1 Chronicles 23:1

DAVID PRESCRIBES THE OFFICES OF THE LEVITES;

THREE DIVISIONS OF THE LEVITES

"Now David was old and full of days; and he made Solomon his son king over Israel. And he gathered together all the princes of Israel, with the priests and the Levites. And the Levites were numbered from thirty years old and upward: and their number by their polls, man by man, was thirty and eight thousand. Of these, twenty and four thousand were to oversee the work of the house of Jehovah; and six thousand were officers and judges; and four thousand were doorkeepers; and four thousand praised Jehovah with the instruments which I made, said David, to praise therewith. And David divided them into courses according to the sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari."

"Now David was old ... and made Solomon his son king over Israel" (1 Chronicles 23:1). The truth here makes it impossible to receive Nathan's prophecy in 2 Samuel 7 as a primary reference to Solomon. The Great One mentioned there was prophesied to be born after David slept with his fathers. This verse clearly indicates that Solomon enjoyed a co-regency for an unspecified time with David his father.

"Levites were numbered from thirty years old and upward" (1 Chronicles 23:3). David's actions here in numbering the Levites conformed exactly to the instructions of Moses given in Numbers 4:23.

"Four thousand praised Jehovah with the instruments that I (David) made" (1 Chronicles 23:5). David's actions in this had no prior command of God to justify it. He violated the divine instructions that, "Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish from it" (Deuteronomy 4:2). David's invention of instruments of music and his introduction of them into the worship of God was specifically condemned by the prophet Amos (Amos 5:23; 6:5). (We have discussed this in Vol. 1 of my commentaries on the Minor Prophets, Joel, Amos and Jonah, pp. 163-169,180-183.)