Chronological

Rules for the Levites

23 David was old and his life had nearly finished.^[a] He chose his son Solomon to rule over Israel as king.

² He brought together all Israel's leaders, as well as the priests and the Levites. ³ His officers counted all the Levites who were 30 years old or older. There were 38,000 men. ⁴ David said, ‘24,000 of these Levite men must have authority for the work of the Lord's temple. 6,000 of them will be officers and judges. ⁵ 4,000 of them will be guards at the gates of the temple. 4,000 of them will use music to praise the Lord. They will use the musical instruments that I have provided for them.’

⁶ David made the Levites into three separate groups. Each group had descendants from one of Levi's sons: Gershon, Kohath and Merari.

The group from Gershon's clan

⁷ From Gershon's clan there were Ladan and Shimei.

⁸ Ladan's three sons were: Jehiel, the firstborn, then Zetham and Joel.

⁹ Shimei's three sons were: Shelomoth, Haziel and Haran.

Those men were the leaders of Ladan's family.

¹⁰ Shimei had four more sons: Jahath, Ziza, Jeush and Beriah.

¹¹ Jahath was the oldest son and Ziza was the second. But Jeush and Beriah did not have many sons. So the officers counted them together as one family.

The group from Kohath's clan

¹² Kohath's four sons were: Amram, Izhar, Hebron and Uzziel.

¹³ Amram's sons were Aaron and Moses.

The Lord chose Aaron and his descendants for special work for all time. Their work was to offer special holy things to the Lord. They would offer sacrifices to the Lord. They would serve him in the temple. And they would use his name to bless the people.

¹⁴ The tribe of Levi included the sons of Moses, God's servant.^[b]

¹⁵ Moses' sons were Gershom and Eliezer.

¹⁶ Gershom's oldest son was Shebuel.

¹⁷ Eliezer's son was Rehabiah. He was the leader of the family. Eliezer had no other sons, but Rehabiah had many descendants.

¹⁸ From the family of Kohath's second son Izhar, Shelomith was the leader.

¹⁹ Hebron had four sons: Jeriah was the leader, Amariah was second, Jahaziel was third and Jekameam was fourth.

²⁰ Uzziel had two sons: Micah was the leader and Isshiah was second.

The group from Merari's clan

²¹ Merari's sons were Mahli and Mushi.

Mahli's sons were Eleazar and Kish.

²² Eleazar died without any sons. He had only daughters. Kish's sons, who were their cousins, married them.

²³ Mushi's three sons were: Mahli, Eder and Jeremoth.

²⁴ Those were the leaders of the Levites' clans, family by family. The Israelites carefully recorded the names of all the men who were 20 years old or older. From that age, they each had their work to do in the Lord's temple.

²⁵ David had said, ‘Now the Lord, Israel's God, has given rest to his people. He has his home in Jerusalem for all time. ²⁶ So the Levites no longer need to carry the tabernacle to different places. They do not need to carry all the things that are used to serve God.’ ²⁷ So David counted the Levites who were 20 years old or older and could work in the temple. Those were David's last words before he died.

The work of the Levites

²⁸ The Levites' work was to help Aaron's descendants as they served the Lord in his temple. They took care of the temple's yards and its small rooms. They made the Lord's special things clean and holy. They did the work that was necessary to serve God in his temple. ²⁹ They took care of the special bread for the table in the holy place. They kept the flour for the grain offerings, for the flat bread that they made without yeast and for the special cakes. They weighed and they measured all the things for the bread and the cakes. ³⁰ Every morning they stood in their places to thank the Lord and to praise him. They did the same thing every evening. ³¹ They also did that when the priests offered burnt offerings to the Lord. That happened on Sabbath days, at New Moon festivals and on other special days. The correct number of Levites must be there to serve the Lord at all times, as the rules commanded. ³² In that way, the Levites had authority to take care of the special tent and the holy place. They helped their relatives, Aaron's descendants, as they served the Lord in his temple.^[c]

Rules for the priests

24 Aaron's descendants, the priests, were in the following groups.

Aaron's four sons were: Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. ² But Nadab and Abihu died before their father died. They had no sons. So Eleazar and Ithamar served God as priests.

³ Zadok and Ahimelech helped David to put Aaron's descendants into groups. Zadok was a descendant of Eleazar. Ahimelech was a descendant of Ithamar. They told each group what their work would be to serve God. ⁴ There were more leaders among Eleazar's descendants than among Ithamar's descendants. So from Eleazar's descendants, there were 16 groups with their leaders. From Ithamar's descendants there were eight groups with their leaders. ⁵ They used lots to decide the work of each group. The families of both Eleazar and Ithamar included officers for the temple as well as priests.

⁶ Shemaiah was the secretary who wrote down the names in each group. He was the son of Nethanel, a Levite. Shemaiah wrote down the names while the king and his officers watched. Zadok the priest, Abiathar's son Ahimelech and the leaders of the priests' clans and of the other Levite clans were also watching. When they threw the lots, they would choose a family from Eleazar's descendants, then a family from Ithamar's descendants, and so on.

^7-18 This is the list of the group leaders as they chose them, one by one:

¹⁹ Each of these leaders, with their group, had their jobs to do in the temple. They had to obey the rules that their ancestor Aaron had given. The Lord, Israel's God, had told him what they must do.

The other Levites

²⁰ The leaders of the other Levite families included:^[d]

That is the list of the Levites, with the leaders of each family.

³¹ They also used lots to choose their different jobs, as their relatives, Aaron's descendants, had done. King David, Zadok, Ahimelech and the family leaders of the priests and the other Levites watched them. They chose work for the family leaders in the same way that they did for their younger brothers.

Groups of temple musicians

25 David and the army officers chose some Levites to serve God as musicians. They belonged to the families of Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun. They chose these men to speak messages from God while they made music with harps, lyres and cymbals. Here is a list of the men that they chose for this work:

² From Asaph's sons, there were: Zaccur, Joseph, Nethaniah and Asarelah. Asaph had authority over their work. He would speak a message from God when the king told him to do that.

³ From Jeduthun's sons, there were six musicians: Gedaliah, Zeri, Jeshaiah, Shimei, Hashabiah and Mattithiah. Their father Jeduthun had authority over their work. He spoke messages from God while he made music with a harp. He also sang to thank the Lord and to praise him.

⁴ From Heman's sons, there were: Bukkiah, Mattaniah, Uzziel, Shebuel, Jerimoth, Hananiah, Hanani, Eliathah, Giddalti, Romamti-Ezer, Joshbekashah, Mallothi, Hothir and Mahazioth. ⁵ All those men were sons of Heman, the king's prophet. God had promised to give Heman many children who would give him honour. God gave him 14 sons and three daughters.

⁶ All these musicians were under the authority of their fathers. They used cymbals, harps and lyres to make music to worship the Lord in his temple. The king had authority over Asaph, Jeduthun and Heman. ⁷ All those men had skills to make good music, as well as their relatives. There were 288 Levites who served the Lord as musicians. ⁸ They used lots to decide the right work for each musician. They chose work for everyone in the same way: the young men and the older men, the teachers and the students.

^9-31 They chose 24 groups of musicians. There were 12 musicians in each group and each group had its leader. These were the names of the leaders of each group, from the first to the last that they chose: