1 Chronicles 23:5

_MOREOVER FOUR THOUSAND WERE PORTERS; AND FOUR THOUSAND PRAISED THE LORD WITH THE INSTRUMENTS WHICH I_ _ MADE, SAID DAVID, TO PRAISE THEREWITH._ Praised the Lord with the instruments which I made. David seems to have been an inventor of many of the musical instruments used in the temple (Amos 6:5)....

1-23 David, having given charge concerning the building of the temple, settles the method of the temple service, and orders the officers of it. When those of the same family were employed together, it would engage them to love and assist one another....

Verse 1 Chronicles 23:5. _FOUR THOUSAND PRAISED THE LORD_] David made this distribution according to his own judgment, and from the dictates of his piety; but it does not appear that he had any positive Divine authority for such arrangements. As to the instruments of music which he made they are condemned elsewhere; see Amos 6:5, to which this verse is allowed to be the _parallel_....

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 1 Chronicles 24:1. The twenty-four orders of the singers and musicians occupy the contents of 1 Chronicles 25:1. 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 1 Chronicles 26:1. 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

MOREOVER FOUR THOUSAND WERE PORTERS,.... At the east, north, and south gates of the temple, in their turns; AND FOUR THOUSAND PRAISED THE LORD WITH THE INSTRUMENTS; were singers in the temple, which in all made up 38,000: WHICH I MADE, SAID DAVID, TO PRAISE THEREWITH; which instruments he devised and ordered to be made to praise the Lord with; see 2 Chronicles 29:26....

2. THE NUMBERING AND ARRANGEMENT OF THE LEVITES CHAPTER 23 _ 1. Solomon made king (1 Chronicles 23:1)_ 2. The number of the Levites (1 Chronicles 23:2) 3. The Gershonites (1 Chronicles 23:7) 4. The sons of Kohath (1 Chronicles 23:12) 5. The sons of Merari (1 Chronicles 23:21) 6. The service of the Levites (1 Chronicles 23:24) David, in h

1 Chronicles 23:1 to 1 Chronicles 24:31. THE LEVITES AND THE PRIESTS. The Chronicler implies that the organisation of the Levites and priests and the settling of their duties as existing in his day was all the work of David. 1 Chronicles 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. 1 Chronicles 23:6. An enumeration of the sons of Levi, and the sacred duties of the various Levitical families....

FOUR THOUSAND.... PORTERS. In 1 Chronicles 2. we have the ninety-three chiefs. The 212 in 1 Chronicles 9:22 pertained to the Tabernacle, not to the Temple (1 Chronicles 9:21)....

Organisation of the Levites (first account) Two accounts are given of David's organisation of the Levites. According to the first the Levites were admitted to service at thirty years of age; 1 Chronicles 23:3; cp. Numbers 4:3; Numbers 4:23; Numbers 4:30, where the period from thirty to fifty is fixed as the period for service. According to the second account (Numbers 4:24; Numbers 4:47) the Levites were taken from twenty years old and upwards; this was apparently the later

LESSON ELEVEN 23-24 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 1 Chronicles 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 do