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7]]), is in accord with the beginning of Ps 49, Hear, all ye peoples.
According to 1Ch 23:2-5, the whole of the thirty-eight thousand Levites were divided by David into four divisions (24,000 + 6000 + 4000 + 4000). To the fourth division (4000) was assigned the music belonging to divine worship. Out of this division, however, a select company of two hundred and eighty-eight singers was further singled out, and divided into twenty-four classes. These last were placed under three leaders or precentors (Sangmeister), viz., fourteen classes under Heman the Kehathite and this fourteen sons; four classes under Asaph the Gersonite and his four sons; and six classes under Ethan (Jeduthun) and his six sons (1 Chr. 25, cf. Psa 15:1-5 :17ff.). The instruments played by these three leaders, which they made use of on account of their clear, penetrating sound, were the cymbals (1Ch 15:19). Also in 1Ch 16:5, where Asaph is described as the chief (הראשׁ) of the sacred music in the tent where the Ark was placed, he strikes the cymbals. That he was the chief, first leader, cannot be affirmed. The usual order of the names if “Heman, Asaph, and Ethan.” The same order is also observed in the genealogies of the three in