³And David¹ with Zadok of the sons of Eleazar, and Ahimelech of the sons of Ithamar, divided them according to their ordering in their service. ¹ Or, _And David divided them, even Zadok &c._ =3.= _Ahimelech of the sons of Ithamar_] The colleague of Zadok in the priesthood is variously named in different passages:―― 1 Chronicles xxiv. 3. Ahimelech of the sons of Ithamar. 1 Chronicles xxiv. 6. Ahimelech the son of Abiathar. 1 Chronicles xviii. 16. Abimelech the son of Abiathar. Probably the same person is meant throughout, the confusion springing from a false reading in 2 Samuel viii. 17, _Ahimelech the son of Abiathar_ for _Abiathar the son of Ahimelech_; see the notes on xv. 11, xviii. 16. _according to their ordering_] i.e. according to the arrangement which follows; compare verse 19. ⁴And there were more chief men found of the sons of Eleazar than of the sons of Ithamar; and _thus_ were they divided: of the sons of Eleazar there were sixteen, heads of fathers’ houses; and of the sons of Ithamar, according to their fathers’ houses, eight. =4.= _more chief men found of the sons of Eleazar than ... of Ithamar_] The superiority of the Zadokites (sons of Eleazar) in the post-exilic period is read back into the days of David, and construed in the terms of a right of primogeniture: thus the proportion assigned here is sixteen to eight, i.e. Eleazar’s descendants have a double portion, besides the right of the High-priesthood. ⁵Thus were they divided by lot, one sort with another; for there were princes of the sanctuary, and princes of God, both of the sons of Eleazar, and of the sons of Ithamar. =5.= _one sort with another_] i.e. sons of Eleazar with sons of Ithamar. _there were princes of the sanctuary, and princes of God, both of the sons_, etc.] The _princes of the sanctuary_ (Isaiah xliii. 28) are probably the same as the _princes of God_ and as the _chiefs of the priests_ (2 Chronicles xxxvi. 14). The Hebrew expression in 2 Chronicles xxxv. 8 is different (_rulers of the house of God_). ⁶And Shemaiah the son of Nethanel the scribe, who was of the Levites, wrote them in the presence of the king, and the princes, and Zadok the priest, and Ahimelech the son of Abiathar, and the heads of the fathers’ _houses_ of the priests and of the Levites: one fathers’ house being taken for Eleazar, and one taken¹ for Ithamar. ¹ The Hebrew text has, _taken, taken_. =6.= _the scribe, who was of the Levites_] so designated in order to distinguish him from the _king’s scribe_ (compare 2 Chronicles xxiv. 11). _one taken_] This rendering involves a simple and entirely probable correction of the Hebrew The alternate drawing here described could have lasted only for the first sixteen lots; in the last eight drawings the descendants of Eleazar must have drawn against each other only; compare verse 4, and the similar procedure described in xxv. 9‒31.