David’s Family Enlarged

14 ^(A)Now Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David with cedar trees, masons and carpenters, to build a house for him. ² And David realized that the Lord had established him as king over Israel, and that his kingdom was highly exalted, for the sake of His people Israel.

³ Then David took more wives at Jerusalem, and David ^[a]became the father of more sons and daughters. ^4 (B)These are the names of the children ^[b]born to him in Jerusalem: Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon, ⁵ Ibhar, Elishua, Elpelet, ⁶ Nogah, Nepheg, Japhia, ⁷ Elishama, Beeliada and Eliphelet.

Philistines Defeated

⁸ When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king over all Israel, all the Philistines went up in search of David; and David heard of it and went out against them. ⁹ Now the Philistines had come and ^(C)made a raid in the valley of Rephaim. ¹⁰ David inquired of God, saying, “Shall I go up against the Philistines? And will You give them into my hand?” Then the Lord said to him, “Go up, for I will give them into your hand.” ¹¹ So they came up to Baal-perazim, and David ^[c]defeated them there; and David said, “God has broken through my enemies by my hand, like the breakthrough of waters.” Therefore they named that place ^[d]Baal-perazim. ¹² They abandoned their gods there; so David gave the order and they were burned with fire.

¹³ The Philistines made ^(D)yet another raid in the valley. ¹⁴ David inquired again of God, and God said to him, “You shall not go up after them; circle around ^[e]behind them and come at them in front of the ^[f]balsam trees. ¹⁵ It shall be when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, then you shall go out to battle, for God will have gone out before you to strike the army of the Philistines.” ¹⁶ David did just as God had commanded him, and they struck down the army of the Philistines from ^[g]Gibeon even as far as Gezer. ¹⁷ Then the fame of David went out into all the lands; and ^(E)the Lord brought the fear of him on all the nations.

Plans to Move the Ark to Jerusalem

15 Now David built houses for himself in the city of David; and he prepared a place for the ark of God and ^(F)pitched a tent for it. ² Then David said, “^(G)No one is to 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 ^(H)David assembled all Israel at Jerusalem to bring up the ark of the Lord ^(I)to its place which he had prepared for it. ⁴ David gathered together the sons of Aaron and ^(J)the Levites: ⁵ of the sons of Kohath, Uriel the chief, and 120 of his ^[h]relatives; ⁶ of the sons of Merari, Asaiah the chief, and 220 of his relatives; ⁷ of the sons of Gershom, Joel the chief, and 130 of his relatives; ⁸ of the sons of Elizaphan, Shemaiah the chief, and 200 of his relatives; ⁹ of the sons of Hebron, Eliel the chief, and 80 of his relatives; ¹⁰ of the sons of Uzziel, Amminadab the chief, and 112 of his relatives.

¹¹ Then David called for ^(K)Zadok and ^(L)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; ^(M)consecrate yourselves both you and your relatives, that you may bring up the ark of the Lord God of Israel ^(N)to the place that I have prepared for it. ^13 (O)Because you did not carry it at the first, the Lord our God made an outburst on us, for we did not seek Him according to the ordinance.” ^14 (P)So the priests and the Levites consecrated themselves to bring up the ark of the Lord God of Israel. ¹⁵ The sons of ^(Q)the Levites carried the ark of God on their shoulders with the poles thereon, as Moses had commanded according to the word of the Lord.

¹⁶ Then David spoke to the chiefs of the Levites ^(R)to appoint their relatives the singers, with instruments of music, harps, lyres, loud-sounding cymbals, to raise sounds of joy. ¹⁷ So ^(S)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, ^[i]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 ^[j]harps tuned to ^(T)alamoth; ²¹ and Mattithiah, Eliphelehu, Mikneiah, Obed-edom, Jeiel and Azaziah, to lead with ^[k]lyres tuned to ^(U)the sheminith. ²² Chenaniah, chief of the Levites, was in charge of the singing; he gave instruction in singing because he was skillful. ²³ Berechiah and Elkanah were gatekeepers for the ark. ²⁴ Shebaniah, Joshaphat, Nethanel, Amasai, Zechariah, Benaiah and Eliezer, the priests, ^(V)blew the trumpets before the ark of God. Obed-edom and Jehiah also were gatekeepers for the ark.

^25 (W)So it was David, with the elders of Israel and the captains over thousands, who went to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord from ^(X)the house of Obed-edom with joy. ²⁶ Because God was helping the Levites who were carrying the ark of the covenant of the Lord, they sacrificed ^(Y)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, and the singers and Chenaniah the leader of the singing with the singers. ^(Z)David also wore an ephod of linen. ²⁸ Thus all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the Lord with shouting, and with sound of the horn, with trumpets, with loud-sounding cymbals, with harps and lyres.

²⁹ It happened when the ark of the covenant of the Lord came to the city of David, that ^(AA)Michal the daughter of Saul looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and celebrating; and she despised him in her heart.

A Tent for the Ark

16 And they brought in the ark of God and ^(AB)placed it inside the tent which David had pitched for it, and they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before God. ² When David had finished offering the burnt offering and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord. ³ He distributed to everyone of Israel, both man and woman, to everyone a loaf of bread and a portion of meat and a raisin cake.

⁴ He appointed some of the Levites as ministers before the ark of the Lord, even to celebrate and to thank and praise the Lord God of Israel: ⁵ Asaph the chief, and second to him Zechariah, then ^[l]Jeiel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Mattithiah, Eliab, Benaiah, Obed-edom and Jeiel, with musical instruments, harps, lyres; also Asaph played loud-sounding cymbals, ⁶ and Benaiah and Jahaziel the priests blew trumpets continually before the ark of the covenant of God.

⁷ Then on that day David ^(AC)first assigned ^[m]Asaph and his ^[n]relatives to give thanks to the Lord.

Psalm of Thanksgiving

Then all the people ^(BB)said, “Amen,” and praised the Lord.

Worship before the Ark

³⁷ So he left Asaph and his ^[x]relatives there ^(BC)before the ark of the covenant of the Lord to minister before the ark continually, ^(BD)as every day’s work required; ³⁸ and ^(BE)Obed-edom with ^[y]his 68 relatives; Obed-edom, also the son of Jeduthun, and ^(BF)Hosah as gatekeepers. ³⁹ He left ^(BG)Zadok the priest and his ^[z]relatives the priests ^(BH)before the ^[aa]tabernacle of the Lord in the high place which was at Gibeon, ⁴⁰ to offer burnt offerings to the Lord on the altar of burnt offering continually morning and evening, ^(BI)even according to all that is written in the law of the Lord, which He commanded Israel. ⁴¹ With them were ^(BJ)Heman and Jeduthun, and ^(BK)the rest who were chosen, who were designated by name, to ^(BL)give thanks to the Lord, because His lovingkindness is everlasting. ⁴² And with them were Heman and Jeduthun with trumpets and cymbals for those who should sound aloud, and with instruments for ^(BM)the songs of God, and the sons of Jeduthun for the gate.

^43 (BN)Then all the people departed each to his house, and David returned to bless his household.

The Gospel Exalted

1 Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, ^[a](A)called as an apostle, ^(B)set apart for ^(C)the gospel of God, ² which He ^(D)promised beforehand through His ^(E)prophets in the holy Scriptures, ³ concerning His Son, who was born ^(F)of a ^[b]descendant of David ^(G)according to the flesh, ⁴ who was declared ^(H)the Son of God with power ^[c]by the resurrection from the dead, according to the ^[d]Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord, ⁵ through whom we have received grace and ^(I)apostleship ^[e]to bring about the ^(J)obedience of faith among ^(K)all the Gentiles for His name’s sake, ⁶ among whom you also are the ^(L)called of Jesus Christ;

⁷ to all who are ^(M)beloved of God in Rome, called as ^[f](N)saints: ^(O)Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

⁸ First, ^(P)I thank my God through Jesus Christ ^[g]for you all, because ^(Q)your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world. ⁹ For ^(R)God, whom I ^(S)serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of His Son, is my witness as to how unceasingly ^(T)I make mention of you, ¹⁰ always in my prayers making request, if perhaps now at last by ^(U)the will of God I may succeed in coming to you. ¹¹ For ^(V)I long to see you so that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be ^[h]established; ¹² that is, that I may be encouraged together with you while among you, each of us by the other’s faith, both yours and mine. ^13 (W)I do not want you to be unaware, ^(X)brethren, that often I ^(Y)have planned to come to you (and have been prevented so far) so that I may obtain some ^(Z)fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles. ^14 (AA)I am ^[i]under obligation both to Greeks and to ^(AB)barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. ¹⁵ So, for my part, I am eager to ^(AC)preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

¹⁶ For I am not ^(AD)ashamed of the gospel, for ^(AE)it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the ^(AF)Jew first and also to ^(AG)the Greek. ¹⁷ For in it ^(AH)the righteousness of God is revealed ^[j]from faith to faith; as it is written, “^[k](AI)But the righteous man shall live by faith.”

Unbelief and Its Consequences

¹⁸ For ^(AJ)the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who ^(AK)suppress the truth ^[l]in unrighteousness, ¹⁹ because ^(AL)that which is known about God is evident ^[m]within them; for God made it evident to them. ²⁰ For ^(AM)since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, ^(AN)being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. ²¹ For even though they knew God, they did not ^[n]honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became ^(AO)futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. ^22 (AP)Professing to be wise, they became fools, ²³ and ^(AQ)exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and ^[o]crawling creatures.

²⁴ Therefore ^(AR)God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be ^(AS)dishonored among them. ²⁵ For they exchanged the truth of God for ^[p]a ^(AT)lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, ^(AU)who is blessed ^[q]forever. Amen.

²⁶ For this reason ^(AV)God gave them over to ^(AW)degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is ^[r]unnatural, ²⁷ and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, ^(AX)men with men committing ^[s]indecent acts and receiving in ^[t]their own persons the due penalty of their error.

²⁸ And just as they did not see fit ^[u]to acknowledge God any longer, ^(AY)God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, ²⁹ being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are ^(AZ)gossips, ³⁰ slanderers, ^[v](BA)haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, ^(BB)disobedient to parents, ³¹ without understanding, untrustworthy, ^(BC)unloving, unmerciful; ³² and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of ^(BD)death, they not only do the same, but also ^(BE)give hearty approval to those who practice them.