The Ark Brought to Jerusalem

¹David1 built houses for himself in the city of David. And he prepared a place for the ark of God and dpitched a tent for it. ²Then David said that no one but the Levites may carry ethe ark of God, for the Lord had chosen them to carry the ark of the Lord and to minister to him forever. ³fAnd David assembled all Israel at Jerusalem to bring up the ark of the Lord gto its place, which he had prepared for it. ⁴And David gathered together the sons of Aaron and hthe Levites: ⁵of the sons of Kohath, Uriel the chief, with 120 of his brothers; ⁶of the sons of Merari, Asaiah the chief, with 220 of his brothers; ⁷of the sons of Gershom, Joel the chief, with 130 of his brothers; ⁸of the sons of Elizaphan, Shemaiah the chief, with 200 of his brothers; ⁹of the sons of Hebron, Eliel the chief, with 80 of his brothers; ¹⁰of the sons of Uzziel, Amminadab the chief, with 112 of his brothers. ¹¹Then David summoned the priests iZadok and jAbiathar, and the Levites Uriel, Asaiah, Joel, Shemaiah, Eliel, and Amminadab, ¹²and said to them, “You are the heads of the fathers' houses of the Levites. kConsecrate yourselves, you and your brothers, so that you may bring up the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel, lto the place that I have prepared for it. ¹³mBecause you did not carry it the first time, the Lord our God broke out against us, because we did not seek him according to the rule.” ¹⁴So the priests and the Levites consecrated themselves to bring up the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel. ¹⁵And the Levites carried the ark of God on their shoulders nwith the poles, oas Moses had commanded according to the word of the Lord.

¹⁶David also commanded the chiefs of the Levites to appoint their brothers as the singers who should play loudly on pmusical instruments, on harps and lyres and cymbals, to raise sounds of joy. ¹⁷So the Levites appointed qHeman the son of Joel; and of his brothers rAsaph the son of Berechiah; and of the sons of Merari, their brothers, sEthan the son of Kushaiah; ¹⁸and with them their brothers of the second order, Zechariah, Jaaziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattithiah, Eliphelehu, and Mikneiah, and the gatekeepers Obed-edom and Jeiel. ¹⁹The singers, Heman, Asaph, and Ethan, were to sound bronze cymbals; ²⁰Zechariah, tAziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Maaseiah, and Benaiah were to play harps according to uAlamoth; ²¹but Mattithiah, Eliphelehu, Mikneiah, vObed-edom, Jeiel, and Azaziah were to lead with lyres according to wthe Sheminith. ²²Chenaniah, leader of the Levites in music, should direct the music, for he understood it. ²³Berechiah and Elkanah were to be gatekeepers for the ark. ²⁴Shebaniah, Joshaphat, Nethanel, Amasai, Zechariah, Benaiah, and Eliezer, the priests, should xblow the trumpets before the ark of God. vObed-edom and Jehiah were to be gatekeepers for the ark.

²⁵ySo David and the elders of Israel and the commanders of thousands went to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord from the house of vObed-edom with rejoicing. ²⁶And because God helped the Levites who were carrying the ark of the covenant of the Lord, they sacrificed zseven bulls and seven rams. ²⁷David was clothed with a robe of fine linen, as also were all the Levites who were carrying the ark, and the singers and Chenaniah the leader of the music of the singers. And David wore a linen ephod. ²⁸So all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the Lord with shouting, to the sound of the horn, atrumpets, and cymbals, and made loud music on bharps and lyres.

²⁹And as the ark of the covenant of the Lord came to the city of David, Michal the daughter of Saul looked out of the window and saw King David dancing and celebrating, and she despised him in her heart.