And Shemaiah... wrote them. — Made a list of the names in the order determined by lot, as given below (1 Chronicles 24:7-18).
The chief of the fathers. — Better, the heads of the houses or clans.
One principal household being taken... — The Hebrew text is corrupt, but we may with great probability restore the original reading by the change of a single letter, and translate, one clan was drawn for Eleazar, and one drawn for Ithamar: i.e., alternately. So one Hebrew MS. The LXX. has, “one by one for Eleazar, and one by one for Ithamar.” (So some Hebrew MSS. The Syriac and Vulg. read, “one house for Eleazar, and another house for Ithamar.”) The chances would be that the Ithamarites would all be drawn before the Eleazarites. (Comp. 1 Chronicles 25:22-31, where ten “sons of the Hemanite” are left over, and drawn last.)