1 Chronicles 6 Study Notes

6:1 We now switch to Levi’s tribe, the tribe of priests. These are important for the Chronicler because after the exile, the time at which he was writing, reestablishing the proper priesthood was crucial. Anyone who wanted to serve as a priest in the rebuilt temple had to have a clear genealogy within the tribe of Levi (Neh 7:64). Levi had three sons: Gershom, Kohath, and Merari. Each of these three lines performed distinctive duties in the worship of God (Nm 4:1-33). The most crucial line was the one that led to Aaron and, thus, to the priests. This is the line that stemmed from Levi’s son Kohath. But not every descendant of Kohath got to be a priest—only those who could trace their lineage back to Aaron. Everyone else went into the larger pool of people who fulfilled general temple duties.

6:2 Most genealogies in Chronicles skip some links, and frequently the time that the Israelites spent in Egypt is either shortened or skipped altogether. This is the case here.

6:3-4 The descendants of Aaron who are mentioned here were priests. Nadab and Abihu lost their lives when they violated the sanctity of their duties (Lv 10:1-3), so Eleazar became Aaron’s true successor, followed by Phinehas.

6:5-15 This list of priests is not complete. It does not mention Eli, the priest who raised Samuel (1Sm 1:3).

6:16-21 The second major list in this chapter includes Levites who were not of the priestly line.

6:22-30 We return to Kohath’s descendants. This list contains four men named Elkanah. The one mentioned in v. 27 is the father of Samuel since Samuel is mentioned in the next verse. In 1Sm 1:1 Elkanah is referred to as being from Ephraim, whereas here we see him as belonging to the tribe of Levi. That verse refers to the location where he and his family had lived for many generations since Levi did not have its own territory. Chronicles gives us the actual bloodline, which places him in one of the privileged lines of Levi.

6:31-32 The Chronicler emphasizes the presence of music in the temple, as it was instituted by David and revived in later years.

6:33-47 There are three main musicians: Heman (Ps 88), Asaph (Pss 50; 73-83), and Ethan (also called Jeduthun at times, Ps 89). These three men represent the three branches of the sons of Levi, coming from Kohath, Gershom, and Merari, respectively. Heman was a descendant of Kohath, but not through Aaron, so he was not eligible for the priesthood.

6:48-53 Emphasizing the distinction between the descendants of Aaron and the other branches derived from Levi, the Chronicler once more lists those who were priests, but states that everyone else was also engaged in the service of the tabernacle.

6:54 The Levites worked in the tabernacle and later the temple, but they did not all live clustered around the sacred location. One reason for this is that before the building of the temple, there was no restriction on where sacrifices could be performed. Furthermore, once there was a temple and the restriction was in place, it would not have been economically feasible. At the time of the conquest, they were allocated territories and cities scattered throughout the tribes.

6:55-61 The Kohathites got a share of the important city of Hebron. The main inheritor of this location was Caleb, and it would also serve later for a time as capital city under David’s monarchy.

6:62-81 A noticeable feature of this long list is that the Levites were given dwelling space among the eastern tribes of Manasseh . . . Gad, and Reuben, as well as in the main territory on the west. Even though eventually this arrangement would remove them far from the temple, it also allowed them to be distributed throughout the land so they could teach all the people.