And the scribe Shemaiah the son of Nethanel … is literally “And Shemaiah son of Nethanel the scribe….” Shemaiah, not his father, was the scribe or “secretary” (Good News Translation, New Living Translation), as Revised Standard Version makes clear. Regarding the translation of scribe, see the comments on 1 Chr 2.55.
The Masoretic Text says that Shemaiah was a Levite. A few Hebrew manuscripts have the plural, and this is the basis for the translation “from the Levites” (Klein), but the meaning is the same either way.
Recorded them may mean that Shemaiah wrote down the names of the leaders of the priestly groups on pieces of paper which were then drawn to decide the order, or it may mean he wrote down the names after they were drawn (so Good News Translation). If the interpretation reflected in Good News Translation is correct, as it seems to be, then the relationship between verses 5 and 6 may be more clearly expressed by restructuring this verse and beginning with “The descendants of Eleazar and of Ithamar took turns drawing lots” (Good News Translation, Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje).
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: The princes may be rendered “the officials” (New International Version, Nueva Versión Internacional; similarly Good News Translation). Most versions take Zadok, Ahimelech, and the heads of the fathers’ houses of the priests and of the Levites as distinct from the princes. However, it is possible to understand all of those following the princes as in apposition to them. New International Version, for example, uses a colon (), saying “in the presence of the king and of the officials: Zadok the priest….”
The text clearly identifies Ahimelech as the son of Abiathar, but according to other Old Testament passages, Ahimelech was the father of Abiathar (1 Sam 23.6; 30.7) and the son of Ahitub (1 Sam 22.9, 11). Therefore some interpreters consider the text here and in 1 Chr 18.16 to be in error. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, for example, corrects the text to read “Abiathar, the son of Ahimelech” (so also Einheitsübersetzung). Others think that the Ahimelech mentioned here was the son of Abiathar and grandson of the Ahimelech mentioned in 1 Samuel. See the comments on 1 Chr 18.16 regarding the relationship between Ahimelech and Abiathar.
One father’s house being chosen for Eleazar and one chosen for Ithamar: The meaning of these words is not certain and there are textual problems as well. A footnote in Traduction œcuménique de la Bible states “The end of the verse is not clear and has given rise to several interpretations.” In the Masoretic Text this clause reads literally “a father’s house one [was] drawn for Eleazar, and drawn drawn for Ithamar.” The Masoretic Text seems to give exactly the wrong meaning, since in fact Eleazar’s descendants were divided into sixteen groups and Ithamar’s into only eight. Some scholars have therefore suggested that the names “Eleazar” and “Ithamar” should be reversed so that the clause reads “a father’s house one was drawn for Ithamar, and drawn drawn [indicating that two were drawn] for Eleazar.” Others have suggested that the sense of “drawn drawn for Ithamar” is that after a lot was cast for Eleazar, a lot was then cast for Ithamar and at the same time another one was also cast for Eleazar.
But the Masoretic Text also makes sense as Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament explains it in this way: Eleazar and Ithamar had approximately the same number of family groups. But Eleazar had twice as many heads of clans qualified to be in charge of one of these twenty-four groups. So each time one family group was assigned to one of the sixteen chiefs of Eleazar, two families were assigned to one of the eight chiefs of Ithamar. Stated in other words, each of the sixteen chiefs of Eleazar was assigned by lot to be in charge of one family group, while each of the eight chiefs of Ithamar was assigned by lot to be in charge of two family groups.
The Septuagint reads “a father’s house one one for Eleazar and one one for Ithamar.” Many scholars think that the Septuagint was based on a Hebrew text that read “one one for Eleazar and one (ʾechad) drawn (ʾachuz) for Ithamar.” This understanding lies behind a number of translations.
New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh reads “one clan more taken for Eleazar for each one taken of Ithamar.” Similar to New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh is the rendering in La Sainte Bible: La version Etablie par les moines de Maredsous, which has “one family [then another] being drawn by lot for Eleazar, then a family for Ithamar.” Other translations following this interpretation include “so that two families were selected for Eleazar for each one selected for Ithamar” (New Jerusalem Bible; similarly Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch), “For every family selected by lot for Ithamar, two were selected for Eleazar” (Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente), “The lot was cast twice for the family of Eleazar and once for the family of Ithamar” (Nueva Versión Internacional), “listing two successive family groups from Eleazar before each one from Ithamar” (New American Bible; similarly Bible en français courant), “one family was drawn by lot for Eleazar, then another, while only one was drawn for Ithamar” (Traduction œcuménique de la Bible), and “The lot was cast, once for Ithamar and twice for Eleazar” (El libro del Pueblo de Dios). According to this interpretation, the first two divisions were assigned to Eleazar’s descendants, then the third to Ithamar’s descendants. Then divisions four and five to Eleazar’s descendants, and division six to Ithamar’s descendants, and so on, until all twenty-four divisions were assigned.
Others understand this clause as translated in Revised Standard Version. Revised English Bible, for example, says “one priestly family being taken from the line of Eleazar and one from that of Ithamar,” and La Bible du Semeur reads “They took alternately one family group for Eleazar and another for Ithamar” (similarly New International Version). Good News Translation and Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje express the same meaning, only they make explicit here on the basis of verse 5 that this was done as they “took turns drawing lots.” According to this interpretation, this alternation occurred until sixteen divisions were drawn from both the line of Eleazar and that of Ithamar, and then eight more were drawn for the descendants of Eleazar.
The passive verb being chosen will have to be expressed as an active verb in some languages. One possible model that does this is “They chose by lot one….”
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 .