Since more chief men were found among the sons of Eleazar than among the sons of Ithamar …: The first part of this verse explains why the descendants of Eleazar had twice as many groups as the descendants of Ithamar. Therefore Revised Standard Version translates the common Hebrew conjunction at the beginning of this verse as Since. Some translations reverse the two halves of this verse, giving the reason for dividing into sixteen groups and eight groups at the end of the verse instead of at the beginning (so Good News Translation, Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje).

Chief men is literally “male heads” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). A few Hebrew manuscripts and the Vulgate read “head warriors.” This is the basis for those translations that read “head warriors” (Knoppers) or “valiant leaders” (Bible de Jérusalem). The difference in Hebrew between “males” (gebarim) and “warriors” (giborim) is not great. The understanding of the Hebrew phrase rendered chief men has direct importance for how verse 6 is understood and translated. Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament argues that these chief men were men qualified to lead groups of men. This whole clause does not necessarily mean that all of the descendants of Eleazar were twice as many as all of the descendants of Ithamar. Rather, it means that as far as qualified leaders were concerned, the descendants of Eleazar had twice as many as the descendants of Ithamar. New American Bible says “But since the descendants of Eleazar were found to be more numerous than those of Ithamar.” This rendering misses the point. It is not that more descendants of Eleazar were found, but rather that there were more leaders of the clan of Eleazar than of the clan of Ithamar.

A literal translation of the words were found may incorrectly give the sense that not all of the chief men of Ithamar were found. A verb suggesting that these men were previously lost should not be used. Since only men could serve as priests, Revised English Bible provides a good model in saying “The male heads of families proved to be more numerous in the line of Eleazar than in that of Ithamar.”

They organized them under sixteen heads of fathers’ houses of the sons of Eleazar, and eight of the sons of Ithamar: Organized is literally “divided” as in the previous verse. The priests served in a system of rotation in which each group served at the Temple for one week twice each year, in which the year was divided into forty-eight weeks based on the lunar calendar. The following translations of this verse may prove useful as models:

• The sons of Eleazar turned out to be more numerous by male heads than the sons of Ithamar, so they divided the sons of Eleazar into sixteen chiefs of clans and the sons of Ithamar into eight clans [New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh].

• 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 [God’s Word].

• Eleazar’s descendants were divided into sixteen groups and Ithamar’s into eight, for there were more family leaders among the descendants of Eleazar [New Living Translation].

• 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 [ NET Bible].

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 .