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1 Chronicles 27 Bible study: Like the stars of the sky
David didn't number those twenty years old and under "because the LORD had said he would increase Israel like the stars of the sky" (27:23): in Hebrew, the same verb and the same words for the stars of the sky as the LORD's promise to Abraham and to Isaac (Genesis 22:17, 26:4). And the count Joab began, he "didn’t finish" (27:24).
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“But David didn’t take the number of them from twenty years old and under, because the LORD had said he would increase Israel like the stars of the sky.”
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“1 Chronicles 27 says Joab began to take a census but didn't finish it.”
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What's really going on
Twelve divisions, one for each month
The chapter opens with the men "who served the king in any matter of the divisions which came in and went out month by month throughout all the months of the year—of every division were twenty-four thousand" (27:1). Then it names a captain for each month, from "Over the first division for the first month was Jashobeam the son of Zabdiel" (27:2) to "The twelfth captain for the twelfth month was Heldai the Netophathite" (27:15). Each division is given the same number, "twenty-four thousand" (27:1). The chapter gives no total, and none is added here. It doesn't say what each division did in its month beyond that it served the king (27:1).
Where it leads to Jesus
Entrusted with the master's goods
1 Chronicles 27:31leads toMatthew 25:14
"All these were the rulers of the property which was King David’s" (27:31): men set over the king's treasures, fields, vineyards, olive trees, herds and flocks (27:25-31). Jesus told of "a man going into another country, who called his own servants and entrusted his goods to them" (Matthew 25:14). To the one who had traded well his lord said, "You have been faithful over a few things, I will set you over many things" (Matthew 25:21). Jesus doesn't cite 1 Chronicles 27, so setting the two side by side is a reading. Some set them together because both show a master's goods put in the charge of others. Others read each on its own: 1 Chronicles only names who was over what (27:25-31) and says nothing of how they served, while Jesus's parable is about the day when "the lord of those servants came, and settled accounts with them" (Matthew 25:19).
Honest questions
Questions people ask about 1 Chronicles 27
That was a taste
The rest of 1 Chronicles 27 is waiting in Favor
- The count David didn't take
- Counselor and friend
- The rulers of the tribes
- Captains who were mighty men
- Men set over what belonged to the king
- 14 questions as you read
- 10 more Hebrew words
- A short check at the end
- Your notes, saved as you go
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The Hebrew word behind it
מַחֲלֹקֶתmachaloqetsay ma-kha-LO-ket
Brown-Driver-Briggs: "division, course (almost wholly Chr.)". Strong's: "a section (of Levites, people or soldiers)". Chapter 24 used it for "the divisions of the sons of Aaron" (24:1). Here it is the army's: "of every division were twenty-four thousand" (27:1). The Hebrew Bible has the word 42 times, and 18 of them are in this chapter, more than in any other.
For your group
1 Chronicles 27 Bible study questions
- 1David didn't number those twenty years old and under "because the LORD had said he would increase Israel like the stars of the sky" (27:23). What is something God has said that changes what you do, or don't do, this week?
- 2The chapter names a man over each part of the king's property: treasures, fields, vineyards, olive trees, herds and flocks (27:25-31). What has been put in your care right now, and how are you looking after it?
- 3The king had a counselor and a friend (27:33). Who gives you counsel, and who is a friend to you? What's the difference in how each helps you?
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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Hebrew and Greek words are checked against the original-language texts and public-domain lexicons. What we believe · Favor home