(collector of the people)

1. A Levite, son of Berechiah, one of the leaders of David’s choir (1 Chronicles 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 (2 Chronicles 29:30; Nehemiah 12:46)
2. The father or ancestor of Joah, the chronicler to the kingdom of Judah in the reign of Hezekiah (2 Kings 18:18, 37; Isaiah 36:3, 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
4. Ancestor of Mattaniah, the conductor of the temple-choir after the return from Babylon (1 Chronicles 9:16; Nehemiah 11:17), most probably the same as 1 and 2