What Does 1 Chronicles 6:33 Mean?

(33) **And these are they that waited** **(*stood**)* **with their children.**—The main sentence which began at 1Chronicles 6:31, and was suspended by the parenthetic 1Chronicles 6:32, is now resumed. The persons meant are the three chiefs of the Levitical guilds of musicians, Heman, Asaph, and Ethan; their “children” are the members of those guilds. (Comp. the phrase, “sons of the prophets,” *i.e.,* members of prophetic guilds, 2Kings 9:1; Amos 7:14.) 1Chronicles 25:1-7 supplies the names of the principal “sons” of the three masters. Their Levitical descent is shown in the genealogies here traced up from themselves to Levi. First we have the pedigree of Heman (1Chronicles 6:33-38) the Kohathite. **Heman a singer.**—Rather, *the singer* or *minstrel.* Heman, as representing the chief branch of the Levites, is *primus inter pares* as regards the other master singers. His choir occupied the centre, having on its right that of the Gershonite Asaph, on its left that of the Merarite Ethan (1Chronicles 6:39; 1Chronicles 6:44), so that Heman would conduct the whole body of musicians, when the three choirs chanted in concert. The word “minstrel” is more appropriate than “singer” because the original term (*ham’shôrēr*) implies singing which the singer himself accompanies with an instrument of music. (See 1Chronicles 25:6; LXX., ὁ ψαλτῳδὸς*.*) **Son of Joel, the son of Shemuel.**—It is interesting to learn that Heman, the great minstrel, was a grandson of Samuel the great prophet. (For the connection between music and prophecy, see 2Kings 3:15; 1Samuel 10:5-6; and below, 1Chronicles 25:1, Note.) Considering that some have denied that Samuel was a Levite, the point of contact here noted looks like an undesigned coincidence.