And Shemaiah the son of Nethaneel the scribe, one of the Levites, wrote them before the king, and the princes, and Zadok the priest, and Ahimelech the son of Abiathar, and before the chief of the fathers of the priests and Levites: one principal household being taken for Eleazar, and one taken for Ithamar.
One principal household. The marginal readings is preferable, 'one house of the father.' The lot was cast in a deliberate and solemn manner, in presence of the king, the princes, the two high priests, and the chiefs of the priestly and Levitical families; the heads of the families belonging to Eleazar and Ithamar were alternately brought forward to draw, and the name of each individual, as called, registered by an attendant secretary. To accommodate the casting of the lots to the inequality of the numbers-there being 16 fathers' houses of Eleazar and only 8 of Ithamar-it was arranged that every house of Ithamar should reckon as two lots; or, what is the same thing, that every two houses of Eleazar should be followed by one of Ithamar. If, then, we suppose a commencement to have been made by Eleazar, the order would be as follows: One and two, Eleazar; three, Ithamar; four and five, Eleazar; six, Ithamar; seven and eight, Eleazar; nine, Ithamar; and so forth (Bertheau). The lot determined also the order of the priests' service. That of the Levites was afterward distributed by the same arrangement (1 Chronicles 24:31).