15 David made for himself houses in the City of David, and he prepared a place for the ark of God and pitched a tent for it.

² Then David said, None should carry the ark of God but the Levites, for the Lord chose them to carry the ark of God and to minister to Him forever.

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

⁴ And David gathered together the sons of Aaron and the Levites:

⁵ Of the sons of Kohath, Uriel the chief, with 120 kinsmen;

⁶ Of the sons of Merari, Asaiah the chief, with 220 kinsmen;

⁷ Of the sons of Gershom, Joel the chief, with 130 kinsmen;

⁸ Of the sons of Elizaphan, Shemaiah the chief, with 200 kinsmen;

⁹ Of the sons of Hebron, Eliel the chief, with 80 kinsmen;

¹⁰ Of the sons of Uzziel, Amminadab the chief, with 112 kinsmen.

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

¹² And said to them, You are the heads of the fathers’ houses of the Levites; sanctify yourselves, both you and your brethren, that you may bring up the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel, to the place that I have prepared for it.

¹³ For because you bore it not [as God directed] at the first, the Lord our God broke forth upon us—because we did not seek Him in the way He ordained.^(A)

¹⁴ So the priests and the Levites sanctified themselves to bring up the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel.

¹⁵ The Levites carried the ark of God on their shoulders with the poles, as Moses commanded by the word of the Lord.

¹⁶ David told the chief Levites to appoint their brethren the singers with instruments of music—harps, lyres, and cymbals—to play loudly and lift up their voices with joy.

¹⁷ So the Levites appointed Heman son of Joel; and of his brethren, Asaph son of Berechiah; and of the sons of Merari their brethren, Ethan son of Kushaiah;

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

¹⁹ So the singers Heman, Asaph, and Ethan, were appointed to sound bronze cymbals;

²⁰ Zechariah, Aziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Maaseiah, and Benaiah were to play harps [resembling guitars] set to Alamoth [probably the treble voice];

²¹ Mattithiah, Eliphelehu, Mikneiah, Obed-edom, Jeiel, and Azaziah were to lead with lyres set to Sheminith [the bass voice].

²² Chenaniah, leader of the Levites in singing, was put in charge of carrying the ark and lifting up song. He instructed about these matters because he was skilled and able.

²³ Berechiah and Elkanah were gatekeepers for the ark.

²⁴ Shebaniah, Joshaphat, Nethanel, Amasai, Zechariah, Benaiah, and Eliezer the priests were to blow the trumpets before the ark of God. And Obed-edom and Jehiah (Jeiel) were also gatekeepers for the ark.

²⁵ So David, the elders of Israel, and the captains over thousands went to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the house of Obed-edom with joy.

²⁶ And when God helped the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord [with a safe start], they offered seven bulls and seven rams.

²⁷ David was clothed with a robe of fine linen, as were the Levites who bore the ark, and the singers, and Chenaniah, director of the music of the singers. David also wore an ephod [a priestly upper garment] of linen.

²⁸ Thus all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the Lord with shouting, sound of the cornet, trumpets, and cymbals, sounding aloud with harps and lyres.

²⁹ As the ark of the covenant of the Lord came to the City of David, Michal [David’s wife] daughter of Saul, looking from a window, saw King David leaping as in sport, and she despised him in her heart.