Bible Strands
2 Chronicles 5:12
all the Levitical singers—Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their sons and relatives—stood on the east side of the altar, dressed in fine linen and playing cymbals, harps, and lyres, accompanied by 120 priests sounding trumpets.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator records the Levitical singers and priests assembling on the east side of the altar during the temple dedication. This occurs immediately after the priests exit the Holy Place and directly precedes the unified praise that fills the sanctuary with a cloud.
The words — The Hebrew identifies לְוִיִּם (leviyyim, Levites) and מְשֹׂרְרִים (m'sorrim, singers) as the designated worship leaders. It further specifies לְאָסָף (le'Asaph, to Asaph), לְהֵימָן (leHeman, to Heman), and לִידֻתוּן (liYedutun, to Jeduthun) to mark the hereditary musical lineages.
The thread — The named singers reappear in 1 Chronicles 6:33 and 6:39 as established leaders of temple music. Their trumpeting colleagues are paralleled in 1 Chronicles 15:24, where priests blow trumpets before the ark during David’s worship procession.
Why it lands — The text documents a structured, multi-generational worship assembly rather than spontaneous emotion. It requires the reader to recognize that corporate praise in the temple depended on designated roles, specific instruments, and coordinated timing.
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
Also the Levites which were the singers, all of them of Asaph, of Heman, of Jeduthun, with their sons and their brethren, being arrayed in white linen, having cymbals and psalteries and harps, stood at the east end of the altar, and with them an hundred and twenty priests sounding with trumpets:)
Cross-references
- 1 Chronicles 15:24 Shebaniah, Joshaphat, Nethanel, Amasai, Zechariah, Benaiah, and Eliezer—the priests—were to blow the trumpets before the ark of God. Obed-edom and Jehiah were also to be guardians of the ark.
- 1 Chronicles 6:33 These are the men who served, together with their sons. From the Kohathites: Heman the singer, the son of Joel, the son of Samuel,
- 1 Chronicles 6:39 Heman’s kinsman was Asaph, who served at his right hand: Asaph the son of Berechiah, the son of Shimea,
- 1 Chronicles 23:5 4,000 are to be gatekeepers, and 4,000 are to praise the LORD with the instruments I have made for giving praise.”
- 2 Chronicles 7:6 The priests stood at their posts, as did the Levites with the musical instruments of the LORD, which King David had made for giving thanks to the LORD and with which David had offered praise, saying, “For His loving devotion endures forever.” Across from the Levites, the priests sounded trumpets, and all the Israelites were standing.
- Numbers 10:1 Then the LORD said to Moses,
- 1 Chronicles 13:8 David and all the Israelites were celebrating before God with all their might, with songs and on harps and lyres, with tambourines, cymbals, and trumpets.
- 1 Chronicles 15:16 David also told the leaders of the Levites to appoint their relatives as singers to lift up their voices with joy, accompanied by musical instruments—harps, lyres, and cymbals.
- 1 Chronicles 15:27 Now David was dressed in a robe of fine linen, as were all the Levites who were carrying the ark, as well as the singers and Chenaniah, the director of music for the singers. David also wore a linen ephod.
- 1 Chronicles 16:41 With them were Heman, Jeduthun, and the rest of those chosen and designated by name to give thanks to the LORD, for “His loving devotion endures forever.”