He said to them, “You are the heads of the Levite families. You and your relatives must perform the ceremonies to make yourselves holy. Then bring the ark of the Lord God of Israel to the place I prepared for it.
Since Eleazar’s descendants had more men who were family heads than Ithamar’s descendants, they were divided so that Eleazar’s descendants had 16 family leaders and Ithamar’s descendants had 8 family leaders.
⌞The names of⌟ the family heads of the Levites and the priests at the time of Eliashib, Joiada, Johanan, and Jaddua were recorded until the reign of Darius the Persian.