The Ark Is Brought to Jerusalem

15 Then David made houses for himself in the city of David; and he prepared a place for the ark of God and ^(A)pitched a tent for it. ² And David said, “^(B)No one is to carry the ark of God but the Levites; for Yahweh chose them to carry the ark of ^[a]God and to minister to Him forever.” ³ Then ^(C)David assembled all Israel at Jerusalem to bring up the ark of Yahweh ^(D)to its place which he had prepared for it. ⁴ And David gathered together the sons of Aaron and ^(E)the Levites:

¹¹ Then David called for ^(F)Zadok and ^(G)Abiathar the priests, and for the Levites, for Uriel, Asaiah, Joel, Shemaiah, Eliel and Amminadab, ¹² and said to them, “You are the heads of the fathers’ households of the Levites; ^(H)set yourselves apart as holy, both you and your relatives, that you may bring up the ark of Yahweh, the God of Israel, ^(I)to the place that I have prepared for it. ^13 (J)Because you did not carry it at the first, Yahweh our God broke out against us, for we did not seek Him according to the legal judgment.” ^14 (K)So the priests and the Levites set themselves apart as holy to bring up the ark of Yahweh, the God of Israel. ¹⁵ And the sons of ^(L)the Levites carried the ark of God on their shoulders with the poles thereon, as Moses had commanded according to the word of Yahweh.

¹⁶ Then David said to the chiefs of the Levites ^(M)to appoint their relatives the singers, with instruments of music, harps, lyres, loud-sounding cymbals, to raise a sound of gladness. ¹⁷ So ^(N)the Levites appointed Heman the son of Joel, and from his relatives, Asaph the son of Berechiah; and from the sons of Merari their relatives, Ethan the son of Kushaiah, ¹⁸ and with them their relatives of the second rank, Zechariah, ^[c]Ben, Jaaziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattithiah, Eliphelehu, Mikneiah, Obed-edom, and Jeiel, the gatekeepers. ¹⁹ So the singers, Heman, Asaph and Ethan were appointed to sound aloud cymbals of bronze; ²⁰ and Zechariah, Aziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Maaseiah, and Benaiah, with ^[d]harps set according to ^(O)alamoth; ²¹ and Mattithiah, Eliphelehu, Mikneiah, Obed-edom, Jeiel, and Azaziah, to lead with ^[e]lyres set according to ^(P)the sheminith. ²² Chenaniah, chief of the Levites, was in charge of the ^[f]singing; he gave instruction in singing because he had understanding. ²³ Berechiah and Elkanah were gatekeepers for the ark. ²⁴ Shebaniah, Joshaphat, Nethanel, Amasai, Zechariah, Benaiah, and Eliezer, the priests, ^(Q)blew the trumpets before the ark of God. Obed-edom and Jehiah also were gatekeepers for the ark.

^25 (R)So it was David, with the elders of Israel and the commanders over thousands, who went to bring up the ark of the covenant of Yahweh from ^(S)the house of Obed-edom with gladness. ²⁶ Now this happened because God was helping the Levites who were carrying the ark of the covenant of Yahweh. And they sacrificed ^(T)seven bulls and seven rams. ²⁷ Now David was clothed with a robe of fine linen with all the Levites who were carrying the ark, as well as the singers and Chenaniah the leader of the singing with the singers. ^(U)David also wore a linen ephod. ²⁸ Thus all Israel was bringing up the ark of the covenant of Yahweh with shouting, and with sound of the ^[g]horn, with trumpets, with loud-sounding cymbals, with harps, and lyres.

²⁹ Now it happened as the ark of the covenant of Yahweh came to the city of David, that ^(V)Michal the daughter of Saul looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and celebrating; and she despised him in her heart.