1 Chronicles 26:13

13 Therefore lots were sent, or cast, evenly, both to the little and to the great, by their families, into each of the gates. (And so they all cast lots, both the lesser and the greater alike, by their families, for each of the gates.)

1 Chronicles 26:13 Meaning and Commentary

1 Chronicles 26:13

And they cast lots
To determine at which gate each should stand, who at this gate, and who at the other

as well the small as the great, according to the house of their
fathers, for every gate;
meaning, not little ones and grown persons in a family, but the smaller and poorer families, and the larger and richer ones, had their places assigned them at the several gates, as the lot directed; they did not go according to the dignity and precedence of their families, but according to lot.

1 Chronicles 26:13 In-Context

11 and Hilkiah the second, Tebaliah the third, Zechariah the fourth; all these thirteen were the sons and brethren of Hosah.

12 These were parted into porters, that ever[more] the princes of [the] keepings, as also their brethren, should minister in the house of the Lord. (These were the divisions of the guards, or the doorkeepers, and forevermore the leaders of the divisions, and their kinsmen, would serve in the House of the Lord.)

13 Therefore lots were sent, or cast, evenly, both to the little and to the great, by their families, into each of the gates. (And so they all cast lots, both the lesser and the greater alike, by their families, for each of the gates.)

14 Therefore the lot of the east coast befelled to Shelemiah; and the north coast befelled by lot to Zechariah, his son, a full prudent man and well learned; (And so the east gate fell by lot to Shelemiah; and the north gate to his son Zechariah, a well-learned and very prudent man;)

15 and to Obededom and to his sons (the) lot fell at the south coast, in which part of the house was the council of the elder men; (and the south gate fell by lot to Obededom, and the gatehouse to his sons;)