and addressed them: "As leaders of your Levitical families, set yourselves apart, both you and your relatives, so you can be qualified to bring up the ark of the LORD God of Israel to the place I've prepared for it.

Nethanel's son Shemaiah, a Levitical scribe, made an official record of them for the king, the officers, Zadok the priest, Abiathar's son Ahimelech, and the heads of ancestral households of both the priests and the descendants of Levi. One ancestral house was chosen for Eleazar and one for Ithamar.