Meaning
Asaph (collector of the people).
1. A Levite, son of Berechiah, one of the leaders of David’s choir. (1Chronicles 6:39) Psalms 50 and 73-83 are attributed to him; and he was in after times celebrated as a seer as well as a musical composer. (2Chronicles 29:30; Nehemiah 12:46) (B.C. 1050.)
2. The father or ancestor of Joah, the chronicler to the kingdom of Judah in the reign of Hezekiah, (2Kgs 18:18; 2Kgs 18:37; Isa 36:3; Isa 36:22) probably the same as the preceding.
3. The keeper of the royal forest or "paradise" of Artaxerxes, (Nehemiah 2:8) a Jew, in high office at the court of Persia. (B.C. 536.)
4. Ancestor of Mattaniah, the conductor of the temple-choir after the return from Babylon. (1Chronicles 9:16; Nehemiah 11:17) Most probably the same as 1 and 2.
