And David divided them into courses according to the sons of Levi Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.
David's last act as king is to put the house of God in order, and this verse is where that order begins: he sorts the whole tribe of Levi into divisions under Levi's three sons. Why does a king rearrange what Moses had already set up, and why does the second son's line end up at the centre?
This verse is the heading for everything that follows through verse 23. One writer marks that transition, then shows how the list handles Aaron and Moses:
After the numbering of the Levites comes their division into courses (vv. 6-23) according to their three families: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. Aaron and Moses belonged to the sons of Kohath, but Aaron and his sons are "for ever" set apart from this family of Levites to carry out the office of the priesthood "for ever" (v. 13). Moses was lawgiver, mediator, and leader of the people. Yet he and his sons simply enter the tribe of Levi (vv. 14-26). From the moment Solomon's reign begins, his family holds no place higher than their brothers.
The three names do not carry equal weight. Aaron came from Kohath, the second son, not from the eldest. One writer sees a pattern God repeats:
Kohath is one more case among many where the firstborn naturally loses his place to another. Kohath is not Levi's firstborn — Gershon is. Grace, not nature, rules.
The same choice shaped the jobs each family carried in the wilderness:
God appointed the duties of the Levites as it pleased Him. So each Levitical family could set to work, and no one was to interfere with them. They were responsible to God, and they had received their authority for service from Him. And here the principle of election showed itself. Gershon was the eldest son of Levi, so his descendants might have expected to be chosen to carry the sacred vessels on their shoulders. But that work went to the descendants of Kohath, Levi's second son.
Aaron's own sphere stays untouchable. The rest of the tribe takes its orders from David:
The offerings, the work of the most holy place, and the making of atonement for Israel — all this is the special work of Aaron. Aaron stands out in Levi as David does in the tribe of Judah. No one could interfere with Aaron or his sons, or with the work given them. But each branch of the tribe of Levi had to look to David for the detail of their service, and always according to all that Moses, the servant of God, had commanded.
One writer reads David's freedom to rearrange as pointing beyond himself:
David, therefore, acting as a type of the Messiah, orders everything anew. The old order set up under Moses did not stay as it was. The great principles, of course, last for ever. But the form differed in a most important way, and that difference came from the greater glory of the one who stood there only as a type. How much more when we remember the One that type pointed to, the Lord Jesus. David, therefore, orders an entirely new arrangement here. He divided the priests into courses, and one course was always to be on the spot in Jerusalem. The Pentateuch does not refer to that state of things at all.
So who decided which family got which work, and does that pattern still hold?
The order of the service of the Levites was according to the sovereignty of God, who put each one in his place. So in the service of the church we find the greatest differences, and God gives each one his own place.
One writer explains where the Levites came from, and draws the line straight to God's people today:
God took the tribe of Levi instead of the firstborn sons of the whole nation. Those firstborn sons had been sheltered from judgment by the blood in Egypt, and God claimed them as His own, but He took the Levites instead for special service in His house and for His Name. They were a privileged people, called to give themselves to God's interests, and God cared for them in a special way. They were a type of the whole Christian company today, King David ordered their service, and that service pictures the place and the spiritual service God has called us to.
A complete division left nobody spare:
Thirty-eight thousand men and not an idler among them.
- Divided — This verse opens the list that runs to verse 23. David sorts the whole tribe under Levi's three sons.
- Chosen — Gershon was the eldest. Yet the priesthood came through Kohath: grace, not nature, rules.
- Assigned — God gave each family its own work, and no one was to interfere with another's.
- Directed — Aaron's work stood apart. Every other branch of Levi looked to David for the detail of its service.
- Employed — The division was complete, so all 38,000 men had work. The same order pictures the place and service God gives His people now.
Of the Gershonites Laadan and Shimei.
Near the end of his reign, David organised the tribe of Levi to serve in the temple his son would build. This verse opens the list with the house of Levi's eldest son, and it raises a fair question: why does Scripture name these families at all?
The chapter first counts the Levites, then sorts them. One writer marks where the sorting begins:
After the numbering of the Levites comes their division into courses (vv. 6-23) according to their three families: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.
So the Gershonites come first, with Ladan and Shimei as the two houses under that head. In the wider sweep of the book, this is one step in a much larger reordering:
Then in 1 Chron. 23 David divides the Levites for their services, and in 1 Chron. 24 the sons of Aaron into their twenty-four courses, as in 1 Chron. 25 the singers and musicians into a like number.
This family already had a long history of service. A Bible dictionary follows the line from the wilderness, where they carried the tabernacle — Israel's tent of worship — to the days of the kingdom:
Gershon was the eldest son of Levi, born before the Israelites entered Egypt… When the Israelites were counted in the wilderness, there were 7,500 Gershonites as one branch of the Levites. Their charge was the frame of the tabernacle and the tent, with the hangings and curtains… In the kingdom, under Asaph and his sons, they "prophesied according to the order of the king." Others had charge of the "treasures of the house of God, and were over the treasures of the holy things," and of the precious stones.
The carriers of curtains became keepers of treasure and leaders of song.
This verse names Ladan first. One writer, naming Gershon's sons as Libni and Shimei, finds a message in what the names mean:
The sons of Levi are Gershon, Kohath, and Merari, and these three are the heads of eight families. "Gershon" means "exile." His two sons are Libni, "white," and Shimei, "my report" — names that are not hard to join into one meaning. A true exile really is someone who feels his exile, even if only for a while, from the home of his heart. And out of this spirit of being a stranger comes power for purity and freedom from defilement. The last name may well speak of what has the fullest value for him here: the "report" of things not now seen.
Their work matched that character. A second writer, who spells the name Gershom, puts it this way:
Gershom means "a stranger there." It speaks of service for God that does not settle down in the world, but serves God without selfish, material motives… So the spiritual meaning of Gershom's service is that it encourages a godly walk through a world where we are strangers, a walk that honors God, though the world does not understand.
Only two families are listed here. Gershon's branch was few in number, and the later division by lot took that into account:
First (vv. 20-25) come the sons of Kohath… then, in verses 26-31, the sons of Merari. Gershon was counted as a single course because it was so few in number (1 Chron. 23:11). Note that the least among the Levites had the same portion as the chief fathers in the division by lot, which followed the Lord's free choice (v. 31).
One writer sees in this ordering of the Levites a pattern of how God places His servants:
The order of the service of the Levites was according to the sovereignty of God, who put each one in his place. So in the service of the church we find the greatest differences, and God gives each one his own place.
Another writer applies the Levites' service to believers today, and points to the numbers in this chapter:
Thirty-eight thousand men and not an idler among them… They were a picture of the whole Christian company today, and their service, as King David ordered it, gives us a picture of the place and spiritual service to which we have been called.
- Named. The verse starts the sorting of Levi's descendants into courses under his three sons. Gershon's house heads the list, and Scripture records every family by name.
- Placed. God's sovereignty arranged the Levites' service, and He put each one in his place. The same holds among His servants now.
- Stranger. Gershon means "exile," and the work given his sons fits the name: a service that does not settle down in the world.
- Small. Gershon was so few that it counted as one course. Yet the least Levite received the same portion as the chief fathers.
- Working. Of the 38,000 Levites, not one was idle — the mark of a company called to God's service.