1 Chronicles 24 is the twenty-fourth chapter of the

Books of Chronicles The Book of Chronicles ( he, דִּבְרֵי־הַיָּמִים ) is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Chronicles) in the Christian Old Testament. Chronicles is the final book of the Hebrew Bible, concluding the third sec ...

in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. Hebrew: ''Tān ...

or the First Book of Chronicles in the

Old Testament The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...

of the

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words '' Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρ ...

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts o ...

. The book is compiled from older sources by an unknown person or group, designated by modern scholars as "

the Chronicler The Chronicler is the author, or group of authors, to whom biblical scholars have attributed the composition of the Books of Chronicles, the Book of Ezra, and the Book of Nehemiah in the Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;chapter 22 Chapter 22 may refer to: * A company filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganizatio ...

to the end does not have any parallel in 2 Samuel.

Text

This chapter was originally written in the

Hebrew language Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

. It is divided into 31 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

are of the

Masoretic Text The Masoretic Text (MT or 𝕸; he, נֻסָּח הַמָּסוֹרָה, Nūssāḥ Hammāsōrā, lit. 'Text of the Tradition') is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) in Rabbinic Judaism. ...

tradition, which includes the

Aleppo Codex The Aleppo Codex ( he, כֶּתֶר אֲרָם צוֹבָא, romanized: , lit. 'Crown of Aleppo') is a medieval bound manuscript of the Hebrew Bible. The codex was written in the city of Tiberias in the tenth century CE (circa 920) under the ...

(10th century), and Codex Leningradensis (1008). Extant manuscripts of a

Koine Greek Koine Greek (; Koine el, ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, hē koinè diálektos, the common dialect; ), also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-reg ...

translation known as the

Septuagint The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond t ...

, made in the last few centuries BCE, include

Codex Vaticanus The Codex Vaticanus ( The Vatican, Bibl. Vat., Vat. gr. 1209), designated by siglum B or 03 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), δ 1 ( von Soden), is a fourth-century Christian manuscript of a Greek Bible, containing the majority of the Greek Old ...

(B;

\mathfrak

^B; 4th century),

Codex Alexandrinus The Codex Alexandrinus (London, British Library, Royal MS 1. D. V-VIII), designated by the siglum A or 02 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), δ 4 (in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscripts), is a manu ...

(A;

\mathfrak

^A; 5th century) and

Codex Marchalianus Codex Marchalianus designated by siglum Q is a 6th-century Greek manuscript copy of the Greek version of the Hebrew Bible ( Tanakh or Old Testament) known as the Septuagint. The text was written on vellum in uncial letters. Palaeographically ...

(Q;

\mathfrak

^Q; 6th century).

David organizes the priests (24:1–19)

This section details the organization of the priests, the highest branch of the Levites, in a more advanced and systematic manner than anywhere else in the Hebrew Bible and was adhered rigidly until the Roman period (cf. Luke 1:5). Lists of the priestly families also found partially in 1 Chronicles 9:10–; ; ; .

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges is a biblical commentary set published in parts by Cambridge University Press from 1882 onwards. Anglican bishop John Perowne John James Stewart Perowne (3 March 1823 – 6 November 1904) was ...

1 Chronicles 24
Accessed 28 April 2019.

Verse 1

:''Now these are the divisions of the sons of Aaron. The sons of Aaron; Nadab, and Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.'' Among the four sons of

Aaron According to Abrahamic religions, Aaron ''′aharon'', ar, هارون, Hārūn, Greek ( Septuagint): Ἀαρών; often called Aaron the priest ()., group="note" ( or ; ''’Ahărōn'') was a prophet, a high priest, and the elder brother ...

(), Nadab and Abihu died without children (verse 2); and the other two had to supply the "chief men of the house," of which Eleazar had sixteen, and Ithamar eight (verse 4).Exell, Joseph S.; Spence-Jones, Henry Donald Maurice (Editors)
On "1 Chronicles 24".
In: ''The

Pulpit Commentary The ''Pulpit Commentary'' is a homiletic commentary on the Bible created during the nineteenth century under the direction of Rev. Joseph S. Exell and Henry Donald Maurice Spence-Jones. It consists of 23 volumes with 22,000 pages and 95,000 entri ...

''. 23 volumes. First publication: 1890. Accessed 24 April 2019.

Verse 3

:''And David distributed them, both Zadok of the sons of Eleazar, and Ahimelech of the sons of Ithamar, according to their offices in their service.'' Of the two priestly families ( 1 Chronicles 15:11; ; ; cf. ), Zadok represented the family of Eleazar, and Ahimelech represented the family of Ithamar, to help David organizing the priests. The Chronicler emphasizes the equal treatment of the two groups in the passage (cf 24:31; 26:13) using a procedure of drawing lots (verse 5), also in 1 Chronicles (24:31; 25:8; 26:13) and elsewhere (for examples. Nehemiah 10:35), to indicate God's hand in the distribution of the personnel.

List of the priestly divisions

Remaining Levite assignments (24:20–31)

This section contains the list of Levites which overlaps with the one in . The Levites had similar rotation schedule as the priests (verse 31), and used the same system of drawing lots as the priests with almost the same witnesses, indicating that the Levites are considered as important as the priests.

Document witnesses for priestly divisions

Josephus Flavius Josephus (; grc-gre, Ἰώσηπος, ; 37 – 100) was a first-century Romano-Jewish historian and military leader, best known for '' The Jewish War'', who was born in Jerusalem—then part of Roman Judea—to a father of priestly d ...

wrote that David divided the Levites into twenty-four courses, sixteen of the house of Eleazar and eight of the house of Ithamar and he ordained each course to minister eight days, from Sabbath to Sabbath (''

Antiquities Antiquities are objects from antiquity, especially the civilizations of the Mediterranean: the Classical antiquity of Greece and Rome, Ancient Egypt and the other Ancient Near Eastern cultures. Artifacts from earlier periods such as the Meso ...

'' ). *

Babylonian Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ('' halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...

has a statement by Rabbi Hama ben Guria that "Moses instituted for Israel eight ''Mishmaroth'' ("priestly divisions")—four from he family ofEleazar and four from he family ofIthamar; Samuel increased them to sixteen; David increased them to twenty four" (Taanith 27a).Rabbi Dr. I. Epstein, translator. "The Babylonian Talmud". The Soncino Press. New York, 1990; ''apud'' Torahcalendar.com. *After the Temple destruction in 70 CE, there was a custom of publicly recalling the courses of the priests every Sabbath, a practice that reinforced the prestige of the priests' lineage. A manuscript discovered in the

Cairo Geniza The Cairo Geniza, alternatively spelled Genizah, is a collection of some 400,000 Jewish manuscript fragments and Fatimid administrative documents that were kept in the ''genizah'' or storeroom of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Fustat or Old Cairo, Egy ...

, dated 1034 CE, records a customary formula recited weekly in the synagogues, during the Sabbath day: :"Today is the holy Sabbath, the holy Sabbath unto the Lord; this day, which is the course? ppropriate nameis the course. May the Merciful One return the course to its place soon, in our days. Amen." ::After which, they would recount the number of years that have passed since the destruction of Jerusalem, and conclude with the words: :"May the Merciful One build his house and sanctuary, and let them say ''Amen''." *Three stone inscriptions were discovered bearing the names of the priestly wards, their order and the name of the locality to which they had moved after the destruction of the Second Temple: :1. In 1920, a marble stone inscription was found in

Ashkelon Ashkelon or Ashqelon (; Hebrew: , , ; Philistine: ), also known as Ascalon (; Ancient Greek: , ; Arabic: , ), is a coastal city in the Southern District of Israel on the Mediterranean coast, south of Tel Aviv, and north of the border ...

showing a partial list of the priestly wards, attesting to the existence of such plaques, perhaps mounted to the walls of synagogues. :2. In 1962 three small fragments of one Hebrew stone inscription, dated to the 3rd/4th centuries, were found in

Caesarea Maritima Caesarea Maritima (; Greek: ''Parálios Kaisáreia''), formerly Strato's Tower, also known as Caesarea Palestinae, was an ancient city in the Sharon plain on the coast of the Mediterranean, now in ruins and included in an Israeli national par ...

, bearing the partial names of places associated with the priestly courses (the rest of which had been reconstructed) as follows: This is the oldest inscription mentioning Nazareth as a location, outside the Bible and pilgrim notes. :3. In 1970 a stone inscription was found on a partially buried column in a mosque, in the Yemeni village of Bayt al-Ḥaḍir, showing ten names of the priestly wards and their respective towns and villages. The Yemeni inscription is the longest roster of names of this sort ever discovered, unto this day. The names legible on the stone column discovered by Walter W. Müller read as follows: *A seventh-century poet, Eleazar ben Killir, wrote a liturgical poem detailing the 24-priestly wards and their places of residence. Historian and geographer, Samuel Klein (1886–1940), thinks that Killir's poem proves the prevalence of this custom of commemorating the courses in the synagogues of the Land of Israel. Samuel Klein, ''Barajta der vierundzwanzig Priester Abteilungen'' (Baraitta of the Twenty-Four Priestly Divisions), in: ''Beiträge zur Geographie und Geschichte Galiläas'', Leipzig 1909

Notes

References

Sources

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External links

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

translations: *
Divrei Hayamim I - I Chronicles - Chapter 24 (Judaica Press)
translation ith Rashi's commentary">Rashi.html" ;"title="ith Rashi">ith Rashi's commentaryat Chabad.org *

translations: *
''Online Bible'' at GospelHall.org
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First Book of Chronicles Chapter 24. Bible Gateway
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chronicles 1 24 First Book of Chronicles chapters">24