1. David became an old man, so he made his son Solomon the new king of Israel.
2. David gathered all the leaders of Israel and also the priests and Levites.
3. David counted the Levites who were 30 years old and older. All together there were 38,000 Levites.
4. David said, “24,000 will supervise the work of building the Lord’S Temple. 6000 will be court officers and judges.
5. 4000 will be gatekeepers, and 4000 will be musicians. I made special musical instruments for them. They will use them to praise the Lord.”
6. David separated the Levites into three groups. They were the tribes of Levi’s three sons, Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.
7. From the tribe of Gershon there were Ladan and Shimei.
8. Ladan had three sons. His oldest son was Jehiel. His other sons were Zethan and Joel.
9. Shimei’s sons were Shelomoth, Haziel, and Haran. These three sons were leaders in Ladan’s families.
10. Shimei had four sons. They were Jahath, Ziza, Jeush, and Beriah.
11. Jahath was the oldest son and Ziza was the second son. But Jeush and Beriah did not have many children. So Jeush and Beriah were counted like one family.
12. Kohath had four sons. They were Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel.
13. Amram’s sons were Aaron and Moses. Aaron was chosen for a special work. He and his descendants were chosen to always be the ones to do this special work—to prepare the holy things for the Temple service. They were the ones to burn the incense before the Lord, to serve him as priests and give blessings to the people in his name forever.
14. Moses was the man of God, and his sons were part of the tribe of Levi.
15. Moses’ sons were Gershom and Eliezer.