1 Chronicles Chapter 24    

“order of duty.” The priests were assigned a time when their course was on duty, as the verses below explain.

“There were more chief men of the sons of Eleazar.” The Hebrew is idiomatic and reads that “there were more chief men ‘found’ of the sons of Eleazar,” but the men were not “found” as if they had been lost. It is an idiom meaning “present.” We get the same idea in English just by omitting the word “found.”

“sixteen...eight.” These make up the 24 courses of the priests.

“They divided them by lots.” This would almost certainly being by the High Priest using the Urim and Thummim, and drawing them out of his breastplate. [For more on the “lot” and the Urim and Thummim, see commentary on Exod. 28:30].

“officials of the Holy Place and officials of God.” The exact meaning of this phrase is debated. The most likely meaning seems to be that these priests were officials of the Temple and also then officials of God, both designations referring to all the priests. However, some commentators suggest that perhaps there is a distinction and the “officials of God” were the High Priests who could enter the Holy of Holies. That second interpretation is less likely because ideally the High Priestly line would only come from either Eleazar or Ithamar, but not both men.

“recorded them.” That is, Shemaiah recorded the names of the officials who had been chosen by lot. Shemaiah is recording the list of the names of the heads of the 24 divisions that are listed in 1 Chronicles 24:7-18, and also recorded their order of service.

“taken.” Or perhaps “grasped,” or even “grabbed.”

“one fathers’ house being taken for Eleazar and one taken for Ithamar.” This phrase is confusing and debated by scholars. Since there were 24 priestly courses, but there were 16 households from Eleazar and only 8 from Ithamar, the division could not be a simple alternation of one then the other. Various suggestions have been posited as to how 24 courses could be reached. Two of them are, first, that the descendants of Eleazar and Ithamar alternated turns until Ithamar ran out, and Eleazar took all the rest of the courses, or perhaps Eleazar got two picks then Itamar got one and that pattern continued until 24 courses were completed.

“Abijah.” Zechariah the father of John the Baptist was from the course of Abijah (Luke 1:5).

“This was their order of duty in their service.” “This was their order of duty in their service” at the Temple. The priests were divided into courses so that they were not all at the Temple at the same time. After all, they had homes and families. The priests served at the Temple in their regular course of service for one week of service for two times a year, and then they also all served at the feasts at which all the men of Israel were to attend: Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles.