Matthew Henry on 1 Chronicles 25:8–end
Twenty-four persons are named in the beginning of this chapter as sons of those three great men, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun. Ethan was the third (Ch1 6:44), but probably he was dead before the establishment was perfected and Jeduthun came in his room. [Or perhaps Ethan and Jeduthun were two names for the same person.] Of these three Providence so ordered it that Asaph had four sons, Jeduthun six [only five are mentioned Ch1 25:3; Shimei, mentioned Ch1 25:17, is supposed to have been the sixth], and Heman fourteen, in all twenty-four (who were named, Ch1 25:2-4), who were all qualified for the service and called to it. But the question was, In what order must they serve? This was determined b…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on 1 Chronicles 25:8
THEIR DIVISION BY LOT INTO FOUR AND TWENTY ORDERS. (1Ch. 25:8-31)
they cast lots, ward against ward--"Ward" is an old English word for "division" or "company." The lot was cast to determine the precedence of the classes or divisions over which the musical leaders presided; and, in order to secure an impartial arrangement of their order, the master and his assistants, the teacher and his scholars, in each class or company took part in this solemn casting of lots. In the first catalogue given in this chapter the courses are classed according to their employment as musicians. In the second, they are arranged in the order of their service.
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Adam Clarke on 1 Chronicles 25:7
Two hundred fourscore and eight - That it twelve classes of twenty-four Levites each; for two hundred and eighty-eight divided by twelve quotes twenty-four.
John Gill on 1 Chronicles 25:8
And they cast lots, ward against ward,.... That is, which ward or course of the singers should answer to and attend on the first ward or course of the priests in their weekly service, and which the second, and so on:
as well the small as the great, the teacher as the scholar; no regard was had to the age of a person, his being the firstborn or a younger brother, or to his office and station, whether as a teacher or a learner in the science of singing; he was made the head of a course, as the lot came up; and it may easily be observed, by comparing the lots in the following verses with the sons of the chief singers, according to the order of them in 1 Chronicles 25:2 that the younger are oft…
