Read the Bible

The Ark Is Brought to Jerusalem

¹ Then David made houses for himself in the city of David; and he prepared a place for the ark of God and ^(C1)pitched a tent for it.² And David said, "^(C1)No one is to carry the ark of God but the Levites; for Yahweh chose them to carry the ark of ^(F1)God and to minister to Him forever."³ Then ^(C1)David assembled all Israel at Jerusalem to bring up the ark of Yahweh ^(C2)to its place which he had prepared for it.⁴ And David gathered together the sons of Aaron and ^(C1)the Levites:⁵ of the sons of Kohath, Uriel the chief, and 120 of his ^(F1)relatives;⁶ of the sons of Merari, Asaiah the chief, and 220 of his relatives;⁷ of the sons of Gershom, Joel the chief, and 130 of his relatives;⁸ of the sons of Elizaphan, Shemaiah the chief, and 200 of his relatives;⁹ of the sons of Hebron, Eliel the chief, and 80 of his relatives;¹⁰ of the sons of Uzziel, Amminadab the chief, and 112 of his relatives.

¹¹ Then David called for ^(C1)Zadok and ^(C2)Abiathar the priests, and for the Levites, for Uriel, Asaiah, Joel, Shemaiah, Eliel and Amminadab,¹² and said to them, "You are the heads of the fathers' households of the Levites; ^(C1)set yourselves apart as holy, both you and your relatives, that you may bring up the ark of Yahweh, the God of Israel, ^(C2)to the place that I have prepared for it.¹³ "^(C1)Because you did not carry it at the first, Yahweh our God broke out against us, for we did not seek Him according to the legal judgment."^14 (C1)So the priests and the Levites set themselves apart as holy to bring up the ark of Yahweh, the God of Israel.¹⁵ And the sons of ^(C1)the Levites carried the ark of God on their shoulders with the poles thereon, as Moses had commanded according to the word of Yahweh.

¹⁶ Then David said to the chiefs of the Levites ^(C1)to appoint their relatives the singers, with instruments of music, harps, lyres, loud-sounding cymbals, to raise a sound of gladness.¹⁷ So ^(C1)the Levites appointed Heman the son of Joel, and from his relatives, Asaph the son of Berechiah; and from the sons of Merari their relatives, Ethan the son of Kushaiah,¹⁸ and with them their relatives of the second rank, Zechariah, ^(F1)Ben, Jaaziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattithiah, Eliphelehu, Mikneiah, Obed-edom, and Jeiel, the gatekeepers.¹⁹ So the singers, Heman, Asaph and Ethan were appointed to sound aloud cymbals of bronze;²⁰ and Zechariah, Aziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Maaseiah, and Benaiah, with ^(F1)harps set according to ^(C1)alamoth;²¹ and Mattithiah, Eliphelehu, Mikneiah, Obed-edom, Jeiel, and Azaziah, to lead with ^(F1)lyres set according to ^(C1)the sheminith.²² Chenaniah, chief of the Levites, was in charge of the ^(F1)singing; he gave instruction in singing because he had understanding.²³ Berechiah and Elkanah were gatekeepers for the ark.²⁴ Shebaniah, Joshaphat, Nethanel, Amasai, Zechariah, Benaiah, and Eliezer, the priests, ^(C1)blew the trumpets before the ark of God. Obed-edom and Jehiah also were gatekeepers for the ark.

^25 (C1)So it was David, with the elders of Israel and the commanders over thousands, who went to bring up the ark of the covenant of Yahweh from ^(C2)the house of Obed-edom with gladness.²⁶ Now this happened because God was helping the Levites who were carrying the ark of the covenant of Yahweh. And they sacrificed ^(C1)seven bulls and seven rams.²⁷ Now David was clothed with a robe of fine linen with all the Levites who were carrying the ark, as well as the singers and Chenaniah the leader of the singing with the singers. ^(C1)David also wore a linen ephod.²⁸ Thus all Israel was bringing up the ark of the covenant of Yahweh with shouting, and with sound of the ^(F1)horn, with trumpets, with loud-sounding cymbals, with harps, and lyres.

²⁹ Now it happened as the ark of the covenant of Yahweh came to the city of David, that ^(C1)Michal the daughter of Saul looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and celebrating; and she despised him in her heart.