The Words of Eternal Life

John 6 ⁶⁰Many of Jesus' disciples heard him and said, "This is too hard for anyone to understand."
⁶¹Jesus knew that his disciples were grumbling. So he asked, "Does this bother you? ⁶²What if you should see the Son of Man go up to heaven where he came from? ⁶³The 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. ⁶⁴But 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.
⁶⁵Then 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."
⁶⁶Because of what Jesus said, many of his disciples turned their backs on him and stopped following him. ⁶⁷Jesus then asked his twelve disciples if they were going to leave him. ⁶⁸Simon Peter answered, "Lord, there is no one else that we can go to! Your words give eternal life. ⁶⁹We have faith in you, and we are sure that you are God's Holy One."
⁷⁰Jesus told his disciples, "I chose all twelve of you, but one of you is a demon!" ⁷¹Jesus was talking about Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. He would later betray Jesus, even though he was one of the twelve disciples.

David Assigns the Temple Musicians Their Duties

1 Chronicles 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:
²Asaph's four sons, Zaccur, Joseph, Nethaniah, and Asarelah, were under the direction of their father and played music whenever the king told them to.
³Jeduthun's six sons, Gedaliah, Zeri, Jeshaiah, Shimei, Hashabiah, and Mattithiah, were under the direction of their father and played harps and sang praises to the LORD.
⁴Heman had fourteen sons: Bukkiah, Mattaniah, Uzziel, Shebuel, Jerimoth, Hananiah, Hanani, Eliathah, Giddalti, Romamtiezer, Joshbekashah, Mallothi, Hothir, Mahazioth. ⁵Heman was one of the king's prophets, and God honored Heman by giving him fourteen sons and three daughters. ⁶His 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.
⁷There were two hundred eighty-eight of these men, and all of them were skilled musicians. ⁸David assigned them their duties by asking the LORD what he wanted. Everyone was responsible for something, whether young or old, teacher or student.
^9-31The musicians were divided into twenty-four 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

1 Chronicles 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. ²He had seven sons, who were born in the following order: Zechariah, Jediael, Zebadiah, Jathniel, ³Elam, Jehohanan, and Eliehoenai.
^4-5Obed-Edom had been blessed with eight sons: Shemaiah, Jehozabad, Joah, Sachar, Nethanel, Ammiel, Issachar, and Peullethai.
^6-7Shemaiah was the father of Othni, Rephael, Obed, Elzabad, Elihu, and Semachiah. They were all respected leaders in their clan. ⁸There were sixty-two descendants of Obed-Edom who were strong enough to be guards at the temple.
⁹Eighteen descendants of Meshelemiah were chosen for this work.
^10-11Hosah, 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.
¹²The guards were divided into groups, according to their family leaders, and they were assigned duties at the temple, just like the other Levites. ¹³Each group, no matter how large or small, was assigned a gate to guard, and they let the LORD show them what he wanted done.
¹⁴Shelemiah was chosen to guard the East Gate. Zechariah his son was a wise man and was chosen to guard the North Gate. ¹⁵Obed-Edom was then chosen to guard the South Gate, and his sons were chosen to guard the storerooms. ¹⁶Shuppim 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: ¹⁷Each 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, ¹⁸four were stationed along the road leading to the west courtyard, and two guards stayed in the court itself.
¹⁹These were the guard duties assigned to the men from the clans of Korah and Merari.

Guards Are Assigned to the Treasury

²⁰The Levites who were relatives of the Korahites and the Merarites were in charge of guarding the temple treasury and the gifts that had been dedicated to God.
²¹Ladan was from the Gershon clan and was the father of Jehieli. Many of his other descendants were family leaders in the clan. ²²Jehieli was the father of Zetham and Joel, and they were responsible for guarding the treasury.
²³Other guards at the treasury were from the Kohathite clans of Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel.
²⁴Shebuel was a descendant of Gershom the son of Moses. He was the chief official in charge of the temple treasury. ²⁵The descendants of Gershom's brother Eliezer included Rehabiah, Jeshaiah, Joram, Zichri, and Shelomoth.
²⁶Shelomoth 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. ²⁷And whenever valuable things were captured in battle, these men brought some of them to the temple. ²⁸Shelomoth 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, and Joab the son of Zeruiah.

Other Officers Are Assigned Their Duties

²⁹Chenaniah from the Izhar clan and his sons were government officials and judges. They did not work at the temple.
³⁰Hashabiah from the Hebron clan and one thousand seven hundred of his skilled relatives were the officials in charge of all religious and government business in the Israelite territories west of the Jordan River.
^31-32Jerijah was the leader of the Hebron clan. David assigned him and two thousand seven hundred 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

Zechariah 11 Lebanon, open your gates!
Let the fire come in to destroy your cedar trees.
²Cry, you cyprus trees!
The glorious cedars have fallen and are rotting.
Cry, you oak trees of Bashan!
The dense forest has been chopped down.
³Listen! Shepherds are crying.
Their glorious pastures have been ruined.
Listen! Lions are roaring.
The forests of the Jordan Valley are no more to be found.

Worthless Shepherds

⁴The LORD my God said to me:

Tend those sheep doomed for slaughter! ⁵The 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.

⁶Tend 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.

⁷So I became a shepherd of those sheep doomed to be slaughtered by the sheep dealers. And I gave names to the two sticks I used for tending the sheep: One of them was named "Mercy" and the other "Unity." ⁸In less than a month, I became impatient with three shepherds who didn't like me, and I got rid of them. ⁹Then 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."
¹⁰On that same day, I broke the stick named "Mercy" to show that the LORD had canceled his agreement with all people. ¹¹The sheep dealers who saw me knew right away that this was a message from the LORD. ^12-13I told them, "Pay me my wages, if you think you should; otherwise, forget it." So they handed me my wages, a measly thirty pieces of silver.
Then the LORD said, "Throw the money into the treasury." So I threw the money into the treasury at the LORD's temple. ¹⁴Then I broke the stick named "Unity" and canceled the ties between Judah and Israel.
¹⁵Next, the LORD said to me, "Act like a shepherd again--this time a worthless shepherd. ¹⁶Once 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."
¹⁷You worthless shepherd, deserting the sheep!
I hope a sword will cripple your arm
and blind your right eye.