I Chronicles 6:2

And the sons of Kohath; Amram, Izhar, and Hebron, and Uzziel,.... Given in the same order as in Exo 6:18; see Gill on Exo 6:18. . 1 Chronicles 6:3 ch1 6:3 ch1 6:3 ch1 6:3And the children of Amram, Aaron, and Moses, and Miriam,.... Very memorable persons: Aaron was the high priest, Moses the prophet and lawgiver, and Miriam a prophetess, see Mic 6:4, the sons also of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar; the two first were destroyed by fire from heaven for offering strange fire, Lev 10:1 and the third succeeded his father in the high priesthood; the line of which is drawn from Aaron through him unto the Babylonish captivity, from hence to the end of the fifteenth verse, where it ends: Jehozadak is the same with Josedech, Hag 1:1 who went young into Babylon, and whose son Joshua, born in the captivity, came out of it on the proclamation of Cyrus, Ezr 2:2. According to Josephus (e), and other Jewish writers (f), in the times of Uzzi, Ch1 6:6 the priesthood was translated into the family of Ithamar, of which Eli was the first high priest; where it continued to the times of Solomon, when it was restored to Zadok, of the line of Eleazar. It is particularly observed of Azariah, Ch1 6:10 that he it was that executed the priest's office in the temple built by Solomon; not that he was the first that officiated in it, that was Zadok; but this seems to be Azariah, who was the high priest in the times of Uzziah, who opposed him when he would have offered incense in the temple, Ch2 26:17, which may be the reason why he is so particularly taken notice of here; though some think this is to be understood of Johanan, the father of Azariah, supposed to the same with Jehoiada, who, in the times of Athaliah, was the instrument of preserving both church and state, Kg2 11:4, the temple…

Though Joseph and Judah shared between them the forfeited honours of the birthright, yet Levi was first of all the tribes, dignified and distinguished with an honour more valuable than either the precedency or the double portion, and that was the priesthood. That tribe God set apart for himself; it was Moses's tribe, and perhaps for his sake was thus favoured. Of that tribe we have an account in this chapter. I. Their pedigree, the first fathers of the tribe (Ch1 6:1-3), the line of the priests, from Aaron to the captivity (Ch1 6:4-15), and of some other of their families (Ch1 6:16-30). II. Their work, the work of the Levites (v. 31-48), of the priests (Ch1 6:49-53). III. The cities appointed them in the land of Canaan (v. 54-81).

6:2-15 After the Exile, the community of Judea, for whom Chronicles was written, needed to establish unequivocally the legitimate ancestry of the priests. This genealogy of Kohath established continuity between the ancestors known from the Pentateuch and the later high priests down to the exile of Judah in 586 BC; other records connected the priests following the Exile with this line (see Ezra 3:2; 7:1-6; Hag 1:1). Not all who served as high priest were included in this listing.