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12 Each group of guards had a leader. Like the other Levites, each group had a job to do as they served the Lord in his temple. 13 They used lots to decide which family group would be the guards for each gate of the temple. They chose the jobs for everyone in the same way, important people and ordinary people.
14 They chose Shelemiah's group to be guards for the East gate. They chose his son Zechariah's group for the North gate. Zechariah was a wise man who gave good advice. 15 They chose Obed-Edom's group to be guards at the South gate. They chose his sons to be guards for the rooms where they kept valuable things. 16 They chose Shuppim's group and Hosah's group to be guards at the West gate, as well as the Shalleketh Gate on the higher road.
They chose the times for each group of guards to work each day. 17 Six Levites watched the east side of the temple. Four men watched the north side and four men watched the south side. Two guards worked together at each room where they kept valuable things. 18 There were four guards on the road near the yard at the west side of the temple. And there were two guards in the yard.
19 That was the work of the different groups of guards who were descendants of Korah and Merari.
Other work for the Levites
20 Other Levites kept the valuable things in the temple safe. That included the money and the gifts that people had offered to God.
21 One group of these men were descendants of Ladan, who belonged to Gershon's clan. These were the leaders of those families: Jehieli, 22 and his sons, Zetham and Joel (his younger brother). They had authority for the rooms where they kept the money and other valuable things in the Lord's temple.
23 The other guards for those rooms were descendants of Amram, Izhar, Hebron and Uzziel. 24 Shebuel was a descendant of Moses' son Gershom. He was the leader with authority to keep the money safe. 25 His relatives were descendants of Gershom's brother Eliezer. They were: Eliezer's son Rehabiah, Rebaiah's son Jeshaiah, Jeshaiah's son Joram, Joram's son Zikri, and Zikri's son Shelomoth. 26 Shelomoth and his relatives had authority for all the holy things that people had offered as gifts to God. King David, the leaders of clans and army officers had given those things to God. 27 When the Israelites won battles, they took valuable things from their enemies. They brought some of those things to the Lord's temple to make it strong. 28 There were also gifts that Samuel the prophet, Kish's son Saul, Ner's son Abner and Zeruiah's son Joab had offered to the Lord. Shelomoth and his relatives had authority to keep safe everything that had been offered to the Lord.
29 There were also descendants of Izhar: Kenaniah and his sons did not work in the temple. Instead they served as judges and officers in different places in Israel.
30 There were descendants of Hebron: Hashabiah and his relatives served as officers on the west side of the Jordan River. There were 1,700 of those men who could work well. They had authority for the work the people did to serve the Lord and the king. 31 Jeriah was the leader among Hebron's descendants. The records of their ancestors showed that this was true. When David had been king for 40 years, people read those records carefully. They realized that there were descendants of Hebron who were living at Jazer in Gilead region, and people respected them very much. 32 There were 2,700 men from Jeriah's clan who were good leaders in their families. King David chose them to be officers with authority for the tribes of Reuben, Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh.[a] They had authority for all the work that people did to serve the Lord and the king.
The leaders of Israel's army
27 This is a list of the men from Israel's families who served as soldiers in the army. Some were leaders of their families. Some were officers who led 1,000 soldiers or officers who led 100 soldiers. Other men were officers who served the king in different ways. Each month of the year, a group of 24,000 men served the king as soldiers.
2 Zabdiel's son Jashobeam was the leader of the first group of 24,000 soldiers. They worked in the first month of each year. 3 Jashobeam was a descendant of Perez. He was leader of all the army officers for the first month.
4 Dodai was the leader of the second group of 24,000 soldiers. They worked in the second month. Dodai belonged to Ahoah's clan. Mikloth was the leader who helped him.
5 Benaiah was the leader of the third group of 24,000 soldiers. They worked in the third month. Benaiah was the son of Jehoiada, the priest. 6 Benaiah was the leader of the 30 great soldiers and his whole group. His son was Ammizabad.
7 Asahel was the leader of the fourth group of 24,000 soldiers. They worked in the fourth month. Asahel was Joab's brother. His son Zebadiah was the leader of the group after him.
8 Shamhuth, from Izrah's clan, was the leader of the fifth group of 24,000 soldiers. They worked in the fifth month.
9 Ira was the leader of the sixth group of 24,000 soldiers. They worked in the sixth month. Ira was the son of Ikkesh from Tekoa.
10 Helez was the leader of the seventh group of 24,000 soldiers. They worked in the seventh month. He belonged to Pelon's clan, in the tribe of Ephraim.
11 Sibbecai was the leader of the eighth group of 24,000 soldiers. They worked in the eighth month. Sibbecai was a descendant of Zerah, who came from Hushah.
12 Abiezer was the leader of the ninth group of 24,000 soldiers. They worked in the ninth month. Abiezer came from Anathoth, in the tribe of Benjamin.
13 Maharai was the leader of the tenth group of 24,000 soldiers. They worked in the tenth month. Maharai was a descendant of Zerah, who came from Netophah.
14 Benaiah was the leader of the 11th group of 24,000 soldiers. They worked in the 11th month. Benaiah came from Pirathon, in the tribe of Ephraim.
15 Heldai was the leader of the 12th group of 24,000 soldiers. They worked in the 12th month. He was a descendant of Othniel, who came from Netophah.
Officers with authority over Israel's tribes
16 This is a list of the officers who had authority over Israel's tribes:
For Reuben: Zikri's son, Eliezer.
For Simeon: Maakah's son, Shephatiah.
17 For Levi: Kemuel's son, Hashabiah. Zadok had authority over the descendants of Aaron.[b]
18 For Judah: Elihu, a brother of David.
For Issachar: Michael's son, Omri.
19 For Zebulun: Obadiah's son, Ishmaiah.
For Naphtali: Azriel's son, Jerimoth.
20 For Ephraim Hoshea's son, Azaziah.
For the half tribe of Manasseh in the west: Pedaiah's son, Joel.
21 For the half tribe of Manasseh in Gilead: Zechariah's son, Iddo.
For Benjamin: Abner's son, Jaasiel.
22 For Dan: Jeroham's son, Azarel.
Those were the officers who led the tribes of Israel.
23 The Lord had promised to make Israel a nation with as many people as there are stars in the sky. So King David did not count the men who were less than 20 years old. 24 Zeruiah's son Joab had begun to count the men. He did not finish counting them because the Lord started to punish Israel. So nobody wrote the number in the history book about King David's life.
Other officers who served the king
25 Adiel's son Azmaveth had authority over the places in the palace where the king stored his valuable things.
Uzziah's son Jonathan had authority over the places in the different regions of Israel where the king stored his things. Those places were in towns, in villages and in strong towers.
26 Kelub's son Ezri had authority over the men who worked in the king's fields.
27 Shimei from Ramah had authority over the men who worked in the king's vineyards.
Zabdi from Shepham had authority over the men who stored wine in the vineyards.
28 Baal-Hanan from Geder had authority over the trees in the low hills in the west. They were olive trees and fig trees.
Joash had authority over the places where they stored the olive oil.
29 Shitrai from Sharon had authority to take care of the king's cows that were in Sharon.
Adlai's son Shaphat had authority to take care of the king's cows that were in the valleys.
30 Obil, a descendant of Ishmael, had authority for the king's camels.
Jehdeiah from Meronoth had authority for the donkeys.
31 Jaziz, a descendant of Hagar, had authority to take care of the king's sheep and goats.
These were the officers who had authority to take care of King David's things.
32 David's uncle, Jonathan, was a wise man who gave good advice. He wrote down records.
Hakmoni's son Jehiel taught the king's sons.
33 Ahithophel was the king's advisor, and Hushai, from Arki, was also the king's friend. 34 After Ahithophel died, Benaiah's son Jehoiada became the king's advisor. After him, Abiathar became his advisor.
Joab was the captain who led the king's army.
13 God promised to Abraham, and to his descendants, that the world would belong to them one day.[a] God did not promise that because Abraham obeyed any rules. God promised it because Abraham believed in him. That is why God accepted Abraham as right with him. 14 People cannot get what God promised because they obey rules. If they could get it like that, then faith in God would be worth nothing. And what God promised would be worth nothing. 15 The rules in Moses' Law say that God will punish people who do not obey those rules. But without any rules, there is nothing for people to obey.
16 So God gives us his promise as a gift, because he is very kind. We receive it when we trust him. If we believe in God like Abraham did, then God accepts us. That is God's promise to all of Abraham's family. If we believe in God, we can call Abraham our ancestor. We can all receive what God has promised. It is not only for those who have Moses' Law to obey. 17 In the Bible, God said to Abraham, ‘I have chosen you to become the ancestor of many different people.’[b] That is what God himself promises, because Abraham believed in him. God is the one who causes dead people to become alive again. He speaks about things that are not yet there as if they were already there.
18 Abraham continued to trust God. He hoped to receive what God had promised. He continued to hope even when he had no good reason to hope. That is why he became the ancestor of many different people. It happened just like God had said: ‘You will have very many descendants.’[c]
19 Abraham was about 100 years old. His body was already so old that it was nearly dead. His wife, Sarah, was unable to have children. Abraham understood all that, but he did not stop trusting God. 20 He never stopped believing what God had promised. Instead, he believed in God more strongly. He trusted God's great power. 21 Abraham was sure that God was able to do what he had promised to do. 22 So we see that it is true: Because Abraham believed God, God accepted Abraham as right with him.[d]
23 Think about those words, ‘God accepted him as right.’ They are not only speaking about Abraham. 24 They are written in the Bible to help us too. If we believe in God, he will accept us as right with him. God raised our Lord Jesus, so that he became alive again after his death. 25 God let people kill Jesus on the cross because of the wrong things that we have done. Then God raised Jesus from death, to show that he would accept us as right with him.
God's friends
5 So we see that God has accepted us as right because we believe in him. As a result, we are friends with God, because of what our Lord Jesus Christ has done for us. 2 Also, because we trust Jesus Christ, he has caused us to know that God is very kind. That makes us strong in our lives here. We also are sure that we will live with God in heaven. So we are very happy.[e]
3 We are happy even when we have troubles and pain. That is because we know that those troubles help us to become patient and strong. 4 And when we remain strong, we show that we trust God. When we trust God like that, it causes us to hope for God's help. 5 And when we hope like that, it will not disappoint us. That is because we know that God loves us very much. God has given his Holy Spirit to be with us. The Holy Spirit causes us to know God's love very well.
This is a song that David wrote for the music leader.
God rules the world
14 Only fools say to themselves, ‘There is no God.’
People like that do bad and evil things.
None of them do things that are good and right.
2 The Lord is looking down from heaven.
He looks at the people of the world,
to see if there are any wise people among them.
He looks to see if anyone wants to know God.
3 But everyone has turned away from God.
They have all become evil.
Not even one person does things that are right!
4 Will those evil people never learn?
They destroy my people,
as if they are eating a meal.
They never pray to the Lord.
5 Look at them! Now they are very afraid!
They see that God is with the people who obey him.
6 You wicked people tried to bring shame to poor people.
But the Lord keeps poor people safe.
7 The Lord is the one who can save Israel's people.
Please Lord, come now from your home in Zion!
When the Lord makes his people strong again,
Jacob's descendants will be happy!
Yes, Israel's people will shout with joy![a]
17 If you are kind to poor people, you are lending money to the Lord.
He will pay back the debt to you.
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