Asaph

Asaph (God has gathered), is the name of five men from the Old Testament.

1. The father of Joah (2 Kin. 18:18, 37).

2. A Levite and the son of Berachiah the Gershonite (2 Chr. 20:14). Asaph sounded cymbals before the Ark of the Covenant when it was moved from the house of Obed-Edom to Jerusalem (1 Chr. 15:16, 19). Asaph's family became one of the three families given responsibility for music and song in the Temple (1 Chr. 25:1–9). Following the Captivity, 128 singers from this family returned from Babylon and conducted the singing when the foundations of Zerubbabel's temple were laid (Ezra 2:41; 3:10). Twelve Psalms (Psalms 50; 73–83) are attributed to the family of Asaph.

3. A Levite whose descendants lived in Jerusalem after the Captivity (1 Chr. 9:15).

4. A Levite descendant of Kohath (1 Chr. 26:1).

5. The keeper of the king's forest under the Persian king Artaxerxes I Longimanus (Neh. 2:8).