The guards of the temple gates

26 This is a list of the groups of men who guarded the temple gates:

• From the descendants of Korah, there was Meshelemiah, the son of Kore, who was one of the sons of Asaph.
  • 2 The oldest son of Meshelemiah was Zechariah. His other sons were Jediael, Zebadiah, Jathniel,
    3 Elam, Jehohanan, and Eliehoenai.
• 4 Another guard was Obed-Edom.
  • His oldest son was Shemaiah. His other sons were Jehozabad, Joah, Sacar, Nethanel,
    5 Ammiel, Issachar, and Peullethai. It was because God had blessed him that he had many sons.
  • 6 Obed-Edom’s son Shemaiah also had sons. They were leaders in their father’s family because they were capable of doing many things well.
    7 The sons of Shemaiah were Othni, Rephael, Obed, and Elzabad. Shemaiah’s relatives Elihu and Semakiah were also capable men.

8 All of those descendants of Obed-Edom and their sons and relatives were capable people and strong workers. Altogether there were 62 of them.

• 9 Another guard was Meshelemiah. He and his sons and relatives were also capable people. There were 18 of them altogether.
• 10 Another guard was Hosah’s son Shimri, a descendant of Merari. Hosah appointed Shimri to be the leader, even though he was not Hosah’s oldest son.
  11 Hosah’s other sons were Hilkiah, Tabaliah, and Zechariah. Altogether there were 13 sons and relatives of Hosah.

12 Those men were leaders of the groups of men who guarded the gates of the temple. They worked at the temple like their relatives did. 13 By casting lots, the leader of each family chose one gate for their group to guard. All of them, including young men and old men (OR, including leaders of large families and small families), cast lots.

• 14 Shelemiah’s group was selected to guard the East Gate.
• The group of Shelemiah’s son Zechariah, who was a wise counselor, was selected to guard the North Gate.
• 15 Then Obed-Edom’s group was selected to guard the South Gate, and his sons were selected to guard the entrances to the temple storerooms.
• 16 Then Shuppim’s group and Hosah’s group were selected to guard the West Gate and the Shalleketh Gate on the upper road to the temple.

The work for the guards was divided evenly. 17 Each day there were six descendants of Levi who guarded the East Gate, four who guarded the North Gate, four who guarded the South Gate, and two at a time who guarded the entrances to the storerooms. 18 At the West gate there were two men who guarded the courtyard and four who guarded the road outside the courtyard.

19 Those were the groups of men who were descendants of Korah and Merari who guarded the gates of the temple.