So the number of them, with their brethren,.... Who each of them had twelve with them, as after reckoned:
that were instructed in the songs of the Lord; taught how to sing them:
[even] all that were cunning; expert and well skilled in the science of singing:
was two hundred and eighty eight; for there being twenty four classes answerable to those of the priests, and twelve in each class, twelve times twenty four makes two hundred and eighty eight.