# 1 Chronicles 23 (New King James Version)
The Divisions of the Levites

##### Chapter 23
###### 1 So when David was old and full of days, he made his son Solomon king over Israel.

###### 2 And he gathered together all the leaders of Israel, with the priests and the Levites.  
###### 3 Now the Levites were numbered from the age of thirty years and above; and the number of individual males was thirty-eight thousand.  
###### 4 Of these, twenty-four thousand _were_ to look after the work of the house of the Lord, six thousand _were_ officers and judges,  
###### 5 four thousand _were_ gatekeepers, and four thousand praised the Lord with _musical_ instruments, "which I made," _said David,_ "for giving praise."

###### 6 Also David separated them into divisions among the sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

###### 7 Of the Gershonites: Laadan and Shimei.  
###### 8 The sons of Laadan: the first Jehiel, then Zetham and Joel--three _in all._  
###### 9 The sons of Shimei: Shelomith, Haziel, and Haran--three _in all._ These were the heads of the fathers' _houses_ of Laadan.  
###### 10 And the sons of Shimei: Jahath, Zina, Jeush, and Beriah. These _were_ the four sons of Shimei.  
###### 11 Jahath was the first and Zizah the second. But Jeush and Beriah did not have many sons; therefore they were assigned as one father's house.

###### 12 The sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel--four _in all._  
###### 13 The sons of Amram: Aaron and Moses; and Aaron was set apart, he and his sons forever, that he should sanctify the most holy things, to burn incense before the Lord, to minister to Him, and to give the blessing in His name forever.  
###### 14 Now the sons of Moses the man of God were reckoned to the tribe of Levi.  
###### 15 The sons of Moses _were_ Gershon and Eliezer.  
###### 16 Of the sons of Gershon, Shebuel _was_ the first.  
###### 17 Of the descendants of Eliezer, Rehabiah was the first. And Eliezer had no other sons, but the sons of Rehabiah were very many.  
###### 18 Of the sons of Izhar, Shelomith _was_ the first.  
###### 19 Of the sons of Hebron, Jeriah _was_ the first, Amariah the second, Jahaziel the third, and Jekameam the fourth.  
###### 20 Of the sons of Uzziel, Michah _was_ the first and Jesshiah the second.

###### 21 The sons of Merari _were_ Mahli and Mushi. The sons of Mahli _were_ Eleazar and Kish.  
###### 22 And Eleazar died, and had no sons, but only daughters; and their brethren, the sons of Kish, took them _as wives._  
###### 23 The sons of Mushi _were_ Mahli, Eder, and Jeremoth--three _in all._

###### 24 These _were_ the sons of Levi by their fathers' houses--the heads of the fathers' _houses_ as they were counted individually by the number of their names, who did the work for the service of the house of the Lord, from the age of twenty years and above.

###### 25 For David said, "The Lord God of Israel has given rest to His people, that they may dwell in Jerusalem forever";  
###### 26 and also to the Levites, "They shall no longer carry the tabernacle, or any of the articles for its service."  
###### 27 For by the last words of David the Levites _were_ numbered from twenty years old and above;  
###### 28 because their duty _was_ to help the sons of Aaron in the service of the house of the Lord, in the courts and in the chambers, in the purifying of all holy things and the work of the service of the house of God,  
###### 29 both with the showbread and the fine flour for the grain offering, with the unleavened cakes and _what is baked in_ the pan, with what is mixed and with all kinds of measures and sizes;  
###### 30 to stand every morning to thank and praise the Lord, and likewise at evening;  
###### 31 and at every presentation of a burnt offering to the Lord on the Sabbaths and on the New Moons and on the set feasts, by number according to the ordinance governing them, regularly before the Lord;  
###### 32 and that they should attend to the needs of the tabernacle of meeting, the needs of the holy _place,_ and the needs of the sons of Aaron their brethren in the work of the house of the Lord.