Bible Strands
1 Chronicles 23:24
These were the descendants of Levi by their families—the heads of families, registered individually by name—those twenty years of age or older who worked in the service of the house of the LORD.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The Chronicler records David’s administrative decree for the Levite clans, listing family heads immediately after enumerating the sons of Mushi. This passage formalizes the roster for those assigned to the house of the LORD.
The words — רָאשֵׁ֧י (ra.Shei) = chiefs and לִ/פְקוּדֵי/הֶ֗ם (li/f.ku.dei./Hem) = to enrolled. The text literally identifies these men as the chiefs of the fathers who were registered by name.
The thread — The Chronicler’s age threshold contrasts with 1 Chronicles 23:3, where Levites were counted at thirty years old. The division of labor among Levi clans echoes Numbers 10:17 and Numbers 10:21, which detail how Gershonites and Kohathites transported the tabernacle and its holy objects.
Why it lands — The text establishes a specific age cutoff of twenty years for active temple service, overriding the earlier thirty-year standard. Readers must note the structural shift from military readiness to administrative and liturgical duty in David’s reorganization.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
These were the sons of Levi after the house of their fathers; even the chief of the fathers, as they were counted by number of names by their polls, that did the work for the service of the house of the Lord, from the age of twenty years and upward.
Cross-references
- Numbers 10:17 Then the tabernacle was taken down, and the Gershonites and the Merarites set out, transporting it.
- Numbers 10:21 Then the Kohathites set out, transporting the holy objects; the tabernacle was to be set up before their arrival.
- 1 Chronicles 23:3 The Levites thirty years of age or older were counted, and the total number of men was 38,000.
- Numbers 4:3 men from thirty to fifty years old—everyone who is qualified to serve in the work at the Tent of Meeting.
- Numbers 8:24 “This applies to the Levites: Men twenty-five years of age or older shall enter to perform the service in the work at the Tent of Meeting.
- Ezra 3:8 In the second month of the second year after they had arrived at the house of God in Jerusalem, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Jeshua son of Jozadak, and the rest of their associates including the priests, the Levites, and all who had returned to Jerusalem from the captivity, began the work. They appointed Levites twenty years of age or older to supervise the construction of the house of the LORD.
- Numbers 1:2 “Take a census of the whole congregation of Israel by their clans and families, listing every man by name, one by one.
- Numbers 1:18 and on the first day of the second month they assembled the whole congregation and recorded their ancestry by clans and families, counting one by one the names of those twenty years of age or older,
- Numbers 1:22 From the sons of Simeon, according to the records of their clans and families, counting one by one the names of every male twenty years of age or older who could serve in the army,
- Numbers 2:32 These are the Israelites, numbered according to their families. The total of those counted in the camps, by their divisions, was 603,550.