He said to them, “You are the heads of the fathers’ houses of the Levites. Sanctify yourselves, you and your brothers, so that you may bring up the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel, to the place I have prepared for it.
Since the sons of Eleazar were found to have more chief men than the sons of Ithamar, they divided them into sixteen heads of the fathers’ houses for the sons of Eleazar, and eight for the sons of Ithamar, according to their fathers’ houses.
The Levites, as well as the priests, were recorded as the chiefs of the fathers’ houses in the days of Eliashib, Joiada, Johanan, and Jaddua during the reign of Darius the Persian.