1. When David had grown old and was near the end of his days, he made his son Solomon king over Israel.
2. He then gathered together all the officials of Israel, along with the priests and the Levites.
3. The Levites thirty years old and above were counted, and their total number was found to be thirty-eight thousand.
4. Of these, twenty-four thousand were to direct the service of the house of the Lord, six thousand were to be officials and judges,
5. four thousand were to be gatekeepers, and four thousand were to praise the Lord with the instruments which [David] had devised for praise.
6. David apportioned them into divisions according to the sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.
7. To the Gershonites belonged Ladan and Shimei.
8. The sons of Ladan: Jehiel the chief, then Zetham and Joel; three in all.
9. The sons of Shimei were Shelomoth, Haziel, and Haran; three. These were the heads of the families of Ladan.
10. The sons of Shimei were Jahath, Zizah, Jeush, and Beriah; these were the sons of Shimei, four in all.
11. Jahath was the chief and Zizah was second to him; but Jeush and Beriah had few sons, and therefore they were classed as a single family, exercising a single office.