And Shemaiah the son of Nethaneel the scribe
The Targum is, Moses the chief scribe, so called: one
of the Levites wrote them:
the lots, and the names upon them, put into the urn, and as they came out, which was first, second and this was done
before the king, and the princes, and Zadok the priest, and Ahimelech
the son of Abiathar, and before the chief of the fathers of the priests
and Levites;
and in this public manner, before such great personages, and in the presence of those that were interested in the affair, that it might appear plainly no fraudulent methods were taken, and that there might be no suspicion of any:
one principal household being taken for Eleazar, and one for Ithamar;
the sense of Jarchi as above, and other Jewish writers, is, that one was added to each family of Eleazar, and so made sixteen, and Ithamar's were retained, and left as at first, eight: but the sense is, that first one family of Eleazar was taken, and then one of Ithamar's family, and then one of Eleazar's again, and so on until sixteen were gone through; and then the other eight were divided under so many heads of the family of Eleazar.