King David (Chronicles)

Chapter 15

¹He had houses made for himself in the City of David, and he prepared a place for the Ark of God, and pitched a tent for it. ²Then David gave orders that none but the Levites were to carry the Ark of God, for the Lord had chosen them to carry the Ark of the Lord and to minister to Him forever. ³David assembled all Israel in Jerusalem to bring up the Ark of the Lord to its place, which he had prepared for it. ⁴Then David gathered together the Aaronides and the Levites: ⁵the sons of Kohath: Uriel the officer and his kinsmen—120; ⁶the sons of Merari: Asaiah the officer and his kinsmen—220; ⁷the sons of Gershom: Joel the officer and his kinsmen—130; ⁸the sons of Elizaphan: Shemaiah the officer and his kinsmen—200; ⁹the sons of Hebron: Eliel the officer and his kinsmen—80; ¹⁰the sons of Uzziel: Amminadab the officer and his kinsmen—112.

¹¹David sent for Zadok and Abiathar the priests, and for the Levites: Uriel, Asaiah, Joel, Shemaiah, Eliel, and Amminadab. ¹²He said to them, “You are the heads of the clans of the Levites; sanctify yourselves, you and your kinsmen, and bring up the Ark of the Lord God of Israel to [the place] I have prepared for it.” [ . . . ]

¹⁴The priests and Levites sanctified themselves in order to bring up the Ark of the Lord God of Israel. ¹⁵The Levites carried the Ark of God by means of poles on their shoulders, as Moses had commanded in accordance with the word of the Lord. ¹⁶David ordered the officers of the Levites to install their kinsmen, the singers, with musical instruments, harps, lyres, and cymbals, joyfully making their voices heard. ¹⁷So the Levites installed Heman son of Joel and, of his kinsmen, Asaph son of Berechiah; and, of the sons of Merari their kinsmen, Ethan son of Kushaiah. ¹⁸Together with them were their kinsmen of second rank, Zechariah, Ben, Jaaziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattithiah, Eliphalehu, Mikneiah, Obed-edom and Jeiel the gatekeepers. ¹⁹Also the singers Heman, Asaph, and Ethan to sound the bronze cymbals, ²⁰and Zechariah, Aziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Maaseiah, and Benaiah with harps on alamoth; ²¹also Mattithiah, Eliphalehu, Mikneiah, Obed-edom, Jeiel, and Azaziah, with lyres to lead on the sheminith; ²²also Chenaniah, officer of the Levites in song; he was in charge of the song because he was a master. ²³Berechiah and Elkanah were gatekeepers for the Ark. ²⁴Shebaniah, Joshaphat, Nethanel, Amasai, Zechariah, Benaiah, and Eliezer the priests sounded the trumpets before the Ark of God, and Obed-edom and Jehiah were gatekeepers for the Ark. ²⁵Then David and the elders of Israel and the officers of the thousands who were going to bring up the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord from the house of Obed-edom were joyful. ²⁶Since God helped the Levites who were carrying the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, they sacrificed seven bulls and seven rams. ²⁷Now David and all the Levites who were carrying the Ark, and the singers and Chenaniah, officer of song of the singers, were wrapped in robes of fine linen, and David wore a linen ephod. ²⁸All Israel brought up the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord with shouts and with blasts of the horn, with trumpets and cymbals, playing on harps and lyres.

Chapter 16

¹They brought in the Ark of God and set it up inside the tent that David had pitched for it, and they sacrificed burnt offerings and offerings of well-being before God. ²When David finished sacrificing the burnt offerings and the offerings of well-being, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord. ³And he distributed to every person in Israel—man and woman alike—to each a loaf of bread, a cake made in a pan, and a raisin cake. ⁴He appointed Levites to minister before the Ark of the Lord, to invoke, to praise, and to extol the Lord God of Israel: ⁵Asaph the chief, Zechariah second in rank, Jeiel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Mattithiah, Eliab, Benaiah, Obed-edom, and Jeiel, with harps and lyres, and Asaph sounding the cymbals, ⁶and Benaiah and Jahaziel the priests, with trumpets, regularly before the Ark of the Covenant of God. ⁷Then, on that day, David first commissioned Asaph and his kinsmen to give praise to the Lord:

³⁶Blessed is the Lord, God of Israel, from eternity to eternity.” And all the people said, “Amen” and “Praise the Lord.”

³⁷He left Asaph and his kinsmen there before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord to minister before the Ark regularly as each day required, ³⁸as well as Obed-edom with their kinsmen—68; also Obed-edom son of Jedithun and Hosah as gatekeepers; ³⁹also Zadok the priest and his fellow priests before the Tabernacle of the Lord at the shrine which was in Gibeon; ⁴⁰to sacrifice burnt offerings to the Lord on the altar of the burnt offering regularly, morning and evening, in accordance with what was prescribed in the Teaching of the Lord with which He charged Israel. ⁴¹With them were Heman and Jeduthun and the other selected men designated by name to give praise to the Lord, “For His steadfast love is eternal.” ⁴²Heman and Jeduthun had with them trumpets and cymbals to sound, and instruments for the songs of God; and the sons of Jeduthun were to be at the gate. ⁴³Then all the people went every one to his home, and David returned to greet his household. [ . . . ]

Chapter 22

¹David said, “Here will be the House of the Lord and here the altar of burnt offerings for Israel.”

²David gave orders to assemble the aliens living in the land of Israel, and assigned them to be hewers, to quarry and dress stones for building the House of God. ³Much iron for nails for the doors of the gates and for clasps did David lay aside, and so much copper it could not be weighed, ⁴and cedar logs without number—for the Sidonians and the Tyrians brought many cedar logs to David.

⁵For David thought, “My son Solomon is an untried youth, and the House to be built for the Lord is to be made exceedingly great to win fame and glory throughout all the lands; let me then lay aside material for him.” So David laid aside much material before he died. ⁶Then he summoned his son Solomon and charged him with building the House for the Lord God of Israel.

⁷David said to Solomon, “My son, I wanted to build a House for the name of the Lord my God. ⁸But the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ‘You have shed much blood and fought great battles; you shall not build a House for My name for you have shed much blood on the earth in My sight. ⁹But you will have a son who will be a man at rest, for I will give him rest from all his enemies on all sides; Solomon will be his name and I shall confer peace and quiet on Israel in his time. ¹⁰He will build a House for My name; he shall be a son to Me and I to him a father, and I will establish his throne of kingship over Israel forever.’ ¹¹Now, my son, may the Lord be with you, and may you succeed in building the House of the Lord your God as He promised you would. ¹²Only let God give you sense and understanding and put you in charge of Israel and the observance of the Teaching of the Lord your God. ¹³Then you shall succeed, if you observantly carry out the laws and the rules that the Lord charged Moses to lay upon Israel. Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid or dismayed. ¹⁴See, by denying myself, I have laid aside for the House of the Lord one hundred thousand talents of gold and one million talents of silver, and so much copper and iron it cannot be weighed; I have also laid aside wood and stone, and you shall add to them. ¹⁵An abundance of workmen is at your disposal—hewers, workers in stone and wood, and every kind of craftsman in every kind of material—¹⁶gold, silver, copper, and iron without limit. Go and do it, and may the Lord be with you.”

¹⁷David charged all the officers of Israel to support his son Solomon, ¹⁸“See, the Lord your God is with you, and He will give you rest on every side, for He delivered the inhabitants of the land into my hand so that the land lies conquered before the Lord and before His people. ¹⁹Now, set your minds and hearts on worshiping the Lord your God, and go build the Sanctuary of the Lord your God so that you may bring the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord and the holy vessels of God to the house that is built for the name of the Lord.”

Chapter 23

¹When David reached a ripe old age, he made his son Solomon king over Israel. ²Then David assembled all the officers of Israel and the priests and the Levites. ³The Levites, from the age of thirty and upward, were counted; the head-count of their males was 38,000: ⁴of these there were 24,000 in charge of the work of the House of the Lord, 6,000 officers and magistrates, ⁵4,000 gatekeepers, and 4,000 for praising the Lord “with instruments I devised for singing praises.” ⁶David formed them into divisions:

The sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. ⁷The Gershonites: Ladan and Shimei. ⁸The sons of Ladan: Jehiel the chief, Zetham, and Joel—3. ⁹The sons of Shimei: Shelomith, Haziel, and Haran—3. These were the chiefs of the clans of the Ladanites. ¹⁰And the sons of Shimei: Jahath, Zina, Jeush, and Beriah; these were the sons of Shimei—4. ¹¹Jahath was the chief and Zizah the second, but Jeush and Beriah did not have many children, so they were enrolled together as a single clan. ¹²The sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel—4. ¹³The sons of Amram: Aaron and Moses. Aaron was set apart, he and his sons, forever, to be consecrated as most holy, to make burnt offerings to the Lord and serve Him and pronounce blessings in His name forever. [ . . . ]

²⁴These are the sons of Levi by clans, with their clan chiefs as they were enrolled, with a list of their names by heads, who did the work of the service of the House of the Lord from the age of twenty and upward. ²⁵For David said, “The Lord God of Israel has given rest to His people and made His dwelling in Jerusalem forever. ²⁶Therefore the Levites need not carry the Tabernacle and all its various service vessels.” ²⁷Among the last acts of David was the counting of the Levites from the age of twenty and upward. ²⁸For their appointment was alongside the Aaronites for the service of the House of the Lord, to look after the courts and the chambers, and the purity of all the holy things, and the performance of the service of the House of God, ²⁹and the rows of bread, and the fine flour for the meal offering, and the unleavened wafers, and the cakes made on the griddle and soaked, and every measure of capacity and length; ³⁰and to be present every morning to praise and extol the Lord, and at evening too, ³¹and whenever offerings were made to the Lord, according to the quantities prescribed for them, on sabbaths, new moons and holidays, regularly, before the Lord; ³²and so to keep watch over the Tent of Meeting, over the holy things, and over the Aaronites their kinsmen, for the service of the House of the Lord. [ . . . ]

Chapter 28

¹David assembled all the officers of Israel—the tribal officers, the divisional officers who served the king, the captains of thousands and the captains of hundreds, and the stewards of all the property and cattle of the king and his sons, with the eunuchs and the warriors, all the men of substance—to Jerusalem. ²King David rose to his feet and said, “Hear me, my brothers, my people! I wanted to build a resting-place for the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, for the footstool of our God, and I laid aside material for building. ³But God said to me, ‘You will not build a house for My name, for you are a man of battles and have shed blood.’ ⁴The Lord God of Israel chose me of all my father’s house to be king over Israel forever. For He chose Judah to be ruler, and of the family of Judah, my father’s house; and of my father’s sons, He preferred to make me king over all Israel; ⁵and of all my sons—for many are the sons the Lord gave me—He chose my son Solomon to sit on the throne of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel. ⁶He said to me, ‘It will be your son Solomon who will build My House and My courts, for I have chosen him to be a son to Me, and I will be a father to him. ⁷I will establish his kingdom forever, if he keeps firmly to the observance of My commandments and rules as he does now.’ ⁸And now, in the sight of all Israel, the congregation of the Lord, and in the hearing of our God, [I say:] Observe and apply yourselves to all the commandments of the Lord your God in order that you may possess this good land and bequeath it to your children after you forever.

⁹“And you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with single mind and fervent heart, for the Lord searches all minds and discerns the design of every thought; if you seek Him He will be available to you, but if you forsake Him He will abandon you forever. ¹⁰See then, the Lord chose you to build a house as the sanctuary; be strong and do it.”

¹¹David gave his son Solomon the plan of the porch and its houses, its storerooms and its upper chambers and inner chambers; and of the place of the Ark-cover; ¹²and the plan of all that he had by the spirit: of the courts of the House of the Lord and all its surrounding chambers, and of the treasuries of the House of God and of the treasuries of the holy things; ¹³the divisions of priests and Levites for all the work of the service of the House of the Lord and all the vessels of the service of the House of the Lord; ¹⁴and gold, the weight of gold for vessels of every sort of use; silver for all the vessels of silver by weight, for all the vessels of every kind of service; ¹⁵the weight of the gold lampstands and their gold lamps, and the weight of the silver lampstands, each lampstand and its silver lamps, according to the use of every lampstand; ¹⁶and the weight of gold for the tables of the rows of bread, for each table, and of silver for the silver tables; ¹⁷and of the pure gold for the forks and the basins and the jars; and the weight of the gold bowls, every bowl; and the weight of the silver bowls, each and every bowl; ¹⁸the weight of refined gold for the incense altar and the gold for the figure of the chariot— the cherubs—those with outspread wings screening the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. ¹⁹“All this that the Lord made me understand by His hand on me, I give you in writing—the plan of all the works.”

²⁰David said to his son Solomon, “Be strong and of good courage and do it; do not be afraid or dismayed, for the Lord God my God is with you; He will not fail you or forsake you till all the work on the House of the Lord is done. ²¹Here are the divisions of the priests and Levites for all kinds of service of the House of God, and with you in all the work are willing men, skilled in all sorts of tasks; also the officers and all the people are at your command.”