The Levites Counted and Reassigned

"So when David was old and full of days, he made Solomon his son king over Israel." "Now the Levites were numbered from the age of thirty years and upward: and their number by their polls, man by man, was thirty and eight thousand."

"Of which, twenty and four thousand were to set forward the work of the house of the LORD; and six thousand were officers and judges: Moreover four thousand were porters; and four thousand praised the LORD with the instruments which I made."

"For by the last words of David the Levites were numbered from twenty years old and above." "The LORD God of Israel hath given rest unto his people… And also unto the Levites; they shall no more carry the tabernacle." Their duties: the courts, the chambers, the showbread, thanksgiving every morning and evening.

Thirty, twenty-five, twenty

Numbers 4 sets Levite service at 30–50; Numbers 8:24 at 25; 1 Chronicles 23:3 counts from 30, but 23:24 and 27 from 20, as Ezra 3:8 does after the exile. The change may reflect the Chronicler's own day or a combination of sources. The library's Greek has "thirty" in 23:24. See the passage page.

Levites and priests

Chronicles distinguishes priests (Aaron's descendants) from Levites who assist them, as Ezekiel 44 does; the distinction was important in the Second Temple.