And he will give before the ark of Jehovah from the Levites serving, and for keeping in remembrance, and to confess and to praise to Jehovah God of Israel.

Remember His wonderful deeds which He has done,
His marvels and the judgments from His mouth,

He confirmed it to Jacob in the form of an ordinance, an eternal covenant to Israel,

And when they went from nation to nation, and from one kingdom to another people;

Sing unto the LORD, all the earth; shew forth from day to day his salvation.

Majestic splendor emanates from him, he is the source of strength and joy.

Tremble in his presence, all the earth! Surely the inhabited world stands firm it cannot be moved.

Then sing do trees of the forest, From the presence of Jehovah, For He hath come to judge the earth!

And say ye, Save us, O God of our salvation, and gather us together, and deliver us from the heathen, that we may give thanks to thy holy name, and glory in thy praise.

Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Israel, From everlasting even to everlasting. And all the people said, Amen, and praised Jehovah.

When David had settled into his palace, he said to Nathan the prophet, "Look, I am living in a palace made from cedar, while the ark of the Lord's covenant is under a tent."

But later that same night, this message came to Nathan from God:

For I have not dwelt in an house since the day that I brought up Israel unto this day; but have gone from tent to tent, and from one tabernacle to another.

Wherever I moved throughout Israel, I did not say to any of the leaders whom I appointed to care for my people Israel, 'Why have you not built me a house made from cedar?'"'

Now therefore thus shalt thou say unto my servant David, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I took thee from the sheepcote, even from following the sheep, that thou shouldest be ruler over my people Israel:

And I have been with thee whithersoever thou hast walked, and have cut off all thine enemies from before thee, and have made thee a name like the name of the great men that are in the earth.

and as from the day that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel; and I will subdue all thine enemies. Moreover I tell thee that Jehovah will build thee a house.

And it will be, when your days have ended so that you must go to be with your fathers, I will raise up your seed after you, who shall be from your sons. And I will make his kingdom sure.

I will be his father, and he shall be my son: and I will not take my mercy away from him, as I took it from him that was before thee:

O Lord, because of your servant, and from your heart, you have done all these great things and let them be seen.

O Lord, there is no one like you, and no other God but you, as is clear from everything which has come to our ears.

And what one nation in the earth is like thy people Israel, whom God went to redeem to be his own people, to make thee a name of greatness and terribleness, by driving out nations from before thy people, whom thou hast redeemed out of Egypt?

And it shall be firm, and thy name shall be magnified even to forever, saying, Jehovah of armies, God of Israel, is God to Israel: and the house of David thy servant was prepared before thee.

Now you are willing to bless your servant's dynasty so that it may stand permanently before you, for you, O Lord, have blessed it and it will be blessed from now on into the future."

After this, David defeated the Philistines, subdued them, and took Gath and its villages from Philistine control.

And David took from him a thousand chariots, and seven thousand horsemen, and twenty thousand footmen: David also houghed all the chariot horses, but reserved of them an hundred chariots.

When Arameans came from Damascus to help King Hadadezer of Zobah, David killed 22,000 of them.

Likewise from Tibhath, and from Chun, cities of Hadarezer, brought David very much brass, wherewith Solomon made the brasen sea, and the pillars, and the vessels of brass.

Them also king David dedicated unto the LORD, with the silver and the gold that he brought from all these nations; from Edom, and from Moab, and from the children of Ammon, and from the Philistines, and from Amalek.

And when he came back from putting to the sword eighteen thousand of the Edomites in the Valley of Salt,

And the children of Ammon saw that they had made themselves odious to David; and Hanun and the children of Ammon sent a thousand talents of silver to hire them chariots and horsemen out of Mesopotamia, and from the Syrians of Maacah, and from Zobah.

So they hired thirty and two thousand chariots, and the king of Maachah and his people; who came and pitched before Medeba. And the children of Ammon gathered themselves together from their cities, and came to battle.

Now when Joab saw that the battle was set against him in the front and in the rear, he chose warriors from all the choice men of Israel and put them in formation against the Arameans (Syrians).

And Joab draweth nigh, and the people who are with him, before Aram to battle, and they flee from his face;

and the sons of Ammon have seen that Aram hath fled, and they flee -- they also -- from the face of Abishai his brother, and go in to the city. And Joab cometh in to Jerusalem.

And when Aram saw that they were defeated before Israel, they sent messengers and brought out Aram, who [was from] beyond the Euphrates, with Shophach the commander of the army of Hadadezer before them.

And the Syrians fled from before Israel; and David slew of the Syrians seven thousand in chariots, and forty thousand footmen, and slew Shophach the captain of the host.

And David took the crown of their king from off his head, and found it to weigh a talent of gold, and there were precious stones in it; and it was set upon David's head: and he brought also exceeding much spoil out of the city.

And it will be after this and war will stand up in Gezer with the rovers: then Sibbechai the Hushathite struck Sippai from the children of Rapha, and they will be subdued.

There was still another battle at Gath where there was a man of extraordinary stature with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot—24 in all. He, too, was descended from the giant.

These descendants from the giants in Gath died at the hands of David and his servants.

And David said to Joab and to the rulers of the people, Go, number Israel from Beersheba even to Dan; and bring the number of them to me, that I may know it.

Go - and thou shalt speak unto David, saying, Thus, saith Yahweh, Three things, do I offer thee, - choose thee one from among them, that I may do it unto thee.

either for three years -- famine, or three months to be consumed from the face of thine adversaries, even the sword of thine enemies to overtake, or three days the sword of Jehovah, even pestilence in the land, and a messenger of Jehovah destroying in all the border of Israel; and now, see; what word do I return to Him who is sending me?'

So Yahweh sent a pestilence through Israel, and seventy thousand men from Israel fell.

God sent an angel to ravage Jerusalem. As he was doing so, the Lord watched and relented from his judgment. He told the angel who was destroying, "That's enough! Stop now!" Now the Lord's angel was standing near the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

David said to God, "Was I not the one who decided to number the army? I am the one who sinned and committed this awful deed! As for these sheep -- what have they done? O Lord my God, attack me and my family, but remove the plague from your people!"

And David cometh in unto Ornan, and Ornan looketh attentively, and seeth David, and goeth out from the threshing-floor, and boweth himself to David -- face to the earth.

Then David said to Ornan, Grant me the place of this threshingfloor, that I may build an altar therein unto the LORD: thou shalt grant it me for the full price: that the plague may be stayed from the people.

So David bought the place from Ornan for 600 pieces of gold.

And David built there an altar unto the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called upon the LORD; and he answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar of burnt offering.

From that time on, after David had observed that the LORD had answered him at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he made his sacrifices there.

But David was not able to go before it to get directions from the Lord, so great was his fear of the sword of the angel of the Lord.

And David gave orders to get together all the men from strange lands who were in the land of Israel; and he put stone-cutters to work, cutting stones for building the house of God.

But this message from the LORD came to me, telling me

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.

Is not Jehovah your God with you? and he caused rest to you from round about? for he gave into my hand the inhabitants of the land; and the land was subdued before Jehovah, and before his people.

Now the Levites were numbered from the age of thirty years and upward: and their number by their polls, man by man, was thirty and eight thousand.

From these to superintend over the work of the house of Jehovah, twenty and four thousand; and scribes and judges, six thousand:

These were the sons of Levi after the house of their fathers; even the chief of the fathers, as they were counted by number of names by their polls, that did the work for the service of the house of the LORD, from the age of twenty years and upward.

And from now, there will be no need for the House of the Lord, and the vessels used in it, to be moved about by the Levites.

For by the last words of David the Levites were numbered from twenty years old and above:

For from their station at the hand of the sons of Aaron for the service of the house of Jehovah, upon the enclosures and upon the cells and for the cleansing to all the holy place and the works of the service of the house of God.

Together with Zadok from the sons of Eleazar and Ahimelech from the sons of Ithamar, David divided them according to the assigned duties of their service.

Since more leaders were found among Eleazar’s descendants than Ithamar’s, they were divided accordingly: 16 heads of ancestral houses were from Eleazar’s descendants, and eight heads of ancestral houses were from Ithamar’s.

So they were divided by lot, one group with the other; for they were officers of the sanctuary and officers (high priests) of God, both from the descendants of Eleazar and from the descendants of Ithamar.

And Shemaiah the son of Nethanel, the scribe, from the Levites, recorded them before the king, the princes, Zadok the priest, Ahimelech the son of Abiathar, and the heads of the {families} of the priests and Levites, one father's house drawn by Lot for Eleazar and one drawn by lot for Ithamar.

These had their assigned duties for service when they entered the Lord’s temple, according to their regulations, which they received from their ancestor Aaron, as the Lord God of Israel had commanded him.

As for the rest of Levi’s sons:
from Amram’s sons: Shubael;
from Shubael’s sons: Jehdeiah.

From Rehabiah:
from Rehabiah’s sons: Isshiah was the first.

From the Izharites: Shelomoth;
from Shelomoth’s sons: Jahath.

From Uzziel’s sons: Micah;
from Micah’s sons: Shamir.

Micah’s brother: Isshiah;
from Isshiah’s sons: Zechariah.

Merari’s sons: Mahli and Mushi,
and from his sons, Jaaziah his son.

The sons of Merari, from Jaaziah: Beno, Shoham, Zaccur, and Ibri.

From Mahli: Eleazar, who had no sons.

From Kish, from Kish’s sons: Jerahmeel.

From Asaph’s sons:
Zaccur, Joseph, Nethaniah, and Asarelah, sons of Asaph, under Asaph’s authority, who prophesied under the authority of the king.

From Jeduthun: Jeduthun’s sons:
Gedaliah, Zeri, Jeshaiah, Shimei, Hashabiah, and Mattithiah—six—under the authority of their father Jeduthun, prophesying to the accompaniment of lyres, giving thanks and praise to the Lord.

From Heman: Heman’s sons:
Bukkiah, Mattaniah, Uzziel, Shebuel, Jerimoth, Hananiah, Hanani, Eliathah, Giddalti, Romamti-ezer, Joshbekashah, Mallothi, Hothir, and Mahazioth.

And they will cast lots from the watches near, as the small so the great, he understanding with him taught

As for the working groups of the gatekeepers: of the Korahites, Meshelemiah the son of Kore, from the sons of Asaph.

All these from the sons of Obed-Edom, they and their sons, and their brothers [were] men of ability with strength for service; sixty-two of Obed-Edom.

And Hosah, from the sons of Merari, had sons: Shimri the chief (though he was not firstborn, his father appointed him as chief),

And they cast lots: the small as well as the great in the households of their fathers, from gate to gate.

And the lot will fall from the sunrising to Shelemiah. And Zechariah his son counseling in understanding, they cast lots; and his lot will go forth north.

Those were the divisions of the gatekeepers from the sons of the Korahites and Merarites.

From the Levites, Ahijah was in charge of the treasuries of God’s temple and the treasuries of what had been dedicated.

From the sons of Ladan, who were the sons of the Gershonites through Ladan and were the heads of families belonging to Ladan the Gershonite: Jehieli.

From the Amramites, the Izharites, the Hebronites, and the Uzzielites:

His relatives by Eliezer were his son Rehabiah, his son Jeshaiah, his son Joram, his son Zichri, and his son Shelomoth.

(from the wars and out of the spoils had they dedicated them, to maintain the house of Jehovah),

From the Izrahites: Chenaniah and his sons had the outside duties as officers and judges over Israel.

From the Hebronites: Hashabiah and his relatives, 1,700 capable men, had assigned duties in Israel west of the Jordan for all the work of the Lord and for the service of the king.

From the Hebronites: Jerijah was the head of the Hebronites, according to the genealogical records of his ancestors. A search was made in the fortieth year of David’s reign and strong, capable men were found among them at Jazer in Gilead.

He was descended from Perez, and was chief of all the commanders of the army for the first month.

Ikkesh's son Ira from Tekoa was sixth for the sixth month; there were 24,000 soldiers in his division.

The seventh, for the seventh month, [was] Helez the Pelonite, from the sons of Ephraim. And [he was] over his working group [of] twenty-four thousand.

Abiezer from Anathoth, a descendant of Benjamin, was ninth for the ninth month; 24,000 soldiers served in his division.

The tenth, for the tenth month was Maharai from Netophah of the Zerahites; and in his division were 24,000.