mediating his grace to men. Moses sons, Gershom and Eliezer, were heads of houses and shared Kohathite obligations. Moses is here called the man of God, a most honored descriptive phrase. No false prophet in Biblical record is ever called a man of God. The Kohathite assignments in Moses day had to do with the sacred furniture of the tabernacle which they carried on their shoulders or arms. The priests who officiated at the altar were members of this family. Their duties would be of this highest order in the Temple. 1Ch. 23:21-23 concern the Merarites. Merari was Levis third son (Gen. 46:11). Gershon was represented by nine houses, Kohath by eleven, and Merari by four. Altogether there were twenty-four divisions of the tribe of Levi. In Moses day the Merarites had to transport the boards, bars, pillars, and sockets of the tabernacle. They probably assisted in cutting wood and carrying water for the Temple. Verse three in the present chapter indicated that the Levites were numbered beginning at age thirty. Verse twenty four states that the enumeration began at age twenty. It is possible that David understood that more Levites would be needed than could be provided under the thirty year limitation. Among the last directives (1Ch. 23:27) given by David was the one which lowered the age limit to twenty years. A summary of the tasks reveals a variety of exercises that had to be done to keep the Temple functioning. Work in the courts, in the rooms built in the Temple walls, officiating at the altar, and serving in the Temple proper would involve many men. Preparing shewbread, processing the meal offerings, presenting daily sacrifices, and discharging added responsibilities during the sabbath days and special feast days required many willing hands. The whole Temple routine was amazingly involved and wonderfully demanding. It was the heart of Jehovahs government of His people. It was the life line of the total relationship of Israel to Jehovah. It was peculiarly the charge of the Levites to keep this institution functioning.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(1) So when David was old and full of days.Literally, Now David had become old and satisfied with days. (See Gen. 35:29; Job. 42:17; where both terms, which are verbs here, appear as adjectives.) Perhaps our pointing is wrong. The expression satisfied with days reminds us of Horace, who describes the philosopher as departing this life like a satisfied guest (ut conviva satur, etc.).
He made Solomon his son king.Heb., and he made, &c. This short statement is all that the chronicler has chosen to repeat from 1 Kings 1, a narrative intimately connected with Davids family affairs, with which he is not concerned to deal. (Comp. 1 Chronicles 20, introductory remarks.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1. When David was old he made Solomon his son king This statement serves as an introduction to the account of the arrangement of the Levites which follows. David, in his old age, made arrangements to hand over to his son a well-organized theocracy. Chapters xxiii-xxvii show how thorough and extensive were the arrangements and organization of the kingdom when Solomon was made king over Israel.
During the period of the Judges and the reign of Saul the Levitical order had become greatly disorganized. In the earlier part of David’s reign efforts were made to restore them to their ancient work and standing, and at the time of the removal of the ark to Zion much was accomplished in reorganizing the Levites, and establishing a new and beautiful sanctuary service. But the more full and perfect arrangement of both priests and Levites was the work of David’s last years. The statements of this chapter may be conveniently tabulated as follows:
Whole number of Levites from thirty years old and upward 38,000 These embraced four classes
1 . General Service 24,000
2. Officers and Judges 6,000
3. Porters 4,000
4. Musicians 4,000
GERSHON Laadan Jehiel.
Zetham. Joel.
Shelomith.
Haziel.
Haran. Shemei Jath.
KOHATH
Amram Zina, (or Zirah.)
Jeush.
Beriah.
Shebuel.
Ishar Rehablah.
Shelomith. Hebron Jeriah. Amariah.
Uzziel Jahaziel.
Jekameam.
Micah. Jesiah. MERARI Mahli Eleazar.
Mushi Kish.
Mahil. Eder.
Jeremoth
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1Ch 23:3 Now the Levites were numbered from the age of thirty years and upward: and their number by their polls, man by man, was thirty and eight thousand.
1Ch 23:3
Num 4:46-47, “All those that were numbered of the Levites, whom Moses and Aaron and the chief of Israel numbered, after their families, and after the house of their fathers, From thirty years old and upward even unto fifty years old, every one that came to do the service of the ministry, and the service of the burden in the tabernacle of the congregation,”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Preparations for the Building of the Temple – Comments – In 1 Chronicles 22-29, we see King David making preparations to build the Temple. He spent a great amount of effort in gathering materials and organizing the people to serve in the Temple service. He gathered the materials and workmen (chapter 22). He divided the Levites for temple service (chapter 23). He divided the priests (chapter 24). He organized musicians (chapter 25), gatekeepers and treasurers (chapter 26). He organized the military and tribal leaders (chapter 27). He then gave Solomon instructions on building the Temple (chapter 28). Finally, he takes an offering from the people, prays and blesses God, and anoints Solomon as king (chapter 29).
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Levites Divided into Three Courses
v. 1. So when David was old and full of days, v. 2. And he gathered together all the princes of Israel with the priests and the Levites, v. 3. Now, the Levites were numbered from the age of thirty years and upward, v. 4. of which twenty and four thousand were to set forward, v. 5. Moreover, four thousand were porters, v. 6. And David divided them into courses, v. 7. of the Gershonites were Laadan and Shimei.
v. 8. The sons of Laadan: the chief was Jehiel and Zetham and Joel, three.
v. 9. The sons of Shimei: Shelomith and Haziel and Haran, three. These were the chief of the fathers of Laadan.
v. 10. And the sons of Shimei were Jahath, Zina v. 11. And Jahath was the chief and Zizah the second. But Jeush and Beriah had not many sons, v. 12. The sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel, four, v. 13. The sons of Amram: Aaron and Moses; and Aaron was separated that he should sanctify the most holy things, he and his sons forever, to burn incense before the Lord, v. 14. Now, concerning Moses, the man of God, his sons were named of the tribe of Levi, v. 15. The sons of Moses were Gershom and Eliezer.
v. 16. of the sons of Gershom, Shebuel v. 17. And the sons of Eliezer were Rehabiah, the chief, v. 18. of the sons of Izhar: Shelomith, the chief.
v. 19. of the sons of Hebron: Jeriah, the first; Amariah, the second; Jahaziel, the third; and Jekameam, the fourth.
v. 20. of the sons of Uzziel: Micah, the first, and Jesiah, the second. v. 21. The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi. The sons of Mahli: Eleazar and Kish.
v. 22. And Eleazar died and had no sons, but daughters; and their brethren, v. 23. The sons of Mushi: Mahli and Eder and Jeremoth, three.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
This chapter is the first of four employed on the subject of the Levites and the services distributed among them. The twenty-four orders of priests, sons of Aaron, occupy 1Ch 24:1-31. The twenty-four orders of the singers and musicians occupy the contents of 1Ch 25:1-31. And the divisions of the porters, with their gates; and of those Levites who had the keeping of the treasures of the house of God; and the officers and judges, fill up 1Ch 26:1-32. After which the compiler is again awhile clear of the Levitical tribe.
Returning to our present chapter, it gives an account of the numbers of the Levites, of their classification, of David’s fresh arrangement of them and fresh distribution of their work (1Ch 26:1-6). But altogether the largest portion of the chapter (1Ch 26:6-32) is occupied with the rehearsal of the heads of houses composing the four Levite families, and their offices.
1Ch 23:1-5
The numbering and the classification of the Levites.
1Ch 23:1
David made Solomon his son king over Israel. These words give the key note of what remains in this book. David made his son king, as he himself acknowledges (1Ch 28:5), under the superintending direction of God. The manner in which the formal event was precipitated by the conduct of Adonijah is found at length in 1Ki 1:11-53. The original occasion alluded to there more than once, on which David promised, “and sware” to Bathsheba, that her son should be his chief heir and successor to the throne, is not distinctly recorded. We can easily assign one convenient place in the history for it to have found monition, viz. in 2Sa 12:25. The brevity of the statement which composes this verse, when compared with all the deeply interesting matter recorded in 1Ki 1:11-53, is one among many other very clear illustrations of the purposed silence of our present history in certain directions.
1Ch 23:2
He gathered together all the princes of Israel, with the priests and the Levites. As on an occasion of supreme importance, David, in view of his own death and of his son’s succession at the present time, calls together the full council, and the highest possible representative council of the nation. So 1Ch 22:17; 1Ch 24:6; 1Ch 25:1; in which last passage the word “captains” should have have been rendered “princes” (). The arrangement of the Levites, and the distribution of their functions in the presence of the princes, as here described, and as it is even more strongly put (1Ch 25:1), “by” them, simply points to the fact that the ultimate outer authority, as between Church and state, lay with the state. The Church was made for it, not it for the Church. And it was the duty of the state to defend the Church.
1Ch 23:3
Now the Levites were numbered from the age of thirty years and upward. The thing which Joab had rightly resisted (1Ch 21:3-6) and shrunk from doing was now rightly done. There was now a practical and a legitimate object for doing it. This consideration helps to determine what it was that “displeased the Lord” in the former general census of David. In connection with this clause, 1Ch 27:23 should be noted, where we read, “But David took not the number of them from twenty years old and under: because the Lord had said he would increase Israel like to the stars of the heavens.” The period from the age of thirty years up to fifty (Num 4:3, Num 4:23, Num 4:35, Num 4:39) was fixed under Moses, for those “that came to do the service of the ministry, and the service of the burden in the tabernacle of the congregation” (Num 4:47). It is not certain, however, that this census did not inquire, in point of fact, respecting some below this limit of age. For we may note 1Ch 27:24 in the first place, and this is partly explained by Num 8:23-25. The number “thirty and eight thousand” of our present verse may be compared with the “eight thousand and five hundred and four score” of Num 4:47, Num 4:48. It is to be observed how promptly the national council did on this occasion commence with the arrangement of the ministers of religion, “the Levites.” As we read (Num 4:3) of “thirty years” of age as the appointed age for the commencement of their ministry, and (Num 7:3) of the present or “offering” of “six covered waggons and twelve oxen,” which the twelve “princes of Israel, heads of the house of their fathers, princes of the tribes,” offered “before the Lord,” which greatly lessened the laborious work of the Levites; so we find the commencing age reduced from time to time, to “twenty-five” years (Num 8:24), and to “twenty years” of age, as in our present chapter (Num 4:24-28).
1Ch 23:4
To set forward (Hebrew , Piel conjugation). The strict meaning of the word here is to superintend. The word has already occurred in the same sense in 1Ch 15:21. Officers and judges (Hebrew ). The explanation of the nature of the work of these, as really outward work, for the “outward business of Israel,” is distinctly stated in 1Ch 26:29; 2Ch 19:5-11. These officers are mentioned under the same Hebrew term in Exo 5:6, in a very different connection. It is plain that they were generally foremen, or overseers; while the judges took cognizance of matters which involved the interests of religion. This verse and the following give between them the four divisions of Levites, afterwards to be more fully described. The fuller account of the “twenty-four thousand” priests (including attendants) occupies Exo 24:1-18.; the “six thousand” officers and judges, 1Ch 26:20-32; the “four thousand” porters, 1Ch 26:1-19; and the “four thousand who praised the Lord with the instruments,” 1Ch 25:1-31.
1Ch 23:5
Porters (Hebrew ); doorkeepers. The word is so translated in 1Ch 15:23, 1Ch 15:24. It was the duty of these to keep the entrances of the sanctuary, by day and night, in their courses (see also 2Ki 7:10, 2Ki 7:11). The Chaldaic equivalent of this word is (Ezr 7:24; Dan 2:49). There is no connection between either the word or idea we have here, and those of Psa 84:11, where the Hithp. conjugation of is used, and the sense of residence probably intended to be conveyed. The instruments which I made to praise. Possibly the quotation of a short sentence often on David’s lips. Men given to music may have been very conscious of it, in ancient days, as well as in modern. The language, however, does not necessarily assert that David claimed the inventing or in any similar sense the making of these musical instruments, but that he appointed them for the service of praise. What some of them were may be seen in 2Ch 5:12“cymbals, psalteries, harps, trumpets” (see also 2Ch 29:25-27; Neh 12:35, Neh 12:36; Amo 6:5).
1Ch 23:6
Here begin the families of the Levites, as arranged in courses by David. These arrangements were scrupulously observed by Solomon (2Ch 8:14; 2Ch 29:25).
1Ch 23:7
The heads of the houses of the first Levite family, viz; of Gershon, are now enumerated. The subject occupies the five verses that close with the eleventh. The family of Gershon branches into twothe name of the one Laadan (so written again in 1Ch 26:21; but in 1Ch 6:17, 1Ch 6:20, as well as in Exo 6:17 and Num 3:18, written Libui), and the name of the other Shimei.
1Ch 23:8
This verse contains the names of the three so-called sons of Laadan, but (1Ch 26:22) the last two appear to have been grandsons.
1Ch 23:9
This verse purports to give the three sons of Shimei, but not the Shimei of 1Ch 23:7, but of a descendant of Laadan. This is made clear, not only by the remaining clause of this verse, which says, “These were the chief of the fathers of Landau,” and again by the enumeration in 1Ch 23:10 of sons of that Shimei who is coupled with Landau in 1Ch 23:7, but also by a comparison of 1Ch 24:22; 1Ch 26:21-26. It is, of course, possible that the name stands here in error for some other name, but the supposition is gratuitous.
1Ch 23:10
(See Zec 12:13.) The Zina of this verse is Zizah in the very next verse, which difference of form cannot be accounted for by any mere clerical explanation. The name Jahath seems to have been a favourite name in this family (1Ch 6:43).
1Ch 23:11
In one reckoning. The Hebrew of the word here translated “reckoning” is , i.e. “enumeration.” The meaning is they were accounted as only one “father’s house.” The derivative significations of the word are “care,” “custody,” and generally “office” (2Ch 23:18). The total of Gershonite houses will amount to nine, three of these being houses of Shimei, and six of Landau.
1Ch 23:12
This and the following eight verses give the Kohath heads of houses (1Ch 5:1-26 :28; 1Ch 6:2, 1Ch 6:3, 1Ch 6:18; Exo 6:18; Num 3:27), four in their leading divisions.
1Ch 23:13
The sons of Amram. From Amram, the first-mentioned son of Kohath, come the two great names of Aaron and Moses (Exo 6:20). Aaron was separated, and his sons for ever. This statement must be read, both with 1Ch 23:3into the number of Levites mentioned in which Aaron and his sons do not countand with 1Ch 23:14, which implies that Moses and his sons did count into that number. The sons of Aaron are dealt with in 1Ch 24:1-19, infra. That he should sanctify the most holy things. The Hebrew text renders it doubtful whether the rendering here should not rather be, “Aaron was separated to sanctify him as most holy,” etc. If it be so, this is the only place where the forcible term, “holy of holies” (most holy), is used of Aaron. The duties of the priest are described as threefold, in this place, viz.: “to burn incense before the Lord,”this will carry the idea of making atonement; “to minister to God,” on behalf of man, this will be one part of the work of a mediator; and “to bless in the Name of God,”this will fulfil the remaining part. For ever. The proviso may, no doubt, include reference to the “ever-living High Priest.” The threefold summary of solemn and beneficent duties receives ample illustration from many passages, and in special connection with the names of Aaron and his sons (Exo 28:1, Exo 28:38, Exo 28:43; Exo 29:1, Exo 29:35, Exo 29:45, Exo 30:7-10; Num 6:22-27).
1Ch 23:14
Moses the man of God. This title is distinguished by the presence of the article. The ‘Speaker’s Commentary’ mentions it as occurring only nine times, of which five instances belong to Moses (Deu 33:1; Jos 14:6; 2Ch 30:16; Ezr 3:2; with the present place); three instances show the title applied to David (2Ch 8:14; Neh 12:24, Neh 12:36); and once it is applied to Shemaiah (1Ki 12:22). Although the sons of Moses belonged, as is here said, to the tribe of Levi, they did not belong to that portion which discharged priestly duties.
1Ch 23:15
We read of the birth of Gershom to Moses and Zipporah (Exo 2:22; see also Exo 18:4, where Eliezer is also spoken of).
1Ch 23:16
Shebuel.
1Ch 23:17
Rehabiah. He was the chief (); but it happened that he was also the only son. Hence it is added in antithesis that his sons were very many (see the name again, 1Ch 26:25). The non-priestly Amramites are therefore seen to correspond with the houses of Shebuel and Rehabiah.
1Ch 23:18
Of the sons of Ishar. While six names in all are mentioned under Amram, only one, Shelomith, is found under his next brother, Izhar. This Shelomith (spelt Shelomoth in 1Ch 24:22) is not the same with the Shelomith of 1Ch 26:25, 1Ch 26:26.
1Ch 23:19
Hebron. This third son of Kohath furnishes four houses. So again in the twenty-third verse of the following chapter.
1Ch 23:20
Jesiah; in 1Ch 23:25 of next chapter written Isshiah. The two houses from Uzziel given in this verse make up the number of houses from Kohath to nine (as given again in 1Ch 24:20-24), and to these must be added the priests through Aaron and his sons, two houses, making in all eleven.
1Ch 23:21
This and the following two verses give the houses of Merari, contributing four houses, and, with the nine Gershonite and eleven Kohathite, adding up to twenty-four. Merari is the third son of Levi (Gen 46:11). The Mahli and Mushi of this verse were possibly grandson and son of Merari, if we follow the guidance of 1Ch 6:47. Yet it would seem far more natural to explain this last-quoted passage by our 1Ch 6:23, which would then parallel it. Otherwise we must account for the name of Mahli habitually standing first, as here, as in 1Ch 6:19 also, and 1Ch 24:26, as also in Exo 6:19; Num 3:20, Num 3:33, etc.; in all of which places the statement is as distinct as in this verse, that Mahli and Mushi were sons. This and the following verse must be compared particularly with 1Ch 24:26-29; the Jaaziah of which passage was evidently no son of Merari, on a par with Mahli and Mushi, but a later descendant. His descendants were threeShoham, Zaccur, and Ibri (Beno being no proper name, but signifying “his son”).
1Ch 23:22
Their brethren took them; i.e. their kinsmen, as margin, “took them” to wife (Num 36:5-12). (For the sons of Kish, see 1Ch 24:29.)
1Ch 23:23
The sons of Mushi.
1Ch 23:24
This and the remaining verses of the chapter contain some general provisions regarding the offices and future work of the Levitesin part David’s last edition of such provisions. (On the present verse comp. Num 1:1-4; Num 4:1-3, Num 4:21-23, Num 4:29, Num 4:30; Num 8:23-26.) It is not easy to reconcile this verse with 1Ch 23:3. Keil cuts the knot at once by supposing the “thirty” years of 1Ch 23:3 to be the error of a copyist, to whose memory the Mosaic census was present. And with Bertheau, he objects to the supposition that this verse describes a supplementary census, in conformity with “David’s last words” (1Ch 23:27), and as contrasted with his former directions. With the exception of what is contained in 1Ch 23:25-27, it is true that these do not offer themselves sufficient indications to make one feel confident of this explanation. On the other hand, to set down the number “thirty” in 1Ch 23:3 at once to the mistake of a copyist is too summary and convenient a way of escaping an awkward difficulty. It is evident that the following three verses do purport to explain why at this time the age of allowable service was altered to a standard so much lower than of old, and to assert that this alteration was recognized by the last orders of David.
1Ch 23:25
For David said. The “for” of this clause cannot be supposed to account exclusively for the inclusion in the census of Levites beginning from the age of twenty years; it accounts no doubt for the whole proceeding. Since there would be no more journeyings for people, for buildings, or for sacred vessels, it was nosy fully time to organize religious duty and “the service of the house of God” in a manner adapted to permanent institutions. In order to this, the first step was to know and to arrange the number of those who were answerable for sacred duties.
1Ch 23:26
And also unto the Levites. Emphasis is laid on the thought of the relief that permanent habitation in Jerusalem conferred on the Levites over and above the whole body of the rest of the people. They will no more be mere burden-bearers, though the burdens they Bore were of the most sacred character.
1Ch 23:27
The words of David. Although there are many instances of the expression, “the words of” David or some other king, as equivalent to his “doings” (1Ch 29:29; 2Ch 9:29), and not a few instances of the same phrase, standing for the “account” or “history’ of any one (1Ch 27:24; 1Ch 29:29, three times; 2Ch 9:29), the expression here may rather parallel passages like 2Sa 23:1; 2Ch 29:30.
1Ch 23:28
Because their office; i.e. probably the office or position of all, including the younger Levites. The development and greater detail of their varied duties, as the working staff of the “sons of Aaron,” are alluded to here; and how priests, Levites, and Nethinim (1Ch 9:2) all now formally undertook the whole range and scope of their functions is suggested. The work of these assistants of the “sons of Aaron” is detailed in three or four items, so far as this verse goes. They are first generally for the sacred service of the house of the Lord. That sacred service is in the matter of the courts; of the chambers; of the purifying of all holy things: and of the work, i.e. the performing of the sacred service of the house of God.
1Ch 23:29
Both for the shewbread, and size. Seven other specifications of service are continued in this verse, with which we may compare 1Ch 9:26-32. For the shewbread. The first mention of shewbread is found in Exo 25:30. The directions for making it are found in Le Exo 24:5-9. The twelve unleavened cakes of which it consisted, heaped on the table in two piles, represented the twelve tribes, and intimated the Divine acceptance of the offerings of each faithful tribe (see also 2Ch 13:11). For the fine flour for meat offering. This is spoken of in Exo 29:40; Le Exo 2:1-7; Exo 6:14, Exo 6:15, Exo 6:19-27; Exo 23:13; Exo 14:5. For the unleavened cakes the pan fried. These are spoken of in Le Exo 2:4-7. For all manner of measure and size; Hebrew . These two words occur also in Le 19:35, 36, where they are rendered respectively “in measure” and “in meteyard.” Perhaps the exacter rendering here would be “for all matters of liquid and solid measure.”
1Ch 23:30
To stand every morning to thank and praise the Lord (so 1Ch 23:13 of this chapter and 1Ch 25:7). Though Bertheau sees no special sign in the connection for this description to be confined to the four thousand whose special work and privilege it was, yet it is in entire analogy with the whole context so to confine it.
1Ch 23:31
And to offer; Hebrew, “and for all the offering of burnt offerings.” For other references to the help which the Levites gave in the matter of the burnt offerings, and for the number (2Sa 2:15; Num 28:1-31) of them, see Num 29:2-34; 2Ch 29:32-34; 2Ch 35:2-12. The priests alone performed the actual sacrifices. The set feasts. These refer to the three:
(1) the Passover (Le 2Ch 23:4, 2Ch 23:5);
(2) the Pentecost (Le 2Ch 23:15-17);
(3) the Feast of Tabernacles (Le 23:33-37).
1Ch 23:32
Keep the charge of the tabernacle holy place sons of Aaron. This concluding verse is equivalent to a quotation from Num 18:1-7; in the first verse of which passage Aaron and the priests generally are reminded both of their representative character and position, and of the solemn responsibility which rested on them.
HOMILETICS
1Ch 23:13.–The threefold functions of the priest.
In the words of this verse the compiler of the Chronicles sums the characteristic functions of the priest. It was now nearly five centuries since these had been distinctly prescribed by heavenly legislation for the religious observance of a nation, and for the religious education of far more than a nation, when David reviews the solemn institution of the priesthood. He wishes to see holy men in their places, and holy duties efficiently discharged. Time has helped to show their importance, and to illustrate the deeper significance which inhered in them. Perhaps it has in some degree availed also to disconnect men’s minds from their pure original. A journeying people, a warring nation, a wandering ark and sometimes dishonoured an irregular celebration of religious service, have all tended in some degree to harm the freshness of impression and of stamp which a Heaven-derived “pattern” should make on men’s hearts though ages and centuries have passed. Now that the nation was settling in its new territory long promised, the crisis was opportune for David to reconnect the great religious authorities of his kingdom with their original beginning. And our chronicler, though added centuries have passed, when he writes, knows their importance too well to omit the record of the fact, even though it be repetition and copy only. The threefold work of the priest is the matter of description here, and consists of
I. The duty TO BURN INCENSE BEFORE THE LORD. The burning of the incense on that golden altar in the holy place, which was constantly fed with the costliest of material, was the act distinctively of the priest. For the “stranger to come near” with any view of usurping this function was to incur prompt punishment (Num 16:40; 2Ch 26:16, 2Ch 26:18). Do sudden danger and the threat of wrath impend? the ruler, legislator, prophet, conjures the priest to “take a censer, and put fire therein from off the altar, and put on incense, and go quickly unto the congregation, and make an atonement for them “(Num 16:46, Num 16:47). The burning of the incense was the immediate preliminary of the morning sacrifice, or immediate accompaniment of the evening sacrifice (Exo 30:7, Exo 30:9; Luk 1:9,Luk 1:10; Le Luk 16:13), and was a very special part of the arrangements of the ceremonial on the great Day of Atonement, and of its sacrifice (Le 1Ch 16:11-13). It is difficult, amid a choice of many theories, to identify with any comfortable assurance the real symbolical significance of incense and its burning, yet the fact remains patent of its close relationship with the act of sacrifice in all the formal services of the Israelites. As it is said, “And without shedding of blood is no remission” (Heb 9:22), so it might almost without qualification be said that without incense there was no shedding of blood for any of the stated sacrificial objects. This would sufficiently defend the use of this part of the high priest’s (and later of the ordinary priest’s) duty, as speaking the very first and chiefest of all that makes up his raison d‘etre. But beyond this, it is impossible to doubt that the burning of the incense, in the golden censer and with the special fire, had its own significance, worthy of the priest’s own performing. Whether it were expressive of the fragrant acceptableness of human service and sacrifice to him in heaven, as it ascended; or whether rather its diffusive and pervading influences amid the congregation or the groups of humanity below were regarded; whether it symbolized the rising prayers and aspirations and glowing devotion of those who sought their Father and God, or, as has been suggested, something more specific, as e.g. prayer alone, or that form of prayer called intercession, and so understood, to be regarded as typical of the intercession of the great Intercessor; it spoke some proffered approach of the sinful creature to the condescending Creator, fit to be set forth by the priest himself, and by none inferior to him. For the modern apostle of Christ, for the modern minister and preacher of the truth of Christ, for the modern pastor and under-shepherd of “the flock of God,” there is no duty that consists in the offering of sacrifice on their behalf or the burning of incense; but upon such lies perpetual and most solemn the responsibility of pointing to the Sacrifice for sin, and of insisting on all that helps to denote the acceptableness and the fragrance of that Sacrifice so illustrious. There is nothing more incumbent on the man who professes to seek to lead his fellow-creature to God than this. And it should have a prominence given to it, not less decided than that indicated by the place here given in this threefold description of the priest’s duties to the burning of incense.
II. The duty TO MINISTER UNTO THE LORD. This simple and expressive description occurs above eighty times in the Pentateuchal, historical, and prophetical books of Scripture. It covers the whole range of those religious services, whether of the congregational or of the individual kind, allowed or appointed as the acceptable methods of the approach to God of his people Israel. He was not accessible to every person directly nor by every directest conceivable method. Long and plain as were the typical teachings of the sacrifices as such, so long and plain was the typical teaching under the ancient system of priests, of this fact, that the high and holy One was to be approached not without introduction, intervention, interposition. The various conditions of the intermediate approach were committed to the faithful priest. He was to become instructed and versed in them. He was to see that the people in no way suffered loss or unnecessary delay or difficulty in complying with them. And he was answerable directly to the Lord, whose servant he was for the people’s sake. Hence he is said to “minister unto the Lord,” although it was on behalf of the congregation or the individual Israelite. While, again, the modern preacher and pastor has no duty that can be described as the facsimile of this, yet in the first place, for all congregational prayer at least, his voice performs a service not dissimilar, as for some pastoral helps as well. But much rather would we again trace the deeper analogy. The Minister, the Intercessor, is to be pointed to, of whom it is said, “He is Minister of the sanctuary, and true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man;” and that “he hath obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the Mediator of a better covenant” (Heb 8:2, Heb 8:6).
III. The duty To BLESS IN THE NAME OF THE LORD. This completes the sketch of the priest’s work. He not only presents sacrifice and burns incense; he not only ushers the worshipper and his worship into the presence of the high and holy God; he also is privileged to speak the great God’s blessings, to pronounce his favour, to assure of his pardon and mercy, and to wake to melody the hearts and voices of the vast congregation sometimes, in response to an announcement of Divine goodness and love. We know now no priests who have power to pronounce in their own right the absolution or remission of sins, or to volunteer the assurance of Divine benediction. The priests of Israel had not themselves such a right. But neither now does God authorize or inspire any class of men, or any individual man, to speak in these tones to their fellow-men, except on the real humble, hearty compliance of these latter with the conditions laid down in Scripture. To these men must apply, not to the voice or even the wisest, holiest judgment of a living man, who cannot tell the inmost heart nor gauge the absolute sincerity of the applicant. Still, indeed, may we speak hope to the repentant, peace to the humble of heart, mercy and love to the trustful and true, but as it were in the quotations of Scripture, and well safe-guarded by the Scripture conditions. All beyond this, all beside this, will be beyond our power and beside our rights. And instead of being the better part of a true priest, we are turned into false prophets even.
Verse. 25.-The eye open to religious opportunity.
And that the eye of David showed itself now open to religious opportunity is not more plain than the reason of itthat his heart was open to it, nay, anxious and eager for it also. A crisis has now come, for which presumably the innermost heart of David has often longed. Though he had been the man of much war and of abounding activity, yet up and down his doings and his sayings there are not wanting indications that his heart sighed for peace and rest. “Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest” (Psa 55:6); “Rest in the Lord” (Psa 37:7); “Return to thy rest, O my soul” (Psa 116:7). The crisis is not one when passion must have its way, when stern measures must be taken, when all things must be left to drift or else all he touched with an unwontedly firm hand. It is a crisis of much happier kind. Volume after volume of the history of Israel has been filled, and volumes not a few of the personal biography of David have been unerringly written. The last opens. Before his nation is spread out a wide, fair, enduring prospect of rest. Jerusalem “is at rest, and is quiet” (Isa 14:7). David’s whole heart enters into the satisfaction of the thought. Let us note the admirable use he makes of this state of things.
I. HE USES THE CRISIS FOR THE PURPOSES OF REVIEW.
1. Special audible acknowledgment is made of surpassing mercy. “David said“ it. He did not merely observe it, ponder it, and then keep it locked in his own heart. While he himself enters into the satisfaction of the thought, he utters it aloud.
2. David owns the Giver of the good in question. It has not come of itself. It has not come of circumstances, of reaction traceable enough, of secondary causes whether more or less remote. “The Lord God of Israel” is the Giver, to whom all the nation’s indebtedness shall be confessed.
3. David suggests the harmony of the gift with the Giver. God is the Giver. His people those who take all the benefit of his giving. And this the gift rest. Rest under the Divine protection, in the Divine shade, the shadow of his wings and his throne, who bears a special favour to “his people,” and who alone can make them “dwell secure.” Full every way of suggestion is the utterance of David, were it but an articulate soliloquy.
II. DAVID, AS A KING, LEADER, TEACHER, ILLUSTRATES THE DUTY OF SUCH IN A CRISIS. While his language necessitates the comparison of the present with the past by very force of the contrast they present, and while it invites men to enter gratefully on the present enjoyments divinely offered, yet it associates new work, new opportunity, with these. Still the quest is to be loyalty and love to duty. He practically reminds a whole nation that:
1. Rest is favourable for order. Now, order may be honoured, recovered where it had been disturbed, studied to greater perfection even where it had not been very palpably infringed. Order is the beauty and glory of the whole universe. What room for improvement in it, in each individual heart and life, and in the life of every community!
2. Rest is favourable to growth. The winds that rock the trees help far down in the earth to provoke their roots to feel room for further growth, but the growing itself is not done while the storm lasts. How true this is of human character! It is our passionate, importunate cry to be hidden, to be sheltered, till the tempest is overpast, and the fury of the storm is spent. But afterward we grow.
3. Rest is the time for the cultivation of the devotion of the heart. It is true with no superficial, no mere sentimental truth, that
“The calm retreat, the silent shade,
With prayer and praise agree,
And seem by thy sweet bounty made
For those that follow thee.”
That Jesus recommended the sanctum of the closet of prayer with the door closed; that he also himself sought retirement, privacy, solitude, with either the cover of deep shade or the suggestion of commanding prospects unfolding to the gaze, on mountain side or summit, are strong testimonies to the genius of rest and to the habitat of genuine devotion.
4. Rest gives grand opportunity for religious enterprise. Does the language sound a contradiction or paradoxical? It is not so in reality. The higher forms and conceptions of rest do not consist in inactivity, in the indulgence of lassitude, but in the cessation of waste energy, toil as unprofitable as laborious, or, if necessary (as the wars of Israel), as painful to the heart as strenuous to the hand. Most significant in this direction the words, “For he that hath entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works” (Heb 4:10). Heaven itself cannot possibly be viewed with satisfaction as a place or a state of inactivity. All the tasks of highest devotion may be supposed to be there the material of most strenuous achievement. But it will surely be with a place and a state delivered from the restless worry of care, the restless strife with sin, the restless struggle to elude or to bear sorrow, so familiar to the present. So when all outer care and war and work were removed awhile from the lot of Israel. David flies to the thought of the great opportunity open for the works of religion. To these he directs his own enthusiastic study and labour. To these he calls his princes, priests, and a whole people.
HOMILIES BY J.R. THOMSON
1Ch 23:14.-The man of God.
This designation was not peculiar to Moses. In the historical books of the Old Testament, we find prophets sent with a Divine message to their fellow-mortals described as men of God. In the New Testament we meet with the expression in Paul’s Epistles, where the inspired writers of the Hebrew Scriptures are denominated “holy men of God,” and where Timothy is addressed in similar language. Moses is designated” the man of God” in the Book of Deuteronomy, is so called by Caleb as we read in the Book of Joshua, and is so denominated in the title prefixed to the ninetieth psalm.
I. MOSES WAS THE MAN OF GOD‘S SELECTION AND PRESERVATION. A kind Providence watched over him from the beginning of his life. Whilst multitudes were put to death, the child of Divine beauty was spared.
II. MOSES WAS THE MAN OF GOD‘S EDUCATION AND DISCIPLINE. Trained in the court and the learning of Egypt, and afterwards in the rougher but wholesome school of the Midian desert, this man was fitted by knowledge, by hardship, by society of the most diverse kinds, for the great future before him.
III. MOSES WAS THE MAN OF GOD‘S VOCATION. When God had trained him for his work, he called him, and made known to him his sacred Name and attributes, that thenceforth he might have the living consciousness of the Divine presence.
IV. MOSES WAS THE MAN WHOM GOD ADMITTED TO SPECIAL COMMUNION WITH HIMSELF. By the flaming thorn tree, upon the mountain solitude, at the door of the sacred tent, Jehovah met with his servant, and spake with him as a man with his friend.
V. MOSES WAS A MAN TO WHOM GOD COMMUNICATED HIS OWN SPIRIT AND HIS OWN CHARACTER. Again and again did the Lord speak words of confidence and approval with regard to his servant Moses. His meekness and holiness, his zeal for the glory of God, his patriotic desires for the welfare of his nation, all were indications that he was no unconscious instrument, but a willing and consecrated agent, in the hands of Heaven.
VI. MOSES WAS THE MAN WHOM GOD AUTHORIZED TO DECLARE HIS WILL. “The Law was given by Moses.” Hence he is called “the lawgiver.” Penetrated with the mind of the Supreme, he was empowered to promulgate, for the guidance of Israel, a code of laws altogether superior to those of other nations in ancient times. These laws embraced the moral as well as the civic life of the community, and aimed at the regulation of the heart as well as the life. Not only ordinances for conduct generally, but instructions for religious worship and sacrifice, were communicated by this “mediator” and “servant” and “man” of God.
VII. MOSES WAS THE MAN GOD CHOSE TO BRING OUT AND LEAD HIS PEOPLE. He was the shepherd who brought up the flock out of Egypt, and conducted the wanderers through the wilderness, and brought them to the verge of the green pastures of Canaan. God led, by the hand of his servant, the people who were his heritage.
VIII. MOSES WAS THE MAN WHOM GOD BURIED AND SO TOOK TO HIMSELF. AS he was often alone with Jehovah in life, so he was alone with him in death.
IX. MOSES WAS GOD‘S TYPE OF CHRIST. Jesus was the Prophet whom God raised up like unto his servant Moses. “The Law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.”
PRACTICAL LESSON. If the children of Israel were bound to hear and obey Moses, the man of God, the servant, how much more are we bound to hear and obey Christ, the Son of God!T.
1Ch 23:30.–Morning and evening praise.
The work of the Levites was “to wait on the sons of Aaron for the service of the house of the Lord.” It was, therefore, to some extent servile and menial. Yet the work was dignified and hallowed by the fact that it was truly rendered to the God of Israel, the Lord of all. The function, however, described in the text is the most honourable that can be performed by man. The glorified assembly above, the angelic hosts before the throne, are thus perpetually occupied.
I. THE OFFICE ITSELF OF PRAISE. The Levites were doubtless organized by David, as never before. His poetical and musical gilts were consecrated to the praise of Jehovah. His psalms from that time forward became the vehicle of human thanksgiving and adoration. The instruments of music which he appointed became essential to the ecclesiastical orchestra of the temple. And whilst thanks and praise are due from all intelligent beings to the God of providence, the human race has a special song to present, a special service to offerthanks and praise to the God of all grace and salvation.
II. THE PERIODICAL OFFERING OF PRAISE. It was appointed for the Levites to stand, in due order and according to their courses, in the presence of Jehovah. And every morning and every evening the sacrifice of praise was offered as regularly as the burnt offering itself. How suitable was this arrangement must be apparent to every reflecting mind. Each day brings with it new favours, which should be welcomed with a grateful song. Each evening summons us to record renewed instances of Divine mercy and forbearance, for which the Giver of all good should be warmly praised.
PRACTICAL LESSONS.
1. The duty and privilege of thanksgiving and adoration. “It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto the Name of the Most High.”
2. The desirableness of periodical and regular daily devotions: “To show forth his loving-kindness in the morning, and his faithfulness every night.”T.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON
1Ch 23:1, 1Ch 23:2.–Our hold upon the future.
When “David was old, and full of days” he contemplated his own death and what should then ensuewho should succeed him on the throne, and what should be the work and history of the nation he had governed. We are reminded of
I. OUR DESIRE TO KEEP A HOLD UPON THE FUTURE. As the king, like all other monarchs, earnestly desired that, after his death, his own sou should sit upon his throne; as he took the necessary steps to secure this by summoning all the leaders in the kingdom and giving them charge concerning him (1Ch 23:2), so we desire to retain as much hold on human life as we can, even when our eyes shall be closed to its scenes and our ears be deaf to all its voices. Either in the person of those who are our second selvesthe children of our love and our chargeor through our deliberately uttered wishes in documents or dying words, we desire to make ourselves felt, as the possessors of power, by the generation which will remain when we are no longer on the earth.
II. OUR POWER TO CARRY OUT OUR WISHES. “David made Solomon his son king over Israel.” He had the constitutional right to nominate his successor, and by solemnly designating him as such in the presence of “all the princes of Israel” he ensured his occupancy of the throne. There are ways by which we can make ourselves felt in the days which succeed our own.
1. By indoctrinating our children with our own beliefs and instilling into their minds our own spirit, we may live on in them and in their lives.
2. By bequeathing our property in such a way that future generations shall have cause to remember us (e.g. the founding of parks, hospitals, homes, etc.).
3. By documents which are valid in law by which we decide the way in which our property shall be used or our relatives be circumstanced.
III. THE LIMITATIONS OF THIS POWER. David could only make Solomon king by calling all his counsellors together and getting them to ratify his own decision; and then he had to leave the issue to Solomon’s own discretion. Had he (Solomon) acted as foolishly as his son afterwards acted, the throne would soon have passed away from him, and his father’s eager anticipations would have been defeated. Do what we may to retain a hold on the future through those who should be the inheritors of our principles and the executors of our will, we cannot really ensure anything we may devise. Those on whom we rest our strongest hopes may disappoint all our expectations and overthrow all our plans. The statesman’s great measure is repealed, the warrior’s proud conquest is undone, the millionaire’s splendid fortune is dissipated, the nobleman’s “house” is extinguished, the discoverer’s invention is superseded, the writer’s chief work is shelved, the teacher’s famous doctrine is exploded; the world moves on and leaves us all behind. We need some better solace in the declining hour than the expectation that the kingdom will go to our sons, and thus be retained by ourselves. And we have a better one in
IV. THE CHRISTIAN ASPIRATION. There are two worthy and honourable ambitions we may cherish respecting the future.
1. To live on, ourselves, in another sphere. Though not acting directly on the men and things we leave behind us, we shall be living and acting elsewhere in some other province of God’s great domain. Enough for us that, in the sphere which God chooses for us, we shall be using our powers for goodmore than enough, for that will be a wider sphere, and they will be “enlarged and liberated powers.“
2. To leave behind us in many hearts and lives the holy influence we have been exerting. If day by day we are scattering “the good seed of the kingdom” in true thoughts, in holy principles, in Christ-like impressions, these must and will appear again in other lives, and be again resown to reappear in others still; thus shall we have a blessed share in a far future, even in this lower realm.C.
1Ch 23:3-32.-The sacred tribe: their service and ours.
We have here
I. THE SPECIAL SERVICE WHICH THE LEVITES RENDERED TO ISRAEL. This was four-fold.
1. Assisting at the service of sacrifice. They were “to set forward the work of the house of the Lord” (1Ch 23:4); “their office was to wait on the sons of Aaron for the service of the house of the Lord,” etc. (1Ch 23:28, 1Ch 23:29); “to offer [i.e. to help at the offering of] all burnt sacrifices,” etc. (1Ch 23:31, 1Ch 23:32).
2. Rendering the service of praise. “Four thousand of them praised the Lord,” etc. (1Ch 23:5). These were to stand every morning and evening to thank and praise the Lord (1Ch 23:30).
3. Administration of civic business and pacification: “officers and judges” (1Ch 23:4).
4. Guardianship of the gates; preserving from profanation, and so from Divine displeasure: “porters,” i.e. gatekeepers (1Ch 23:5).
II. THE CHANGES WHICH OCCUR IN THE FORM OF SERVICE. Even under the same dispensation occasional changes occurred of the way in which God was served. An instance and indication of this is found here. The Levites had no more need to carry the tabernacle from place to place; they thus laid down one of their most solemn and important functions (1Ch 23:25, 1Ch 23:26). They were also henceforth to be numbered from twenty (instead of thirty) years of age (1Ch 23:27, 1Ch 23:28). And, further, they entered now on the service of instrumental music, systematically arranged (1Ch 23:5, 1Ch 23:30). If such minor changes occurred in the same era of religions history, how much greater changes in the order of service might we expect to find when one dispensation gave place to another, when the Law was lost in the gospel? Such we do find. We look, therefore, at
III. OUR CORRESPONDING SERVICE UNDER CHRIST.
1. In the matter of sacrifice, the Levites cannot properly be said to have any successors; for, the one all-sufficient atonement having been offered, there is no sacrifice to be presented, and, there being no officiating priest and no altar “in Christ Jesus,” there is needed no ministering Levite. Only that we are all to be priests and Levites in that we are all to present “spiritual sacrifices” of prayer and praise, and of “doing good and communicating,” continually unto him. However, there are humbler services to be rendered, needful work to be done, “for the service of the house of the Lord” (1Ch 23:24); and in this useful and worthy ministry, those who take their part cheerfully and do their work faithfully are “approved of him.”
2. In the matter of praise, the Levites find their successors in
(1) those who teach and lead in the service of song in the Christian sanctuary;
(2) all who join in and thus encourage others in that service. And they who do their best to perfect the praises of Godunderstanding by that not only attaining to the perfect scientific form of service, but reaching the moral and spiritual ideal of a service in which the music of the instrument and of the voice is subordinated to the melody of the heart (Eph 5:19),these render an invaluable ministry to the Church of Christ.
3. In respect of administration (officers and judges), as ecclesiastical law has given place to civil law, this function of Jehovah’s servants has passed into other hands; yet perhaps they who are peacemakers between their fellows and help to decide disputes between brethren may be said to be the “judges” of the present time.
4. As to guardianship of the gates, with the open throne of grace and access at all times to all men, there is little room for us to perpetuate this work of the Levite. But we can, and should, take great pains to preserve the spirit of reverence and pure devotion in the hearts of all who come to worship Christ.C.
HOMILIES BY F. WHITFIELD
1Ch 23:1-32.–Enumeration and arrangement of the Levites for their service.
The four chapters with which this commences give a connected view of the condition of the Levites towards the end, that is, the fortieth year of David’s reign, and of the sections into which they were divided according to their various services. In this chapter the first thing with which we are presented is the total number of the tribe of Levi, and their divisions according to the duties devolving upon them. Next we have the enumeration of the heads of the houses of the fathers into which the four families of the Levites had branched out, with a brief account of their duties. All these arrangements immediately preceded Solomon’s elevation to the throne. The first part of the third verse has reference to what was the original age at which the Levites were numbered. If we read, “Now the Levites had been numbered from thirty years old and upward,” it will present no difficulty (see Num 4:1-49.). Moses himself had, however, at a later date, made their time of service from twenty-five to fifty years of age (see Num 8:23-26). David reduced even this (see 1Ch 23:24), and made their service to commence at the age of twenty. The reason for this is given (see 1Ch 23:25). The Levites had now not to do the heavy work they had when marching through the wilderness, when they had to carry the tabernacle and its vessels. Now that this was over and the Lord had given them rest, they might enter on their work at an earlier age. The census presents us with the total number, namely, thirty-eight thousand men. Of these, twenty-four thousand were to conduct and carry on the work of the house of the Lord; six thousand were to be officers and judges; four thousand porters, and four thousand to praise the Lord. The work assigned to the twenty-four thousand is more particularly defined in 1Ch 23:28-32. Two great spiritual truths are presented in this chapter.
1. Every man has his own place to fill and his own special work appointed by God. This work is of various and diverse kinds. Some of it was more honourable, in a human point of view, than another; but each man was in his own divinely appointed place. Thus only can there be order and progress in the Lord’s work by each one filling that place. “God is not the author of confusion,” but of order. “The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. But God hath tempered the body together that there should be no schism in the body” (1Co 12:21-25).
2. The second truth is the great number set apart for praise and thanksgiving morning and evening (see 1Ch 23:5, 1Ch 23:30). This was to form a conspicuous part of their service, and to take a prominent place. This is the highest kind of service. The New Testament is full of injunctions to Joy and praise and thanksgiving. It implied, in Israel of old, “how much we have to praise him for!” And is it not true in all our work and service for God? Surely they who know the Saviour, and think for a moment what he is in himself, what he did for us on the cross, and what he is doing for us every day and every hour, have to praise him now and throughout eternity! Such praises should ever be in the heart and on the lips. One heart-look at Christ should banish all doubt and fear and make that heart sing for joy.W.
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK
1Ch 23:2, 1Ch 23:3.-The mission of the Levites.
They were called to service which men might call “menial,” but which was truly “honourable,” and might be made “more honourable by the loyal, devout, and loving spirit in which it was done. But there are indications that the Levites were tempted to undervalue their place and their work; they sometimes envied the priests, and fretfully wanted to be other than they were (see Num 16:9). Confusion and difficulty are sure to arise when men undervalue the positions in which they are set, and the work that is entrusted to them to do, and begin to envy other people’s positions and other people’s work. We treat here the mission of the Levites as introducing the subject of our separation unto God‘s service. What is called the Divine election may be fittingly called the Divine selection, for it really is God, in his infinite foreknowledge, selecting fitting agents, and, in the ordering of his providences, separating them unto the work for which he has chosen them. The sacred Word is full of instances of these Divine selectings and separatings. The race of Seth is separated from the other descendants of Adam. Noah is separated from the ungodly world. Japheth is separated from the new races coming from Noah. Abraham is separated from the idolatrous Chaldeans. Isaac is separated as the sole heir of the covenant. Jacob, Judah, and Ephraim are separated by Divine interference with the right of eldest sons. The nation of Israel is separated from all nations to be the repository of God’s revelation. The tribe of Levi is separated to special service in the Divine tabernacle. Saul is separated to be the first king. David is separated from the sheepfolds. Our Lord separates twelve from among his disciples. Barnabas and Saul are separated unto the work of the ministry. Fixing our attention on the senses in which the Levites were separated from the congregation, we may learn some of the ways in which we should regard ourselves now as “separated unto God.” The Levites were not made a distinct class, dwelling together; they lived about among the people, and shared the common life. They worked for a part at least of their living; their families grew up around them; they joined in the local feast as well as in the yearly festival. Their pleasures and their daily interests were precisely those of the people about them. And yet they were God’s by special call and consecration. Wheresoever they went the stamp of the Holy rested upon them. Their very presence tended to check sin, and to purify the social atmospheres. The distinctness of the Levites belonged to their character, spirit, and tone of conduct. And they were called to a particular service. They were to attend on the worship of the tabernacle, taking their orderly turns. They were selected by God for this one life-work, “to bear the vessels of the Lord.” They were called to receive a trust, and called to manifest the spirit which was becoming to that “trust.” Still we find separation unto God quite compatible with taking our place among our fellow-men, and entering heartily into everything that properly belongs to family and social and national life. The world in which we live is God’s world. In it there is nothing unclean, save to him who makes a thing unclean. Work is holy; rest is holy; pleasure is holy; friendship is holy. The Christian and the Christian Church stand out from all the world, and are set “in the world’s eye;” and yet it is equally true that the Christian and the Christian Church blend and mingle in every sphere of life. They force no distinctions upon men’s notice, and yet they are “separate” everywhere. Their distinction comes out of their first and ruling principles. The thought of God, the reference of all things to the will of God, and the effort to be in full harmony with the mind of God, are so essential to the Christian, and so characteristic of him, that he must bring the sense of God’s presence into every life-association. And just in this lies his peculiarity and his mission. When a Jew looked upon a Levite in the midst of the people, he thought of Jehovah. When a Jew talked to a Levite, if he was a true Levite, he would make the man feel God’s relation to the matter in hand. And so it is the Christian’s mission to be an open “epistle of Christ.” Levites failed from their duty, and from the joy of their duty, when they began to count their separation unto God a light thing. And this came about by their not putting their hearts into their work; by their nourishing jealousies and envyings; and by their failing to recognize how their work fitted into the great whole of God’s service. Do we think it a small thing to have been separated unto God? Do we think unworthily of the talent committed to our trust? Can it be a little thing to be God’s priests and Levites in his great world, ministering his truth, his will, his love, to men? Can it be a little thing to be the “candlestick” that holds out the light of God’s holiness and God’s gospel to men? Here is one chief root of the Christian evils which we deploreunder-valuing our Christian standing; under-estimating our Divine call, and the mission which is given us to fulfil. “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain.”R.T.
1Ch 23:3.–Consecrated maturity.
On the occasion of the “census,” the tribe of Levi had not been taken. A special enumeration of them was now made, and the pattern of the Mosaic census was followed. Those at the age of thirty and above, but under fifty, alone were numbered. But the years from thirty to fifty represent and include a man’s maturity; and, in the case of the Levites, this their maturity lay as a “living sacrifice” on the altar of God’s service. It appears that our Lord began his ministry at the age of thirty. But “who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living; for the transgression of my people was he stricken.” For probably at most three years of his maturity did he lie a “living sacrifice.” Make the burden of address a serious and earnest plea that strong men should give the strength of their manhood to holy service for God in the Church and the world. It is the weakness of so many Christian institutions and enterprises. as it so notably is of our Sunday school systemthat the experienced men and women of middle life hold aloof from them. There have indeed been cases of precocious development before the age of thirty; and we may not, even in our theories or our thoughts, set limits to the gloriously free operations of that Divine Spirit who “divides to every man severally as he wills.” Still, the general rule, comprehensively working, is that full cultureincluding something like adequate experience and due self-controlis not reached before that age. F.W. Robertson, A. Hallam, R. A. Vaughan, are very familiar illustrations of early maturity. It is also true that there is a limitall too soon reached in most casesto a man’s freshness, power, and originality. A man reaches maturity, and may maintain it awhile; but the time of strong and individual force for any man is usually very brief. No doubt there are cases of strength retained beyond the age of fifty; and there is suitable work in the world for the older men to do. But still, it is in large measure true that a man’s distinct life-witness and life-work are very briefa few swiftly passing years. When they are done he either passes from the earth-spheres, or else he must step aside lest he be run down by the hurrying throng who go so much faster than he can go, and who, he begins to think, are going wrong. A man’s strong manhood is his great trust, and this must be for the Lord, wholly consecrated unto him. Then it may be earnestly pressed upon us that
I. WE SHOULD ESTIMATE ARIGHT THE PREPARING–TIMES OF LIFE: the spring-times, on which depends the summer beauty; the seed-time, on which depends the autumn harvest; the child-time, on which depends wise fatherhood; the apprenticeship-time, on which depend the business successes.
II. WE SHOULD FEEL THE RESPONSIBILITY OF MATURE TIMES: when we can put strength, good judgment, cultured skill, ripe powers, into whatever work we undertake. It is often pressed on our attention that we are responsible for what we have; it may be much more earnestly impressed upon us that we are responsible for what we are or can be.
III. WE SHOULD ACCEPT THE PROVIDENCES THAT SET US ASIDE FOR RESTING–TIMES. Some such come in the midst of life’s works for our refreshing. Such come at last when our great life-work is done. We may be spared awhile in the Beulah-land, but in our resting-times we have new and other missions to fulfil. Alas! it takes much grace to make us willing to step quietly aside, and say of the new generation growing up round us, “He must increase, but I must decrease.”
In the mystery of the Divine order the later and resting-times of a man’s life may be preparings for the consecrated maturities of the heavenly and eternal spheres.R.T.
1Ch 23:6.–Orderliness required in God’s service.
The chronicler here reviews the arrangements made by David for the efficient conducting of Divine service in the tabernacle and temple, and the importance of order in worship is suggested for our consideration.
I. SUCH ORDERLINESS SECURES DUE PREPARATION. Anything like hurry is unsuitable in connection with Divine worship and work. Each man should know beforehand his place. “Hands should be laid on no man suddenly.” Seriousness, quietness, and thoughtfulness are proper in the house of God. Now men need to “sanctify themselves” by meditation and prayer before going to the temple, just as the old priests and Levites did.
II. Such ORDERLINESS AIDS THE DEVOTION OF THE WORSHIPPERS. Stillness and regular occupations that do not call off the attention or disturb meditation are important helps to worshippers. Remember Keble’s lines on the sacramental season
“Sweet awful hour! the only sound
One gentle footstep gliding round,
Offering by turns on Jesus’ part
The cross to every band and heart.”
III. SUCH ORDERLINESS GIVES RIGHT TONE TO WORSHIP. Show here how distinct the idea of worship is from mere sermon-hearing, or mere receiving of religious instruction, or exciting of religious feeling. Worship should take us wholly out of the self-sphere, and set. us in the God-sphere. And order, quiet, the beautiful in form and expression, are important associations of worship. Illustrate by the way in which our feelings are toned on entering the cathedral or sharing in stately cathedral service. No section of Christian people can safely neglect this element of orderliness; and each Christian worshipper should personally and anxiously aid in its maintenance. Here some of the forms in which modern worship fails may be dealt with: these will differ as apprehended by members of the different religious communities. “Order is Heaven’s first law.” Order is man’s witness for God, who rules and tones all things. Order may be the characteristic feature of all worship, whatever may be its formwhether it be severe as the Puritanic, or artistic as the Roman Catholic. Illustrate by the moral influence exerted by the well-ordered home, and its relation to the comfort, peace, and good culture of the family.R.T.
1Ch 23:13.–Separation and consecration.
Aaron was separated in order that he might be consecrated to the “sanctifying of the most holy things” (see Exo 28:1-43.). All of us should be consecrated, but some of us may be also called and separated unto some special service. Expressing the consecrated separateness of Christian believers, St. Peter says, “Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” (1Pe 2:5).
I. THE DIVINE REQUIREMENT OF CHARACTER. Personal holiness and the refined culture of all faculty and virtue are necessary if we would serve God in any sphere. It should be distinctly apprehended that God calls to his service not men‘s powers, but men with their powers, and so a man’s character God wants consecrated for him and to him.
II. THE DIVINE ELECTION TO SERVICE. Much of the difficulty felt concerning God’s election has arisen from our fixing attention on election to privilege, and setting in quite the background election to service. But God puts first “election to service,” and bases such election on the known fitness of particular men for particular work. The attendant “privilege” is little more than the accident attending on, or the reward given to, faithful service. Aaron was honoured by his place and sphere of work.
III. THE DIVINE SEPARATION TO PARTICULAR SERVICE. God condescends to the minutest things, and fits his people for the smallest places. We easily recognize the Divine call of men upon emergencies, and the special call of the men of genius in every age; but we should feel that every one of us, in the family, the Church, and the world, is called of God, and separated unto his particular work; and “every man, wherein he is called, should therein abide with God.”
IV. THE RELATION OF ALL SEPARATED ONES TO THE WHOLE. Each, in his separated sphere, is to become an example, and so a sanctifying power, upon the rest. There is a tendency in us all to feel the force of an example shown in some other sphere than our own, and in this way each one of us exerts a real influence on the whole. Aaron pleaded by his example for the sanctified life of every Israelite. Common consecration to God, and openness to yield to all Divine calls and separations, are the secrets of deliverance from all jealousies and envies.R.T.
1Ch 23:24.-Work that young people may do.
The time of Levitical service dated from the age of thirty, but service of particular kinds was accepted from those as young as twenty. Some things are beyond the young people. They could not do them well. They require gifts and maturity which the young do not possess. It is well for them to learn what is within their reachwhat they may do, and what they may not do.
I. YOUNG PEOPLE SHOULD ACCEPT THE FACT OF THEIR LIMITED POWER AND LIMITED FITNESS. This would check their characteristic disposition to over self-confidence.
II. YOUNG PEOPLE SHOULD ESTIMATE FAIRLY THE MEASURE OF THEIR POWER, and so work up to their highest limit. St. John gives his advice to young men “because they are strong.“
III. YOUNG PEOPLE SHOULD HOLD ALL THEIR POWERS AT GOD‘S SERVICE, seeing that he asks for life’s morning as well as life’s noontide.
IV. YOUNG PEOPLE SHOULD BE SURE THAT THERE ARE SPHERES OF SERVICE EXACTLY MATCHING THEIR POWERS. And they should be watching, ever ready to enter upon all such.
In the faithful doing of the least things of our youth-time alone lies our hope of training for the undertaking of more and better work as manly powers unfold. Show that the noblest of God’s workers have consecrated their youth-time to his service.R.T.
1Ch 23:30.-The mission of those who praise.
Some were to “stand every morning to thank and praise the Lord, and likewise at even.” This was the special work of certain of the younger Levites, whose voices retained their tone and power. They formed a choir to aid in the interest and beauty of Divine service. As this subject has been somewhat fully dealt with in previous outline homilies, we do but suggest a new framework, which the earlier materials will enable the reader to clothe. Deal with the mission of church choirs and singing bands, and show
I. THEIR MISSION TO GIVE EXPRESSION TO OTHERS‘ FEELINGS, and to strengthen them by expression.
II. THEIR MISSION TO INTEREST OTHERS IN DIVINE THINGS.
III. THEIR MISSION IN AROUSING OTHERS TO RELIGIOUS ANXIETY, as with the singing of revival hymns.
Then press the importance of cultured spiritual fitness for the efficient fulfilment of this mission. They who sing for the religious helping and teaching of men must themselves be sincere, devout, earnest, and pious. It is as true of this as of any other form of Christian service, that “we can only kindle fire when we are ourselves on fire.” “In order to the high result intended, the music of religion must be religious. There must be a distinction of sounds. As this language is given for the heart, it becomes a first principle that it must be of the heart, else it is an unknown tongue. And so true is this, that nothing can really fulfil the idea of religious music which is not the breathing of true love and worship. Even instruments without life will not speak the true notes of power unless the touch of faith is on them, and the breath of holy feeling is in them; how much less the voice itself, whose very qualities of sound are inevitably toned by the secret feeling of the spirit?” (Dr. Horace Bushnell).R.T.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
. Distribution of the Levites and Priests, and Order of their Service: Ch. 2326
1Ch 23:1 And David was old and full of days, and he made his son Solomon king over Israel.
1. Enumeration of the Levites, and Arrangement of their Work: 1Ch 23:2-5
2And he gathered all the princes of Israel, and the priests and the Levites. 3And the Levites were numbered from the age of thirty years and upwards; 4and their number by their polls in men was thirty and eight thousand. Of these, twenty and four thousand were to oversee the work of the house of the 5Lord, and six thousand were to be officers and judges. And four thousand porters; and four thousand praising the Lord with instruments which I have made1 for praise.
2. The Twenty-four Houses of the Levites: 1Ch 23:6-23
6And David divided them2 into courses for the sons of Levi, for Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.
7Of the Gershonites were Ladan and Shimi. 8The sons of Ladan were the chief Jehiel, and Zetham, and Joel, three. 9The sons of Shimi were Shelomith,3 and Haziel, and Haran, three: these were the chiefs of the fathers for Ladan. 10And the sons of Shimi were Jahath, Zina, and Jeush, and Beriah: these four were Shimis sons. 11And Jahath was the chief, and Zizah the second; and Jeush and Beriah had not many sons; and they formed one father-house and one class.
12The sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel, four. 13The sons of Amram: Aaron and Moses; and Aaron was separated to sanctify him as most holy, he and his sons for ever, to burn incense before the Lord, to 14minister to Him, and to bless in His name for ever. And Moses, the man of God, his sons were called after the tribe of Levi. 15The sons of Moses were 16Gershom and Eliezer. Of the sons of Gershom, Shebuel was the chief. 17And the sons of Eliezer were Rehabiah the chief: and Eliezer had no other sons; 18but the sons of Rehabiah were very many. The sons of Izhar, Shelomith the 19chief. The sons of Hebron: Jeriah the first, Amariah the second, Jahaziel 20the third, Jekamam the fourth. The sons of Uzziel: Micah the first, and Jesiah the second.
21The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi; the sons of Mahli: Eleazar and Kish. 22And Eleazar died, and had no sons, but only daughters; and their brethren, 23the sons of Kish, took them. The sons of Mushi: Mahli, and Eder, and Jeremoth, three.
3. Closing Remarks on the Levites: 1Ch 23:24-32
24These are the sons of Levi after their father-houses; the chief of the fathers for those mustered by the number of the names for their polls, doing the work for the service of the house of the Lord from twenty years old and upwards. 25For David said, The Lord God of Israel hath given rest to His 26people, and He dwelleth in Jerusalem for ever. And also the Levites have 27no more to carry the tabernacle, with all its vessels for its service. For, by the last words of David, these were the number of the Levites from twenty 28years old and upward. For their post was at the hand of the sons of Aaron, for the service of the house of the Lord, for the courts, and for the chambers, and for the purifying of everything holy, and the work of the service of the 29house of God. And for the shew-bread, and the fine flour for meat-offering, and the unleavened cakes, and pancakes, and that which is fried, and all measures of capacity and length. 30And to stand every morning to thank and praise the Lord, and so in the evening. 31And to offer all burnt-offerings to the Lord for the Sabbaths, for the new moons, and the set feasts by number, 32after the order of them, continually before the Lord. And they shall keep the charge of the tent of meeting, and the charge of the sanctuary, and the charge of the sons of Aaron their brethren, for the service of the house of the Lord.
4. The Twenty-four Classes of Priests: 1Ch 24:1-19
1Ch 24:1 And for the sons of Aaron, these are the divisions: the sons of Aaron: Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. 2But Nadab and Abihu died before their fathers, and had no sons; and Eleazar and Ithamar became priests. 3And David distributed them, so that Zadok of the sons of Eleazar and Ahimelech 4of the sons of Ithamar were for their office in their service. And the sons of Eleazar were found more numerous in chief men than the sons of Ithamar; and they were thus divided: for the sons of Eleazar sixteen chiefs of father-houses; 5and eight of father-houses for the sons of Ithamar. And they divided them by lot, one with the other; for the holy princes and the princes 6of God were of the sons of Eleazar, and of the sons of Ithamar. And Shemaiah son of Nethaneel, the scribe of the Levites, wrote them before the king and the princes, and Zadok the priest, and Ahimelech the son of Abiathar, and the chiefs of the fathers for the priests and for the Levites: one father-house being taken for Eleazar, and one4 taken for Ithamar.
7, 8And the first lot came out to Jehoiarib, the second to Jedaiah. The third to Harim, the fourth to Seorim. 9The fifth to Malchijah, the sixth to 10Mijamin. The seventh to Hakkoz, the eighth to Abijah. 11The ninth to Jeshuah, the tenth to Shecaniah. 12The eleventh to Eliashib, the twelfth to 13, 14Jakim. The thirteenth to Huppah, the fourteenth to Jeshebab. The fifteenth to Bilgah, the sixteenth to Immer. 15The seventeenth to Hezir, the eighteenth to Hapizez. 16The nineteenth to Pethahiah, the twentieth to Jehezkel. 17The one and twentieth to Jachin, the two and twentieth to Gamul. 18The three and twentieth to Delaiah, the four and twentieth to Maaziah. 19These are their offices for their service, to go into the house of the Lord according to their order by Aaron their father, as the Lord God of Israel had commanded him.
5. The Classes of the Levite: 1Ch 24:20-31
20And for the remaining sons of Levi: for the sons of Amram, Shubael; for 21the sons of Shubael, Jehdeiah. For Rehabiah: for the sons of Rehabiah, the 22chief was Isshiah. For the Izharites, Shelomoth; for the sons of Shelomoth, Jahath. 23And the sons [of Hebron]1 Chronicles 5 : Jesiah [the first], Amariah the second, 24Jahaziel the third, Jekamam the fourth. The sons of Uzziel, Micah; for the sons of Micah, Shamir.6 25The brother of Micah was Isshiah; for the sons of Isshiah, Zechariah. 26The sons of Merari were Mahli and Mushi: the sons of Jazziah, Beno.7 27The sons of Merari, by Jaaziah his son: Shoham,8 and 28, 29Zaccur, and Ibri. To Mahli belonged Eleazar; 9 and he had no sons. Concerning 30Kish, the sons of Kish, Jerahmeel. And the sons of Mushi: Mahli, and Eder, and Jerimoth: these were the sons of the Levites after their 31father-houses. And these also cast lots like their brethren the sons of Aaron, before David the king, and Zadok, and Ahimelech, and the chiefs of the fathers for the priests and for the Levites: the fathers, the chief like his younger brother.
6. The Twenty-four Classes of Singer: 1 Chronicles 25
1Ch 25:1 And David and the captains of the host separated for service the sons of Asaph, and Heman, and Jeduthun, who prophesied10 with harps, with psalteries, and with cymbals: and the number of the workmen for the service 2was. For the sons of Asaph: Zaccur, and Joseph, and Nethaniah, and 3Asharelah; sons of Asaph, under Asaph, who prophesied under the king. For Jeduthun: the sons of Jeduthun were Gedaliah, and Zeri, and Jeshaiah, Hashabiah, and Mattithiah, six, under their father Jeduthun, on the harp who 4prophesied to thank and praise the Lord. For Heman: the sons of Heman: Bukkiah, Mattaniah, Uzziel, Shebuel, and Jerimoth, Hananiah, Hanani, Eliathah, Giddalti, and Romamti-ezer, Joshbekashah, Mallothi, Hothir, Mahazioth. 5All these were the sons of Heman, the kings seer in the words of God, to lift up the horn: and God gave Heman fourteen sons and three daughters. 6All these were under their father for song in the house of the Lord, with cymbals, psalteries, and harps for the service of the house of God 7under the king, with Asaph, and Jeduthun, and Heman. And their number with their brethren that were instructed in singing to the Lord, all that were cunning were two hundred eighty and eight. 8And they cast lots for the charge, the small as the great, the teacher with the scholar.
9And the first lot came forth for Asaph to Joseph:11 the second to Gedaliah; he and his sons and his brethren were twelve. 10The third to Zaccur, his sons and his brethren, twelve. 11The fourth to Izri, his sons and his brethren, twelve. 12The fifth to Nethaniah, his sons and his brethren,13, 14twelve. The sixth to Bukkiah, his sons and his brethren, twelve. The seventh to Jesharelah, his sons and his brethren, twelve. 15The eighth toJeshaiah, his sons and his brethren, twelve. 16The ninth to Mattaniah, hissons and his brethren, twelve. 17The tenth to Shimei, his sons and hisbrethren, twelve. 18The eleventh to Azarel, his sons and his brethren, twelve. 19, 20The twelfth to Hashabiah, his sons and his brethren, twelve. The thirteenth to Shubael, his sons and his brethren, twelve. 21The fourteenth to Mattithiah, his sons and his brethren, twelve. 22The fifteenth to Jerimoth, his sons and his brethren, twelve. 23The sixteenth to Hananiah, his sons and his brethren, twelve. 24The seventeenth to Joshbekashah, his sons and his brethren, twelve. 25, 26The eighteenth to Hanani, his sons and his brethren, twelve. The nineteenth to Mallothi, his sons and his brethren, twelve. 27The twentieth to Eliathah,his sons and his brethren, twelve. 28The one and twentieth to Hothir, his sonsand his brethren, twelve. 29The two and twentieth to Giddalti, his sons andhis brethren, twelve. 30The three and twentieth to Mahazioth, his sons andhis brethren, twelve. 31The four and twentieth to Romamti-ezer, his sons and his brethren, twelve.
7. The Classes of Porters: 1Ch 26:1-19
1Ch 26:1 Concerning the divisions of the porters: to the Korhites was Meshelemiah 2son of Korah, of the sons of Asaph.12 And Meshelemiah had sons: Zechariah the first-born, Jediael the second, Zebadiah the third, Jathniel the 3, 4fourth. Elam the fifth, Jehohanan the sixth, Elioenai the seventh. And Obed-edom had sons: Shemaiah the first-born, Jehozabad the second, Joahthe third, and Sacar the fourth, and Nathaneel the fifth. 5Ammiel the sixth,6Issachar the seventh, Peulthai the eighth; for God blessed him. And to Shemaiah his son were born sons, that ruled in the house of their father; for they were valiant men. 7The sons of Shemaiah: Othni, and Rephael, and Obed, Elzabad,his brethren, strong men,Elihu, and Semachiah. 8All these of the sons of Obed-edom, they and their sons and their brethren, strong men9of ability for service, were sixty and two of Obed-edom. And Meshelemiah10had sons and brethren, strong men, eighteen. And Hosah, of the sons of Merari, had sons: Shimri the chief; for he was not the first-born, but his father made him chief. 11Hilkiah the second, Tebaliah the third, Zechariah the fourth: all the sons and brethren of Hosah were thirteen.
12To these divisions of the porters, to the chiefs of the men, were the wardslike their brethren, to minister in the house of the Lord. 13And they castlots, the small as the great, after their father-houses, for every gate. 14And the lot eastward fell to Shelemiah: and for Zechariah his son, a wise counsellor, 15they cast lots, and his lot came out northward. To Obed-edom southward; 16and to his sons the house of Asuppim. To Shuppim13 and to Hosah westward, at the gate Shallecheth, by the causeway of ascent, one ward likeanother. 17Eastward were six Levites, northward four a day, southward four a day, and towards Asuppim two and two. 18At Parbar westward, four on19the causeway, and two at Parbar. These were the divisions of the porters for the sons of Kore, and for the sons of Merari.
8. The Administrators of the Treasures of the Sanctuary, with the Officers for the External Business: 1Ch 23:20-32
20And the Levites their brethren14 were over the treasures of the house of 21God, and over the treasures of the holy things. The sons of Ladan, the sons of the Gershonite of Ladan, chiefs of the Father-houses of Ladan the Gershonite, Jehieli. 22The sons of Jehieli: Zetham, and Joel his brother, over thetreasures of the house of the Lord. 23Of the Amramites, the Izharites, the24Hebronites, and the Uzzielites. Shebuel son of Gershom, the son of Moses,was ruler of the treasures. 25And his brethren by Eliezer were Rehabiah his son, and Jeshaiah his son, and Joram his son, and Zichri his son, and Shelo-26moth15 his son. This Shelomoth and his brethren were over the treasures of the holy things, which David the king had dedicated, and the chiefs of the fathers, and16 the captains of thousands and hundreds, and the captains of the host. 27Out of the wars and of the spoil they dedicated to maintain the house of the Lord. 28And all that Samuel the seer, and Saul the son of Kish, and Abner the son of Ner, and Joab the son of Zeruiah, had dedicated; everything dedicated was under Shelomoth and his brethren.
29Of the Izharites was Chenaniah with his sons, for the outer business over30Israel, for officers and judges. Of the Hebronites were Hashabiah and his brethren, valiant men, a thousand and seven hundred, for the oversight of Israel on this side Jordan westward, for all the business of the Lord, and for 31the service of the king. Of the Hebronites was Jeriah the chief; for the Hebronites, in their generations for the fathers, in the fortieth year of the reign of David, they were sought, and there were found among them men of valour in Jazer of Gilead. 32And his brethren, valiant men, two thousand and seven hundred fathers of families; and David the king appointed them over the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, for every matter of God, and of the king.
EXEGETICAL
Preliminary Remark, especially regarding the introductory notice, 1Ch 23:1.The connected survey of the condition, distribution, and ministerial functions of the tribe of Levi at the end of the reign of David, which fills the four 1 Chronicles 23-26 (and falls into eight subdivisions, as is noted in the superscriptions of the above translation), is introduced by the statement, 1Ch 23:1, that the aged and life-weary King David appointed his son Solomon to be king over Israel, formally appointed him his successor on the throne, and regularly delivered over the kingdom to him. The numbering and classification of the Levites, and the order of their service in the sanctuary, appears accordingly to be the principal measure by which David introduces the transference of the kingdom to his successor. A survey of the state of his army and of his military and civil officers (1 Chronicles 27) is appended as the second of these measures, after which the final arrangements committed in solemn assembly to Solomon and the heads of the people, referring chiefly to the building of the temple (1 Chronicles 28, 29), form the close of these measures, and the immediate transition to the death of the king (1Ch 29:26 ff). As sources in communicating these accounts of the order of the Levites and their service, the Chronist had no doubt liturgical precepts and statistical notes proceeding (mediately or immediately) from David, that , which he mentions, 2Ch 35:4, along with a , and which we may regard either as part of the royal annals of this king or as an independent document. Comp. Introd. 5.And David was old and full of days. is here not an adjective, but 3d p. perf. of the verb, as in Gen 18:12; and so with its accusative of restriction , for which elsewhere usually the adj. (Gen 35:29; Job 12:17), or even alone (Gen 25:8).He made his son Solomon king over Israel. This notice does not perhaps forestall the more precise and definite statement of the appointment of Solomon to be king in 1Ch 29:22 (which reports also the mode of appointment, by the anointing of the successor), but forms a general introduction to all that follows to the end of our book (comp. the similar general but not forestalling statement in 1Ch 22:7), and serves to place all that is here related of the Levites, the military and civil officers, under the head of the last will and concluding acts of the king. A statement in many respects similar occurs in Joh 13:1, which characterizes all that follows to the end of this Gospel as a loving of his own unto the end. Against the opinion of Bertheau, that the Chronist has in our verse given briefly the contents of the narrative 1 Kings 1, the remarks of Keil suffice; comp. also our exegetical exposition of 1Ch 29:22.
1. Enumeration of the Levites, and Arrangement of their Work: 1Ch 23:2-5.And he gathered all the princes of Israel. These, the representatives of the tribes, had to co-operate in this mustering and regulation of the Levites, because this was a general concern of the kingdom. The present account concerning the holding of a great census Levitarum in a solemn assembly of the spiritual and temporal chiefs of the people, shortly before the end of David, is confirmed by the passage 1Ch 26:30 f., which speaks specially of the result of this muster in the fortieth year of the reign of David with regard to the family of Hebronites in Gilead.
1Ch 23:3. And the Levites were numbered from the age of thirty years and upwards. This accords with the proceeding of Moses, who, Num 4:3; Num 4:23; Num 4:30; Num 4:39 ff., likewise numbers the Levites from thirty years of age (to fifty) for service in the sanctuary. But as he had already included younger men, namely, from twenty-five years of age (Num 8:23-26), Davids muster may also have extended not merely to those of thirty years and upwards, but rather, according to the express statement of 1Ch 23:24, reached the Levites of twenty years and upwards. That this later statement does not contradict the present one, and that it is not necessary to amend our passage by inserting for (Keil), see on 1Ch 23:24.By their polls in men, thus excluding women and children; the defining more exactly the .
1Ch 23:4 f. contain the words of the king, as appears from the 1st perf. at the end of 1Ch 23:5, for which the Sept. and Vulg. have unnecessarily, and only from ignorance of the true state of the matter, substituted the third person.Of these, twenty and four thousand were to oversee the work of the house of the Lord, the duties of the Levitical temple service in general, to which belonged nota. the proper priestly functions (1Ch 24:1-19); b. those of the Levitical civil and judicial officers (the and , 1Ch 23:4 b; comp. 1Ch 26:29-32); c. those of the porters (1Ch 23:5 a; comp. 26); d. those of the singers and musicians (1Ch 23:5; comp. 25).With instruments, which I have made for praise, which I have introduced to accompany the sacred singing in the service of God; comp. 2Ch 29:26; Neh 12:36; also Amo 6:5, where David is mentioned as inventor of sacred musical instruments.
2. The Twenty-four Houses of the Levites: 1Ch 23:6-23.And David divided them into courses for the sons of Levi. In his new muster and order of the Levitical houses he thus founded upon the three old well-known branches of this tribe (comp. 1Chr 5:276:15). , for which, here and 1Ch 24:3, R. D. Kimchi would read rather (see Crit. Note), stands for (comp. 1Ch 24:4-5), and is merely a by-form of the imperf. Kal, not Piel, as Ges. and Ew. think. Bertheau asserts that not all the Levites, but only the 24,000 specially appointed for the service in the house of the Lord, are to be regarded as the object of ; and, in fact, 1Ch 23:24 appears to favour this, as well as the circumstance that a great part of the names here enumerated recur in 1Ch 24:20-31 and 1Ch 26:20-28; whereas in the enumeration of the twenty-four classes of singers (25), porters (1Ch 26:1-19), and officers, and judges (1Ch 26:29-32), quite other names occur. What Keil adduces against this (p. 188) is by no means sufficient to invalidate it.a. The Houses of the Gershonites: 1Ch 23:7-11.Of the Gershonites were Ladan and Shimi. In 1Ch 6:2, as already in Exo 6:17, Num 3:18, these two sons and founders of the two chief branches of the Gershonites are called Libni and Shimi. Our Ladan appears not to be identical with Libni, but rather to have been a descendant of this son of Gershon, after whom, in Davids time, a greater branch of the family was named. 1Ch 23:8-9 analyze this branch of the Ladanites as falling into the two chief stems of the sons of Ladan and the sons of Shimi, a descendant of Libni, by name Shimi, not the brother of Ladan or Libni named in 1Ch 23:7, whose branch is more fully described in 1Ch 23:10-11. Those belonging to the branch of Ladan fall altogether into six houses, namely, three of the sons of Ladan (1Ch 23:8) and three of the sons of Shimi (1Ch 23:9). On the contrary, the descendants of the other Shimi (brother of Ladan, 1Ch 23:10) form only four, or rather only three, houses, as the two youngest of the families belonging to them, Jeush and Beriah, from their numerical weakness, are included in one house, and also in one class (, 1Ch 23:11). The Gershonites, therefore, in Davids time counted in all nine houses.b. The Houses of the Kohathites: 1Ch 23:12-20.Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel. So are the four sons of Kohath named also in 1Chr 5:28, 1Ch 6:3, and previously in Exo 6:18; Num 3:27.Aaron was separated to sanctify him as most holy. So is to be understood of Aarons choice and anointment to be the most holy person of a high priest, not from his ministering in the most holy place (Vulg. ut ministraret in sancto sanctorum; likewise the Peschito), nor from his appointment to consecrate the most holy utensils (Clericus, against which see Hengsten. Christol. ii. 50, and Keil on the passage).And to bless in His name for ever, in Jehovahs name, to pronounce the blessing on the community (after the prescription of Moses, Num 6:23; Num 16:2; Deu 21:5); not to bless the name of Jehovah, or call upon Him, as Ges. and Berth, think.
1Ch 23:14. And Moses the man of God, his sons were called after the tribe of Levi, were reckoned among the simple Levites, and not among the priests. On , comp. Gen 48:6; Ezr 2:61; Neh 7:63.
1Ch 23:15. Of the sons of Gershom, Shebuel was the chief, properly, Gershoms sons, Shebuel the chief; comp. the numerous cases in which sons are announced, and yet only one follows, as 1Ch 2:31, etc. That, moreover, Gershom had other sons, who were reckoned with the house of Shebuel (or Shubael, as he is called in 1Ch 24:20), appears to follow from 1Ch 23:17, where it is expressly said of Eliezer that he had no sons besides Rehabiah. Shebuel and Rehabiah therefore were the names of the houses of the family of Amram that sprang from Moses. To these two non-sacerdotal houses of the Kohathites are to be added, according to 1Ch 23:18-20, of the family of Izhar, the house of Shelomith (or Shelomoth, 1Ch 24:22); of the family of Hebron four houses, Jeriah, Amariah, Jahaziel, and Jekamam; of the family of Uzziel two, Micah and Jesiah,in all, nine Levitical houses of Kohathite origin.c. The Houses of the Merarites: 1Ch 23:21-23The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi. So are called the two sons of Merari also, 1Ch 6:4; Exo 6:19; Num 3:33; whereas in 1Ch 24:27 a third son of Merari is named, Jaaziah, the founder of the three houses of Shoham, Zaccur and Ibri. The conjecture is obvious, that the name of this Jaaziah with his three sons has fallen out of our passage by an old oversight, as Bertheau assumes when he supplements the text of our passage from 1Ch 24:26-27. But, 1. The Sept., Vulg., and Syr. present our text, that gives only two sons of Merari; 2. The books of Moses, and indeed the whole of the Old Testament elsewhere, know nothing of a third son of Merari and his descendants; 3. The passage 1Ch 24:26-27 bears manifest traces of an interpolation in itself, by which the name Jaaziah must have come into the text; 4. The names of the supposed sons of Jaaziah occur nowhere else, with the exception of Zaccur alone (see 1Ch 25:2); 5. The only gain that the assumption of the names in question into our text could be,that, namely, the number of the Merarite houses should be brought up to six, and so a total of twenty-four houses of Levites should be shown in our section (nine Gershonite, nine Kohathite, and six Merarite), analogous to the number of twenty-four houses and classes of priests (1 Chronicles 24), and of twenty-four classes of singers (1 Chronicles 25), and corresponding with the express assertion of Josephus (Antiq. vii. 14. 7), that David divided the Levites into twenty-four classes,this single gain is lost by this, that there should be not twenty-four but twenty-five houses resulting from the addition of the three sons of Jaaziah, as our passage (1Ch 23:21-23) derives not three but four houses from Merari: one from Mahli (named after Eleazar the father of the heiress, or after his brother Kish, and then after Jerahmeel, chief son of this Kish; see 1Ch 24:29), and three from Mushi, namely, Mahli, Eder, and Jeremoth. Now of these three sons of Mushi, Bertheau will certainly exclude from the text the first, Mahli, on account of his identity of name with Mahli the brother of Mushi, to obtain the desired result of six Merarite houses; but the arbitrariness of this procedure is obviously greater and more unjustifiable than the boldness of our condemnation of the 1Ch 23:26-27 in 1 Chronicles 24 as interpolated, that has sufficient ground in the clearly corrupt text of this verse. It necessarily follows that our section yields only four Merarite, and therefore in all only twenty-two Levitical houses.
3. Closing Remarks respecting the Levites: 1Ch 23:24-32.These are the sons of Levi. . .for those mustered, (comp. Exo 30:14, Num 1:21 ff., as on the following words: by the number of the names, Num 1:18; Num 3:43).Doing the work for the service of the house of the Lord. is, as also in 2Ch 34:10; 2Ch 34:13, Ezr 3:9, Neh 2:16, not sing, but plur.= , and differing only in writing from this regular form (that occurs, for example, 2Ch 24:13); comp. Ew. 16, b.From twenty years old and upwards. This statement, that the twentieth year is fixed as the starting-point for the entrance of the Levites on their official duties, is more exactly explained in the following words, by reference to the lighter labour which fell upon the Levites when the wandering life of the wilderness ceased,a conclusion that is not fully expressed, but indicated clearly enough by 1Ch 23:25-26.
1Ch 23:27. For by the last words of David these were, etc. Thus it is obvious we are to understand the orders of David issued shortly before his end by the words (with the Vulg.: juxta prcepta David novissima, and so Clericus, J. H. Mich., Keil, etc.), not in the later histories of David (Kimchi, Berth.),a conception which imports into the text a thought quite foreign to the context, and by no means justified by referring to 1Ch 29:29. Even because a last arrangement of David is now expressly named as the ground of the introduction of Levites of twenty years into the sacred service, it is to be assumed that that statement in 1Ch 23:3 respecting the entrants at the age of thirty years refers to an earlier numeration, in which David had adhered to the legal determination in Num 3:23; Num 3:30 (so Kimchi, J. H. Mich., and others), though the words and the connection of that passage, especially the circumstance that there the number 38,000 is given as the result of the muster, and that here no greater number takes its place, may not appear to favour such a distinction between an earlier and a later muster. It is conceivable, though not indicated by our author, that David may have established a distinction of classes, in such a way that he introduced the Levites of twenty years to the lower and easier duties, and those of thirty years to the higher and holier functions. At all events, any mode of harmonizing the two accounts appears more reasonable than the expedient of Bertheau, that the Chronist placed side by side two different accounts, the one giving twenty, the other thirty, years, without explanation as they were found in his sources, or than the emendation of Keil, who changes , 1Ch 23:3, into .
1Ch 23:28-31. Here follows an enumeration of the duties to be performed by the Levites, rising from the lower and more external (referring to the court and its chambers, to purification and the like) to the higher, and closing with the assistance given in the sacrifices of the great feasts.And for the shew – bread, that is, the preparation, not the presentation of it, which belonged exclusively to the priests (Lev 24:8 ff.).And pancakes, properly, the pan, comp. Lev 2:5.And that which is fried (Lev 6:14), and all measures of capacity and length, for measuring flour, oil, and wine, which were added to the sacrifices, which the Levites had to clean and keep (comp. Exo 29:40; Exo 30:24; Lev 19:35).And to stand every morning to thank and praise the Lord. This naturally refers to the duties of the 4000 Levitical singers and musicians (1Ch 23:5; comp. 1 Chronicles 25); for here are enumerated the offices of all classes of the Levites, not merely of the 24,000 (against Berth.).And to offer all burnt-offerings to the Lord. Hereby the Levites were obliged to prepare the requisite number of victims, to examine the fitness of them, to slay the animals, to flay them, etc. (Keil.)By number after the order of them continually before the Lord, that is, by number as they are to be presented continually before the Lord, according to the prescriptions of the law regarding them. The continually refers to the offering ( ) as a business recurring regularly on the appointed day; comp. , Num 27:6, etc.
1Ch 23:32. And they shall keep the charge of the tent of meeting (the temple, comp. Num 18:4), and the charge of the sanctuary (of all holy things connected with worship, Num 18:5), and the charge of the sons of Aaron (the care of all that the priests enjoin upon them, all the help given to the priests). On this particular recapitulation of all the functions of the Levites, comp. the similar passage, Num 18:3 ff.
Footnotes:
[1]For the Sept. () and Vulg. (fecerat) have the 3rd person. But see Exeg. Expl.
[2]For read (here and 1Ch 24:3) . See Exeg. Expl.
[3]So the Keri: in the Kethib the name is Shelomoth. The same difference appears in another Shelomith, 1Ch 26:25.
[4]For is perhaps to be read (with L. Cappell., H. Grotius, Gesen., etc.), as some late and unimportant mss. in de Rossi exhibit in the var. lect.
[5]The insertion of after (Luther., Bert., and most moderns) is certainly confirmed neither by the Hebrew Cod. nor by the old translations (Sept., Vulg., etc.). but appears necessary from 1Ch 23:19.
[6]So the Keri the Kethib has Shamur: the old Vers. (Sept. , Vulg. Samir) as the Keri.
[7]Before a name seems to have fallen out. The text in 1Ch 23:26-27 is corrupt. See the Exeg. Expl.
[8]Properly, and Shoham ().
[9]After the name of Eleazar the Sept. (cod. Vat.) adds , , a gloss which is wanting in A E F X.
[10]The Kethib is an error of transcription for the certainly correct Keri (Partic. Niph.); comp. the sing. in 1Ch 25:2-3, and see Exeg. Expl.
[11]After , the notice constantly recurring in the following verses: his sons and his brethren, twelve, appears to have fallen out by an oversight. Yet it is to be observed that this notice in 1Ch 25:9 b, after , is different from that in all subsequent cases, namely, he and his brethren and his sons ( before, not , as afterwards), whence it is probable that the writer did not mention with the first singer the eleven companions, whom he preceded as the twelfth.
[12]For , according to 1Ch 9:19, appears to have been read, though no external evidence confirms this conjecture.
[13] (Sept. ; but cod. Vat. ) appears to have come into the text by the repetition of the last two syllables of the foregoing , which was perhaps aided by an obscure remembrance of the root , 1Ch 7:12.
[14]So according to the Sept. ( ), which has here certainly the right text; comp. , 2Ch 29:34. If the of the Masoretic text be original, must have stood in place of (comp. the Vulg., which has wholly omitted that ).
[15] Kethib: ; Keri: (comp. 1Ch 23:9). The Kethib is proved by 1Ch 23:26 to be more correct, though the name recurs, 1Ch 23:28, as without variation.
[16]For should apparently be read ; comp. 1Ch 29:6.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
This Chapter relates to us the appointing of Solomon king, in the room of David his father. The Levites and officers of the temple are appointed also, and numbered.
1Ch 23:1
The age of David was not so great as many of his fathers. When he died, he had not exceeded seventy years. But the truth was, he had worn fast, and worn out. His whole life had been both an active, and an anxious one; and cares consume the strength.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
“Handfuls of Purpose,”
For All Gleaners
“So when David was old and full of days, he made Solomon his son king over Israel.” 1Ch 23:1 .
We are not to carry our kingships too far, and thus keep out other and stronger men. Kings should abdicate before they become imbecile; pastors should not wear out the love of their people by continuing unduly in office. It is always well to take the opinion of others when it will be given frankly and lovingly as to our ability to continue with vigour and happy effect the work in which we have been long engaged. Old age overtakes even David, of whom we once read as a youth “ruddy and of a fair countenance.” Time conquers all. The silent days and nights eat up our strength, and leave us weak; consume our inheritance, and leave us poor; and are all the while, in every action of deprivation, teaching us mournful but pithy and useful lessons. Blessed is the man who can bring his son to the throne, not only because he is his son, but because he has a right to the crown, the right of character, wisdom, capacity, and general fitness for high office. The son takes the crown by hereditary right in many instances; it is far better when he takes it after preparation, and after having proved his character, in many trying circumstances. Israel continued, though David withered and died. How true this is in all the relations and outlooks of life! The nation never dies; kings and mighty men, generals and commanders, come and go, but the people, the very heart of the nation, abide from century to century. The countries have seen many occupants of the throne, but the throne itself abides, the symbol and indeed the fact of continuity. Solomon has his day of coming, he will also have his day of going. A great statesmen has said there are only two happy days in the life of a cabinet minister, the day on which he takes office and the day on which he leaves it. Let us have no fear because kings die, because pastors expire, because men of all degrees are known no more in their personality: the one thing we may be sure of is that the life which they symbolise will be preserved, directed, and perfected in the providence of God.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
How to Employ Old Age
1Ch 23
ALTHOUGH the king was so old, he lost none of his interest in the highest department of his work. It is pitiful to see how soon some people sink into old age; on the other hand, it is inspiring to observe how the noblest workers have disdained to become old and have coveted only the glory of dying in harness. The pathos of David’s action will be more clearly recognised if we remember that the literal translation is, “Now David had become satisfied with days.” Satisfied with days, but not satisfied with labour: David had seen all the contents of time, in poverty, persecution, honour, and majesty, and yet he was anxious for the consolidation of his empire and the construction of the temple. When the heathen poet described the death of a philosopher it was under the image of a guest who had to the full enjoyed the feast. David, as a guest of the Lord, had himself sat long enough at the table of time, and now he was desirous that his son should take up the service and enjoyment of the empire, whilst he himself went forth to the mysteries of another state. Old age can do for the future what mere youth is not permitted to attempt. Old men are entitled to advise and stimulate those who are likely to succeed them in the ministry of life. Wise old men never omit to infuse into their counsels something of the fire and ambition of youth. They never recommend a mere repetition of the past; they point rather to its enlargement and amendment, believing that all the higher wisdom or providence is always a future blessing. There is no finality in the plans of men. Wait upon God, expect clearer light, listen for fuller instructions and always be prepared to accept and obey heaven’s revealed will.
“He [David] made Solomon his son king over Israel” ( 1Ch 23:1 ).
We are to remember that we are now in the hands of a mere chronicler who is entitled to be brief in his statements, but we have a full account of what is here indicated in the first chapter of the first Book of Kings. David might be technically entitled to elect Solomon as his successor, but it would be unjust to his memory to suppose that he availed himself of a mere technicality. In the instruction and exhortation which he addressed to his son we find the larger reason of Solomon’s elevation to the throne. David prepared for the temple as we have had ample opportunity of observing, but we are in danger of neglecting to note that he prepared his son Solomon with still more assiduous solicitude. Both the preparations should be taken as one. It would have been a poor preparation had it been merely a direction as to stone and gold and cedar; the true preparation was in the enlightenment and direction of Solomon’s mind and heart. Parents cannot always “prepare” a fortune for their children, but it lies within the power of the poorest to enrich the opening mind with solid instruction, and to comfort the tender heart with exhortations and promises against the weakening influence of fear and disbelief.
“Now the Levites were numbered [The tribe of Levi had not been numbered at the general census of the people recently taken (ch. 1Ch 21:6 ); but in preparation for the arrangements now contemplated, a special census was made of them] from the age of thirty [The pattern of the Mosaic census was followed, and those only were reckoned who had attained the age of thirty. We may assume that the other limit mentioned in the Pentateuch (Num 4:3 , Num 4:23 ) was also observed, and that none were counted who exceeded fifty] years and upward; and their number by their polls, man by man, was thirty and eight thousand” ( 1Ch 23:3 ).
In the realm of Israel there may be said to have been three estates, namely, the princes and the priests and the Levites. David, therefore, in consulting the council, showed himself to be what, in modern language, is called a constitutional monarch. The details given of numbers and of ages indicate the military discipline which great leaders of men have never failed to exercise: financiers count their gold and statesmen count the people; before a man goes to war he should realise the exact amount of his resources, lest he begin with a great flourish of boasting and end with the muttering of humiliation. There should be nothing haphazard in the arrangements of the Christian army; we should know how many we are when all told, and a distinct estimate should be formed of the faculty, the genius, the flexibility, and the endurance of every soldier. Classification is an element of strength. The prince could not change places with the Levite, and the priest might make a poor figure if he claimed to be prince. Mark the individuality of David’s enumeration the Levites were numbered by their polls [literally, “as to their skulls”]. Every man should have a skull; every skull should represent a man, in knowledge, in faculty, in ambition, chastened by reverence. In modern days we count hands; in ancient days Abraham counted souls and David counted heads. Every hand should be a head, every head a soul, every soul a hand, and thus there should be an inter-working and harmonious cooperation of all the powers and uses of our lives.
“Of which twenty and four thousand were to set forward the work of the house of the Lord” ( 1Ch 23:4 ).
The word that is rendered “to set forward” means “to lead, or superintend.” When prisoners were taken in war the Levites were entitled to claim their share of the number, and employ the captives in the menial work of the sanctuary.
The Levites were much more numerous than the priests, hence it was ordered in the division of the prey, in the instance given in the Book of Numbers, that they were to have two per cent. of the spoil, whereas the priests had only one-fifth per cent. of a like amount: the calculation being, according to the best authorities three hundred and twenty maidens, six thousand seven hundred sheep and goats, seven hundred and twenty oxen, and six hundred and ten asses for the Levites. We recall the fact that the Gibeonites were spared on condition of becoming Levitical bondsmen, or, in Biblical words, “hewers of wood and drawers of water.” We need superintendence, as well as every other kind of service. The danger is that we pick and choose work that is daintiest, instead of undertaking the work that most needs doing. If all were generals, where were the army? If all were leaders, where were the followers? The right spirit regards even doorkeeping in the sanctuary as an honour to be coveted.
Prayer
Almighty God, do thou grant unto us light in which to read thy word. Thou didst write the book for us, now do thou tell us what it means, that the heart may be won, that our whole being may go but after thee as after a fountain of living waters. The book is a dead letter unto us until thou dost give it life by giving us life to receive it; then how the book throbs with thy presence, glows with thy love, and offers to us all we need for our hunger and thirst of soul! Open thou our understanding that we may understand the Scriptures! We need no other book; all wisdom is here, all justice, all love; for here is the law of God, and here is the cross of Christ, and here is the gate that opens upon heaven. We bless thee that thou hast also written a book in human life; the chapters are events, the sentences are occurrences marking every day; may we have eyes quick to read, minds eager in quest of knowledge, hearts obedient to all heavenly monition: thus shall we live amid the revelation of God, and thy book and thy history shall be one revelation, and they shall be wise who understand it. Keep us alive to the gracious fact of thy sovereignty; enable our heart to say, when the day is one of darkness and the harvest is a heap, The Lord reigneth: though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: he hath been with me in six troubles, and in seven he will not forsake me. Thus louder than the cold wind may we raise our song of hope and praise and trust in the living God. Thus do thou write another book, thine own living Church, a peculiar people separated and sanctified, crowned with an invisible judgment, yea, with the approval and benediction of God. Men should then wonder, and ask whence this purity and nobleness and self-sacrifice, whence this scorn of time and space and sense, and this yearning after that which cannot now be seized and enjoyed. To the questioning of the world may thy Church be able to return a complete, a tender, and a satisfactory reply. Look upon us as men who want to be better, who take a step forward, then fall back again; who rise up to praise God, and fall down in the act of doing so: thou knowest which is uppermost, the feeling that wants to be right, or the failing that tends towards evil. Thou art a kind and merciful judge; thou art righteous, and yet there are tears in thine eyes; thou dost pronounce woe after woe upon those who are scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, yet at the end thine heart breaks in ineffable pathos, for thou wouldst have gathered the city that slew the Son of God. Help us to believe in our better selves; may we never blow out the lamp of our hope; may we never despair of the fruition of our faith, saying, It cometh to nothing, and tomorrow shall be written all over with disappointment: rather may we speak otherwise to our poor selves, and cheer our hearts by promise and solace sent down from God to make us glad. We have spoiled many a page, but we are going to write better to-day; we are now going to dip the pen and begin to write, thou holding our hand; we care not for the shaking of the letters, or for the grammar of the record, if so be we can but write out of our heart, and make our meaning clear, and feel that having written our record we are so much nearer God. If we do blot the page thou wilt not send us away in wrath without end; thou knowest how infantile we are and weak, and how soon our attention is diverted to frivolity, and how soon our best emotion is disennobled: but thou didst make us, and not we ourselves; thou knowest our frame, thou rememberest that we are dust: what are we in our fullest strength but a wind that cometh for a little time and then passeth away? Lord, pity us; expect not from the little what the great alone can do; our days are but an handful, we know nothing of thine eternity; we have only time to be presumptuous and insolent and foolish, we have no time to gather solid wisdom. Thou wilt make time for us when we have escaped the limitations of the body, and thou wilt give us time enough, light enough, work enough, and we shall praise thee for thy service, for in it there is no sting of reproach, and in it there is no token of weariness. Let our houses be precious to thee; watch the roof that the storm break not through; secure the foundation that it be not burned up; send a plentiful light upon the windows, and keep the enemy far away from our door; and let the interior of our house be full of heaven’s own colour and home’s sweetest music. Make the bed when no other hands can make it, because of our affliction and soreness and infirmity; speak to us when no other voice can reach us, and let thy whispered love strengthen us with conscious immortality, be with the old, the weary, and the sad; the young, the energetic, and the buoyant; and find for us, by way of the cross, by way of Calvary, a common home, a meeting place in heaven, where we shall forget all darkness, all sin, all pain, all death, for the former things have passed away. Amen.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
XXIV
THE ARMY; CIVIL ORGANIZATION; INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE; RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATION
1Ch 23:1-29:22
The scriptural materials for the life of David present him as a great poet, and we are accustomed to think of him in the light of his poetry, particularly of his elegies and psalms. We think of him as a great warrior from his youth up in the successful campaigns he waged in pushing out the boundaries of the kingdom until they fulfilled the promise to Abraham. Then we think of him as a legislator, as he devised many useful laws, but we seldom give him due credit for his organizing power. A great writer has said that what Alfred the Great did for England, and what Napoleon did for France, David did for his kingdom in the way of organization. I will take up the items of this organization and give you a clear conception of it.
I. The army.
His army roll showed 288,000 men. It would have been a great burden to a small kingdom like this to keep up a standing army of 288,000 men; so he divided his army into twelve great corps. Only one corps would serve a month; in the course of the entire year the 288,000 men would have served each one of them one month. In that way the spirit of military drill and organization was kept up. In case of war he could call out the whole 288,000 and have a vast army of drilled men. So his army organization, we will say, consisted of 288,000 men, twelve army corps of 24,000 each, each corps serving one month in the year, coming on in succession. Each corps was subdivided into, say, twenty-four regiments of 1,000 men each, and each regiment into ten companies of 100 men each, something like the “century” of the Roman Legion, a centurion commanding 100 men. These were the subdivisions of the main army. There was a bodyguard always kept near the king’s person. I do not recall that anywhere the number of this bodyguard is given. Sometimes they are called “Cherethites” and “Pelethites.” Whatever their name, it was a permanent bodyguard of which Benaiah was the commander.
Then there was an order of men sometimes compared to the knighthood, the 600; the original organization of this 600 was in the Cave of Adullam, when David was an outlaw, and it was perpetuated all through his life. This 600, every one a hero and champion, was divided into two bands of 300 each. These bands were divided into companies of 100 each, and the one hundreds were divided into twenties. The six captains over the hundreds and the chief captain over all make the famous seven. The captains over the twenties make the famous thirty. Every man of this band of 600 was an experienced warrior and had signalized himself on many eventful occasions, and every one of the thirty and every one of the seven, that is, the thirty-seven officers, were especially famous.
Let us see if we have this army organization clear: 288,000 divided into twelve corps of 24,000 each; each corps commanded by its own general, with Joab as general-in-chief; each 24,000 serving one month and no more unless there was a war. In addition to that, a bodyguard, the famous 600; the three captains of the first 300 were the most worthy; the three captains of the other 300 were somewhat less worthy. Each 100 was divided into twenties; the captains over the twenties make the thirty worthies; then the six captains over the one hundreds, and a chief captain of the 600 make the thirty-seven worthies. That is David’s military organization.
II. The civil organization.
The civil organization was based upon the law of Moses. Each tribe was governed by its prince, and by a graded system of subordinate judges, chiefs of thousands, chiefs of hundreds, chiefs of fifties, and chiefs of tens, and the ordinary affairs pertaining only to the tribes were attended to by these men. That wag derived from the Mosaic administration, but in David’s time we come to quite a different need, the matters relating to God and his kingdom. For this work David appointed 6,000 Levites as judges and he distributed them over the whole territory. They represented the national affairs only.
These 6,000 Levites had the following functions:
1. They were what we would call “federal judges” judges over matters that pertained to the general government.
2. Sanitary officers.
3. They were charged with education. There never was such a spirit of general education as grew up in this organization of David. First of all, there were the schools of the prophets. They were kept up and had been ever since Samuel’s time. In these schools of the prophets they studied the whole law of God, and particularly music, vocal and instrumental. They also studied everything that related to the prophetic office. That was the curriculum of the schools of the prophets, and that was where David got his education. These 6,000 Levites, each one in his own section, had charge of the educational work, and the result was that when Solomon came to the throne you find him the most thoroughly educated man since the days of Moses. Dr. Taylor, in his King of Israel, well says:
The preeminence attained by Solomon in all the branches of education is, to my mind, an evidence of the advanced condition of the nation generally in this department; since, unless a good foundation of elementary knowledge had been imparted to the youth of the land as a whole, it is hardly possible to account for the appearance of such a man as Solomon in that age. No doubt he was endowed with preternatural wisdom; but this, as is usual in the economy of Providence, would be engrafted upon a high degree of ordinary culture; and the question forces itself upon the historical student, “Who were his tutors, and who taught them?” You do not find the loftiest mountains rising isolatedly from some great plain. The highest mountains are never solitary peaks. They belong usually to some great chain, and are merely the loftiest elevations in a country the general character of which is mountainous; and in the same way the greatest scholars appear, not among ignorant people, but among those who have a high average of education, and in countries where a good substratum of instruction is enjoyed by the common average of the community. The historian, Froude, has put this thought admirably when he says, “No great general ever arose out of a nation of cowards; no great statesman or philosopher out of a nation of fools; no great artist out of a nation of materialists; no great dramatists, except when the drama was the passion of the people. Greatness is never more than the highest degree of an excellence which prevails around it, and forms the environment in which it grows.” Now if these views be correct, the rise of Solomon, who was so conspicuous for his intellectual culture and scientific attainments, may be regarded as a proof that in the reign of David, and more particularly, perhaps, in the zenith of his administration, education was extensively diffused, and earnestly fostered by him among the tribes.
When we come to study Solomon, in his time, we will find a reference to the wise men of the day. These were the men who grew out of David’s educational system. Solomon is but the product of the educational department set us by David. Let us now see what we have learned about these Levites:
1. They were federal judges, passing sentence on all matters pertaining to the nation at large.
2. They were sanitary men, looking after all matters pertaining to the health of the people.
3. They were educational men.
4. They were the stewards of what is called the “royal property.” We would call it now, in our government, “revenue.” By a single paragraph we are told of David’s overseers of the treasure houses of the tribes, of the vineyards, of the orchards, pastures, etc., so that there must have been what in England would be called “crown-lands,” land that belonged to the general government. In every tribe and in every important place you would see a treasure house.
Let us see what that treasure house was for. The system of worship provided for a central place of worship, and for the support of those who conducted matters at the central place of worship there was a tithe in cattle, grain, vineyards, etc., so you see that it would be necessary to have storehouses all over the nation where these tithes could be gathered up. It took a very consummate organization to put all these matters in such working order that there could be no deficiency in the royal treasury from any part of the land, nothing deficient in sanitary conditions. Nothing anywhere escaped the Argus eyes of the judicial system of government. Moreover, David developed commerce.
III. An international commerce.
This was a tremendous item in the contribution to the wealth of the nation. The kingdom produced more than it could use in the way of clothes, and it was necessary to export surplus products and to bring in things that could not be produced at home. You can imagine the continuous stream of caravans from Damascus to Egypt and from Tyre to Arabia, across the country. It would be necessary to carry to foreign countries various kinds of produce in exchange for the things brought to David from them. In Solomon’s time you will see an enlargement of this commerce. He not only reached the Atlantic Ocean, as in David’s time, through the fleets of Tyre, but China and India by means of the fleet at Eziongeber on the Gulf of Akabah. David would want cedars from Lebanon, and would want to employ skilled artisans and architects. David was a great builder. He built a fine palace for himself, and he built many fine buildings in Jerusalem. In paying for these artisans, architects, and materials from foreign countries he would use the surplus products of his own kingdom, carrying from Judah to Tyre by caravan, to Damascus by caravan, to Egypt, to Arabia. This necessitated treasure-houses and storehouses, and David had them by his system of organization.
IV. The religious organization.
The religious organization surpassed anything that this world has ever known. At no time in the history of the world, in any nation, was there ever such a perfect organization of religious service. After David was made king of all Israel at Hebron, where he had been reigning over Judah seven years, he captured Jerusalem and made that the central place of worship, and there the great feasts were celebrated. He is going to have a system of worship that will not only impress the minds of his own people, but all people who come in touch with them, so that in the days of the captivity the Babylonians would say, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion,” and they would reply, “How can we sing the songs of Zion in a strange land?” and would hang their harps on the willow trees.
There were 38,000 Levites over thirty years of age in this religious organization, 6,000 of whom were set apart for judges, sanitary officers, and educators, leaving 32,000 for the Temple service. These 32,000 men were divided as follows: 24,000 into twenty-four courses of 1,000 each, set apart to minister at the sanctuary; in other words to be servants of the priests for anything the priests would want done; 4,000 set apart as porters; and 4,000 as singers. The priests, that is, the sons of Aaron, were classified into twenty-four courses. This classification continued until the New Testament time. Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, belonged to the course of Abia, and when it came his turn to go and act as priest in the Temple, it was determined by lot, and the lot fell upon him to offer incense as priest. The priests were divided into twenty-four courses, and the singers divided. There were twenty-four bands of these singers, not all present at one time, but all could be grouped at national festivals, when the Passover came, or Feast of Tabernacles, or Pentecost, or the great day of Atonement; then the entire 4,000 singers would be there with their various instruments of music; the cymbal band, the psaltery band, the harp band, the trumpet band, Alamoth, or female choir, Sheminith, or male choir everybody in that 4,000 would understand just what services were requisite on his part, and just when. One twenty-fourth of the time he had to be there, and on all national occasions he had to be there. Offerings take into consideration the sabbatic cycle, which consisted of the weekly sabbath, every seventh day; the new-moon sabbath, every lunar month; the annual sabbaths, the Passover, Tabernacle, and Pentecost festivals; the land sabbath, all of every seventh year; the jubilee sabbath, every fiftieth year, each and all with its appropriate and imposing ritual, you get some idea of David’s religious system.
When we come to study the book of Psalms, one of the most attractive books in the whole Bible, we will there find that the service of the second temple was based upon David’s plan, and led to our present arrangement of the Psalms. No writer has yet, with sufficient vividness, described the worship at Jerusalem in the Old Testament times. Rev. J. H. Ingraham, the Episcopalian, who committed suicide, attempted to describe it in letters that a daughter of an Egyptian Jew wrote to her father about how the Temple service impressed her in the time of Christ. These letters are found in his Prince of the House of David.
That was the religious organization. One living in any part of the country, from Hamath on the northwest to the Euphrates on the northeast, to Edom on the southeast, to Philistia on the southwest, and a case coming up, there was an appropriate officer to whom his case would be referred; everything was arranged for judicial, executive, and legislative. Some things were attended to in the national convention. This occurred when the great festivals brought the people together in the grand convocation, or when something of special importance was to be done with reference to succession, as we saw when David called the whole nation to accept his son Solomon as king.
QUESTIONS
1. In what spheres was David great?
2. Describe his army organization: (1) How many enrolled? (2) How divided, and why? (3) What the subdivisions?
3. Describe David’s body-guard. Who the commander?
4. Describe the organization of his famous 600; (1) Its divisions; (9) Its subdivisions; (3) Who the famous thirty-seven?
5. Describe the civil organization: (1) What part derived from the Mosaic administration? (2) What additions in David’s time? (3) What the functions of the 6,000 Levites? (4) What proof of the diffusion of education by David? (5) What was the treasure-house?
6. Describe his system of international commerce: (1) Its necessity; (2) How carried on? .
7. Describe his religious organization: (1) How does it compare with the other religious organizations of the world? (2) How many and who constituted it? (3) Its divisions and subdivisions? (4) Its relation to the book of the Psalms?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
1Ch 23:1 So when David was old and full of days, he made Solomon his son king over Israel.
Ver. 1. So when David was old. ] Tacitis senescimus annis. Old age stealeth upon us; let us pack up our bundles, and prepare for our long home,
And full of days.
He made Solomon his son king.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
1 Chronicles Chapter 23
“So when David was old and full of days, he made Solomon his son king over Israel. And he gathered together all the princes of Israel, with the priests and the Levites.” 1Ch 23:1 , 1Ch 23:2 . And a remarkable act of David’s appears here, quite in consistency with what we have seen before. He first numbers the Levites; and he numbers them according to Moses, from thirty years old and upward. But even Moses himself gives us a modification of this; namely, from twenty-five years. David goes further. He is the king, and all now depends upon the king. Hence (v. 24), “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 Jehovah, from the age of twenty years and upward.”
Thus David showed sovereign right to act for Jehovah. He only did so because he is the type of Christ. There was One greater than Moses that was in the view of the Spirit of God, and David typifies Him. It is said, “For, by the last words of David, the Levites were numbered from twenty years old and above: because their office was to wait on the sons of Aaron for the service of the house of Jehovah.” No doubt their duties were greatly enlarged; and, great as their numbers might be new, the magnificence of the temple would call for every man from twenty years. And, besides, David would give them all a place in it. It was an honour as well as a duty, and so one can conceive grace acting in calling in the younger men.
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
old and full of days. Compare Abraham (Gen 25:8), and Isaac (Gen 35:29). David horn in 990. Now in his seventieth year.
full of = satisfied with.
made Solomon his son king. During his lifetime. This was a common practice in those days; and these co-regnant kings explain many chronological problems.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Chapter 23
And so David when he was old, made Solomon his son king over Israel ( 1Ch 23:1 ).
Now David then began to set forth the order of the priesthood, the Levitical priesthood. Now David here demonstrates that not only is he a powerful king, a leader, but he’s also an excellent administrator. And of course, David had great personal wealth, and he had hundreds of servants that they all had to be fed. And so he had to administrate the, in very many areas, and David was just a very adept, adequate administrator also. And as we get into chapter twenty-three, we find out David set up the priesthood and the first thing that he established.
He gathered together all the princes of Israel, the priests and the Levites. Now the Levites were numbered from the age of thirty years and up: and their number by their polls, man by man, was thirty-eight thousand. Of which, twenty-four thousand were set forward the work of the house of the LORD; and six thousand were officers and judges: And four thousand were porters; and four thousand praised the LORD with the instruments which David said, I made to praise therewith ( 1Ch 23:2-5 ).
Now David was an inventor. He invented instruments. He was a musician. Our first look at David practically was when he was brought to play the harp before Saul. He was a skilled musician. He wrote a lot of songs. He had an artistic side to his character and nature, and yet, he was an administrator. He was a king. He was a tremendous warrior. He was just a man with really well-rounded talents. And so we see his first of all setting out.
Now twenty-four thousand priests. That’s more priests than what you need for a service. And so David set up orders for the priesthood so that you would serve for maybe two weeks out of the year. That was pretty good job. You work for two weeks, and then the rest of the time you’re on your own. And so they would come, the Levites lived throughout the land. And there was certain cities for the Levites, but in their appointed… And they set up the order, and then they drew lots as who would be the first, the second, and third, and so forth. And so at your appointed order you would come and you would fulfill the duties of the priest in the temple for a period of a couple of weeks. And then you’d go back to your family and to your home and to your fields and so forth. And you’d take care of your own affairs.
And so in the New Testament, this order that David established continued on up until the time of Christ for Zechariah the priest, because he was of the order of Abia, had come according to his course to minister there in the temple. And it was his duty to offer the incense at the time of the sacrifice. And while he was offering this incense before the Lord is when the angel Gabriel appeared and told him that his wife Elizabeth was going to have a son named John and he’s going to be the forerunner of the Messiah.
So that’s still following the order that David had established with the priesthood where they had their turns. They would come in and fulfill their obligations. So the priesthood fell in different orders. Those that actually ministered in the temple. Actually those who were charged with the building of the temple. Now you see, in the old times of the tent in the wilderness, they had the porters, the guys who, whenever they would move, would have to break down the thing. Certain guys would break down the tent, fold it up, put it in packages and so forth, and then guys who were priests to carry the thing. And guys to set it up. Now that they’re going to be building a temple, this particular ministry of the priest is no longer going to be necessary. You’re not going to need the guys to carry things anymore because it’s all going to be established. And so the different duties now were created. And the duty that to me is very beautiful are the four thousand who were just paid to be there and to spend their days praising God, singing and worshipping the Lord with the various instruments and just a constant worship of God that was going forth from the temple. To me that is beautiful.
And I think that it’s neat. Any time you want to come down here and just bring your guitar, whatever, and just sing and praise the Lord and worship the Lord here in this place, you’re welcome. I think it’s beautiful that praises be going up unto the Lord. From the place where we gather to worship Him. To learn of Him. And so it was in the times of David. They had four thousand men; this was their job just to play unto the Lord through the instruments that David had invented and created and all for them to worship God.
And so the various families, and of course, we get now unto the names and so forth which we pass over. And so in verse thirty of chapter twenty-three though, their job was…
To stand every morning to thank and to praise the LORD, and likewise at evening ( 1Ch 23:30 );
So every morning, every evening there were those who were just standing there praising the Lord and giving thanks to God. Beautiful, beautiful. “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
1Ch 23:1-6
1Ch 23:1-6
DAVID PRESCRIBES THE OFFICES OF THE LEVITES;
THREE DIVISIONS OF THE LEVITES
“Now David was old and full of days; and he made Solomon his son king over Israel. And he gathered together all the princes of Israel, with the priests and the Levites. And the Levites were numbered from thirty years old and upward: and their number by their polls, man by man, was thirty and eight thousand. Of these, twenty and four thousand were to oversee the work of the house of Jehovah; and six thousand were officers and judges; and four thousand were doorkeepers; and four thousand praised Jehovah with the instruments which I made, said David, to praise therewith. And David divided them into courses according to the sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.”
“Now David was old … and made Solomon his son king over Israel” (1Ch 23:1). The truth here makes it impossible to receive Nathan’s prophecy in 2 Samuel 7 as a primary reference to Solomon. The Great One mentioned there was prophesied to be born after David slept with his fathers. This verse clearly indicates that Solomon enjoyed a co-regency for an unspecified time with David his father.
“Levites were numbered from thirty years old and upward” (1Ch 23:3). David’s actions here in numbering the Levites conformed exactly to the instructions of Moses given in Num 4:23.
“Four thousand praised Jehovah with the instruments that I (David) made” (1Ch 23:5). David’s actions in this had no prior command of God to justify it. He violated the divine instructions that, “Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish from it” (Deu 4:2). David’s invention of instruments of music and his introduction of them into the worship of God was specifically condemned by the prophet Amos (Amo 5:23; Amo 6:5).
E.M. Zerr:
1Ch 23:1. Made Solomon king. This means he made him acting king, not that he occupied the throne. That kind of action was never done lawfully while the rightful ruler was living. But David had become infirm near the end of his life, and some unrest had been created by persons who wanted the throne. To settle the dispute while he lived, David made it clear to his people that Solomon was to be king after him. See the account of the controversy about the rulership in 1 Kings 1.
1Ch 23:2. Princes is a very commonly used word in the Old Testament. It comes from various Hebrew words, but the general meaning is, one who has prestige or influence, not necessarily one in official standing. The definition given by Strong for the word is, “a head person (of any rank or class).” So the word could sometimes include men in official position, but the term would be applied to them on account of their personal influence, not because of their official standing. This accounts for the mention of the princes, and with the priests and Levites.
1Ch 23:3. The numbering of the people was done at different times, and the rules or limits to regulate the list were also different at times. On the occasion of this verse the beginning age for the Levites was 30 years. Polls means heads, and there were 38,000 of them at that time.
1Ch 23:4. Set forward means to oversee or engage actively in the work. 24,000 of the numbered Levites were given such a charge. 6,000 were officers and judges, which means they were the technical authorities over the work.
1Ch 23:5. The porters were door keepers or janitors. The other 4,000 made up the choir.
1Ch 23:6. Courses means divisions or sections or groups. The three sons of Levi had been dead for centuries, but the lines of their descendants were in existence. David formulated the three lines into groups in such a way that each man could know from which of the three sons of their common father he had come.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
David’s interest in building the Temple and establishing it as the center of worship and of the nation is not only manifest in the material preparation he made in amassing treasure, and carrying out preliminary work in getting the stones ready. He practically abdicated the throne to Solomon, that he might supervise arranging the order of worship. In this chapter the duties of the Levites are set out, and it is declared that this was among David’s last acts (verse 1Ch 23:27, margin).
The specific work of the Levites is beautifully described by the chronicler in the closing verses of the chapter. They were the servants of the priest and of the house. They were also to stand at morning and evening to praise the Lord. High and holy calling, this.
The morning hour of praise expressive of confidence in God and gratitude to Him for all His grace and goodness. Then the busy hours of service, all in the power of that early praise. Finally, the hymn of adoration for the guidance and goodness of the day as the shadows of the evening fell.
It was a high national ideal, and the nation which realizes it will be great indeed. Israel sadly failed later in her history, but the purpose was noble. Never was the true kingliness of David more manifest than when in those last days and acts he sought to make arrangements to consolidate around the Throne of God the kingdom he was so soon to leave.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
2. The Numbering and Arrangement of the Levites
CHAPTER 23
1. Solomon made king (1Ch 23:1)
2. The number of the Levites (1Ch 23:2-6)
3. The Gershonites (1Ch 23:7-11)
4. The sons of Kohath (1Ch 23:12-20)
5. The sons of Merari (1Ch 23:21-23)
6. The service of the Levites (1Ch 23:24-32)
David, in his seventieth year, made Solomon king. It is the first time, and afterwards (1Ch 29:22) he was made king the second time.
The first time Solomon was made king, when grace was fully established in the altar built on the threshing-floor of Ornan, where the son of David, as the prince of peace, was to build the temple. Solomon is introduced as the head of all that was being established, and as holding the first and supreme place in the mind of God–the one on whom all the rest depended, which could not even exist now without him. The house, the whole order of the house, and its government, all referred to Solomon; and thus his identification with David, in that both were on the throne at the same time, makes it much easier to understand the type of Christ in this. It is one person, whom His sufferings and victories place on the throne of glory and of peace. For at this moment, although the result of the glory was not yet manifested, God had given rest unto His people, that they might dwell at Jerusalem (Synopsis of the Bible).
After he had made Solomon king, David devoted himself still more to the house of the Lord. He ordered and arranged everything. So when the temple was built, Solomon had only to carry out the plans his father in divine wisdom had made. All is typical of Him who has ordered all things in His infinite grace.
The census of the Levites gave their number from thirty years and upwards, at 38,000. Of these 24,000 were appointed to attend, set forward the work of the house of the Lord; 6,000 were officers and judges; 4,000 were porters and 4,000 praised the Lord with the instruments David had made to praise therewith (Amo 6:5).
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
am 2989, bc 1015, An, Ex, Is, 476
old: 1Ch 29:28, Gen 25:8, Gen 35:29, 1Ki 1:1, Job 5:26
he made: 1Ch 28:5, 1Ch 29:22-25, 1Ki 1:33-39
Reciprocal: Gen 15:15 – good Exo 23:26 – the number Num 1:50 – thou shalt Num 8:15 – go in 1Ki 1:35 – I have 1Ch 9:22 – David 2Ch 8:14 – the Levites 2Ch 23:18 – whom David 2Ch 24:15 – and was full of days 2Ch 31:2 – the courses 2Ch 35:4 – after your courses Ezr 6:18 – the priests Neh 7:1 – the porters Neh 12:24 – according Neh 13:30 – appointed Jer 2:10 – the isles
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Ch 23:1. He made Solomon king over Israel Not that he resigned the kingdom to him, but only declared his mind concerning Solomons succeeding him in the throne after his death. Thus David himself is called king, 1Sa 16:1, because he was appointed and anointed to be king after Sauls death, though till then he was only a subject.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1Ch 23:3. Thirty years. So Moses had commanded. Num 4:3. But now it would seem from 1Ch 23:24, that David numbered the levites from the age of twenty, the number at thirty not being sufficient.
1Ch 23:4. Twenty and four thousand were to set forward the work of the house; not as officers, but domus ministerio, servants who performed the hard work for the priests. The splendour of Davids kingdom required establishments.
1Ch 23:6. David divided them into courses. The levites served from week to week; the priests also, as in the next chapter, were divided into twenty four courses. The sanhedrim examined their persons to see that they were perfect, and their birth to see whether they were the sons of Aaron. If maimed, they were not allowed to approach the altar, but to perform inferior services, and so had meat; and in cases of need, as when unclean for the dead, a priest might officiate during such time of sickness, though unclean.
REFLECTIONS.
No tribe had God blessed more than the small tribe of Levi. The poll of the men able to do service, besides the priests, was thirty eight thousand. Consequently, the population of that tribe could not be less than two hundred thousand. Equally biassed by virtue and interest, they had been more faithful to the religion of their fathers than others; and God, through the long and severe times of Philistine oppression, had remarkably blessed and preserved them from evil. May we and our children learn from this, and a thousand other instances, to abide under the covenant protection of Israels God.
We learn farther, that not only Levi, but all the tribes prospered in proportion as they were faithful to the Lord. David was liberal to the priests and levites; and they in return were grateful and assiduous. They suppressed vice, they cherished virtue, and diffused knowledge through the land; and we never read, till after Solomons fall, that any man murmured to pay his tithes and taxes to God and his king; for the servants were worthy, and the oblations so paid, oblations on which the worshipper was partially allowed to feast, bore no proportion to the hundredfold prosperity which was heaped upon the land. Thus God, who was bounteous to his people, required the heart, and a grateful return of mercies.
The priests and the levites served the Lord by courses. This was in every view a happy arrangement. Every one had bread to eat, and the people had a circulation of talents in the reading and expounding of the law, as we find examples in the book of Deuteronomy, in the psalms, and in the sermons of the prophets. The holy prophets also circulated their labours through the land; and the Lord Christ, and his apostles, proceeded on the same plan. Hence the mode of one settled minister to a congregation, is not sufficiently warranted by example in the holy scriptures. And the early bishops, one of whom was in every town, which we should call a market- town, had deacons under them, which made a circulation of gifts, and a diversity of instruction. He who undertakes the sole instruction of a large congregation, should indeed be a man of singular talents.
Here we cannot but rejoice to find Moses, the man of God, still living in the numerous branches of his family. He had sought no princely preferments for his sons; but the laws of the father were still in the mouths of his children. Well, that was treasure, and that was the utmost of the fathers wishes. Truly we have an instance here, that God shows mercy unto thousands of generations in them that love him, and keep his commandments.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1Ch 23:1 to 1Ch 24:31. The Levites and the Priests.The Chronicler implies that the organisation of the Levites and priests and the settling of their dutiesas existing in his daywas all the work of David.
1Ch 23:5. princes of the sanctuary: a title corresponding to an official in Babylonian sanctuaries of earlier days, and probably borrowed and adapted by the returned exiles; it is not identical with the princes of God.
1Ch 23:6-23. An enumeration of the sons of Levi, and the sacred duties of the various Levitical families.
1Ch 23:24. from twenty years old and upward: see note on Ezr 3:8.
1Ch 23:28-32. The duties of the Levites in the sanctuary.
1Ch 23:30. and to stand every morning . . . and likewise at even: it is permissible to gather from this mention of the twofold daily services of praise and thanksgiving that set forms of prayer were already in existence at this time, and one naturally thinks of the earliest prayer in the Jewish Liturgy still in daily use, the Shmneh Esreh (Eighteen Benedictions), the constant part of which (viz. the first three and last three benedictions) consist of praise and thanksgiving, while the intermediate benedictions are variable, and consist of petitions.
1Ch 23:31. the set feasts: viz. Passover and the feast of unleavened bread (Mazzth) (Num 28:16-25), Pentecost (Num 28:26-31), and Tabernacles (Num 29:12-38); cf. also Deu 16:1-17, pp. 101104.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Preparations for temple service chs. 23-26
Verses 1 and 2 of chapter 23 (1Ch 23:1-2) provide an outline for what follows in chapters 23-27 but in reverse order. After David appointed Solomon as his coregent in 973 B.C., he began the preparations the writer described here.
David adapted the service of the Levites, who assisted the priests, to the new temple ritual. This form of worship was a combination of tabernacle and divinely approved revised worship (1Ch 23:3-32; Numbers 3). The Chronicler gave the names of the family heads in Levi’s tribe first (1Ch 23:3-24). Then he explained the duties that David prescribed for them (1Ch 23:25-32). In all this, David was careful to abide within the guidelines of the Mosaic Law and other instructions he had received from the Lord (cf. 1Ch 28:19). Previously the Levites had served mainly by carrying the tabernacle and its furnishings from place to place (Numbers 2-4) and by instructing the people in the Law (Leviticus 11-27). Now their duty was also to maintain the temple and its worship, with the exception of matters reserved for the priests (1Ch 23:28-32).
"To entitle this section the ’organization of the Levites’ is to make it sound like bureaucratic regimentation. It is rather to be seen as a scaffolding for that house, a structure to enable God’s people to function as they ought." [Note: Wilcock, p. 100. Cf. 1 Peter 2:5.]
The high priest supervised the priests in their temple service (1Ch 23:28; 1Ch 24:1-19). Priests were descendants of Aaron and constituted only one branch of the Levitical family (Num 18:7). The priests continued to offer sacrifices and offerings on the brazen and incense (golden) altars (Num 18:1-7). David organized the priests into 24 groups, each of which served for one week at a time (2Ch 23:18). Zadok and Ahimelech served as high priests. Ahimelech, a descendant of Eli, served at the Jerusalem tent David had erected for the ark, until Zadok replaced him. Zadok originally oversaw the sanctuary at Gibeon until David brought him into Jerusalem to take Ahimelech’s place. Abiathar, Ahimelech’s son, rebelled against Solomon, and from then on Zadok served as high priest alone.
The writer also recorded the order of Levitical service (1Ch 24:20-31). The casting of lots determined this order. Every detail of temple service was important to David. This shows his heart for God and how he lived in the present with the future God had promised clearly in view. David lowered the age required for Levitical service from 30 to 20. He may have done this because there was a need for many more Levites under the new system of worship (1Ch 24:24; 1Ch 24:27; cf. 1Ch 24:3). [Note: Merrill, "1 Chronicles," in The Bible . . ., p. 612.]
David also organized some of the Levitical families as temple musicians. Asaph was a Gershonite (1Ch 6:39-43), Heman a Kohathite (1Ch 6:33), and Jeduthun (Ethan) a Merarite (1Ch 6:44-47). They were responsible for singing praises to God and leading the people in doing the same. This is what "prophesying" included (1Ch 25:1). [Note: See Wood, pp. 53-56.] The re-establishment of temple worship was important in postexilic Israel, and music played a large part in it. Consequently, David’s organization would have been of great interest then.
The organization of a temple choir is surprising since the Chronicler elsewhere presented Israel’s worship as done in compliance with the Mosaic Law, which made no provision for a choir. However, the prophets Nathan and Gad had authorized this choir (2Ch 29:25). Furthermore, this choir was in harmony with other legislation in the Law directing praise of the Lord (cf. Num 10:10; Deu 10:8; Deu 18:5). Also, the general scriptural admonition to rejoice in God’s presence encouraged creative expressions of worship in harmony with God’s Word. [Note: J. W. Kleinig, "The Divine Institution of the Lord’s Song in Chronicles," Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 55 (1992):75-83.]
"David was Israel’s Mozart, a consummate genius. He provides the libretto of his psalms to accompany the ritual in connection with musical scores; elaborates the liturgy’s staging in the magnificent temple that he envisioned and his son built; and gave the liturgy a choreography that includes dances and processions. With David, the Mosaic liturgy comes to life, reaching its aesthetic zenith." [Note: Bruce K. Waltke, An Old Testament Theology, p. 474.]
David also organized the officers of the Levites as gatekeepers (1Ch 26:1-19), treasury guards (1Ch 26:20-28), and leaders in external affairs (1Ch 26:29-32). The gatekeepers were the temple guards (cf. 1Ch 26:7-8). [Note: J. W. Wright, "Guarding the Gates: 1 Chronicles 26:1-18 and the Roles of Gatekeepers in Chronicles," Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 48 (1990):69-81.] David even specified the number of guards at each temple gate (1Ch 26:17-18). There were 24 guard stations manned 24 hours a day. In view of the wealth in and on the temple, security needed to be tight (cf. 1Ch 26:27-28).
"In the capitals of the Asiatic kingdoms of antiquity, enormous quantities of precious metals were accumulated." [Note: C. F. Keil, The Books of the Chronicles, p. 247.]