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Courses

Boyd’s Bible Dictionary:

(running). Priests divided into twenty-four classes, courses, or orders (1 Chron. 24). [ASIA.]

Concise Bible Dictionary:

David divided the priests into 24 courses: 16 of them were of the house of Eleazar, and 8 of Ithamar. A list of them, under the name of each head, is given in 1 Chronicles 24:6-19⁶And Shemaiah the son of Nethaneel the scribe, one of the Levites, wrote them before the king, and the princes, and Zadok the priest, and Ahimelech the son of Abiathar, and before the chief of the fathers of the priests and Levites: one principal household being taken for Eleazar, and one taken for Ithamar. ⁷Now the first lot came forth to Jehoiarib, the second to Jedaiah, ⁸The third to Harim, the fourth to Seorim, ⁹The fifth to Malchijah, the sixth to Mijamin, ¹⁰The seventh to Hakkoz, the eighth to Abijah, ¹¹The ninth to Jeshua, the tenth to Shecaniah, ¹²The eleventh to Eliashib, the twelfth to Jakim, ¹³The thirteenth to Huppah, the fourteenth to Jeshebeab, ¹⁴The fifteenth to Bilgah, the sixteenth to Immer, ¹⁵The seventeenth to Hezir, the eighteenth to Aphses, ¹⁶The nineteenth to Pethahiah, the twentieth to Jehezekel, ¹⁷The one and twentieth to Jachin, the two and twentieth to Gamul, ¹⁸The three and twentieth to Delaiah, the four and twentieth to Maaziah. ¹⁹These were the orderings of them in their service to come into the house of the Lord, according to their manner, under Aaron their father, as the Lord God of Israel had commanded him. (1 Chronicles 24:6‑19). The Levites were divided in a similar manner (1 Chron. 23). David also instituted in the army a kind of militia, each course to serve a month (1 Chron. 27).

The courses of the priests and Levites were restored by Ezra on the return from captivity (Ezra 6:18¹⁸And they set the priests in their divisions, and the Levites in their courses, for the service of God, which is at Jerusalem; as it is written in the book of Moses. (Ezra 6:18)), and we find them still in operation in the New Testament Zacharias the father of John the Baptist was of the course of Abia, which doubtless refers to Abijah, the eighth name mentioned in 1 Chronicles 24:10¹⁰The seventh to Hakkoz, the eighth to Abijah, (1 Chronicles 24:10). At the end of his service he returned to his house (Luke 1:5, 23⁵There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth. (Luke 1:5)
²³And it came to pass, that, as soon as the days of his ministration were accomplished, he departed to his own house. (Luke 1:23)). The length of service was a week, commencing from the Sabbath (2 Chron. 23:8⁸So the Levites and all Judah did according to all things that Jehoiada the priest had commanded, and took every man his men that were to come in on the sabbath, with them that were to go out on the sabbath: for Jehoiada the priest dismissed not the courses. (2 Chronicles 23:8)).

Twenty-four is a number seldom found in the scripture: there may therefore, as to number, be an allusion to the 24 courses of priests in the 24 elders seated on thrones in Revelation 4:4⁴And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold. (Revelation 4:4), representing the complete heavenly priesthood.