Amasai

Amasai is the name carried by four distinct figures in Chronicles, all of them clustered around the Levitical and military life of Israel. The name attaches to a Kohathite ancestor in Samuel's pedigree, to a captain who pledged the loyalty of his men to David, to a priestly trumpeter at the bringing-up of the ark, and to a Kohathite Levite who answered Hezekiah's call to cleanse the temple.

A Levite in Samuel's Pedigree

The earliest Amasai stands in the Kohathite line that runs down through Elkanah to Samuel. He appears once as a son of Elkanah — "And the sons of Elkanah: Amasai, and Ahimoth, Elkanah" (1Ch 6:25) — and again in the ascending genealogy that traces Samuel's descent from the Kohathites: "the son of Zuph, the son of Elkanah, the son of Mahath, the son of Amasai" (1Ch 6:35). Within the Chronicler's careful Levitical bookkeeping he is one of the named links by which Samuel's prophetic and priestly inheritance is set on the Levitical map.

The Captain Who Pledged Loyalty to David

A second Amasai meets David at the head of a band that had broken from Saul. The Chronicler records the moment as a Spirit-prompted oath: "Then the Spirit came upon Amasai, who was chief of the elite troops, [and he said], We are yours, David, and on your side, you son of Jesse: peace, peace be to you, and peace be to your helpers; for your God helps you. Then David received them, and made them captains of the band" (1Ch 12:18). The bracketed [and he said] flags that the speaker is named only in the surrounding narrative; the threefold "peace" and the recognition that "your God helps you" are the substance of his pledge, and David's response is to enrol Amasai's company among his standing officers.

A Priest and Trumpeter at the Ark

A third Amasai is one of the priests assigned to sound the trumpets before the ark when David brought it up to Jerusalem: "And Shebaniah, and Joshaphat, and Nethanel, and Amasai, and Zechariah, and Benaiah, and Eliezer, the priests, blew the trumpets before the ark of God: and Obed-edom and Jehiah were doorkeepers for the ark" (1Ch 15:24). His office is liturgical rather than military — he stands in the line of priests whose trumpets accompany the ark's procession.

A Kohathite at Hezekiah's Cleansing

A fourth Amasai surfaces a generation later, named only as the father of one of the Levites who answered Hezekiah's summons to purify the temple: "Then the Levites arose, Mahath, the son of Amasai, and Joel the son of Azariah, of the sons of the Kohathites; and of the sons of Merari, Kish the son of Abdi, and Azariah the son of Jehallelel; and of the Gershonites, Joah the son of Zimmah, and Eden the son of Joah" (2Ch 29:12). Like the first Amasai, he belongs to the Kohathites; his place in the record is as the father whose son rose to cleanse the sanctuary at the beginning of Hezekiah's reform.