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22 ¶ Then David said, This shall be the house of the LORD God, and this shall be the altar of the burnt offering for Israel.
2 And David commanded to gather together the strangers that were in the land of Israel, and he made them masons to hew wrought stones to build the house of God.
3 Likewise, David prepared iron in abundance for the nails for the doors of the gates, and for the joinings, and brass in abundance without weight,
4 also cedar trees in abundance, for the Zidonians and those of Tyre brought much cedar wood to David.
5 And David said, Solomon, my son, is yet young and tender, and the house that is to be built for the LORD must be magnificent par excellence, of fame and of glory throughout all lands; I will therefore now make preparation for it. So David prepared abundantly before his death.
6 ¶ Then he called for Solomon, his son, and charged him to build a house for the LORD God of Israel.
7 And David said to Solomon, My son, as for me, it was in my heart to build a house unto the name of the LORD my God;
8 but the word of the LORD came to me, saying, Thou hast shed blood abundantly and hast made great wars; thou shalt not build a house unto my name because thou hast shed much blood upon the earth in my sight.
9 Behold, a son shall be born to thee, who shall be a man of rest, and I will give him rest from all his enemies round about, for his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quietness unto Israel in his days.
10 He shall build a house for my name, and he shall be my son, and I will be his father; and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel for ever.
11 Now, my son, the LORD be with thee, and be thou prospered and build the house of the LORD thy God, as he has said of thee.
12 Only the LORD give thee wisdom and understanding and give thee commandments for Israel, and that thou keep the law of the LORD thy God.
13 Then shalt thou be prospered if thou shalt keep thyself to do the statutes and rights which the LORD charged Moses with concerning Israel; be strong and of good courage; dread not, nor be dismayed.
14 Now, behold, in my trouble I have prepared for the house of the LORD one hundred thousand talents of gold and a thousand thousand talents of silver, and the brass and iron are without weight, for it is in abundance. Likewise, I have prepared timber and stone, unto which thou shalt add.
15 Moreover there are workmen with thee in abundance, hewers and workers of stone and timber and all manner of expert men for every manner of work.
16 Of the gold, the silver, and the brass and the iron, there is no number. Arise therefore, and go to work, and the LORD be with thee.
17 ¶ David, likewise, commanded all the princes of Israel to help Solomon, his son, saying,
18 Is not the LORD your God with you who has given you rest on every side? For he has given the inhabitants of the land into my hand, and the land is subdued before the LORD and before his people.
19 Now set your heart and your soul to seek the LORD your God; arise therefore and build the sanctuary of the LORD God, to bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD and the holy vessels of God into the house that is to be built unto the name of the LORD.
23 ¶ So when David was old and full of days, he made Solomon, his son, king over Israel.
2 And he gathered together all the princes of Israel, and the priests and the Levites,
3 were numbered from the age of thirty years and upward; and their number by their polls, man by man, was thirty-eight thousand.
4 Of which, twenty-four thousand were to set forward the work of the house of the LORD, and six thousand were officers and judges;
5 moreover, four thousand were porters, and four thousand praised the LORD with the instruments which David had made to praise therewith.
6 And David divided them into courses according to the sons of Levi, namely, Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.
7 The sons of Gershon: Laadan and Shimei.
8 The sons of Laadan: Jehiel, the first, Zetham and Joel, three.
9 The sons of Shimei: Shelomith, Haziel, and Haran, three. These were the chief of the fathers of Laadan.
10 And the sons of Shimei: Jahath, Zina, Jeush, and Beriah. These four were the sons of Shimei.
11 And Jahath was the first, and Zizah the second, but Jeush and Beriah did not multiply in many sons; therefore, they were in one reckoning, according to their father’s house.
12 The sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel, four.
13 The sons of Amram: Aaron and Moses. And Aaron was separated, that he should be dedicated to the most holy things, he and his sons for ever, to burn incense before the LORD, to minister unto him and to bless in his name for ever.
14 And the sons of Moses, the man of God, were counted in the tribe of Levi.
15 The sons of Moses were Gershon and Eliezer.
16 Of the sons of Gershon, Shebuel was the chief.
17 And the son of Eliezer was Rehabiah, the chief. And Eliezer had no other sons, but the sons of Rehabiah were very many.
18 The sons of Izhar: Shelomith, the chief.
19 The sons of Hebron: Jeriah, the first, Amariah, the second, Jahaziel, the third, and Jekameam, the fourth.
20 The sons of Uzziel: Michah, the first, and Jesiah, the second.
21 The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi. The sons of Mahli: Eleazar and Kish.
22 And Eleazar died and had no sons, but daughters and their brethren, the sons of Kish, took them as wives.
23 The sons of Mushi: Mahli, Eder, and Jeremoth, three.
24 ¶ These are the sons of Levi after the houses of their fathers, even the chief of the fathers, as they were counted by number of names by their polls, that did work in the ministry of the house of the LORD, from the age of twenty years and upward.
25 For David said, The LORD God of Israel has given rest unto his people, and he shall dwell in Jerusalem for ever.
26 And also unto the Levites, they shall no longer carry the tabernacle, nor any vessels of it for its ministry.
27 For by the last words of David, the Levites were numbered from twenty years old and above.
28 And their station was at the hand of the sons of Aaron for the service of the house of the LORD, in the courts, and in the chambers, and in the purifying of all holy things, and in the work of the ministry of the house of God,
29 both for the showbread and for the fine flour for the sacrifice and for the unleavened cakes and for that which is baked in the pan and for that which is fried and for all manner of measure and size,
30 and to stand every morning to thank and praise the LORD, and likewise in the evening;
31 and to offer all burnt sacrifices unto the LORD in the sabbaths, in the new moons and solemnities, by number, according to the order commanded unto them, continually before the LORD.
32 And that they should keep the charge of the tabernacle of the testimony and the charge of the holy place and the charge of the sons of Aaron, their brethren, in the ministry of the house of the LORD.
24 ¶ The sons of Aaron also had their courses. The sons of Aaron: Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.
2 But Nadab and Abihu died before their father and had no children; therefore, Eleazar and Ithamar had the priesthood.
3 And David distributed them, Zadok being of the sons of Eleazar, and Ahimelech of the sons of Ithamar, according to their turns in their ministry.
4 And there were more men found of the sons of Eleazar than of the sons of Ithamar, and thus were they divided. Among the sons of Eleazar, there were sixteen chief men of the houses of their fathers and eight among the sons of Ithamar according to the houses of their fathers.
5 They divided them, therefore, by lot, one with another for of the sons of Eleazar and of the sons of Ithamar there were princes of the sanctuary and princes of God.
6 And Shemaiah, the scribe, the son of Nethaneel, one of the Levites, wrote them before the king and the princes and before Zadok, the priest, and Ahimelech, the son of Abiathar, and the heads of the fathers of the priests and Levites; one paternal house being taken for Eleazar, and one taken for Ithamar.
7 Now the first lot came forth to Jehoiarib, the second to Jedaiah,
8 the third to Harim, the fourth to Seorim,
9 the fifth to Malchijah, the sixth to Mijamin,
10 the seventh to Hakkoz, the eighth to Abijah,
11 the ninth to Jeshua, the tenth to Shecaniah,
12 the eleventh to Eliashib, the twelfth to Jakim,
13 the thirteenth to Huppah, the fourteenth to Jeshebeab,
14 the fifteenth to Bilgah, the sixteenth to Immer,
15 the seventeenth to Hezir, the eighteenth to Aphses,
16 the nineteenth to Pethahiah, the twentieth to Jehezekel,
17 the twenty-first to Jachin, the twenty-second to Gamul,
18 the twenty-third to Delaiah, the twenty-fourth to Maaziah.
19 These were their orderings in their service to come into the house of the LORD, according to their right, in the ministry of Aaron, their father, as the LORD God of Israel had commanded him.
20 ¶ And of the sons of Levi that remained: Of the sons of Amram, Shubael; of the sons of Shubael, Jehdeiah.
21 Rehabiah; of the sons of Rehabiah, the chief was Isshiah.
22 Of the Izharite; Shelomoth; and the son of Shelomoth, Jahath.
23 And of the sons of Jeriah: Amariah the second, Jahaziel the third, Jekameam the fourth.
24 The sons of Uzziel: Michah; and the son of Michah, Shamir.
25 The brother of Michah was Isshiah; and the son of Isshiah, Zechariah.
26 The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi; the son of Jaaziah, Beno.
27 The sons of Merari by Jaaziah: Beno, Shoham, Zaccur, and Ibri.
28 Of Mahli came Eleazar, who had no sons.
29 Kish; the son of Kish, Jerahmeel.
30 The sons of Mushi: Mahli, Eder, and Jerimoth. These were the sons of the Levites according to the houses of their fathers.
31 These, likewise, cast lots over against their brethren, the sons of Aaron, in the presence of David, the king, and Zadok, and Ahimelech, and the chief of the fathers of the priests and Levites, even the principal fathers over against their younger brethren.
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