CHAPTER 23

¹And David grew old and sated with days, and he made Solomon his son king over Israel. ²And he gathered all the officers of Israel and the priests and the Levites. ³And the Levites from the age of thirty were counted and their head count for the males was thirty-eight thousand. ⁴Of these, to take charge of the task of the house of the LORD, twenty-four thousand, and overseers and judges, six thousand, ⁵and four thousand gate-keepers and four thousand saying praise to the LORD with the instruments that I made to sing praise. ⁶And David divided them into orders according to the sons of Levi, for Gershon, Kohath, and Merari: ⁷of the Gershonites, Laadan and Shimei; ⁸the sons of Laadan, the chief Jehiel, and Zetham and Joel, three; ⁹the sons of Shimei, Shelomith and Haziel and Haran, three—these were the chiefs of the patriarchal houses for Laadan. ¹⁰And the sons of Shimei were Jahath, Zina, Jeush and Beriah. These were the sons of Shimei, four. ¹¹And Jahath was the first and Zina the second, but Jeush and Beriah did not have many sons, and they were reckoned as a single patriarchal house. ¹²The sons of Kohath were Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel, four. ¹³The sons of Amram were Aaron and Moses. And Aaron was set apart to be consecrated for the holy of holies, he and his sons, forever to burn incense before the LORD, to minister to Him, and to bless in His name forever. ¹⁴And Moses, man of God, his sons were called with the tribe of Levi. ¹⁵The sons of Moses were Gershom and Eliezer. ¹⁶The sons of Gershom, Shebuel the first. ¹⁷And the sons of Eliezer were Rehabiah the first, but Eliezer had no other sons. And the sons of Rehabiah were very many. ¹⁸The sons of Izhar, Shelomith the first. ¹⁹The sons of Hebron, Jeriah the first, Amariah the second, Jahaziel the third, and Jekameam the fourth. ²⁰The sons of Uzziel, Micah the first and Jessiah the second. ²¹The sons of Merari, Mahli and Mushi. The sons of Mahli, Eleazar and Kish. ²²And Eleazar died, and he had no sons but daughters, and the sons of Kish their brother married them. ²³The sons of Mushi were Mahli and Eder and Jeremoth, three. ²⁴These were the sons of Levi according to their patriarchal houses, chiefs of the patriarchal houses as they were listed in the head count of names, doing the tasks of the house of the LORD, from the age of twenty. ²⁵For David had said, “The LORD God of Israel has granted rest to His people and shall abide in Jerusalem forever. ²⁶And so the Levites need no longer carry the sanctuary and all its vessels for His service.” ²⁷For in David’s last words was the counting of the sons of Levi from the age of twenty. ²⁸For their station was by the sons of Aaron for the service of the house of the LORD over the courts and within the chambers and over the purity of all the holy things and the business of the service of the house of God, ²⁹and for the bread in rows and for the fine flour and for the grain offering and for the flatbread wafers and for the pan-baked and soaked baked goods and for every kind of measure, ³⁰and to stand in attendance morning after morning to acclaim and praise the LORD, and so at evening, ³¹and for every offering of burnt offerings on sabbaths and on new moons and on festivals according to the rules concerning them, perpetually before the LORD. ³²And they shall keep the watch of the Tent of Meeting and the watch of what is holy and the watch of the sons of Aaron their kin for the service of the house of the LORD.