Aaron's third son, and the one through whom the high priesthood actually descends. His two older brothers, Nadab and Abihu, died childless for offering 'strange fire' (Leviticus 10:1-2; Numbers 3:4, both already on these pages), leaving Eleazar and his younger brother Ithamar to carry the priesthood forward. Numbers 3:32 gives him a title found nowhere else among the chapters translated so far — 'chieftain over the chieftains of Levi' — placing him in direct charge of the Kohathites, the clan responsible for the sanctuary's holiest furniture. Numbers 4:16 hands him a second, separate charge that has nothing to do with carrying furniture at all: the oil for the light, the fragrant incense, the regular grain offering, and the anointing oil — the ongoing supplies that keep the tabernacle's daily worship running. He succeeds Aaron as high priest at Aaron's death on Mount Hor (Numbers 20:28, already on these pages), and his own line, not Ithamar's, eventually produces Zadok and the priesthood that serves at Solomon's temple. ⭐ Numbers 34:17 names him BEFORE Joshua as one of the two men who will take possession of the land for Israel — and the order is not deference. The division is by lot, and the lot is a priestly instrument: the man who will lead the conquest is named second to the man who will draw the tokens.