231 Now David was old and full of days; and he made his son Solomon king over Israel.

The Divisions and Duties of the Levites

2 And he got together all the chiefs of Israel, with the priests and the Levites. 3 And the Levites, all those of thirty years old and over, were numbered; and the number of them, by heads, man by man, was thirty-eight thousand. 4 Of these, twenty-four thousand were to be overseers of the work of the house of the Lord, and six thousand were judges and men of authority; 5 Four thousand were door-keepers; and four thousand gave praise to the Lord with the instruments which I made, said David, for giving praise. 6 And David put them into divisions under the names of 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 families of Ladan. 10 And the sons of Shimei: Jahath, Zizah and Jeush and Beriah; these four were the sons of Shimei. 11 Jahath was the chief and Zizah the second; but Jeush and Beriah had only a small number of sons, so they were grouped together as one family. 12 The sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel, four. 13 The sons of Amram: Aaron and Moses; and Aaron was made separate and holy, he and his sons for ever, for the care of the most holy things and the burning of offerings before the Lord, to do his work and give blessings in his name for ever. 14 And the sons of Moses, the man of God, were put into the list of the tribe of Levi. 15 The sons of Moses: Gershom and Eliezer. 16 The sons of Gershom: Shebuel the first. 17 And the sons of Eliezer: Rehabiah the first; and Eliezer had no other sons, but Rehabiah had a great number. 18 The sons of Izhar: Shelomith the first. 19 The sons of Hebron: Jeriah the first, Amariah the second, Jahaziel the third, and Jekameam the fourth. 20 The sons of Uzziel: Micah the first, and Isshiah the second. 21 The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi; the sons of Mahli: Eleazar and Kish. 22 And at his death Eleazar had no sons, but only daughters, and their relations, the sons of Kish, took them as wives. 23 The sons of Mushi: Mahli and Eder and Jeremoth, three.

24 These were the sons of Levi, grouped by families, the heads of the families of those who were numbered by name, by heads, all those of twenty years old and over who did the work of the house of the Lord. 25 For David said, The Lord, the God of Israel, has given his people rest, and he has made his resting-place in Jerusalem for ever; 26 And from now, there will be no need for the House of the Lord, and the vessels used in it, to be moved about by the Levites. 27 So among the last acts of David was the numbering of the sons of Levi, from twenty years old and over. 28 Their place was by the side of the sons of Aaron in all the work of the house of the Lord, in the open spaces and in the rooms, in the making clean of all the holy things, in doing all the work of the house of the Lord, 29 The holy bread was in their care, and the crushed grain for the meal offering, of unleavened cakes or meal cooked over the fire or in water; they had control of all sorts of weights and measures; 30 They had to take their places every morning to give praise and make melody to the Lord, and in the same way at evening; 31 At every offering of burned offerings to the Lord, on Sabbaths, and at the new moons, and on the regular feasts, in the number ordered by the law, at all times before the Lord; 32 And they had the care of the Tent of meeting and the holy place, under the direction of the sons of Aaron their brothers, for the work of the house of the Lord.

241 Now the divisions into which the sons of Aaron were grouped were these: the sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. 2 But Nadab and Abihu came to their end before their father, and had no children; so Eleazar and Ithamar did the work of priests. 3 And David, with Zadok of the sons of Eleazar, and Ahimelech of the sons of Ithamar, made distribution of them into their positions for their work. 4 And there were more chiefs among the sons of Eleazar than among the sons of Ithamar; and this is how they were grouped: of the sons of Eleazar there were sixteen, all heads of families; and of the sons of Ithamar, heads of families, there were eight. 5 So they were put into groups, by the Lord's decision, one with another; for there were rulers of the holy place and rulers of the house of God among the sons of Eleazar and the sons of Ithamar. 6 And Shemaiah, the son of Nethanel the scribe, who was a Levite, put down their names in writing, the king being present with the rulers, and Zadok the priest, and Ahimelech, the son of Abiathar, and the heads of families of the priests and the Levites; one family being taken for Eleazar and then one for Ithamar, and so on. 7 Now the first name to come out was that of Jehoiarib; the second Jedaiah, 8 The third Harim, the fourth Seorim, 9 The fifth Malchijah, the sixth Mijamin, 10 The seventh Hakkoz, the eighth Abijah, 11 The ninth Jeshua, the tenth Shecaniah, 12 The eleventh Eliashib, the twelfth Jakim, 13 The thirteenth Huppah, the fourteenth Jeshebeab, 14 The fifteenth Bilgah, the sixteenth Immer, 15 The seventeenth Hezir, the eighteenth Happizzez, 16 The nineteenth Pethahiah, the twentieth Jehezkel, 17 The twenty-first Jachin, the twenty-second Gamul, 18 The twenty-third Delaiah, the twenty-fourth Maaziah. 19 So they were put into their different groups, to take their places in the house of the Lord, in agreement with the rules made by Aaron their father, as the Lord, the God of Israel, had given him orders.

20 And of the rest of the sons of Levi: of the sons of Amram, Shubael; of the sons of Shubael, Jehdeiah. 21 Of Rehabiah; of the sons of Rehabiah, Isshiah the chief. 22 Of the Izharites, Shelomoth; of the sons of Shelomoth, Jahath. 23 And the sons of Hebron: Jeriah the chief, Amariah the second, Jahaziel the third, Jekameam the fourth. 24 The sons of Uzziel, Micah; of the sons of Micah, Shamir. 25 The brother of Micah, Isshiah; of the sons of Isshiah, Zechariah. 26 The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi; the sons of Jaaziah. 27 The sons of Merari: of Jaaziah, Shoham and Zaccur and Ibri. 28 Of Mahli: Eleazar, who had no sons. 29 Of Kish: the sons of Kish, Jerahmeel. 30 And the sons of Mushi: Mahli and Eder and Jerimoth. These were the sons of the Levites by their families. 31 Selection was made of these in the same way as of their brothers the sons of Aaron, David the king being present, with Zadok, and Ahimelech, and the heads of families of the priests and of the Levites; the families of the chief in the same way as those of his younger brother.

The Divisions of the Musicians

251 Further, David and the chiefs of the servants of the holy place made selection of certain of the sons of Asaph and of Heman and of Jeduthun for the work of prophets, to make melody with corded instruments and brass; and the number of the men for the work they had to do was: 2 Of the sons of Asaph: Zaccur and Joseph and Nethaniah and Asharelah, sons of Asaph; under the direction of Asaph, acting as a prophet under the orders of the king; 3 Of Jeduthun: the six sons of Jeduthun, Gedaliah and Zeri and Jeshaiah, Hashabiah and Mattithiah; under the direction of their father Jeduthun who, acting as a prophet, with corded instruments gave praise and glory to the Lord. 4 Of Heman, the sons of Heman: Bukkiah, Mattaniah, Uzziel, Shebuel and Jerimoth, Hananiah, Hanani, Eliathah, Giddalti and Romamti-ezer, Joshbekashah, Mallothi, Hothir, Mahazioth; 5 All these were sons of Heman, the king's seer in the words of God. And to make great his power God gave Heman fourteen sons and three daughters. 6 All these, under the direction of their father, made music in the house of the Lord, with brass and corded instruments, for the worship of the house of God; Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman being under the orders of the king. 7 And the number of them, with their brothers who were trained and expert in making melody to the Lord, was two hundred and eighty-eight.

8 And selection was made of them for their special work, all having equal chances, small as well as great, the teacher as the learner. 9 Now of the group of Asaph, the first name to come out was Joseph; the second Gedaliah; he and his brothers and sons were twelve? 10 The third Zaccur, with his sons and his brothers, twelve; 11 The fourth Izri, with his sons and his brothers, twelve; 12 The fifth Nethaniah, with his sons and his brothers, twelve; 13 The sixth Bukkiah, with his sons and his brothers, twelve; 14 The seventh Jesharelah, with his sons and his brothers, twelve; 15 The eighth Jeshaiah, with his sons and his brothers, twelve; 16 The ninth Mattaniah, with his sons and his brothers, twelve; 17 The tenth Shimei, with his sons and his brothers, twelve; 18 The eleventh Azarel, with his sons and his brothers, twelve; 19 The twelfth Hashabiah, with his sons and his brothers, twelve; 20 The thirteenth Shubael, with his sons and his brothers, twelve; 21 The fourteenth Mattithiah, with his sons and his brothers, twelve; 22 The fifteenth Jeremoth, with his sons and his brothers, twelve; 23 The sixteenth Hananiah, with his sons and his brothers, twelve; 24 The seventeenth Joshbekashah, with his sons and his brothers, twelve; 25 The eighteenth Hanani, with his sons and his brothers, twelve; 26 The nineteenth Mallothi, with his sons and his brothers, twelve; 27 The twentieth Eliathah, with his sons and his brothers, twelve; 28 The twenty-first Hothir, with his sons and his brothers, twelve; 29 The twenty-second Giddalti, with his sons and his brothers, twelve; 30 The twenty-third Mahazioth, with his sons and his brothers, twelve; 31 The twenty-fourth Romamti-ezer, with his sons and his brothers, twelve.