The Good Shepherd and His Sheep

10 “I tell you the truth, anyone who sneaks over the wall of a sheepfold, rather than going through the gate, must surely be a thief and a robber! ² But the one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. ³ The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. ⁴ After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they know his voice. ⁵ They won’t follow a stranger; they will run from him because they don’t know his voice.”

⁶ Those who heard Jesus use this illustration didn’t understand what he meant, ⁷ so he explained it to them: “I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. ⁸ All who came before me^[a] were thieves and robbers. But the true sheep did not listen to them. ⁹ Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through me will be saved.^[b] They will come and go freely and will find good pastures. ¹⁰ The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.

¹¹ “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep. ¹² A hired hand will run when he sees a wolf coming. He will abandon the sheep because they don’t belong to him and he isn’t their shepherd. And so the wolf attacks them and scatters the flock. ¹³ The hired hand runs away because he’s working only for the money and doesn’t really care about the sheep.

¹⁴ “I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me, ¹⁵ just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. So I sacrifice my life for the sheep. ¹⁶ I have other sheep, too, that are not in this sheepfold. I must bring them also. They will listen to my voice, and there will be one flock with one shepherd.

¹⁷ “The Father loves me because I sacrifice my life so I may take it back again. ¹⁸ No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again. For this is what my Father has commanded.”

¹⁹ When he said these things, the people^[c] were again divided in their opinions about him. ²⁰ Some said, “He’s demon possessed and out of his mind. Why listen to a man like that?” ²¹ Others said, “This doesn’t sound like a man possessed by a demon! Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”

Solomon’s Many Achievements

8 It took Solomon twenty years to build the Lord’s Temple and his own royal palace. At the end of that time, ² Solomon turned his attention to rebuilding the towns that King Hiram^[a] had given him, and he settled Israelites in them.

³ Solomon also fought against the town of Hamath-zobah and conquered it. ⁴ He rebuilt Tadmor in the wilderness and built towns in the region of Hamath as supply centers. ⁵ He fortified the towns of Upper Beth-horon and Lower Beth-horon, rebuilding their walls and installing barred gates. ⁶ He also rebuilt Baalath and other supply centers and constructed towns where his chariots and horses^[b] could be stationed. He built everything he desired in Jerusalem and Lebanon and throughout his entire realm.

⁷ There were still some people living in the land who were not Israelites, including the Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. ⁸ These were descendants of the nations whom the people of Israel had not destroyed. So Solomon conscripted them for his labor force, and they serve as forced laborers to this day. ⁹ But Solomon did not conscript any of the Israelites for his labor force. Instead, he assigned them to serve as fighting men, officers in his army, commanders of his chariots, and charioteers. ¹⁰ King Solomon appointed 250 of them to supervise the people.

¹¹ Solomon moved his wife, Pharaoh’s daughter, from the City of David to the new palace he had built for her. He said, “My wife must not live in King David’s palace, for the Ark of the Lord has been there, and it is holy ground.”

¹² Then Solomon presented burnt offerings to the Lord on the altar he had built for him in front of the entry room of the Temple. ¹³ He offered the sacrifices for the Sabbaths, the new moon festivals, and the three annual festivals—the Passover celebration, the Festival of Harvest,^[c] and the Festival of Shelters—as Moses had commanded.

¹⁴ In assigning the priests to their duties, Solomon followed the regulations of his father, David. He also assigned the Levites to lead the people in praise and to assist the priests in their daily duties. And he assigned the gatekeepers to their gates by their divisions, following the commands of David, the man of God. ¹⁵ Solomon did not deviate in any way from David’s commands concerning the priests and Levites and the treasuries.

¹⁶ So Solomon made sure that all the work related to building the Temple of the Lord was carried out, from the day its foundation was laid to the day of its completion.

¹⁷ Later Solomon went to Ezion-geber and Elath,^[d] ports along the shore of the Red Sea^[e] in the land of Edom. ¹⁸ Hiram sent him ships commanded by his own officers and manned by experienced crews of sailors. These ships sailed to Ophir with Solomon’s men and brought back to Solomon almost seventeen tons^[f] of gold.

Book three (Psalms 73–89)

Psalm 73

A psalm of Asaph.