Old/New Testament

Peril in Transporting the Ark

13 Then David consulted with the captains of the thousands and the hundreds, even with every leader. ² David said to all the assembly of Israel, “If it seems good to you, and if it is from the Lord our God, let us send everywhere to our kinsmen who remain in all the land of Israel, also to the priests and Levites who are with them in their cities with pasture lands, that they may meet with us; ³ and let us bring back the ark of our God to us, ^(A)for we did not seek it in the days of Saul.” ⁴ Then all the assembly said that they would do so, for the thing was right in the eyes of all the people.

^5 (B)So David assembled all Israel together, from the Shihor of Egypt even to the entrance of Hamath, ^(C)to bring the ark of God from Kiriath-jearim. ^6 (D)David and all Israel went up to ^(E)Baalah, that is, to Kiriath-jearim, which belongs to Judah, to bring up from there the ark of God, the Lord ^(F)who is enthroned above the cherubim, where His name is called. ⁷ They ^[a]carried the ark of God on a new cart from ^(G)the house of Abinadab, and Uzza and Ahio drove the cart. ⁸ David and all Israel were celebrating before God with all their might, ^(H)even with songs and with lyres, harps, tambourines, cymbals and with trumpets.

⁹ When they came to ^(I)the threshing floor of Chidon, Uzza put out his hand to hold the ark, because the oxen nearly upset it. ¹⁰ The anger of the Lord burned against Uzza, so He struck him down ^(J)because he put out his hand to the ark; ^(K)and he died there before God. ¹¹ Then David became angry because ^[b]of the Lord’s outburst against Uzza; and he called that place ^[c]Perez-uzza to this day. ¹² David was afraid of God that day, saying, “How can I bring the ark of God home to me?” ¹³ So David did not take the ark with him to the city of David, but took it aside ^(L)to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite. ¹⁴ Thus the ark of God remained with the family of Obed-edom in his house three months; and ^(M)the Lord blessed the family of Obed-edom with all that he had.

David’s Family Enlarged

14 ^(N)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 ^[d]became the father of more sons and daughters. ^4 (O)These are the names of the children ^[e]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 ^(P)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 ^[f]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 ^[g]Baal-perazim. ¹² They abandoned their gods there; so David gave the order and they were burned with fire.

¹³ The Philistines made ^(Q)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 ^[h]behind them and come at them in front of the ^[i]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 ^[j]Gibeon even as far as Gezer. ¹⁷ Then the fame of David went out into all the lands; and ^(R)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 ^(S)pitched a tent for it. ² Then David said, “^(T)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 ^(U)David assembled all Israel at Jerusalem to bring up the ark of the Lord ^(V)to its place which he had prepared for it. ⁴ David gathered together the sons of Aaron and ^(W)the Levites: ⁵ of the sons of Kohath, Uriel the chief, and 120 of his ^[k]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 ^(X)Zadok and ^(Y)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; ^(Z)consecrate yourselves both you and your relatives, that you may bring up the ark of the Lord God of Israel ^(AA)to the place that I have prepared for it. ^13 (AB)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 (AC)So the priests and the Levites consecrated themselves to bring up the ark of the Lord God of Israel. ¹⁵ The sons of ^(AD)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 ^(AE)to appoint their relatives the singers, with instruments of music, harps, lyres, loud-sounding cymbals, to raise sounds of joy. ¹⁷ So ^(AF)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, ^[l]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 ^[m]harps tuned to ^(AG)alamoth; ²¹ and Mattithiah, Eliphelehu, Mikneiah, Obed-edom, Jeiel and Azaziah, to lead with ^[n]lyres tuned to ^(AH)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, ^(AI)blew the trumpets before the ark of God. Obed-edom and Jehiah also were gatekeepers for the ark.

^25 (AJ)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 ^(AK)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 ^(AL)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. ^(AM)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 ^(AN)Michal the daughter of Saul looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and celebrating; and she despised him in her heart.

Jesus Teaches at the Feast

7 After these things Jesus ^(A)was walking in Galilee, for He was unwilling to walk in Judea because ^(B)the Jews ^(C)were seeking to kill Him. ² Now the feast of the Jews, ^(D)the Feast of Booths, was near. ³ Therefore His ^(E)brothers said to Him, “Leave here and go into Judea, so that Your ^(F)disciples also may see Your works which You are doing. ⁴ For no one does anything in secret ^[a]when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.” ⁵ For not even His ^(G)brothers were believing in Him. ⁶ So Jesus *said to them, “^(H)My time is not yet here, but your time is always opportune. ^7 (I)The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it, that ^(J)its deeds are evil. ⁸ Go up to the feast yourselves; I do not go up to this feast because ^(K)My time has not yet fully come.” ⁹ Having said these things to them, He stayed in Galilee.

¹⁰ But when His ^(L)brothers had gone up to the feast, then He Himself also went up, not publicly, but as if, in secret. ^11 (M)So the Jews ^(N)were seeking Him at the feast and were saying, “Where is He?” ¹² There was much grumbling among the crowds concerning Him; ^(O)some were saying, “He is a good man”; others were saying, “No, on the contrary, He leads the people astray.” ¹³ Yet no one was speaking openly of Him for ^(P)fear of the Jews.

¹⁴ But when it was now the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and began to ^(Q)teach. ^15 (R)The Jews then were astonished, saying, “How has this man ^(S)become learned, having never been educated?” ¹⁶ So Jesus answered them and said, “^(T)My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me. ^17 (U)If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself. ¹⁸ He who speaks from himself ^(V)seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of the One who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.

¹⁹ “^(W)Did not Moses give you the Law, and yet none of you carries out the Law? Why do you ^(X)seek to kill Me?” ²⁰ The crowd answered, “^(Y)You have a demon! Who seeks to kill You?” ²¹ Jesus answered them, “I did ^(Z)one ^[b]deed, and you all marvel. ²² For this reason ^(AA)Moses has given you circumcision (not because it is from Moses, but from ^(AB)the fathers), and on the Sabbath you circumcise a man. ^23 (AC)If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath so that the Law of Moses will not be broken, are you angry with Me because I made an entire man well on the Sabbath? ²⁴ Do not ^(AD)judge according to appearance, but ^[c]judge with righteous judgment.”

²⁵ So some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, “Is this not the man whom they are seeking to kill? ²⁶ Look, He is speaking publicly, and they are saying nothing to Him. ^(AE)The rulers do not really know that this is ^[d]the Christ, do they? ²⁷ However, ^(AF)we know where this man is from; but whenever the Christ may come, no one knows where He is from.”