Dedication of the Wall of Jerusalem

²⁷ At the dedication^(A) of the wall of Jerusalem, the Levites were sought out from where they lived and were brought to Jerusalem to celebrate joyfully the dedication with songs of thanksgiving and with the music of cymbals,^(B) harps and lyres.^(C)

¹⁶ David^(A) told the leaders of the Levites^(B) to appoint their fellow Levites as musicians^(C) to make a joyful sound with musical instruments: lyres, harps and cymbals.^(D)

³⁰ King Hezekiah and his officials ordered the Levites to praise the Lord with the words of David and of Asaph the seer. So they sang praises with gladness and bowed down and worshiped.

¹³ The trumpeters and musicians joined in unison to give praise and thanks to the Lord. Accompanied by trumpets, cymbals and other instruments, the singers raised their voices in praise to the Lord and sang:

Then the temple of the Lord was filled with the cloud,^(B)

²⁸ So all Israel^(A) brought up the ark of the covenant of the Lord with shouts,^(B) with the sounding of rams’ horns^(C) and trumpets, and of cymbals, and the playing of lyres and harps.

⁵ The officers shall say to the army: “Has anyone built a new house and not yet begun to live in^(A) it? Let him go home, or he may die in battle and someone else may begin to live in it.

¹² He said to them, “You are the heads of the Levitical families; you and your fellow Levites are to consecrate^(A) yourselves and bring up the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel, to the place I have prepared for it.

⁴ He called together the descendants of Aaron and the Levites:^(A)

⁸ And when he had taken it, the four living creatures^(A) and the twenty-four elders^(B) fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp^(C) and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers^(D) of God’s people.

Final Exhortations