For by the last words of David. — That is, owing to his last commands. So Vulg. (juxta praecepta David novissima) and Syriac.
The Levites were numbered. — Literally, these (are), i.e., according to the later idiom, this (is) the enumeration of the sons of Levi, from twenty years old and upward. The verse seems to mean that David towards the end of his reign instituted a census of Levites from twenty instead of thirty years old. Thus, the Authorised Version gives the sense. Others render, For in the Last words (i.e., records) of David is the number of the sons of Levi from twenty, &c., as if the chronicler were referring to some historical work in which this special census was recorded. (Comp. 1 Chronicles 29:29.) The verse is a parenthetic remark of the chronicler, interrupting the speech of David, which, however, is resumed in 1 Chronicles 23:28, and continued to the end of the chapter.