Bible Commentaries

1 Chronicles 23:1 to 1 Chronicles 24:31. The Levites and the Priests.—The Chronicler implies that the organisation of the Levites and priests and the settling of their duties—as existing in his day—was all the work of David.

1 Chronicles 23:5. princes of the sanctuary: a title corresponding to an official in Babylonian sanctuaries of earlier days, and probably borrowed and adapted by the returned exiles; it is not identical with the "princes of God."

1 Chronicles 23:6-23. An enumeration of the sons of Levi, and the sacred duties of the various Levitical families.

1 Chronicles 23:24. from twenty years old and upward: see note on Ezra 3:8.

1 Chronicles 23:28-32. The duties of the Levites in the sanctuary.

1 Chronicles 23:30. and to stand every morning . . . and likewise at even: it is permissible to gather from this mention of the twofold daily services of praise and thanksgiving that set forms of prayer were already in existence at this time, and one naturally thinks of the earliest prayer in the Jewish Liturgy still in daily use, the Shêmôneh ‘Esreh ("Eighteen Benedictions"), the constant part of which (viz. the first three and last three benedictions) consist of praise and thanksgiving, while the intermediate benedictions are variable, and consist of petitions.

1 Chronicles 23:31. the set feasts: viz. Passover and the feast of unleavened bread (Mazzth) (Numbers 28:16-25), Pentecost (Numbers 28:26-31), and Tabernacles (Numbers 29:12-38); cf. also Deuteronomy 16:1-17, pp. 101-104.