1 Chronicles 15

¹And he built houses 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 said, 'None may carry the ark of God except the Levites; for the LORD chose them to carry the ark of the LORD and to minister to him forever.'

³And David assembled all Israel to Jerusalem to bring up the ark of the LORD to its place which he had prepared for it.

⁴And David gathered the sons of Aaron and the Levites.

⁵For the sons of Kohath: Uriel the chief, and his brothers, a hundred and twenty.

⁶Of the sons of Merari: Asaiah the chief, and his brothers, two hundred and twenty.

⁷Of the sons of Gershom: Joel the chief, and his brothers, one hundred and thirty.

⁸For the sons of Elizaphan: Shemaiah the chief, and his brothers, two hundred.

⁹Of the sons of Hebron: Eliel the chief, and his brothers, eighty.

¹⁰Of the sons of Uzziel: Amminadab the chief, and his brothers, one hundred and twelve.

¹¹And David summoned Zadok and Abiathar the priests, and the Levites: Uriel, Asaiah, Joel, Shemaiah, Eliel, and Amminadab.

¹²And he said to them: 'You are the heads of the fathers' houses of the Levites; consecrate yourselves, you and your brothers, that you may bring up the ark of the LORD, the God of Israel, to the place I have prepared for it.'

¹³For because the first time you were not, the Lord our God broke out against us — for we did not seek him in accordance with the ordinance.

¹⁴And the priests and the Levites consecrated themselves to bring up the ark of the LORD, the God of Israel.

¹⁵And the sons of the Levites carried the ark of God, as Moses had commanded according to the word of the Lord, on their shoulders with the poles upon them.

¹⁶And David said to the chiefs of the Levites to appoint their brothers the singers with instruments of music — harps, lyres, and cymbals — to sound aloud and raise the voice with joy.

¹⁷And the Levites appointed Heman son of Joel; and from his brothers, Asaph son of Berechiah; and from the sons of Merari, their brothers, Ethan son of Kushaiah.

¹⁸And with them were their brothers of the second rank: Zechariah, Ben, Jaaziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattithiah, Eliphelehu, Mikneiah, Obed-edom, and Jeiel — the gatekeepers.

¹⁹And the singers — Heman, Asaph, and Ethan — were to sound cymbals of bronze.

²⁰And Zechariah, Uzziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Maaseiah, and Benaiah, with harps set to Alamoth.

²¹And Mattithiah, Eliphelehu, Mikneiah, Obed-edom, Jeiel, and Azaziah with lyres according to the Sheminith, to lead.

²²And Chenaniah, chief of the Levites, was in charge of the lifting — he gave instruction in the lifting, for he was skilled.

²³And Berechiah and Elkanah were gatekeepers for the ark.

²⁴And Shebaniah, Joshaphat, Nethanel, Amasai, Zechariah, Benaiah, and Eliezer — the priests — were sounding trumpets before the ark of God; and Obed-edom and Jehiah were gatekeepers for the ark.

²⁵And David and the elders of Israel and the commanders of the thousands went to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord from the house of Obed-edom with joy.

²⁶And it came about that when God helped the Levites carrying the ark of the covenant of the LORD, they sacrificed seven bulls and seven rams.

²⁷And David was clothed in a robe of fine linen, and all the Levites who were carrying the ark, and the singers, and Chenaniah the leader of the music of the singers; and upon David was a linen ephod.

²⁸And all Israel was bringing up the ark of the covenant of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the horn and with trumpets and with cymbals, sounding out with harps and with lyres.

²⁹And it came about that as the ark of the covenant of the LORD came into the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul was looking down through the window; and she saw King David leaping and celebrating, and she despised him in her heart.