1 *Chronicles 23

₁David was old. His life was nearly over and his son Solomon became king_of_Israel. ₂He called all the officials of Israel, the priests and Levites together. ₃They counted the Levites, all the men who were 30 years or older. There were 38 000 Levites. ₄David said 24 000 of those Levites had to work in the temple and 6 000 had to be managers and judges. ₅There were 4 000 gatekeepers and 4 000 Levites who had to praise the Lord with the musical_instruments that David had made. ₆David divided the Levi family into 3 groups to work. They were the Gershon family, the Kohath family and the Merari family.

₇Ladan and Shimei were from the Gershon family. ₈Ladan had 3 sons. They were Jehiel, Zetham and Joel. Jehiel was their leader. ₉Shimei's 3 sons were Shelomoth, Haziel and Haran. ₁₀Later Shimei had 4 more sons. They were Jahath, Ziza, Jeush and Beriah. ₁₁Jahath was their leader and Ziza was the 2nd leader. Jeush and Beriah did not have many sons and they were together as one group.

₁₂Kohath had 4 sons. They were Amram, Izhar, Hebron and Uzziel. ₁₃Amram's sons were Aaron and Moses. Aaron and his descendants had to work with the most_holy things. He had to make sure that they were kept holy all the time. They always burnt incense-offerings to the Lord. They had to work for Him and tell the people that the Lord would bless them. _14-15Moses, the man of God, was the father of Gershom and Eliezer and their descendants were counted with the Levi tribe. ₁₆Shubael was the leader of the Gershom family. ₁₇Rehabiah was the leader of the Eliezer family. Eliezer had no other sons but Rehabiah had many sons. ₁₈Shelomith was the leader of the Izhar family. ₁₉Jeriah was the leader of the Hebron family, Amariah was the 2nd son, Jahaziel was the 3rd son and Jekameam was the 4th son. ₂₀Micah was the leader of the Uzziel family and Ishiah was the 2nd leader.

₂₁The sons of Merari were Mahli and Mushi. Mahli's sons were Eleazar and Kish. ₂₂When Eleazar died, he had no sons. He had only daughters. His daughters married men from the Kish family, who were their cousins. ₂₃Mushi had 3 sons. Their names were Mahli, Eder and Jerimoth.

₂₄These were the Levi families, the leaders of the families and their groups. Everyone's name was written in the list of names. The Levites who were 20 years old or older had to work in the temple. ₂₅They worked there because David said: ‘The Lord God of Israel has given his people peace and He will always live in Jerusalem. ₂₆So the Levites will no longer have to carry the tent of the Lord and all the tools.’

₂₇Not long before David died, he said they must count all the Levites who were 20 years old or older and he said they must do this work. ₂₈They helped the priests when they were in the temple, they worked in the courtyards and in the rooms of the temple, and they helped when the priests purified the holy things or cleaned the temple. ₂₉The Levites had to prepare the sacrificial bread and flour for the wheat-offering. They had to bake the flat bread, clean the baking pans, mix the flour with olive oil and see that the people weighed and measured in the right way. ₃₀The Levites had to be ready every morning to thank God and praise Him. They also had to do this every evening. ₃₁They had to help when the priests sacrificed burnt-offerings for the Lord on the Sabbath day, on New-moon-feasts and on other feasts. There always had to be enough Levites to help at the temple. ₃₂This is how the Levites had to help at the tent of the Lord at the holy place. This was the work that the family and the descendants of Aaron had to do in the temple.