1 *Chronicles 26
The gatekeepers
1There were also groups of gatekeepers.
From the Korah family there was Meshelemiah, son of Kore, who was one of the sons of Asaph. 2-3Meshelemiah had 7 sons. The first son was Zechariah, then Jediael, Zebadiah, Jathniel, Elam, Jehohanan and Eliehoenai. 4-5Obed-Edom had 8 sons because God blessed him. His sons were Shemaiah the first, then Jehozabad, Joah, Sakar, Nethanel, Ammiel, Issachar and Peullethai.
6Obed-Edom's son, Shemaiah, had sons who were leaders in their families and they were important people. 7The sons of Shemaiah were Othni, Rephael, Obed and Elzabad. Their brothers were Elihu and Semakiah. People respected them a lot.
8All of these men were family of Obed-Edom. They, their sons and other family members worked very well. There were 62 men from the Obed-Edom family. 9Meshelemiah's sons and his other family members also worked very well. There were 18 men in his family.
10Hosah from the Merari family had 4 sons. Shimri was the leader of the family. He was not the oldest son, but his father chose him to be the leader of the family. 11The other sons were Hilkiah, Tabaliah and Zechariah. There were 13 sons from the family of Hosah.
12These men were the leaders of the groups of gatekeepers and they worked with the other Levites who worked in the temple. 13They drew_lots to see which family had to guard which gate. It was the same for the big and small families.
14The lot showed that Shelemiah had to guard the eastern gate and his son Zechariah had to guard the northern gate. Zechariah was a wise man. 15Obed-Edom had to guard the southern gate and his sons were at the store rooms. 16Shuppim and Hosah had to guard the West Gate and the Shalleketh Gate on the upper road. The guards stood side by side. 17At the eastern gate there were 6 Levites on guard every day, at the northern gate there were 4 guards, at the southern gate there were 4 guards and at the store rooms there were always 2 guards. 18At the courtyard west of the temple, 4 Levites were on guard at the road and 2 were on guard inside the courtyard.
19These were the groups of gatekeepers of the Korah and Merari families.
The Levites who guarded the store rooms
20Here are the names of the other Levite families who had to guard the store rooms of the temple and the holy_gifts: 21-22They were Jehieli and his sons Zetham and Joel. Jehieli was the son of Ladan from the Gershon family. They had to guard the store rooms.
23-24The other leaders came from the families of Amram, Izhar, Hebron and Uzziel. They were Shubael, son of Gershom, son of Moses. He was the leader of the guards at the store rooms. 25The descendants of Gershom's brother Eliezer were Rehabiah, Jeshaiah, Joram, Zikri and Shelomith. 26Shelomith and his family had to guard the holy_gifts that King David and the family leaders had consecrated to the Lord with the leaders of 1 000 men, the leaders of 100 men and the leaders of the army. 27They gave some of the plunder that they had taken from the enemies in the wars and they consecrated it to use in the temple. 28Shelomith and his brothers had to guard everything that the prophet Samuel and Saul, son of Kish, had consecrated to the Lord with Abner, son of Ner, and Joab, son of Zeruiah.
Levites who were officials
29Kenaniah and his sons from the Izhar family did not work in the temple. They had to be managers and judges. 30Hashabiah and his brothers were leaders of the Hebron family. There were 1 700 people and they had to do the Lord's work, and the king's work, and help all the Israelites west of the Jordan River. 31Jeriah was the leader of the Hebron family and 40 years after David had become king, he told his men to find out all about their families. They saw that there were many leaders in their family who lived in the town of Jazer, in the land of Gilead. 32There were 2 700 leaders who were family of Jeriah. They were leaders of families and David chose them to do the work for the Lord and the king among the tribes of Reuben, Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh.
English Bible for the Deaf © Bible Society of South Africa 2019. Used with permission. All rights reserved.
