His brother Asaph. — Asaph was Heman’s brother (1) as a Levite; (2) as a choir-master.
The striking agreement of the line of Heman with that of the Kohathites, detailed in 1 Chronicles 6:22-28 above, has led critics to look for a like coincidence between the line of Asaph as given here, and that of the Gershonites in 1 Chronicles 6:20-21. There, however, we have only seven names, here there are thirteen. Still we observe that in the former passage the three names, Jahath, Zimmah, and Zerah appear in the same order of lineal descent from Gershon as in the present list; while the Adaiah of 1 Chronicles 6:41 obviously answers to the Iddo of 1 Chronicles 6:21, and Ethni (1 Chronicles 6:41) is in Hebrew writing not unlike Jeaterai; and we are already familiar with the fact that genealogies sometimes recur in abbreviated forms. (Comp. Ezra 7:1-5, with the line of Aaron in the present chapter.) Upon the whole, therefore, if the suggested identifications be correct, it appears that Asaph’s pedigree has really been partially anticipated in 1 Chronicles 6:20-21.