1 The sons of Aaron also had their courses. The sons of Aaron: Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.
2 But Nadab and Abihu died before their father and had no children; therefore, Eleazar and Ithamar had the priesthood.
3 And David distributed them, Zadok being of the sons of Eleazar, and Ahimelech of the sons of Ithamar, according to their turns in their ministry.
4 And there were more men found of the sons of Eleazar than of the sons of Ithamar, and thus were they divided. Among the sons of Eleazar, there were sixteen chief men of the houses of their fathers and eight among the sons of Ithamar according to the houses of their fathers.
5 They divided them, therefore, by lot, one with another for of the sons of Eleazar and of the sons of Ithamar there were princes of the sanctuary and princes of God.
6 And Shemaiah, the scribe, the son of Nethaneel, one of the Levites, wrote them before the king and the princes and before Zadok, the priest, and Ahimelech, the son of Abiathar, and the heads of the fathers of the priests and Levites; one paternal house being taken for Eleazar, and one taken for Ithamar.