Historical
The Lord punishes the Israelites
21 Then Satan caused David to bring trouble to Israel.[a] He caused David to count all the men in Israel. 2 So David said to Joab and to the officers in his army, ‘Go and count the men everywhere in Israel, from Beersheba to Dan. Then come and give me a report. I want to know how many men there are.’
3 But Joab replied, ‘I pray that the Lord will make your army grow 100 times bigger! All your men are your faithful servants, my lord the king. But why do you want to do this? You will cause all Israel to become guilty.’
4 But Joab had to obey the king's command. So Joab left. He went through all Israel and then he returned to Jerusalem. 5 Joab reported to David about the number of soldiers who could fight. There were 1,100,000 men in all Israel who could fight with swords. There were 470,000 men in Judah who could fight with swords.
6 But the king's command had seemed disgusting to Joab. So he did not count the men from the tribes of Levi and Benjamin. 7 God was also angry because David had done this thing. So he decided to punish Israel. 8 Then David said to God, ‘What I have done was a bad sin. Please forgive me. I have done a foolish thing.’
9 Gad was David's prophet. The Lord said to him, 10 ‘Go and give my message to David: “There are three ways that I could punish you. You must choose one of them, and that is what I will do to punish you.” ’
11 So Gad went to David and he said to him, ‘This is what the Lord says: “You must choose one of these punishments. 12 You may choose to have three years when there will be a famine. Or you may choose to have three months when you have to run away from your enemies' swords so that they do not kill you. Or you may choose to have three days when a very bad disease comes to your people. The angel of the Lord would kill many people in every part of Israel.” Now decide which punishment you will choose. I will take your answer to God, who sent me with this message.’
13 David said to Gad, ‘I am very upset. I do not want men to punish me. The Lord is kind and he forgives people. So it is better if he punishes me.’
14 So the Lord caused a very bad disease to kill people in Israel. 70,000 Israelite men died. 15 God sent his angel to destroy Jerusalem. But as the angel started to kill people, the Lord saw what was happening. He decided to stop the punishment that he was causing. He said to the angel who was killing the people, ‘That is enough. Stop what you are doing!’ When the Lord said that, his angel was standing near the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
16 David looked up and he saw the Lord's angel. The angel was standing between the earth and the sky. He had his sword in his hand and it was pointing towards Jerusalem. David and the leaders fell down with their faces towards the ground. They were wearing clothes that were made of rough sackcloth.
17 David said to God, ‘I am the person who has done an evil thing. I told Joab to count the number of men in my army. These people have followed me like sheep that follow a shepherd. They have not done anything wrong. Lord my God, you should only punish me and my family. But please take this disease away from your people.’
18 Then the angel of the Lord said to Gad, ‘Tell David to go up to the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. Build an altar there to worship the Lord.’ 19 So David obeyed the Lord's message that Gad had spoken to him.
20 Araunah and his four sons were threshing wheat. Araunah turned around and he saw the Lord's angel. His sons hid themselves. 21 Then David came to meet Araunah. When Araunah saw David, he came out from the threshing floor. He bent down low in front of David, with his face towards the ground. 22 David said to Araunah, ‘Let me buy this threshing floor from you. I want to build an altar here to worship the Lord. Then he will stop this bad disease from killing the people. I will pay you the whole price for the land.’
23 Araunah replied, ‘My lord the king, please take it for yourself. You may do what you would like to do. Look, I will give you the bulls for the burnt offerings. You can use the wood from these tools for the fire. Take my wheat to make an offering to the Lord. I will give all these things to you.’
24 But King David said to Araunah, ‘No, I must pay you the whole price. I cannot offer something that belongs to you as a sacrifice to the Lord. I cannot offer to him a burnt offering that has cost me nothing.’
25 So David paid Araunah 600 gold coins to buy the place. 26 Then he built an altar there to worship the Lord. He offered burnt offerings and friendship offerings on it. He prayed to the Lord and the Lord answered him. The Lord sent fire from the sky to burn up the sacrifice on the altar. 27 Then the Lord told the angel to put his sword away into its pocket.
28 David saw that the Lord had answered his prayer at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. So he offered sacrifices to God there. 29 At that time the Lord's tabernacle was at Gibeon, where the Israelites worshipped God. The tabernacle was the special tent that Moses had made in the wilderness. The altar for burnt offerings was also at Gibeon. 30 But David was not able to go there to meet with the Lord, because he was afraid of the sword of the Lord's angel.
David prepares to build God's temple
22 Then David said, ‘This is the place where the temple of the Lord God will be. The altar for Israel's burnt offerings will also be here.’
2 So David told his officers to bring together all the foreign men who lived in Israel. He chose some of them to cut the stones to build God's house. They would cut the stones to have the right shape. 3 He supplied a lot of iron to make things for the temple. That was for nails and bars to fix the doors at the entrances. He also supplied more bronze than they could weigh. 4 The people from Tyre and Sidon had brought a lot of cedar wood to David. So he provided for the temple more pieces of cedar wood than anyone could count.
5 David said, ‘The Lord's temple must be great and beautiful. It must be famous, so that the people of every nation see how great it is. My son Solomon is young and he has no special skills. So I must prepare everything for him to build the temple.’
So before David died, he prepared all these things.
David tells Solomon to build the temple
6 David sent someone to fetch his son, Solomon. He told him that he must build a temple for the Lord, Israel's God. 7 He said to Solomon, ‘My son, I really wanted to build a house for the Lord my God, to give honour to him. 8 But the Lord said to me, “You have killed many people in the battles that you have fought. So you yourself will not build a house to give me honour. I have seen all the blood of the people that you have killed. 9 But you will have a son who will be a man who lives in peace. I will cause all his enemies to leave him in peace. Yes, his name will be Solomon. While he is king, I will cause Israel to enjoy peace. I will keep them safe from their enemies.[b] 10 He will build a temple to give honour to my name. He will become my son and I will become his father. I will give him descendants to rule Israel as kings for ever.”
11 So, my son, I pray that the Lord will be with you. He will do what he has promised. He will help you to build a temple for the Lord your God. 12 I also pray that the Lord will make you wise so that you understand things properly. I pray that you will obey the Law of the Lord your God as you rule over Israel. 13 You will be successful, if you carefully obey the Lord's commands and rules. Those are the laws that the Lord gave to Moses for Israel. Be strong! Be brave! Do not be afraid, but continue to be strong!
14 Look! I have been careful to prepare the things that you will need to build the Lord's temple. I have got 4,000 tons of gold and 40,000 tons of silver. I have more bronze and iron than anyone can weigh. I have plenty of wood and stone. You will need to get even more than this. 15 You have many workers with special skills. Some know how to cut stone. Others know how to build with stones or with wood. There are men who have skills to make many different kinds of things. 16 They can use gold, silver, bronze and iron to make things. You have more workers than you can count! So now you must start the work! I pray that the Lord will be with you to help you.’
17 Then David sent messages to all the leaders in Israel. He commanded them to help his son Solomon. 18 He said to them, ‘You know that the Lord your God is with you. He has kept you safe from all your enemies. He has put the people who live in this region under my authority. So now the Lord and his people rule over all those nations. 19 So you must serve the Lord your God with all that you are. Start the work! Begin to build the Lord God's holy place. Then you can put the Lord's Covenant Box there, as well as the other holy things. You will put them in the temple that you have built to give honour to the Lord's name.’
Rules for the Levites
23 David was old and his life had nearly finished.[c] He chose his son Solomon to rule over Israel as king.
2 He brought together all Israel's leaders, as well as the priests and the Levites. 3 His officers counted all the Levites who were 30 years old or older. There were 38,000 men. 4 David said, ‘24,000 of these Levite men must have authority for the work of the Lord's temple. 6,000 of them will be officers and judges. 5 4,000 of them will be guards at the gates of the temple. 4,000 of them will use music to praise the Lord. They will use the musical instruments that I have provided for them.’
6 David made the Levites into three separate groups. Each group had descendants from one of Levi's sons: Gershon, Kohath and Merari.
The group from Gershon's clan
7 From Gershon's clan there were Ladan and Shimei.
8 Ladan's three sons were: Jehiel, the firstborn, then Zetham and Joel.
9 Shimei's three sons were: Shelomoth, Haziel and Haran.
Those men were the leaders of Ladan's family.
10 Shimei had four more sons: Jahath, Ziza, Jeush and Beriah.
11 Jahath was the oldest son and Ziza was the second. But Jeush and Beriah did not have many sons. So the officers counted them together as one family.
The group from Kohath's clan
12 Kohath's four sons were: Amram, Izhar, Hebron and Uzziel.
13 Amram's sons were Aaron and Moses.
The Lord chose Aaron and his descendants for special work for all time. Their work was to offer special holy things to the Lord. They would offer sacrifices to the Lord. They would serve him in the temple. And they would use his name to bless the people.
14 The tribe of Levi included the sons of Moses, God's servant.[d]
15 Moses' sons were Gershom and Eliezer.
16 Gershom's oldest son was Shebuel.
17 Eliezer's son was Rehabiah. He was the leader of the family. Eliezer had no other sons, but Rehabiah had many descendants.
18 From the family of Kohath's second son Izhar, Shelomith was the leader.
19 Hebron had four sons: Jeriah was the leader, Amariah was second, Jahaziel was third and Jekameam was fourth.
20 Uzziel had two sons: Micah was the leader and Isshiah was second.
The group from Merari's clan
21 Merari's sons were Mahli and Mushi.
Mahli's sons were Eleazar and Kish.
22 Eleazar died without any sons. He had only daughters. Kish's sons, who were their cousins, married them.
23 Mushi's three sons were: Mahli, Eder and Jeremoth.
24 Those were the leaders of the Levites' clans, family by family. The Israelites carefully recorded the names of all the men who were 20 years old or older. From that age, they each had their work to do in the Lord's temple.
25 David had said, ‘Now the Lord, Israel's God, has given rest to his people. He has his home in Jerusalem for all time. 26 So the Levites no longer need to carry the tabernacle to different places. They do not need to carry all the things that are used to serve God.’ 27 So David counted the Levites who were 20 years old or older and could work in the temple. Those were David's last words before he died.
The work of the Levites
28 The Levites' work was to help Aaron's descendants as they served the Lord in his temple. They took care of the temple's yards and its small rooms. They made the Lord's special things clean and holy. They did the work that was necessary to serve God in his temple. 29 They took care of the special bread for the table in the holy place. They kept the flour for the grain offerings, for the flat bread that they made without yeast and for the special cakes. They weighed and they measured all the things for the bread and the cakes. 30 Every morning they stood in their places to thank the Lord and to praise him. They did the same thing every evening. 31 They also did that when the priests offered burnt offerings to the Lord. That happened on Sabbath days, at New Moon festivals and on other special days. The correct number of Levites must be there to serve the Lord at all times, as the rules commanded. 32 In that way, the Levites had authority to take care of the special tent and the holy place. They helped their relatives, Aaron's descendants, as they served the Lord in his temple.[e]
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