Divisions of Levites

¹Now the divisions of the sons of Aaron were these : the sons of Aaron were Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.

²But Nadab and Abihu died before their father and had no sons. So Eleazar and Ithamar ministered as priests.[#24:2 Or children]

³And David, with Zadok of the sons of Eleazar and Ahimelech of the sons of Ithamar, divided them according to their assignments for their service.

⁴And more chief men were found from the sons of Eleazar than the sons of Ithamar, so they divided them thus: there were sixteen heads of fathers’ households of the sons of Eleazar and eight of the sons of Ithamar, according to their fathers’ households.[#24:4 Or descendants; #24:4 Or descendants; #24:4 Or descendants; #24:4 Or descendants]

⁵Thus they were divided by lot, the one as the other; for they were leaders for the sanctuary and leaders for God, both from the sons of Eleazar and the sons of Ithamar.

⁶Shemaiah, the son of Nethanel the scribe, from the Levites, wrote them down in the presence of the king, the princes, Zadok the priest, Ahimelech the son of Abiathar, and the heads of the fathers’ households of the priests and of the Levites; one father’s household taken for Eleazar and one taken for Ithamar.

¹⁹These were their assignments for their service when they came in to the house of Yahweh according to the legal judgment rendered to them by the hand of Aaron their father, just as Yahweh, the God of Israel, had commanded him.

³¹These also cast lots alongside their relatives the sons of Aaron in the presence of David the king, Zadok, Ahimelech, and the heads of the fathers’ households of the priests and of the Levites—the head of fathers’ households alongside those of his younger brother.[#24:31 Lit brothers]