⁴ This is what you shall do: One-third of you ^(A)entering on the Sabbath, of the priests and the Levites, shall be keeping watch over the doors;

⁸ So it was, that while he was serving as priest before God in the order of his division, ⁹ according to the custom of the priesthood, ^[a]his lot fell ^(A)to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord.

¹³ And they ^(A)cast lots for each gate, the small as well as the great, according to their father’s house. ¹⁴ The lot for the East Gate fell to ^[a]Shelemiah. Then they cast lots for his son Zechariah, a wise counselor, and his lot came out for the North Gate; ¹⁵ to Obed-Edom the South Gate, and to his sons the ^[b]storehouse. ¹⁶ To Shuppim and Hosah the lot came out for the West Gate, with the Shallecheth Gate on the ^(B)ascending highway—watchman opposite watchman.

³ Then David with Zadok of the sons of Eleazar, and ^(A)Ahimelech of the sons of Ithamar, divided them according to the schedule of their service.

⁴ There were more leaders found of the sons of Eleazar than of the sons of Ithamar, and thus they were divided. Among the sons of Eleazar were sixteen heads of their fathers’ houses, and eight heads of their fathers’ houses among the sons of Ithamar. ⁵ Thus they were divided by lot, one group as another, for there were officials of the sanctuary and officials of the house of God, from the sons of Eleazar and from the sons of Ithamar. ⁶ And the scribe, Shemaiah the son of Nethanel, one of the Levites, wrote them down before the king, the leaders, Zadok the priest, Ahimelech the son of Abiathar, and the heads of the fathers’ houses of the priests and Levites, one father’s house taken for Eleazar and one for Ithamar.

³ Now the Levites were numbered from the age of ^(A)thirty years and above; and the number of individual males was thirty-eight thousand. ⁴ Of these, twenty-four thousand were to ^(B)look after the work of the house of the Lord, six thousand were ^(C)officers and judges, ⁵ four thousand were gatekeepers, and four thousand ^(D)praised the Lord with musical instruments, ^(E)“which I made,” said David, “for giving praise.”

⁶ Also ^(F)David separated them into ^[a]divisions among the sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

²⁵ And their brethren in their villages had to come with them from time to time ^(A)for seven days.