David Assigns the Temple Musicians Their Duties

25 David and the temple officials chose the descendants of Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun to be in charge of music. They were to praise the Lord by playing cymbals, harps and other stringed instruments. Here is a list of the musicians and their duties:

² Asaph's four sons, Zaccur, Joseph, Nethaniah, and Asarelah, were under the direction of their father and played music whenever the king told them to.

³ Jeduthun's six sons, Gedaliah, Zeri, Jeshaiah, Shimei,^[a] Hashabiah, and Mattithiah, were under the direction of their father and played harps and sang praises to the Lord.

⁴ Heman had 14 sons: Bukkiah, Mattaniah, Uzziel, Shebuel, Jerimoth, Hananiah, Hanani, Eliathah, Giddalti, Romamtiezer, Joshbekashah, Mallothi, Hothir, Mahazioth. ⁵ Heman was one of the king's prophets, and God honored Heman by giving him 14 sons and 3 daughters. ⁶ His sons were under his direction and played cymbals, harps, and other stringed instruments during times of worship at the temple.

Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman took their orders directly from the king.

⁷ There were 288 of these men, and all of them were skilled musicians. ⁸ David assigned them their duties by asking the Lord what he wanted.^[b] Everyone was responsible for something, whether young or old, teacher or student.

^9-31 The musicians were divided into 24 groups of twelve, and each group went by the name of their family leader. They were assigned their duties in the following order: Joseph, Gedaliah, Zaccur, Zeri, Nethaniah, Bukkiah, Asarelah, Jeshaiah, Mattaniah, Shimei, Uzziel, Hashabiah, Shebuel, Mattithiah, Jerimoth, Hananiah, Joshbekashah, Hanani, Mallothi, Eliathah, Hothir, Giddalti, Mahazioth, and Romamtiezer.

The Temple Guards Are Assigned Their Duties

26 The temple guards were also divided into groups according to clans.

Meshelemiah son of Kore was from the Korah clan and was a descendant of Asaph. ² He had seven sons, who were born in the following order: Zechariah, Jediael, Zebadiah, Jathniel, ³ Elam, Jehohanan, and Eliehoenai.

^4-5 (A) Obed-Edom had been blessed with eight sons: Shemaiah, Jehozabad, Joah, Sachar, Nethanel, Ammiel, Issachar, and Peullethai.

^6-7 Shemaiah was the father of Othni, Rephael, Obed, Elzabad, Elihu, and Semachiah. They were all respected leaders in their clan. ⁸ There were 62 descendants of Obed-Edom who were strong enough to be guards at the temple.

⁹ Eighteen descendants of Meshelemiah were chosen for this work.

^10-11 Hosah, from the Merari clan, was the father of Shimri, Hilkiah, Tebaliah, and Zechariah. Hosah had made Shimri the family leader, even though he was not the oldest son. Thirteen men from Hosah's family were chosen to be temple guards.

¹² The guards were divided into groups, according to their family leaders, and they were assigned duties at the temple, just like the other Levites. ¹³ Each group, no matter how large or small, was assigned a gate to guard, and they let the Lord show them what he wanted done.^[c]

¹⁴ Shelemiah^[d] was chosen to guard the East Gate. Zechariah his son was a wise man and was chosen to guard the North Gate. ¹⁵ Obed-Edom was then chosen to guard the South Gate, and his sons were chosen to guard the storerooms. ¹⁶ Shuppim and Hosah were chosen to guard the West Gate and the Shallecheth Gate on the upper road.

The guards were assigned the following work schedule: ¹⁷ Each day six guards were on duty on the east side of the temple, four were on duty on the north side, and four were on duty on the south side. Two guards were stationed at each of the two storerooms, ¹⁸ four were stationed along the road leading to the west courtyard,^[e] and two guards stayed in the court itself.

¹⁹ These were the guard duties assigned to the men from the clans of Korah and Merari.

Guards Are Assigned to the Treasury

²⁰ The Levites who were relatives of the Korahites and the Merarites were^[f] in charge of guarding the temple treasury and the gifts that had been dedicated to God.

²¹ Ladan was from the Gershon clan and was the father of Jehieli. Many of his other descendants were family leaders in the clan.^{[g] 22} Jehieli was the father of Zetham and Joel, and they were responsible for guarding the treasury.

²³ Other guards at the treasury were from the Kohathite clans of Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel.

²⁴ Shebuel was a descendant of Gershom the son of Moses. He was the chief official in charge of the temple treasury. ²⁵ The descendants of Gershom's brother Eliezer included Rehabiah, Jeshaiah, Joram, Zichri, and Shelomoth.

²⁶ Shelomoth and his relatives were in charge of all the gifts that were dedicated to the Lord. These included the gifts that King David had dedicated, as well as those dedicated by the family leaders, army officers, and army commanders. ²⁷ And whenever valuable things were captured in battle, these men brought back some of them to make repairs to the temple. ²⁸ Shelomoth and his relatives were responsible for any gifts that had been given to the temple, including those from Samuel the prophet, King Saul the son of Kish, Abner the son of Ner,^[h] and Joab the son of Zeruiah.

Other Officers Are Assigned Their Duties

²⁹ Chenaniah from the Izhar clan and his sons were government officials and judges. They did not work at the temple.

³⁰ Hashabiah from the Hebron clan and 1,700 of his skilled relatives were the officials in charge of all religious and government business in the Israelite territories west of the Jordan River.

^31-32 Jerijah was the leader of the Hebron clan. David assigned him and 2,700 of his relatives, who were all respected family leaders, to be the officials in charge of all religious and government business in the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh. David found out about these men during the fortieth year of his rule, when he had a list made of all the families in the Hebron clan. They were from the town of Jazer in the territory of Gilead.

David Assigns Army Commanders

27 Each month a group of 24,000 men served as soldiers in Israel's army. These men, which included the family leaders, army commanders, and officials of the king, were under the command of the following men, arranged by the month of their service:

David Assigns Tribal Leaders

^16-22 Here is a list of the leaders of each tribe in Israel:

Eliezer son of Zichri was over Reuben; Shephatiah son of Maacah was over Simeon; Hashabiah son of Kemuel was over the Levites, and Zadok the priest was over the descendants of Aaron; Elihu the brother of David was over Judah; Omri son of Michael was over Issachar; Ishmaiah son of Obadiah was over Zebulun; Jerimoth son of Azriel was over Naphtali; Hoshea son of Azaziah was over Ephraim; Joel son of Pedaiah was over West Manasseh; Iddo son of Zechariah was over East Manasseh; Jaasiel son of Abner was over Benjamin; Azarel son of Jeroham was over Dan.

^23 (B) When David decided to count the people of Israel, he gave orders not to count anyone under 20 years of age, because the Lord had promised long ago that Israel would have as many people as there are stars in the sky. ^24 (C) Joab the son of Zeruiah had begun to count the people, but he stopped when the Lord began punishing Israel. So the total number was never included in David's official records.

Officials in Charge of the King's Property

²⁵ Azmaveth the son of Adiel was in charge of the king's personal storage rooms. Jonathan the son of Uzziah was in charge of the king's other storerooms that were in the towns, the villages, and the defense towers in Israel.

²⁶ Ezri the son of Chelub was in charge of the workers who farmed the king's land.

²⁷ Shimei from Ramah was in charge of the vineyards, and Zabdi from Shepham was in charge of storing the wine.

²⁸ Baal Hanan from Geder was in charge of the olive and sycamore trees in the western foothills, and Joash was in charge of storing the olive oil.

²⁹ Shitrai from Sharon was responsible for the cattle that were kept in Sharon Plain, and Shaphat son of Adlai was responsible for those kept in the valleys.

³⁰ Obil the Ishmaelite was in charge of the camels, Jehdeiah from Meronoth was in charge of the donkeys, and Jaziz the Hagrite was in charge of the sheep and goats.

³¹ These were the men in charge of David's royal property.

David's Personal Advisors

³² David's uncle Jonathan was a wise and intelligent advisor. He and Jehiel the son of Hachmoni taught David's sons.

³³ Ahithophel and Hushai the Archite were two of David's advisors. ³⁴ Jehoiada the son of Benaiah was the king's advisor after Ahithophel, and later, Abiathar was his advisor.

Joab was commander of Israel's army.