The Words of Eternal Life

John 6 ⁶⁰Many of his followers heard this and said, "This teaching is too hard. Who can listen to it?"
⁶¹Without being told, Jesus knew that they were grumbling about this, so he said to them, "Does this make you want to give up? ⁶²Suppose, then, that you should see the Son of Man go back up to the place where he was before? ⁶³What gives life is God's Spirit; human power is of no use at all. The words I have spoken to you bring God's life-giving Spirit. ⁶⁴Yet some of you do not believe." (Jesus knew from the very beginning who were the ones that would not believe and which one would betray him.) ⁶⁵And he added, "This is the very reason I told you that no people can come to me unless the Father makes it possible for them to do so."
⁶⁶Because of this, many of Jesus' followers turned back and would not go with him any more. ⁶⁷So he asked the twelve disciples, "And you--would you also like to leave?"
⁶⁸Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. ⁶⁹And now we believe and know that you are the Holy One who has come from God."
⁷⁰Jesus replied, "I chose the twelve of you, didn't I? Yet one of you is a devil!" ⁷¹He was talking about Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. For Judas, even though he was one of the twelve disciples, was going to betray him.

The Temple Musicians

1 Chronicles 25 King David and the leaders of the Levites chose the following Levite clans to lead the worship services: Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun. They were to proclaim God's messages, accompanied by the music of harps and cymbals. This is the list of persons chosen to lead the worship, with the type of service that each group performed:
²The four sons of Asaph: Zaccur, Joseph, Nethaniah, and Asharelah. They were under the direction of Asaph, who proclaimed God's messages whenever the king commanded.
³The six sons of Jeduthun: Gedaliah, Zeri, Jeshaiah, Shimei, Hashabiah, and Mattithiah. Under the direction of their father they proclaimed God's message, accompanied by the music of harps, and sang praise and thanks to the LORD.
⁴The fourteen sons of Heman: Bukkiah, Mattaniah, Uzziel, Shebuel, Jerimoth, Hananiah, Hanani, Eliathah, Giddalti, Romamti Ezer, Joshbekashah, Mallothi, Hothir, and Mahazioth. ⁵God gave to Heman, the king's prophet, these fourteen sons and also three daughters, as he had promised, in order to give power to Heman. ⁶All of his sons played cymbals and harps under their father's direction, to accompany the Temple worship. And Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman were under orders from the king.
⁷All these twenty-four men were experts; and their fellow Levites were trained musicians. There were 288 men in all.
⁸To determine the assignment of duties they all drew lots, whether they were young or old, experts or beginners.
^9-31These 288 men were divided according to families into twenty-four groups of twelve, with a leader in charge of each group. This is the order in which they were on duty: 1) Joseph of the family of Asaph; 2) Gedaliah; 3) Zaccur; 4) Zeri; 5) Nethaniah; 6) Bukkiah; 7) Asharelah; 8) Jeshaiah; 9) Mattaniah; 10) Shimei; 11) Uzziel; 12) Hashabiah; 13) Shebuel; 14) Mattithiah; 15) Jerimoth; 16) Hananiah; 17) Joshbekashah; 18) Hanani; 19) Mallothi; 20) Eliathah; 21) Hothir; 22) Giddalti; 23) Mahazioth; 24) Romamti Ezer.

The Temple Guards

1 Chronicles 26 These are the assignments of work for the Levites who served as Temple guards. From the clan of Korah there was Meshelemiah son of Kore, of the family of Asaph. ²He had seven sons, listed in order of age: Zechariah, Jediael, Zebadiah, Jathniel, ³Elam, Jehohanan, and Eliehoenai.
⁴There was also Obed Edom, whom God blessed by giving him eight sons, listed in order of age: Shemaiah, Jehozabad, Joah, Sachar, Nethanel, ⁵Ammiel, Issachar, and Peullethai.
^6-7Obed Edom's oldest son, Shemaiah, had six sons: Othni, Rephael, Obed, Elzabad, Elihu, and Semachiah. They were important men in their clan because of their great ability; the last two were especially talented.
⁸Obed Edom's family furnished a total of sixty-two highly qualified men for this work.
⁹Meshelemiah's family furnished eighteen qualified men.
¹⁰From the clan of Merari there was Hosah, who had four sons: Shimri (his father made him the leader, even though he was not the oldest son), ¹¹Hilkiah, Tebaliah, and Zechariah. In all there were thirteen members of Hosah's family who were Temple guards.
¹²The Temple guards were divided into groups, according to families, and they were assigned duties in the Temple, just as the other Levites were. ¹³Each family, regardless of size, drew lots to see which gate it would be responsible for. ¹⁴Shelemiah drew the east gate, and his son Zechariah, a man who always gave good advice, drew the north gate. ¹⁵Obed Edom was allotted the south gate, and his sons were allotted to guard the storerooms. ¹⁶Shuppim and Hosah were allotted the west gate and the Shallecheth Gate on the upper road. Guard duty was divided into assigned periods, one after another. ¹⁷On the east, six guards were on duty each day, on the north, four, and on the south, four. Four guards were stationed at the storerooms daily, two at each storeroom. ¹⁸Near the western pavilion there were four guards by the road and two at the pavilion itself. ¹⁹This is the assignment of guard duty to the clan of Korah and the clan of Merari.

Other Temple Duties

²⁰Others of their fellow Levites were in charge of the Temple treasury and the storerooms for gifts dedicated to God. ²¹Ladan, one of the sons of Gershon, was the ancestor of several family groups, including the family of his son Jehiel. ²²Ladan's two other sons, Zetham and Joel, had charge of the Temple treasury and storerooms.
²³Duties were also assigned to the descendants of Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel.
²⁴Shebuel, of the clan of Moses' son Gershom, was the chief official responsible for the Temple treasury. ²⁵Through Gershom's brother Eliezer he was related to Shelomith. Eliezer was the father of Rehabiah, who was the father of Jeshaiah, the father of Joram, the father of Zichri, the father of Shelomith. ²⁶Shelomith and the members of his family were in charge of all the gifts dedicated to God by King David, the heads of families, leaders of clan groups, and army officers. ²⁷They took some of the loot they captured in battle and dedicated it for use in the Temple. ²⁸Shelomith and his family were in charge of everything that had been dedicated for use in the Temple, including the gifts brought by the prophet Samuel, by King Saul, by Abner son of Ner, and by Joab son of Zeruiah.

Duties of Other Levites

²⁹Among the descendants of Izhar, Chenaniah and his sons were assigned administrative duties: keeping records and settling disputes for the people of Israel.
³⁰Among the descendants of Hebron, Hashabiah and seventeen hundred of his relatives, all outstanding men, were put in charge of the administration of all religious and civil matters in Israel west of the Jordan River. ³¹Jeriah was the leader of the descendants of Hebron. In the fortieth year that David was king, an investigation was made of the family line of Hebron's descendants, and outstanding soldiers belonging to this family were found living at Jazer in the territory of Gilead. ³²King David chose twenty-seven hundred outstanding heads of families from Jeriah's relatives and put them in charge of administering all religious and civil matters in Israel east of the Jordan River--the territories of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh.

The Fall of the Tyrants

Zechariah 11 Open your doors, Lebanon,
so that fire can burn down your cedar trees!
²Weep and wail, cypress trees--
the cedars have fallen;
those glorious trees have been destroyed!
Weep and wail, oaks of Bashan--
the dense forest has been cut down!
³The rulers cry out in grief;
their glory is gone!
Listen to the roaring of the lions;
their forest home along the Jordan is destroyed!

The Two Shepherds

⁴The LORD my God said to me, "Act the part of the shepherd of a flock of sheep that are going to be butchered. ⁵Their owners kill them and go unpunished. They sell the meat and say, 'Praise the LORD! We are rich!' Even their own shepherds have no pity on them."
( ⁶ The LORD said, "I will no longer pity anyone on earth. I myself will put all the people in the power of their rulers. These rulers will devastate the earth, and I will not save it from their power.")
⁷Those who bought and sold the sheep hired me, and I became the shepherd of the sheep that were going to be butchered. I took two sticks: one I called "Favor" and the other "Unity." And I took care of the flock. ⁸I lost patience with three other shepherds, who hated me, and I got rid of them all in a single month. ⁹Then I said to the flock, "I will not be your shepherd any longer. Let those die who are to die. Let those be destroyed who are to be destroyed. Those who are left will destroy one another." ¹⁰Then I took the stick called "Favor" and broke it, to cancel the covenant which the LORD had made with all the nations. ¹¹So the covenant was canceled on that day. Those who bought and sold the sheep were watching me, and they knew that the LORD was speaking through what I did. ¹²I said to them, "If you are willing, give me my wages. But if not, keep them." So they paid me thirty pieces of silver as my wages.
¹³The LORD said to me, "Put them in the Temple treasury." So I took the thirty pieces of silver--the magnificent sum they thought I was worth--and put them in the Temple treasury. ¹⁴Then I broke the second stick, the one called "Unity," and the unity of Judah and Israel was shattered.
¹⁵Then the LORD said to me, "Once again act the part of a shepherd, this time a worthless one. ¹⁶I have put a shepherd in charge of my flock, but he does not help the sheep that are threatened by destruction; nor does he look for the lost, or heal those that are hurt, or feed the healthy. Instead, he eats the meat of the fattest sheep and tears off their hoofs. ¹⁷That worthless shepherd is doomed! He has abandoned his flock. War will totally destroy his power. His arm will wither, and his right eye will go blind."