1 Chronicles 6 is the sixth chapter of the Books of Chronicles in the Hebrew Bible or the First Book of Chronicles in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. The book is compiled from older sources by an unknown person or group, designated by modern scholars as "the Chronicler", and had the final shape established in late fifth or fourth century BCE. This chapter focuses on the tribe of Levi, divided into the line of the high priests (verses 1–15); the three lines of the families Gershom, Kohath, and Merari (verses 16–30); the lines of the musicians/singers (verses 31–47); duties of Levites and priests (verses 48–49); list of high priests (verses 50–53) and the Aaronites' and Levites' settlements (verses 54–81). It belongs to the section focusing on the list of genealogies from Adam to the lists of the people returning from exile in Babylon (1 Chronicles 1:1 to 9:34).

This chapter was originally written in the Hebrew language. It is divided into 81 verses in English Bibles, but only 66 verses in Hebrew Bible using a different verse numbering (see below).

There are some differences in verse numbering of this chapter in English Bibles and Hebrew texts as follows:

This article generally follows the common numbering in Christian English Bible versions, with notes to the numbering in Hebrew Bible versions.

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text tradition, which includes the Aleppo Codex (10th century), and Codex Leningradensis (1008).

There is also a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint, made in the last few centuries BCE. Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus (B; ${\displaystyle {\mathfrak {G}}}$^B; 4th century), and Codex Alexandrinus (A; ${\displaystyle {\mathfrak {G}}}$^A; 5th century).

The genealogy of priestly tribe of Levi, apart from that of Judah, is longer than any of other tribes, showing the focus of the Chronicler on the temple and temple workers, preserved by David's line. The list first names Levi and his three sons, apparently taken from Genesis 46:11 (also Exodus 6:16; Numbers 26:57). Subsequently, three generations of the Kohathites, continuing with only the branches leading to famous siblings: Moses, Aaron and Miriam, then to the Aaronite high priests. Miriam's name is this list, because of her significance in history, which has parallels in the Torah (cf. for instance Exodus 6:16–25).

Verses 4–15 contain twenty-two successors of Aaron from the time of his death to the Babylonian exile, but the abridged version of the same list in Ezra 7:1–7 only has 15 names instead of 22. The list apparently serves as a legitimizing role, that the high priests in office during Chronicler's time could genealogically be traced back to Zadok and even further to Aaron, while omitting some names mentioned in other documents (such as Jehoiada, cf. 2 Chr 22:11–24:17). Omissions could be attributed to the confusion of the same names within the priestly families, such as recurrences of Amariah, Azariah and Zadok, leading to copyist errors. For examples, three Azariahs are listed here but one from the reign of Uzziah (2 Chronicles 26:20) and another from the reign of Hezekiah (2 Chronicles 31:10) are apparently overlooked. However, the narrative of the histories in the book and the writings of Josephus who provides a longer list (Antiquities 10:152-153) help to reconstruct a fairly complete genealogy. Two high-priests are given bits of narrative: Azariah son of Johanan "who served as priest in the house that Solomon built in Jerusalem" (verse 10) and Jehozadak son of Seraiah "who went into exile when the Lord sent Judah and Jerusalem into exile by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar" (vese 15), a witness to the destruction of Solomon's temple, therefore these two priests bracket the entire First Temple Period. The high-priestly lineage here ends with Jehozadak, but Nehemiah 12:10-11 continues where the list leaves off, with Joshua son of Jehozadak (cf. Haggai 1:1; 2:2, 4) and his line down to Jaddua II (born c. 420 BCE).