Duties of Priests and Levites

18 The Lord said to Aaron, “You, your sons and your family are to bear the responsibility for offenses connected with the sanctuary,^(A) and you and your sons alone are to bear the responsibility for offenses connected with the priesthood. ² Bring your fellow Levites from your ancestral tribe to join you and assist you when you and your sons minister^(B) before the tent of the covenant law. ³ They are to be responsible to you^(C) and are to perform all the duties of the tent,^(D) but they must not go near the furnishings of the sanctuary or the altar. Otherwise both they and you will die.^{(E) 4} They are to join you and be responsible for the care of the tent of meeting—all the work at the tent—and no one else may come near where you are.^(F)

⁵ “You are to be responsible for the care of the sanctuary and the altar,^(G) so that my wrath will not fall on the Israelites again. ⁶ I myself have selected your fellow Levites from among the Israelites as a gift to you,^(H) dedicated to the Lord to do the work at the tent of meeting.^{(I) 7} But only you and your sons may serve as priests in connection with everything at the altar and inside the curtain.^(J) I am giving you the service of the priesthood as a gift.^(K) Anyone else who comes near the sanctuary is to be put to death.^(L)”

David Builds an Altar

¹⁸ Then the angel of the Lord ordered Gad to tell David to go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor^(A) of Araunah the Jebusite. ¹⁹ So David went up in obedience to the word that Gad had spoken in the name of the Lord.

²⁰ While Araunah was threshing wheat,^(B) he turned and saw the angel; his four sons who were with him hid themselves. ²¹ Then David approached, and when Araunah looked and saw him, he left the threshing floor and bowed down before David with his face to the ground.

²² David said to him, “Let me have the site of your threshing floor so I can build an altar to the Lord, that the plague on the people may be stopped. Sell it to me at the full price.”

²³ Araunah said to David, “Take it! Let my lord the king do whatever pleases him. Look, I will give the oxen for the burnt offerings, the threshing sledges for the wood, and the wheat for the grain offering. I will give all this.”

²⁴ But King David replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying the full price. I will not take for the Lord what is yours, or sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing.”

²⁵ So David paid Araunah six hundred shekels^[a] of gold for the site. ²⁶ David built an altar to the Lord there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. He called on the Lord, and the Lord answered him with fire^(C) from heaven on the altar of burnt offering.

²⁷ Then the Lord spoke to the angel, and he put his sword back into its sheath. ²⁸ At that time, when David saw that the Lord had answered him on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, he offered sacrifices there. ²⁹ The tabernacle of the Lord, which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering were at that time on the high place at Gibeon.^{(D) 30} But David could not go before it to inquire of God, because he was afraid of the sword of the angel of the Lord.

22 Then David said, “The house of the Lord God^(E) is to be here, and also the altar of burnt offering for Israel.”

Israel Fully Restored

45 “‘When you allot the land as an inheritance,^(A) you are to present to the Lord a portion of the land as a sacred district, 25,000 cubits^[a] long and 20,000^[b] cubits^[c] wide; the entire area will be holy.^{(B) 2} Of this, a section 500 cubits^[d] square^(C) is to be for the sanctuary, with 50 cubits^[e] around it for open land. ³ In the sacred district, measure off a section 25,000 cubits long and 10,000 cubits^[f] wide. In it will be the sanctuary, the Most Holy Place. ⁴ It will be the sacred portion of the land for the priests,^(D) who minister in the sanctuary and who draw near to minister before the Lord. It will be a place for their houses as well as a holy place for the sanctuary.^{(E) 5} An area 25,000 cubits long and 10,000 cubits wide will belong to the Levites, who serve in the temple, as their possession for towns to live in.^[g](F)

⁶ “‘You are to give the city as its property an area 5,000 cubits^[h] wide and 25,000 cubits long, adjoining the sacred portion; it will belong to all Israel.^(G)

⁷ “‘The prince will have the land bordering each side of the area formed by the sacred district and the property of the city. It will extend westward from the west side and eastward from the east side, running lengthwise from the western to the eastern border parallel to one of the tribal portions.^{(H) 8} This land will be his possession in Israel. And my princes will no longer oppress my people but will allow the people of Israel to possess the land according to their tribes.^(I)

⁹ “‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: You have gone far enough, princes of Israel! Give up your violence and oppression^(J) and do what is just and right.^(K) Stop dispossessing my people, declares the Sovereign Lord. ¹⁰ You are to use accurate scales,^(L) an accurate ephah^[i](M) and an accurate bath.^{[j] 11} The ephah^(N) and the bath are to be the same size, the bath containing a tenth of a homer and the ephah a tenth of a homer; the homer is to be the standard measure for both. ¹² The shekel^[k] is to consist of twenty gerahs.^(O) Twenty shekels plus twenty-five shekels plus fifteen shekels equal one mina.^[l]

¹³ “‘This is the special gift you are to offer: a sixth of an ephah^[m] from each homer of wheat and a sixth of an ephah^[n] from each homer of barley. ¹⁴ The prescribed portion of olive oil, measured by the bath, is a tenth of a bath^[o] from each cor (which consists of ten baths or one homer, for ten baths are equivalent to a homer). ¹⁵ Also one sheep is to be taken from every flock of two hundred from the well-watered pastures of Israel. These will be used for the grain offerings, burnt offerings^(P) and fellowship offerings to make atonement^(Q) for the people, declares the Sovereign Lord. ¹⁶ All the people of the land will be required to give this special offering to the prince in Israel. ¹⁷ It will be the duty of the prince to provide the burnt offerings, grain offerings and drink offerings at the festivals, the New Moons^(R) and the Sabbaths^(S)—at all the appointed festivals of Israel. He will provide the sin offerings,^[p] grain offerings, burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to make atonement for the Israelites.^(T)

Psalm 145^[a]

A psalm of praise. Of David.