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1 Chronicles 6 Bible study: The singers and the altar
1 Chronicles 6 gives the singers their places: Heman, Asaph on his right hand, Ethan's family on the left (6:33, 6:39, 6:44), and Heman's line runs back through Samuel and Korah to Levi (6:33-38). But at the altars, "Aaron and his sons offered", "to make atonement for Israel" (6:49).
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“But Aaron and his sons offered on the altar of burnt offering, and on the altar of incense, for all the work of the most holy place, and to make atonement for Israel, according to all that Moses the servant of God had commanded.”
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“1 Chronicles 6 lists Samuel in the line of Kohath the son of Levi.”
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What's really going on
One tribe, three kinds of work
Levi's family does three kinds of work in this chapter. There are the singers: "These are they whom David set over the service of song in the LORD’s house after the ark came to rest there" (6:31). There are the rest of the Levites: "Their brothers the Levites were appointed for all the service of the tabernacle of God’s house" (6:48) (tap service). And there are the priests: "But Aaron and his sons offered on the altar of burnt offering, and on the altar of incense, for all the work of the most holy place, and to make atonement for Israel, according to all that Moses the servant of God had commanded" (6:49) (tap make atonement). The two verses stand side by side: the Levites for the service of the tabernacle, Aaron's family at the altars. Numbers draws the same line: "You shall appoint Aaron and his sons, and they shall keep their priesthood" (Numbers 3:10), and the Levites "shall not come near to the vessels of the sanctuary and to the altar" (Numbers 18:3).
Where it leads to Jesus
Priests who offer by the law
1 Chronicles 6:49leads toHebrews 8:3-4
"But Aaron and his sons offered on the altar of burnt offering, and on the altar of incense, for all the work of the most holy place, and to make atonement for Israel, according to all that Moses the servant of God had commanded" (6:49). Hebrews, which has called Jesus "a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek" (Hebrews 6:20), says, "we have such a high priest" (Hebrews 8:1), and "every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Therefore it is necessary that this high priest also have something to offer. For if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, seeing there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law" (Hebrews 8:3-4). Hebrews doesn't cite 1 Chronicles 6, so setting 6:49 beside it is a reading. Some hear in "priests who offer the gifts according to the law" (Hebrews 8:4) the priests this verse describes, Aaron's sons offering by what Moses commanded; others read Hebrews 8 with the law's priesthood as Exodus and Leviticus give it, and draw no line from this chapter.
Honest questions
Questions people ask about 1 Chronicles 6
That was a taste
The rest of 1 Chronicles 6 is waiting in Favor
- From Eleazar to the exile
- Singers, each in his place
- Cities among the tribes
- Heman's line runs through Korah
- The priests' line and the other books
- Samuel's sons in the Hebrew
- 23 questions as you read
- 11 more Hebrew words
- A short check at the end
- Your notes, saved as you go
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The Hebrew word behind it
כָּפַרkafarsay ka-FAR
Brown-Driver-Briggs: "cover over, atone for sin and persons by legal rites". Strong's: "figuratively, to expiate or condone, to placate or cancel". Aaron and his sons offered "to make atonement for Israel, according to all that Moses the servant of God had commanded" (6:49). In the Hebrew of 1 Chronicles, this is the only verse with the word. The work it names is given to "Aaron and his sons" (6:49), beside "Their brothers the Levites" (6:48). Leviticus gives the same work to the priest: "he shall make atonement for the priests and for all the people of the assembly" (Leviticus 16:33).
For your group
1 Chronicles 6 Bible study questions
- 1In this chapter Levi's family does different work: some sing (6:31-33), some serve at the tabernacle (6:48), and Aaron's sons offer at the altars (6:49). What work do you think God has given you right now, and is it hard to value it beside someone else's?
- 2The singers "ministered with song before the tabernacle of the Tent of Meeting until Solomon had built the LORD’s house in Jerusalem" (6:32). They sang before the house was built. What are you waiting to see finished, and what would it look like to worship God in the meantime?
- 3"Heman the singer" (6:33) comes from Korah's line (6:37), and Korah had risen against Moses (Numbers 16:1-3). What does it say to you that a family's story can take a new turn?
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