With the help of Zadok of the sons of Eleazar, and Ahimelech of the sons of Ithamar, David organized them according to the appointed duties in their service: The Hebrew of this verse is more literally translated in New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh as “David, Zadok of the sons of Eleazar, and Ahimelech of the sons of Ithamar divided them into offices by their tasks.” Revised Standard Version adds the words With the help of (similarly Good News Translation with “assisted in this by”). However, De Vries suggests that the text should be translated “David organized them in their enrollment within their (respective) service with Zadok representing the Eleazarites and Ahimelech representing the sons of Ithamar.”

The expression of the sons of, which occurs twice in this verse and frequently later in this chapter (verses 20-25), is a way of saying “one of the descendants of” or more simply “a descendant of.” Since David is mentioned for the first time in this section, he may be identified as “King David” (Good News Translation, Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje). The time when David lived was much later than the time of Eleazar and Ithamar. For this reason Bible en français courant and La Bible du Semeur begin this verse with “Later, David….” Organized is literally “divided” as in 1 Chr 23.6 (see the comments there). The pronoun them refers to the descendants of Aaron, that is, the priests. According to the appointed duties in their service may be rendered “according to their offices for their ministry” (New American Standard Bible).

Good News Translation and Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje divide this verse into two sentences and reverse the order of its main parts. Contemporary English Version is similar with “David divided Aaron’s descendants into groups, according to their assigned work. Zadok, one of Eleazar’s descendants, and Ahimelech, one of Ithamar’s descendants, helped David.” Other languages may find these models helpful.

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Chronicles, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2014. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .