The Words of Eternal Life

⁶⁰ Many of Jesus' disciples heard him and said, “This is too hard for anyone to understand.”

⁶¹ Jesus knew that his disciples were grumbling. So he asked, “Does this bother you? ⁶² What if you should see the Son of Man go up to heaven where he came from? ^63 (A) The Spirit is the one who gives life! Human strength can do nothing. The words that I have spoken to you are from that life-giving Spirit. ⁶⁴ But some of you refuse to have faith in me.” Jesus said this, because from the beginning he knew who would have faith in him. He also knew which one would betray him.

⁶⁵ Then Jesus said, “You cannot come to me, unless the Father makes you want to come. That is why I have told these things to all of you.”

⁶⁶ Because of what Jesus said, many of his disciples turned their backs on him and stopped following him. ⁶⁷ Jesus then asked his twelve disciples if they also were going to leave him. ^68 (B) Simon Peter answered, “Lord, there is no one else that we can go to! Your words give eternal life. ⁶⁹ We have faith in you, and we are sure that you are God's Holy One.”

⁷⁰ Jesus told his disciples, “I chose all twelve of you, but one of you is a demon!” ⁷¹ Jesus was talking about Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot.^[a] He would later betray Jesus, even though he was one of the twelve disciples.

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.

Trouble for Israel's Enemies

Worthless Shepherds

⁴ The Lord my God said to me:

Tend those sheep doomed for slaughter! ⁵ The people who buy and butcher them go unpunished, while everyone who sells them says, “Praise the Lord! I'm rich.” Not even their shepherds have pity on them.

⁶ Tend those sheep because I, the Lord, will no longer have pity on the people of this earth. I'll turn neighbor against neighbor and make them slaves of a king. They will bring disaster on the earth, and I'll do nothing to rescue any of them.

⁷ So I became a shepherd of those sheep doomed to be slaughtered by the sheep dealers.^[a] And I gave names to the two sticks I used for tending the sheep: One of them was named “Mercy” and the other “Unity.” ⁸ In less than a month, I became impatient with three shepherds who didn't like me, and I got rid of them. ⁹ Then I said, “I refuse to be your shepherd. Let the sheep that are going to die, go on and die, and those that are going to be destroyed, go on and be destroyed. Then let the others eat one another alive.”

¹⁰ On that same day, I broke the stick named “Mercy” to show that the Lord had canceled his agreement with all people. ¹¹ The sheep dealers who saw me knew at once that this was a message from the Lord. ^12-13 (A) I told them, “Pay me my wages, if you think you should; otherwise, forget it.” So they handed me my wages, a measly 30 pieces of silver.

Then the Lord said, “Throw the money into the treasury.”^[b] So I threw the money into the treasury at the Lord's temple. ¹⁴ Then I broke the stick named “Unity” and canceled the ties between Judah and Israel.

¹⁵ Next, the Lord said to me, “Act like a shepherd again—this time a worthless shepherd. ¹⁶ Once more I am going to let a worthless nobody rule the land—one who won't care for the strays or search for the young or heal the sick or feed the healthy. He will just dine on the fattest sheep, leaving nothing but a few bones.”