i.e., the shew-bread (see on Lev 24:8.), viz., to prepare it; for the laying of the bread upon the table was the priest's business. For fine meal (סלת, see on Lev 2:1) for the meat-offering and unleavened cakes (המּצּות רקיקי, see on Lev 2:4), and for the pans, i.e., that which was baked in pans (see on Lev 2:5), and for that which was roasted (מרבּכת, see on Lev 6:14), and for all measures of capacity and measures of length which were kept by the Levites, because meal, oil, and wine were offered along with the sacrifices in certain fixed quantities (cf. e.g., Exo 29:40; Exo 30:24), and the Levites had probably to watch over the weights and measures in general (Lev 19:35).
Verse 30
1Ch 23:30 “On each morning and evening to praise the Lord with song and instruments.” These words refer to the duties of the singers and musicians, whose classes and orders are enumerated in 1 Chron 25. The referring of them to the Levites who assisted the priests in the sacrificial worship (Berth.) needs no serious refutation, for וּלהלּל הודות is the standing phrase for the sacred temple music; and we can hardly believe that the Levites sang psalms or played on harps or lutes while the beasts for sacrifices were slaughtered and skinned, or the meat-offerings baked, or such duties performed.
Verse 31
1Ch 23:31 “And for all the bringing of offerings to Jahve on sabbaths, the new moons, and the feasts, in the number according to the law concerning them (i.e., according to the regulations that existed for this matter), continually before Jahve.” It was the duty of the Levites to procure the necessary number of beasts for sacrifice, to see to their suitableness, to slaughter and skin them, etc. תּמיד refers to עלות, the burnt-offerings for Jahve, which are תּמיד, because they must always be offered anew on the appointed days.
Verse 32
In conclusion, the whole duties of the Levites are summed up in three clauses: they were to keep the charge of the tabernacle, the charge of the sacred things, i.e., of all the sacred things of the worship, and the charge of the sons of Aaron, i.e., of all that the priests committed to them to be done; cf. Num 18:3., where these functions are more exactly fixed.
Chap. 24
Verse 1
1Ch 24:1The division of the priests and Levites into classes. - Vv. 1-19. The twenty-four classes of priests. After the statement as to the fathers'-houses of the Levites (1 Chron 23), we have next the arrangements of the priests for the performance of the service in the sanctuary; the priestly families descended from Aaron's sons Eleazar and Ithamar being divided into twenty-four classes, the order of whose service was settled by lot.1Ch 24:1 contains the superscription, “As for the sons of Aaron, their divisions (were these).” To make the division clear, we have an introductory notice of Aaron's descendants, to the effect that of his four sons, the two elder, Nadab and Abihu, died before their father, leaving no sons, so that only Eleazar and Ithamar became priests (יכהנוּ), i.e., entered upon the priesthood. The four sons of Aaron, 1Ch 24:1, as in 1Ch 6:3, Exo 6:23.
Verses 2-3
Cf. Lev 10:1., Num 3:4. These priestly families David caused (1Ch 24:3) to be divided, along with the two high priests (see on 13:16), “according to their service.” פּקדּה, office, official class, as in 1Ch 23:11.
Verse 4
As the sons of Eleazar proved to be more numerous in respect of the heads of the men than the sons of Ithamar, they (David, Zadok, and Ahimelech) divided them thus: “For the sons of Eleazar, heads of fathers'-houses, sixteen; and for the sons of Ithamar, (heads)
