1 Chronicles 23:3-6

23:3 The Levites who were thirty years old and up were counted; there were 38,000 men. ¹  23:4 David said, ²  “Of these, 24,000 are to direct the work of the Lord’s temple; 6,000 are to be officials and judges; 23:5 4,000 are to be gatekeepers; and 4,000 are to praise the Lord with the instruments I supplied for worship.” ³  23:6 David divided them into groups corresponding to the sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

1 Chronicles 24:3-6

24:3 David, Zadok (a descendant of Eleazar), and Ahimelech (a descendant of Ithamar) divided them into groups to carry out their assigned responsibilities. ⁴  24:4 The descendants of Eleazar had more leaders than the descendants of Ithamar, so they divided them up accordingly; the descendants of Eleazar had sixteen leaders, while the descendants of Ithamar had eight. ⁵  24:5 They divided them by lots, for there were officials of the holy place and officials designated by God among the descendants of both Eleazar and Ithamar. ⁶  24:6 The scribe Shemaiah son of Nethanel, a Levite, wrote down their names before the king, the officials, Zadok the priest, Ahimelech son of Abiathar, and the leaders of the priestly and Levite families. One family was drawn by lot from Eleazar, and then the next from Ithamar. ⁷ 

Luke 1:8-9

1:8 Now ⁸  while Zechariah ⁹  was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, ¹⁰  1:9 he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, ¹¹  to enter ¹²  the holy place ¹³  of the Lord and burn incense.

[23:3]  ¹ tn Heb “and their number by their heads, by men, was 38,000.”

[23:4]  ² tn The words “David said” are supplied here in the translation for clarification. The appearance of the first person verb “I supplied” in v. 5 indicates that David is speaking here.

[23:5]  ³ tn Heb “made to [or “for”] praise.”

[24:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “for their assignment in their service.”

[24:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “And the sons of Eleazar were found to be more, with respect to the heads of men, than the sons of Ithamar, and they divided them. To the sons of Eleazar there were sixteen heads, according to the house of the fathers; and to the sons of Ithamar there were eight, according to the house of their fathers.”

[24:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “and they divided them by lots, these with these, for the officials of the holy place and the officials of God were from the sons of Eleazar and among the sons of Ithamar.”

[24:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “one house of a father was drawn by lot for Eleazar, and one [this assumes an emendation of אָחֻז (’akhuz) to אֶחָד (’ekhad, “one”)] was drawn by lot for Ithamar.”

[1:8]  ⁸ tn Grk “Now it happened that.” The introductory phrase ἐγένετο (egeneto, “it happened that”), common in Luke (69 times) and Acts (54 times), is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

[1:8]  ⁹ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Zechariah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:8]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “serving as priest in the order of his division before God.”

[1:9]  ¹¹ tn Grk “according to the custom of the priesthood it fell to him by lot.” The order of the clauses has been rearranged in the translation to make it clear that the prepositional phrase κατὰ τὸ ἔθος τῆς ἱερατείας (kata to eqo" th" Jierateia", “according to the custom of the priesthood”) modifies the phrase “it fell to him by lot” rather than the preceding clause.

[1:9]  ¹² tn This is an aorist participle and is temporally related to the offering of incense, not to when the lot fell.

[1:9]  ¹³ tn Or “temple.” Such sacrifices, which included the burning of incense, would have occurred in the holy place according to the Mishnah (m. Tamid 1.2; 3.1; 5-7). A priest would have given this sacrifice, which was offered for the nation, once in one’s career. It would be offered either at 9 a.m. or 3 p.m., since it was made twice a day.