1 Chronicles Chapter 6    

The sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. (Cp. Gen. 46:11). The descendants of Levi became the Levites. Aaron was a descendant of Kohath, and the priests of Israel were descendants of Aaron.

“in the house.” That is, in the Temple that Solomon built.

“Samuel.” So Samuel is a Levite from the line of Gershom.

“the service of music.” The Hebrew text is idiomatic and is literally, “the hand of song,” that is the responsibility (or authority over) for song.

“tabernacle of the Tent of Meeting.” A protracted name of the tabernacle, here referring to the tent that David had set up (cp. Exod. 39:32; 40:2, 6, 29).

“and they carried out their service according to regulations.” (cp. 1 Chron. 6:33).

“singer.” The Hebrew word can also relate to someone who composes music.

“the son of Israel.” Here, “Israel” refers to the man, Jacob.

“His brother Asaph.” Asaph’s “brother” (relative) was Heman (1 Chron. 6:33), but they came from two different family lines.

“On the left hand.” When the Levites stood for the service of Yahweh, the sons of Merari were on the left hand of other Levites

“brothers.” In this context, “brothers” refers to relatives.

“These are the sons of Aaron.” There were 480 years from the Exodus to the foundation of the Temple (1 Kings 6:1). Here in the list of High Priests from Aaron at the time of the Exodus until Ahimaaz at the time of Solomon were 12 priests, so that rounds out to about 40 years for each High Priest to serve, which makes sense because most High Priests would not start serving until they were older since the High Priest before them had to die before they could serve as High Priest. So if a High Priest started to serve at 40 and served 40 years, he would die at 80 and by that time his successor would be in his middle age as well.

“to the sons of Aaron.” The descendants of Aaron were the priests in Israel. It is important to understand for the history of Israel that a person could not simply decide to be a priest. If you were born a male descendant of Aaron you were a priest, and if you were not born a male descendant of Aaron you could not be a priest. 1 Chronicles 6:54-63 gives the cities that were in the various tribal areas in Israel that were assigned by lot to be the cities for the priests. Other people could live there, but the city itself was given to the priests.

“for theirs was the first lot.” The tribes were assigned areas by “lot,” that is, by the stones—the Urim and Thummim—that were in the breastplate of the High Priest (Exod. 28:28-30). The High Priest would draw out a stone which would indicate the decision of Yahweh (cp. Exod. 28:30; Lev. 8:8; Num. 27:21; Deut. 33:8; Josh. 21:4; 1 Sam. 28:6; Ezra 2:63; Neh. 7:65). The exact process, which was well known at the time and thus was not described any detail in the Bible, is not well understood today. In Joshua 21:4, the “lot,” i.e., the stone, “came out,” that is, came out of the pocket on the front of the breastplate of the High Priest and indicted that the Kohathites were to be the first to be assigned cities in the Promised Land.

“the rest of the sons of Kohath.” The descendants of Kohath who were Levites but not priests were allotted cities in the Transjordan, east of the Jordan River, in the area that was allotted to the eastern half of the tribe of Manasseh. The Hebrew text is awkward, and many versions have simplified the translation. For example, the NIV simply says, “The rest of Kohath’s descendants were allotted ten towns from the clans of half the tribe of Manasseh.”