Old Testament · 29 chapters

1 Chronicles

• No. 90 1 Chronicles 11:1-9

  Chronicles skips over the years of civil war between David's supporters and Saul's house, which the book of Samuel tells at length, and goes straight to the day all Israel came to David at Hebron. This passage...

• No. 135 1 Chronicles 15:11-15

  David's first attempt to bring the ark to Jerusalem had gone badly. It was loaded on a new cart, the oxen stumbled, a man named Uzzah put out his hand to steady it and died on the spot, and David left the ark...

• No. 142 1 Chronicles 12:16-22

  David is an outlaw, hunted by Saul, holed up in a stronghold with a band of fighters. Men keep arriving to join him, and this passage is a group from Benjamin and Judah showing up. Benjamin is Saul's own tribe.

• No. 172 1 Chronicles 7:30-40

  Chronicles opens with nine chapters of genealogy, and this passage is the register of Asher, one of the northern tribes. It runs sons, brothers, and heads of houses for eleven verses, and closes with a count:...

• No. 189 1 Chronicles 23:12-20

  David is old and organizing the Levites for temple service. This passage is the register of the Kohathites, and it contains one of the quietest facts in the Bible.

• No. 211 1 Chronicles 2:18-24

  Chronicles opens with nine chapters of names, compiled after the exile to reconnect the people who came home with the ancestry that made them a people. These verses are a patch of that map, running through the...

• No. 215 1 Chronicles 12:8-15

  David is not king yet in this passage. He is a wanted man, hiding in the wilderness strongholds while Saul still sits on the throne and hunts him. Chronicles is listing the fighters who left the standing...

• No. 280 1 Chronicles 1:34-42

  Chronicles opens with nine chapters of almost pure names, and this stretch is among the barest: the descendants of Esau, who became Edom, and mixed in with them the sons of Seir. It is the kind of passage a...

• No. 346 1 Chronicles 6:47-60

  This is a genealogy of the priests and Levites, followed by a list of the towns they were given, and it looks like pure record-keeping: the line of Aaron down to Zadok, then Hebron and Libnah and Anathoth and...

• No. 362 1 Chronicles 5:18-26

  This short passage tells a whole rise and fall, and the two halves are worth holding right next to each other. The first half is a victory. The eastern tribes, Reuben and Gad and half of Manasseh, go to war...

• No. 377 1 Chronicles 1:17-27

  This is a genealogy that runs from Shem, one of Noah's sons, all the way down to Abraham, and if you watch its shape rather than just its names, it tells you something about how God works. It begins wide. Shem...

• No. 430 1 Chronicles 17:16-27

  God has just made David an astonishing promise, that he will establish David's dynasty, that David's own son will build the temple, and that his throne will be secured forever. It is the kind of promise that...

• No. 518 1 Chronicles 6:16-30

  This is another long Levite genealogy, the kind of list our eyes glide over, tracing the sons of Levi down through the generations. But if you read the names slowly, one of them should stop you. In the line of...

• No. 527 1 Chronicles 19:14-19

  This is the end of a battle that began when the Ammonites, expecting David to attack, hired the armies of Syria as mercenaries to fight alongside them. Now the two allies face Israel together, and the battle...

• No. 549 1 Chronicles 9:33-44

  Buried in a long chapter of genealogies is a single sentence about a particular group of Levites, and it is easy to read past. These are the singers, it says, heads of Levite families, who lived in the temple...

• No. 628 1 Chronicles 5:10-17

  This is a genealogy of the tribe of Gad, one of the tribes that settled east of the Jordan River, and it notes where they lived: in Gilead, in Bashan, out on the far frontier, spreading through the...

• No. 680 1 Chronicles 6:31-46

  Chronicles retells Israel's whole history, and it does much of the telling through genealogies, because for the Chronicler the question of who belongs to which line is the question of who may serve. Chapter 6...

• No. 763 1 Chronicles 23:1-5

  By the time we reach this chapter, David is old and full of days, and he does two things that belong to the end of a life. He makes his son Solomon king, handing the future to the next generation, and he sets...

• No. 781 1 Chronicles 9:17-27

  Chronicles, which counts and names everyone, pauses over the temple gatekeepers, and takes them seriously. Shallum and his brothers, descendants of Korah, are the keepers of the thresholds, two hundred and...

• No. 856 1 Chronicles 7:6-12

  Tucked into Chronicles' long genealogies is a roll of the tribe of Benjamin: the sons of Bela, of Becher, of Jediael, listed by household and counted by the thousands, and each cluster of names carries the...

• No. 943 1 Chronicles 4:1-8

  This is a genealogy, one of the long lists of names that make up the opening chapters of Chronicles. Sons of Judah, then their sons, then families and clans, most of them names that appear here and nowhere...

• No. 971 1 Chronicles 3:10-24

  This is the royal genealogy, the line of David traced through the kings of Judah, Rehoboam, Abijah, Asa, Jehoshaphat, on down through Hezekiah and Josiah, to the sons of Josiah and then to Jeconiah, marked...

• No. 981 1 Chronicles 25:1-8

  David and the army commanders set apart certain Levites for a particular ministry: to prophesy with harps, lyres, and cymbals. The sons of Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman are named, all under the direction of their...

• No. 1026 1 Chronicles 7:20-29

  This is the genealogy of Ephraim, and unlike the bare lists around it, a story breaks through. Some of Ephraim's sons went down to raid the cattle of Gath and were killed by the local men. Ephraim their father...

• No. 1029 1 Chronicles 2:25-40

  This is part of the genealogy of Jerahmeel, in the line of Judah, mostly names begetting names. But one detail interrupts the pattern. A man named Sheshan had no sons, only daughters, so he gave one of his...

• No. 1033 1 Chronicles 16:7-22

  On the day the ark comes to Jerusalem, David hands Asaph and his fellow Levites a song of thanksgiving to sing. Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name, make his deeds known among the peoples; sing to him,...

• No. 1044 1 Chronicles 15:16-24

  David is bringing the ark to Jerusalem, and he arranges the music carefully. He tells the chief Levites to appoint their brothers as singers and players, on harps, lyres, and cymbals, to raise sounds of joy....

• No. 1070 1 Chronicles 16:23-36

  This is the second half of David's psalm of thanksgiving when the ark came to Jerusalem. It widens out to summon the whole world: sing to the LORD, all the earth; declare his glory among the nations; the gods...

• No. 1103 1 Chronicles 8:1-7

  This chapter opens the genealogy of Benjamin, the youngest of Jacob's sons and the smallest of Israel's tribes. It lists Benjamin's sons and their descendants, families of Geba and others, some of whom were...

• No. 1116 1 Chronicles 23:6-11

  David is organizing the Levites for temple service, dividing them into the great clans of Gershon, Kohath, and Merari, and listing their families and heads of households. Buried in the list is a small...

• No. 1162 1 Chronicles 19:1-5

  When Nahash, king of Ammon, dies, David wants to repay a past kindness: I will show kindness to his son Hanun, because his father showed kindness to me. So he sends envoys to comfort the young king in his...

• No. 1183 1 Chronicles 20:1-8

  This chapter records David's later wars, and it lingers on a series of giants. In battle after battle with the Philistines, the descendants of the giant of Gath are struck down: Sibbecai kills Sippai, Elhanan...

• No. 1194 1 Chronicles 29:26-30

  The Chronicler closes the story of David with a summary. He reigned over all Israel forty years, seven in Hebron and thirty-three in Jerusalem. And then the epitaph: he died at a good old age, full of days,...

• No. 1215 1 Chronicles 7:13-19

  This is a stretch of genealogy through Naphtali and Manasseh, mostly a list of sons. But two small notices stand out. In the line of Manasseh, it mentions Zelophehad, and adds that Zelophehad had only...

• No. 1230 1 Chronicles 24:1-6

  David organizes the priests, the descendants of Aaron, into divisions for temple service. Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu had died without children, so the priestly line ran through the other two, Eleazar and...

• No. 1331 1 Chronicles 6:1-15

  This passage traces the priestly line of Israel through the generations: the sons of Levi, down through Kohath and Amram to Aaron, then Aaron's line through Eleazar and Phinehas, generation after generation,...

• No. 1351 1 Chronicles 27:1-15

  This passage lists the organization of David's army into twelve divisions, each of twenty-four thousand men, one for each month of the year. Jashobeam served the first month, Dodai the second, Benaiah the...

• No. 1356 1 Chronicles 16:1-6

  The ark of God has at last been brought into the tent David prepared for it, and the day is marked with burnt offerings and peace offerings. When the sacrifices are finished, David blesses the people in the...

• No. 1394 1 Chronicles 17:1-6

  Settled at last in his own house of cedar, David is troubled that he lives in such comfort while the ark of God's covenant sits in a tent. He tells Nathan the prophet of his desire to build God a house, and...

• No. 1424 1 Chronicles 6:61-65

  This passage records how the Levites were given their cities. Unlike the other tribes, the Levites received no single block of territory of their own; instead they were assigned cities scattered throughout all...

• No. 1433 1 Chronicles 14:8-12

  David has just been made king over all Israel, and the Philistines come out in force to attack him. David does not simply rely on his experience as a warrior or presume on his past victories; he inquires of...

• No. 1481 1 Chronicles 29:6-19

  The leaders of Israel give generously and joyfully toward the building of the temple, gold and silver and bronze and precious stones offered willingly, and the people rejoice at the freewill giving. David...

• No. 1531 1 Chronicles 2:50-55

  This passage traces some of the descendants of Caleb, listing the families that settled various towns, Kiriath-jearim, Bethlehem, and others. Among the names comes a small notice easy to pass over: the...

• No. 1544 1 Chronicles 18:9-17

  This passage parallels the account of David's victories, telling how the king of Hamath sent gifts after David defeated their common enemy, how David dedicated all the plunder to the LORD, and how the LORD...

• No. 1619 1 Chronicles 28:8-21

  David, near the end of his life, charges his son Solomon with the great task of building the temple. Know the God of your father, he says, and serve him with a whole heart; if you seek him, he will be found by...

• No. 1673 1 Chronicles 4:9-23

  In the middle of a long genealogy, the record pauses over one man. Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, but his mother had named him Jabez, meaning sorrow, saying, I bore him in pain. And this Jabez...

• No. 1689 1 Chronicles 22:1-19

  David longed to build the temple, but God told him he would not; because he had shed much blood in war, the house would be built by his son. So David turns his energy to preparation. He gathers stone and iron...

• No. 1692 1 Chronicles 24:7-19

  This passage records how the priests were organized for service in the temple. The descendants of Aaron were divided into twenty-four groups, and lots were cast to assign each its order, from the first,...

• No. 1698 1 Chronicles 21:23-30

  David has been told to build an altar on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. Ornan generously offers to give it all, the land, the oxen for sacrifice, the wood, the wheat, freely. But David refuses. No,...

• No. 1723 1 Chronicles 10:1-7

  The chronicler records the end of Saul. The Philistines fight against Israel, and the men of Israel flee and fall on Mount Gilboa. Saul's sons, Jonathan among them, are killed. The battle presses hard against...

• No. 1735 1 Chronicles 17:7-15

  Through the prophet Nathan, God sends David a word about where he came from and where God will take him. I took you from the sheep pen, God says, from following the sheep, to be prince over my people Israel. I...

• No. 1745 1 Chronicles 21:18-22

  After David's sin in numbering the people, a plague falls on Israel, and the angel of the LORD directs, through the prophet Gad, that David build an altar on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. David...

• No. 1890 1 Chronicles 2:9-17

  This genealogy traces a line through the generations: Ram fathered Amminadab, who fathered Nahshon, a prince of Judah; Nahshon fathered Salma, who fathered Boaz; Boaz fathered Obed, Obed fathered Jesse, and...

• No. 1891 1 Chronicles 8:24-28

  This passage is a list of names, the heads of families among the tribe of Benjamin: Hananiah, Elam, Anthothijah, Iphdeiah, Penuel, and others. They were, the text says, chief men, heads of their fathers'...

• No. 1950 1 Chronicles 15:1-10

  David prepares a place for the ark of God in Jerusalem, and this time he is careful to do it rightly. No one ought to carry the ark of God, he says, but the Levites, for the LORD has chosen them to carry it...

• No. 1967 1 Chronicles 21:13-17

  After David sins by numbering the people, a plague falls on Israel, and seventy thousand die. As the angel of the LORD stretches out his hand over Jerusalem to destroy it, God relents and stops the angel. And...

• No. 1974 1 Chronicles 18:1-8

  David wins a series of victories, subduing the Philistines, Moab, the kings of Zobah and Syria; the LORD gave victory to David wherever he went. And the spoils of these victories, the gold shields, the great...

• No. 1985 1 Chronicles 5:1-9

  The genealogy of Reuben carries a sad note. Reuben was the firstborn of Israel, and the birthright, the double portion and place of leadership, was his by right. But, the text explains, because he defiled his...

• No. 2005 1 Chronicles 12:23-40

  The Chronicler records the numbers of armed men from every tribe who came to David at Hebron to make him king, thousands upon thousands from Judah, Simeon, Levi, Benjamin, Ephraim, and all the rest. And he...

• No. 2009 1 Chronicles 8:29-40

  This genealogy of Benjamin lists family after family, and among the many names it records two we know well: Kish became the father of Saul, and Saul became the father of Jonathan. Israel's first king and his...

• No. 2038 1 Chronicles 11:26-41

  The Chronicler lists the valiant men of David's armies, the warriors who stood with him and were honored for their courage and service. It is a long roll of names, most of them unfamiliar to us, men who fought...

• No. 2056 1 Chronicles 11:20-25

  Among the exploits of David's warriors, the Chronicler tells of Benaiah, a valiant man who did great deeds. He struck down fierce opponents; he killed an Egyptian of great stature, wresting the spear from his...

• No. 2082 1 Chronicles 13:1-5

  Newly established as king, David gathers the leaders of Israel and makes a proposal. He wants to bring back the ark of God, the sign of God's presence among his people, which had been neglected and left aside....

• No. 2137 1 Chronicles 14:13-17

  The Philistines raid the valley a second time, and David, who had already defeated them once, does not simply repeat his earlier tactics. He inquires of God again. And this time God gives him a different...

• No. 2156 1 Chronicles 25:25-31

  In the ordering of worship for the temple, David sets apart a great company of Levites specifically for the ministry of music and praise. This passage lists the last of twenty-four divisions of these...

• No. 2181 1 Chronicles 10:8-14

  After Saul dies on Mount Gilboa and the men of Jabesh recover his body, the Chronicler pauses to sum up his life in a single, sobering verdict. So Saul died for his unfaithfulness which he committed against...

• No. 2234 1 Chronicles 11:42-47

  The long roll of David's warriors closes with more names, and among them are men from beyond Israel. There is Ithmah the Moabite, and others whose origins mark them as outsiders to Israel by birth. These...

• No. 2261 1 Chronicles 14:1-7

  As David is established as king and his kingdom prospers, with Hiram sending materials to build him a palace, David perceives something about his exaltation. He perceived, the text says, that the LORD had...

• No. 2266 1 Chronicles 6:66-70

  As the land is divided, the Levites, who received no territory of their own, are given cities scattered among the various tribes. This passage lists cities given to the Kohathite Levites out of the tribes of...

• No. 2285 1 Chronicles 1:8-16

  The Chronicler traces the descent of the nations from the sons of Noah. From Ham come Cush, Egypt, and Canaan; from them come the peoples of many lands, the Philistines, the Canaanite tribes, and others. It is...

• No. 2315 1 Chronicles 15:25-29

  David brings the ark of the covenant up to Jerusalem with great celebration. All Israel comes with shouting, with trumpets and cymbals and harps, in a great outpouring of joy. And David himself, the king,...

• No. 2498 1 Chronicles 1:1-7

  The Chronicler begins the entire national story not with an event but with a name, and then a chain of them: Adam, Seth, Enosh, down through Noah, and out into the sons of Japheth, Gomer, Javan, and the...

• No. 2519 1 Chronicles 27:16-24

  Among the lists of David's officials comes a curious note. David set rulers over each tribe, but when it came to counting the people, he did not number those twenty and under, because the LORD had promised to...

• No. 2603 1 Chronicles 1:43-54

  Chronicles pauses to list the kings who reigned in Edom before Israel ever had a king. Bela reigned, then died; Jobab reigned in his place, then died; Husham, Hadad, Samlah, Shaul, one after another, each...

• No. 2610 1 Chronicles 29:1-5

  Old David, unable to build the temple himself, has gathered vast provisions for his son Solomon to use. But then he adds something more, and explains why. Because I have set my affection on the house of my...

• No. 2632 1 Chronicles 12:1-7

  Chronicles lists the warriors who came to David at Ziklag while he was still a fugitive, hunted by King Saul. What stands out is where some of them came from: they were of Saul's own tribe, Benjamin, the...

• No. 2638 1 Chronicles 26:12-19

  Chronicles records the assignment of the gatekeepers, the doorkeepers of the temple. By lot, small and great alike, they are given their posts at the various gates, east, north, south, west, and at the...

• No. 2649 1 Chronicles 9:28-32

  Chronicles records a set of quiet, trusted assignments in the temple. Certain Levites were in charge of the vessels of service, and the text notes the discipline: they were brought in by count and taken out by...

• No. 2657 1 Chronicles 27:25-34

  Chronicles lists the officials of David's kingdom, overseers of the treasuries, the fields, the vineyards, the herds and camels, and then the men closest to the king: Ahithophel the counselor, Jehiel the tutor...

• No. 2753 1 Chronicles 21:1-6

  Satan rises up against Israel and moves David to number the people, and the king orders Joab to count the fighting men from Beersheba to Dan. Even Joab, who is no tender conscience, balks: why does my lord...

• No. 2845 1 Chronicles 28:1-7

  David gathers all the leaders of Israel and tells them what had been in his heart: to build a house of rest for the ark of the covenant. He had prepared for it. But God said no. You shall not build a house for...

• No. 2901 1 Chronicles 9:10-16

  This is a roster of the priests and Levites who came back from exile and settled in Jerusalem, listed by family. Among them are seventeen hundred and sixty men described in a single telling phrase: very able...

• No. 2964 1 Chronicles 16:37-43

  After David brings the ark to Jerusalem, he organizes the worship around it. He appoints Asaph and his brothers to minister before the ark continually, day by day as the work required, gatekeepers to guard the...

• No. 2978 1 Chronicles 24:20-31

  This is a genealogical list of the remaining Levites, organized by their families, who cast lots for their duties alongside the priests, in the presence of David and the leaders, the head of a family treated...

• No. 3015 1 Chronicles 2:41-49

  This is a dense stretch of genealogy, tracing the descendants of Caleb, name giving rise to name, including the children of his concubines, and ending, almost in passing, with a daughter: the daughter of Caleb...

• No. 3200 1 Chronicles 6:71-76

  This list assigns cities with their pasturelands to the Levites, the clan of the Gershomites, drawn out of several different tribes: from Manasseh, from Issachar, from Asher, from Naphtali. The Levites are...

• No. 3277 1 Chronicles 26:1-11

  This list names the divisions of the doorkeepers, the gatekeepers appointed to guard the entrances of the LORD's house. It might seem a lowly duty, standing at a gate, but it was a sacred trust: to guard the...

• No. 3280 1 Chronicles 1:28-33

  This genealogy records not only Isaac, the son of promise, but Ishmael and the sons of Keturah, the other children of Abraham. Ishmael's twelve sons are named, and the sons of Keturah who became peoples of the...

• No. 3342 1 Chronicles 19:6-13

  The Ammonites hire a vast force of Syrian chariots and cavalry, and Joab suddenly finds his army caught between two armies, one before and one behind. His response models courage joined with submission to God....

• No. 3513 1 Chronicles 11:15-19

  Longing for water from the well of Bethlehem, his home town now held by the enemy, David voices the wish aloud. And three of his warriors break through the Philistine lines at the risk of their lives to bring...

• No. 3519 1 Chronicles 25:9-24

  This passage records the casting of lots to organize the temple musicians into orderly divisions for their service, twenty-four groups drawn by lot, each in its appointed turn. It might seem a mere...

• No. 3541 1 Chronicles 23:21-32

  This passage lists the appointed duties of the Levites, the practical work of assisting the priests, caring for the courts and the holy things, preparing the showbread and the offerings. And one duty stands...

• No. 3563 1 Chronicles 6:77-81

  This continues the list of towns given to the Levites throughout the tribes, cities with their surrounding pasturelands, scattered among Zebulun, Reuben, and Gad. As before, the point is that the Levites, who...

• No. 3682 1 Chronicles 26:20-32

  This passage names the Levites appointed over the treasuries of God's house and the dedicated gifts, and others set over Israel's outward business as officers and judges. It records that dedicated spoils from...

• No. 3683 1 Chronicles 2:1-8

  This genealogy of Judah's line records both the good and the shameful without flinching. It names Er, Judah's firstborn, who was wicked in the LORD's sight and died; it names Tamar, out of whose difficult...

• No. 3896 1 Chronicles 4:24-38

  This passage lists the descendants of Simeon, their families, their towns, their leaders, another of the genealogies that fill the opening chapters of Chronicles. To a casual reader it is a dry catalog of...

• No. 3930 1 Chronicles 9:1-9

  After chapters of genealogy, the chronicler pauses to note something important: Judah was carried away into exile in Babylon because of their unfaithfulness. The long lists of names had led up to a national...

• No. 4063 1 Chronicles 29:20-25

  At the end of David's reign, as Solomon is made king, the whole assembly of Israel blesses the LORD together, bowing low before him. They offer sacrifices in abundance, and they eat and drink before the LORD...

• No. 4094 1 Chronicles 11:10-14

  Among the accounts of David's warriors is the story of Eleazar. When the Philistines gathered for battle in a field of barley, and the rest of the men fled in fear, Eleazar stood his ground. He took his stand...

• No. 4127 1 Chronicles 13:6-14

  David sets out to bring the ark of God to Jerusalem with great celebration, but the joyful procession ends in tragedy. When the oxen stumble and Uzzah reaches out to steady the ark, God's anger breaks out...

• No. 4166 1 Chronicles 3:1-9

  This passage lists the sons of David, born to him by many different wives in Hebron and Jerusalem. It reads as a simple genealogy, but a reader who knows David's story feels the shadow behind it. Many of these...

• No. 4216 1 Chronicles 7:1-5

  This passage records the descendants of Issachar, and it repeatedly notes their character: they were men of valor, courageous and ready, listed by their generations, tens of thousands strong. The genealogy...

• No. 4230 1 Chronicles 4:39-43

  This passage records how the sons of Simeon, needing pasture for their flocks, went out to look for it. They journeyed to the entrance of a valley and there found what they sought: rich, good pasture, and land...

• No. 4249 1 Chronicles 8:8-23

  This passage is a genealogy of the tribe of Benjamin, a long list of names, heads of families, generation upon generation. Among the names, a few small notes stand out: some of these people built cities, Ono...

• No. 4263 1 Chronicles 21:7-12

  After David sinfully numbered his fighting men, an act of pride and self-reliance, God is displeased, and David is stricken in conscience. His response is a model of honest confession: I have sinned greatly in...