1. When David was an old man, he appointed his son Solomon to be king over Israel.
2. David summoned all the leaders of Israel, together with the priests and Levites.
3. All the Levites who were thirty years old or older were counted, and the total came to 38,000.
4. Then David said, “From all the Levites, 24,000 will supervise the work at the Temple of the lord. Another 6,000 will serve as officials and judges.
5. Another 4,000 will work as gatekeepers, and 4,000 will praise the lord with the musical instruments I have made.”
6. Then David divided the Levites into divisions named after the clans descended from the three sons of Levi—Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.
7. The Gershonite family units were defined by their lines of descent from Libni and Shimei, the sons of Gershon.
8. Three of the descendants of Libni were Jehiel (the family leader), Zetham, and Joel.
9. These were the leaders of the family of Libni.Three of the descendants of Shimei were Shelomoth, Haziel, and Haran.
10. Four other descendants of Shimei were Jahath, Ziza, Jeush, and Beriah.
11. Jahath was the family leader, and Ziza was next. Jeush and Beriah were counted as a single family because neither had many sons.
12. Four of the descendants of Kohath were Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel.
13. The sons of Amram were Aaron and Moses. Aaron and his descendants were set apart to dedicate the most holy things, to offer sacrifices in the lord’s presence, to serve the lord, and to pronounce blessings in his name forever.