1 Chronicles 23:1-6

Living Bible

23 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, “6,000 are to be bailiffs and judges, 4,000 will be Temple guards, and 4,000 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 Levi—the Gershom division, the Kohath division, and the Merari division.