I Chronicles 15-19

I Chronicles 15

¹And David made houses for himself in the town of David; and he got ready a place for the ark of God, and put up a tent for it.

²Then David said, The ark of God may not be moved by any but the Levites, for they have been marked out by God to take the ark of God, and to do his work for ever.

³And David made all Israel come together at Jerusalem, to take the ark of the Lord to its place, which he had got ready for it.

⁴And David got together the sons of Aaron, and the Levites;

⁵Of 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, a hundred and thirty;

⁸Of 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, a hundred and twelve.

¹¹And David sent for Zadok and Abiathar the priests, and for the Levites, Uriel, Asaiah and Joel, Shemaiah and Eliel and Amminadab,

¹²And said to them, You are the heads of the families of the Levites: make yourselves holy, you and your brothers, so that you may take the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel, to the place which I have made ready for it.

¹³For because you did not take it at the first, the Lord our God sent punishment on us, because we did not get directions from him in the right way.

¹⁴So the priests and the Levites made themselves holy to take up the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel.

¹⁵And the sons of the Levites took up the ark of God, lifting it by its rods, as the Lord had said to Moses.

¹⁶And David gave orders to the chief of the Levites to put their brothers the music-makers in position, with instruments of music, corded instruments and brass, with glad voices making sounds of joy.

¹⁷So Heman, the son of Joel, and, of his brothers, Asaph, the son of Berechiah; and of the sons of Merari their brothers, Ethan, the son of Kushaiah, were put in position by the Levites;

¹⁸And with them their brothers of the second order, Zechariah, Bani and Jaaziel and Shemiramoth and Jehiel and Unni, Eliab and Benaiah and Maaseiah and Mattithiah and Eliphelehu and Mikneiah, and Obed-edom and Jeiel, the door-keepers.

¹⁹So those who made melody, Heman, Asaph, and Ethan, were put in position, with brass instruments, sounding loudly;

²⁰And Zechariah and Aziel and Shemiramoth and Jehiel, Unni and Eliab and Maaseiah and Benaiah, with corded instruments put to Alamoth.

²¹And Mattithiah and Eliphelehu and Mikneiah and Obed-edom and Jeiel and Azaziah, with corded instruments on the octave, to give the first note of the song.

²²And Chenaniah, chief of the Levites, was master of the music: he gave directions about the song, because he was expert.

²³And Berechiah and Elkanah were door-keepers for the ark.

²⁴And Shebaniah and Joshaphat and Nethanel and Amasai and Zechariah and Benaiah and Eliezer, the priests, made music on the horns before the ark of God; and Obed-edom and Jehiah were door-keepers for the ark.

²⁵So David, and the responsible men of Israel, and the captains over thousands, went with joy to get the ark of the agreement of the Lord out of the house of Obed-edom.

²⁶And when God gave help to the Levites who were lifting up the ark of the agreement of the Lord, they made an offering of seven oxen and seven sheep.

²⁷And David was clothed with a robe of fair linen, as were all the Levites who took up the ark, and those who made melody, and Chenaniah the master of those who made melody; and David had on a linen ephod;

²⁸So all Israel took up the ark of the agreement of the Lord, with loud cries and with horns and brass and corded instruments sounding loudly.

²⁹And when the ark of the agreement of the Lord came into the town of David, Michal, the daughter of Saul, looking out of the window, saw King David dancing and playing; and to her mind he seemed foolish.

I Chronicles 16

¹Then they took in the ark of God and put it inside the tent which David had put up for it; and they made offerings, burned offerings and peace-offerings before God.

²And when David had come to an end of making the burned offerings and peace-offerings, he gave the people a blessing in the name of the Lord.

³And he gave to everyone, every man and woman of Israel, a cake of bread, some meat, and a cake of dry grapes.

⁴And he put some of the Levites before the ark of the Lord as servants, to keep the acts of the Lord in memory, and to give worship and praise to the Lord, the God of Israel:

⁵Asaph the chief, and second to him Zechariah, Uzziel and Shemiramoth and Jehiel and Mattithiah and Eliab and Benaiah and Obed-edom and Jeiel, with corded instruments of music; and Asaph, with brass instruments sounding loudly;

⁶And Benaiah and Jahaziel the priests, blowing horns all the time before the ark of the agreement of God.

⁷Then on that day David first made the giving of praise to the Lord the work of Asaph and his brothers.

⁸O give praise to the Lord; give honour to his name, talking of his doings among the peoples.

⁹Let your voice be sounded in songs and melody; let all your thoughts be of the wonder of his works.

¹⁰Have glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who are searching after the Lord be glad.

¹¹Let your search be for the Lord and for his strength; let your hearts ever be turned to him.

¹²Keep in mind the great works which he has done; his wonders, and the decisions of his mouth;

¹³O you seed of Israel his servant, you children of Jacob, his loved ones.

¹⁴He is the Lord our God: he is judge of all the earth.

¹⁵He has kept his agreement in mind for ever, the word which he gave for a thousand generations;

¹⁶The agreement which he made with Abraham, and his oath to Isaac;

¹⁷And he gave it to Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an eternal agreement;

¹⁸Saying, To you will I give the land of Canaan, the measured line of your heritage:

¹⁹When you were still small in number, and strange in the land;

²⁰When they went about from one nation to another, and from one kingdom to another people;

²¹He would not let anyone do them wrong; he even kept back kings because of them,

²²Saying, Put not your hand on those who have been marked with my holy oil, and do my prophets no wrong.

²³Make songs to the Lord, all the earth; give the good news of his salvation day by day.

²⁴Make clear his glory to the nations, and his wonders to all the peoples.

²⁵For the Lord is great, and greatly to be praised; and he is more to be feared than all other gods.

²⁶For all the gods of the nations are false gods; but the Lord made the heavens.

²⁷Honour and glory are before him: strength and joy are in his holy place.

²⁸Give to the Lord, O you families of the peoples, give to the Lord glory and strength.

²⁹Give to the Lord the glory of his name; take with you an offering and come before him; give worship to the Lord in holy robes.

³⁰Be in fear before him, all the earth: the world is ordered so that it may not be moved.

³¹Let the heavens have joy and let the earth be glad; let them say among the nations, The Lord is King.

³²Let the sea be thundering with all its waters; let the field be glad, and everything which is in it;

³³Then let all the trees of the wood be sounding with joy before the Lord, for he is come to be the judge of the earth.

³⁴O give praise to the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy is unchanging for ever.

³⁵And say, Be our saviour, O God of our salvation, and let us come back, and give us salvation from the nations, so that we may give honour to your holy name and have glory in your praise.

³⁶Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, for ever and for ever. And all the people said, So be it; and gave praise to the Lord.

³⁷So he made Asaph and his brothers keep their places there before the ark of the agreement of the Lord, to do whatever had to be done before the ark at all times day by day:

³⁸And Obed-edom, the son of Jeduthun, and Hosah, with their brothers, sixty-eight of them, to be door-keepers:

³⁹And Zadok the priest, with his brothers the priests, before the House of the Lord in the high place at Gibeon;

⁴⁰To give burned offerings to the Lord on the altar of burned offerings morning and evening, every day, as it is ordered in the law of the Lord which he gave to Israel;

⁴¹And with them Heman and Jeduthun, and the rest who were marked out by name to give praise to the Lord, for his mercy is unchanging for ever;

⁴²And Heman and Jeduthun had horns and brass instruments sounding loudly, and instruments of music for the songs of God; and the sons of Jeduthun were to be at the door.

⁴³And all the people went away, every man to his house; and David went back to give a blessing to his family.

I Chronicles 17

¹Now when David was living in his house, he said to Nathan the prophet, See, I am living in a house of cedar-wood, but the ark of the Lord's agreement is under the curtains of a tent.

²And Nathan said to David, Do whatever is in your heart, for God is with you.

³But that same night, the word of God came to Nathan, saying,

⁴Go and say to David my servant, The Lord says, You are not to make me a house for my living-place:

⁵For from the day when I took Israel up, till this day, I have had no house, but have gone from tent to tent, and from living-place to living-place.

⁶In all the places where I have gone with all Israel, did I ever say to any of the judges of Israel, whom I made the keepers of my people, Why have you not made for me a house of cedar?

⁷So now, say to my servant David, The Lord of armies says, I took you from the fields, from keeping sheep, so that you might be a ruler over my people Israel;

⁸And I have been with you wherever you went, cutting off before you all those who were against you; and I will make your name like the name of the greatest ones of the earth.

⁹And I will make a resting-place for my people Israel, planting them there, so that they may be in the place which is theirs and never again be moved; and never again will they be made waste by evil men, as they were at first,

¹⁰From the time when I put judges over my people Israel; and I will overcome all those who are against you; and I will make you great and the head of a line of kings.

¹¹And when the time comes for you to go to your fathers, I will put in your place your seed after you, one of your sons, and I will make his kingdom strong.

¹²He will be the builder of my house, and I will make the seat of his authority certain for ever.

¹³I will be to him a father and he will be to me a son; and I will not take my mercy away from him as I took it from him who was before you;

¹⁴But I will make his place in my house and in my kingdom certain for ever; and the seat of his authority will never be overturned.

¹⁵So Nathan gave David an account of all these words and this vision.

¹⁶Then David the king went in and took his seat before the Lord, and said, Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my family, that you have been my guide till now?

¹⁷And this was only a small thing to you, O God; but your words have even been about the far-off future of your servant's family, looking on me as on one of high position, O Lord God.

¹⁸What more may David say to you? for you have knowledge of your servant.

¹⁹O Lord, because of your servant, and from your heart, you have done all these great things and let them be seen.

²⁰O Lord, there is no one like you, and no other God but you, as is clear from everything which has come to our ears.

²¹And what other nation in the earth, like your people Israel, did a god go out to take for himself, to be his people, making his name great and to be feared, driving out the nations from before your people whom you made free and took out of Egypt?

²²For your people Israel you made yours for ever; and you, Lord, became their God.

²³And now, Lord, let your words about your servant and about his family be made certain for ever, and do as you have said.

²⁴So let your words be made certain and your name be made great, when men say, The Lord of armies is the God of Israel; and when the family of David your servant is made strong before you.

²⁵For you, O my God, have let your servant see that you will make him head of a line of kings; and so it has come into your servant's heart to make his prayer to you.

²⁶And now, O Lord, you are God, and you have said you will give this good thing to your servant:

²⁷And now you have been pleased to give your blessing to the family of your servant, so that it may go on for ever before you; you, O Lord, have given your blessing, and a blessing will be on it for ever.

I Chronicles 18

¹And it came about after this that David made an attack on the Philistines and overcame them, and took Gath with its daughter-towns out of the hands of the Philistines.

²And he overcame Moab, and the Moabites became his servants and gave him offerings.

³Then David overcame Hadadezer, king of Zobah, near Hamath, when he was going to make his power seen by the river Euphrates.

⁴And David took from him a thousand war-carriages and seven thousand horsemen and twenty thousand footmen: and he had the leg-muscles of all the horses cut, keeping only enough of them for a hundred war-carriages.

⁵And when the Aramaeans of Damascus came to the help of Hadadezer, king of Zobah, David put to the sword twenty-two thousand Aramaeans.

⁶Then David put armed forces in Damascus, and the Aramaeans became his servants and gave him offerings. And the Lord made David overcome wherever he went.

⁷And the gold body-covers of the servants of Hadadezer, David took to Jerusalem.

⁸And from Tibhath and from Cun, towns of Hadadezer, David took a great store of brass, of which Solomon made the great brass water-vessel and the brass pillars and vessels.

⁹Now when Tou, king of Hamath, had news that David had overcome all the army of Hadadezer, king of Zobah,

¹⁰He sent his son Hadoram to King David, to give him words of peace and blessing, because he had overcome Hadadezer in the fight, for Hadadezer had been at war with Tou; and he gave him all sorts of vessels of gold and silver and brass.

¹¹These King David made holy to the Lord, together with the silver and gold he had taken from all nations; from Edom and Moab and from the children of Ammon and from the Philistines and from Amalek.

¹²And when he came back from putting to the sword eighteen thousand of the Edomites in the Valley of Salt,

¹³David put armed forces in all the towns of Edom; and all the Edomites became servants to David. The Lord made David overcome wherever he went.

¹⁴So David was king over all Israel, judging and giving right decisions for all his people.

¹⁵And Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was chief of the army; and Jehoshaphat, son of Ahilud, was keeper of the records.

¹⁶And Zadok, the son of Ahitub; and Ahimelech, the son of Abiathar, were priests; and Shavsha was the scribe;

¹⁷And Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, was over the Cherethites and the Pelethites; and the sons of David were chief of those whose places were at the king's side.

I Chronicles 19

¹Now it came about after this that death came to Nahash, the king of the children of Ammon, and his son became king in his place.

²And David said, I will be a friend to Hanun, the son of Nahash, because his father was a friend to me. So David sent men to him, to give him words of comfort on account of his father. And the servants of David came to Hanun, to the land of the children of Ammon, offering him comfort.

³But the chiefs of the children of Ammon said to Hanun, Does it seem to you that David is honouring your father, by sending comforters to you? is it not clear that these men have only come to go through the land and to make secret observation of it so that they may overcome it?

⁴So Hanun took David's servants, and cutting off their hair and the skirts of their robes up to the middle, sent them away.

⁵Then certain men went and gave David word of what had been done to them. And he sent out with the purpose of meeting them; for the men were greatly shamed. And the king said, Keep where you are at Jericho till your hair is long again, and then come back.

⁶And when the children of Ammon saw that they had made themselves hated by David, Hanun and the children of Ammon sent a thousand talents of silver as payment for war-carriages and horsemen from Mesopotamia and Aram-maacah and Zobah.

⁷So with this money they got thirty-two thousand war-carriages, and the help of the king of Maacah and his people, who came and took up their position in front of Medeba. And the children of Ammon came together from their towns for the fight.

⁸And David, hearing of it, sent Joab with all the army of fighting-men.

⁹So the children of Ammon came out and put their forces in position on the way into the town; and the kings who had come were stationed by themselves in the field.

¹⁰Now when Joab saw that their forces were in position against him in front and at his back, he took all the best men of Israel, and put them in line against the Aramaeans;

¹¹And the rest of the people he put in position against the children of Ammon with Abishai, his brother, at their head.

¹²And he said, If the Aramaeans are stronger and get the better of me, then come to my help; and if the children of Ammon get the better of you, I will come to your help.

¹³Take heart, and let us be strong for our people and for the towns of our God; and may the Lord do what seems good to him.

¹⁴So Joab and the people who were with him went forward into the fight against the Aramaeans, and they went in flight before him.

¹⁵And when the children of Ammon saw the flight of the Aramaeans, they themselves went in flight from Abishai, his brother, and came into the town. Then Joab came back to Jerusalem.

¹⁶And when the Aramaeans saw that Israel had overcome them, they sent men to get the Aramaeans who were on the other side of the River, with Shophach, the captain of Hadadezer's army, at their head.

¹⁷And word of this was given to David; and he got all Israel together and went over Jordan and came to Helam and put his forces in position against them. And when David's forces were in position against the Aramaeans, the fight was started.

¹⁸And the Aramaeans went in flight before Israel; and David put to the sword the men of seven thousand Aramaean war-carriages and forty thousand footmen, and put to death Shophach, the captain of the army.

¹⁹And when the servants of Hadadezer saw that they were overcome by Israel, they made peace with David and became his servants: and the Aramaeans would give no more help to the children of Ammon.