1 Chronicles 26:20-32--Treasurers and Other Officials

1 Chronicles 26:20-32
English Standard Version

Treasurers and Other Officials
20 And of the Levites, Ahijah had charge of the treasuries of the house of God and the treasuries of the dedicated gifts. 21 The sons of Ladan, the sons of the Gershonites belonging to Ladan, the heads of the fathers' houses belonging to Ladan the Gershonite: Jehieli.

22 The sons of Jehieli, Zetham, and Joel his brother, were in charge of the treasuries of the house of the LORD. 23 Of the Amramites, the Izharites, the Hebronites, and the Uzzielites-- 24 and Shebuel the son of Gershom, son of Moses, was chief officer in charge of the treasuries. 25 His brothers: from Eliezer were his son Rehabiah, and his son Jeshaiah, and his son Joram, and his son Zichri, and his son Shelomoth. 26 This Shelomoth and his brothers were in charge of all the treasuries of the dedicated gifts that David the king and the heads of the fathers' houses and the officers of the thousands and the hundreds and the commanders of the army had dedicated. 27 From spoil won in battles they dedicated gifts for the maintenance of the house of the LORD. 28 Also all that Samuel the seer and Saul the son of Kish and Abner the son of Ner and Joab the son of Zeruiah had dedicated—all dedicated gifts were in the care of Shelomoth and his brothers.

​29 Of the Izharites, Chenaniah and his sons were appointed to external duties for Israel, as officers and judges. 30 Of the Hebronites, Hashabiah and his brothers, 1,700 men of ability, had the oversight of Israel westward of the Jordan for all the work of the LORD and for the service of the king. 31 Of the Hebronites, Jerijah was chief of the Hebronites of whatever genealogy or fathers' houses. (In the fortieth year of David's reign search was made and men of great ability among them were found at Jazer in Gilead.) 32 King David appointed him and his brothers, 2,700 men of ability, heads of fathers' houses, to have the oversight of the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of the Manassites for everything pertaining to God and for the affairs of the king.

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David is going to make a few more appointments among the Levites.  First, there will be many gifts given to the Temple out of the spoils of war and for the upkeep of the Temple, and David put these men listed in verses 20-28 in charge of the treasuries.

He also appointed some Levites to specifically oversee things with the Trans-Jordan tribes.  They were seen (and often saw themselves) as outsiders.  It would be tempting for them to say they lived too far away to come to the Temple to worship, or that they needed their own cultural identity, or that they could worship the LORD right where they were at, or in the way that they determined was good and proper.  We'll see a lot of that actually happening here soon, and we also see it in our world today.  Therefore, David took special care to send special envoys from the Levites to acts almost like ambassadors to these far-away tribes.  They were to help make sure that they remained one people with the rest of the nation by knowing and obeying the Law of the LORD, that there were open lines of communication between them and the people in power in Jerusalem, and to make sure that all official messages from the king and the priests reached them as it would be hard to trust word-of-mouth news to get across the Jordan River to them without dedicated envoys taking the news to them.