1 Tawarikh 23:1-10

David Organizes the Levites

23:1 When David was old and approaching the end of his life, ¹  he made his son Solomon king over Israel.

23:2 David ²  assembled all the leaders of Israel, along with the priests and the Levites. 23:3 The Levites who were thirty years old and up were counted; there were 38,000 men. ³  23:4 David said, ⁴  “Of these, 24,000 are to direct the work of the Lord’s temple; 6,000 are to be officials and judges; 23:5 4,000 are to be gatekeepers; and 4,000 are to praise the Lord with the instruments I supplied for worship.” ⁵  23:6 David divided them into groups corresponding to the sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

23:7 The Gershonites included Ladan and Shimei.

23:8 The sons of Ladan:

Jehiel the oldest, Zetham, and Joel – three in all.

23:9 The sons of Shimei:

Shelomoth, Haziel, and Haran – three in all.

These were the leaders of the family of Ladan.

23:10 The sons of Shimei:

Jahath, Zina, ⁶  Jeush, and Beriah. These were Shimei’s sons – four in all. ⁷ 

[23:1]  ¹ tn Heb “and full of years.”

[23:2]  ² tn Heb “he”; the referent (David) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[23:3]  ³ tn Heb “and their number by their heads, by men, was 38,000.”

[23:4]  ⁴ tn The words “David said” are supplied here in the translation for clarification. The appearance of the first person verb “I supplied” in v. 5 indicates that David is speaking here.

[23:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “made to [or “for”] praise.”

[23:10]  ⁶ tc The MT reads “Zina” here and “Zizah” in v. 11. One Hebrew ms, the LXX, and the Vulgate, harmonizing the form of the name to that found in v. 11, read “Zizah” here.

[23:10]  ⁷ sn Verses 8-10 are confusing. Two different lists of Shimei’s sons appear. In between these lists is the statement “these were the leaders of the family of Ladan,” suggesting that the list just before this includes the sons of Ladan, not Shimei. But verse 8 already lists Ladan’s sons. Apparently the text as it stands is a conflation of differing traditions.