1 *Chronicles 24
The groups of priests
1There were 4 groups in Aaron's descendants. The sons of Aaron were Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. 2But Nadab and Abihu died before their father died and they had no sons. That is why only Eleazar and Ithamar were priests.
3Zadok was from the Eleazar family and Ahimelek was from the Ithamar family. They helped David divide the priests into groups. 4They saw that the Eleazar family had more men who could be leaders than the Ithamar family, so they divided the Eleazar family into 16 groups and the Ithamar family into 8 groups. Each group had a family leader. 5They drew_lots to divide the families so that there were family leaders from both families who could work for God in the temple. 6Shemaiah, son of Nethanelm, was the secretary. He was a Levite and he wrote the names of the priests in a name list. One family was taken from Eleazar and then one family was taken from Ithamar. The king, his officials, the priest Zadok, Ahimelek, son of Abiathar, and the leaders of the priests and Levites were all there.
7Then they drew_lots and here are their names:
First was Jehoiarib, Jedaiah was 2nd, 8Harim was 3rd, Seorim was 4th, 9Malkijah was 5th, Mijamin was 6th, 10Hakkoz was 7th, Abijah was 8th, 11Jeshua was 9th, Shekaniah was 10th, 12Eliashib was 11th, Jakim was 12th, 13Huppah was 13th, Jeshebeab was 14th, 14Bilgah was 15th, Immer was 16th, 15Hezir was 17th, Happizzez was 18th, 16Pethahiah was 19th, Jehezkel was 20th, 17Jakin was 21st, Gamul was 22nd, 18Delaiah was 23rd and Maaziah was 24th.
19These were the groups that had to work at the temple. Their forefather Aaron told them what to do just as the Lord God of Israel had told him.
The leaders of the other Levites
20The leaders of the other Levites were Shubael from the Amram family, Jehdeiah from the Shubael family, 21Ishiah from the Rehabiah family, 22Shelomoth from the Izhar family, Jahath from the Shelomoth family, 23Jeriah, Amariah, Jahaziel and Jekameam. These 4 were from the Hebron family.
24Micah from the Uzziel family and Shamir from the Micah family were leaders of their families. 25Ishiah was the brother of Micah, and Zechariah was from the Ishiah family.
26Mahli and Mushi were sons of Merari. One of Merari's sons was Jaaziah, who was the father of Beno. 27Jaaziah was the leader of the Merari family. Shoham, Zakkur and Ibri were leaders of the Jaaziah family. 28Eleazar was the son of Mahli, but he did not have any sons.
29Jerahmeel was the son of Kish. 30Mahli, Eder and Jerimoth were the sons of Mushi.
These were the Levi families.
31They also drew_lots like the other Levites, the descendants of Aaron. King David, Zadok, Ahimelek and the leaders of the priests and the Levites were also there. They drew_lots for all the families, for the adults and the children.
English Bible for the Deaf © Bible Society of South Africa 2019. Used with permission. All rights reserved.
