Dan, Joseph, Benjamin,
Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.

Jabez called out to the God of Israel: “If only You would bless me, extend my border, let Your hand be with me, and keep me from harm, so that I will not cause any pain.” And God granted his request.

They found rich, good pasture, and the land was broad, peaceful, and quiet, for some Hamites had lived there previously.

The sons of Gad lived next to them in the land of Bashan as far as Salecah:

The sons of Reuben and Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh had 44,760 warriors who could serve in the army—men who carried shield and sword, drew the bow, and were trained for war.

They received help against these enemies because they cried out to God in battle, and the Hagrites and all their allies were handed over to them. He granted their request because they trusted in Him.

Many of the Hagrites were killed because it was God’s battle. And they lived there in the Hagrites’ place until the exile.

But they were unfaithful to the God of their ancestors. They prostituted themselves with the gods of the nations God had destroyed before them.

So the God of Israel put it into the mind of Pul (that is, Tiglath-pileser) king of Assyria to take the Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh into exile. He took them to Halah, Habor, Hara, and Gozan’s river, where they are until today.

Their relatives, the Levites, were assigned to all the service of the tabernacle, God’s temple.

But Aaron and his sons did all the work of the most holy place. They presented the offerings on the altar of burnt offerings and on the altar of incense to make atonement for Israel according to all that Moses the servant of God had commanded.

The Merarites were assigned by lot 12 towns from the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Zebulun according to their families.

From the tribe of Gad they received Ramoth in Gilead and its pasturelands, Mahanaim and its pasturelands,

Azariah son of Hilkiah, son of Meshullam, son of Zadok, son of Meraioth, son of Ahitub, the chief official of God’s temple;

and 1,760 of their relatives, the heads of households. They were capable men employed in the ministry of God’s temple.

he was previously stationed at the King’s Gate on the east side. These were the gatekeepers from the camp of the Levites.

but the four chief gatekeepers, who were Levites, were entrusted with the rooms and the treasuries of God’s temple.

They spent the night in the vicinity of God’s temple, because they had guard duty and were in charge of opening it every morning.

They stripped Saul, cut off his head, took his armor, and sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines to spread the good news to their idols and their people.

Even when Saul was king, you led us out to battle and brought us back. The Lord your God also said to you, ‘You will shepherd My people Israel and be ruler over My people Israel.’”

The inhabitants of Jebus said to David, “You will never get in here.” Yet David did capture the stronghold of Zion, that is, the city of David.

David was extremely thirsty and said, “If only someone would bring me water to drink from the well at the city gate of Bethlehem!”

So the Three broke through the Philistine camp and drew water from the well at the gate of Bethlehem. They brought it back to David, but he refused to drink it. Instead, he poured it out to the Lord.

David said, “I would never do such a thing in the presence of God! How can I drink the blood of these men who risked their lives?” For they brought it at the risk of their lives. So he would not drink it. Such were the exploits of the three warriors.

David went out to meet them and said to them, “If you have come in peace to help me, my heart will be united with you, but if you have come to betray me to my enemies even though my hands have done no wrong, may the God of our ancestors look on it and judge.”

Then the Spirit took control of Amasai, chief of the Thirty, and he said:

We are yours, David,
we are with you, son of Jesse!
Peace, peace to you,
and peace to him who helps you,
for your God helps you.

So David received them and made them leaders of his troops.

At that time, men came day after day to help David until there was a great army, like an army of God.

Then he said to the whole assembly of Israel, “If it seems good to you, and if this is from the Lord our God, let us spread out and send the message to the rest of our relatives in all the districts of Israel, including the priests and Levites in their cities with pasturelands, that they should gather together with us.

Then let us bring back the ark of our God, for we did not inquire of Him in Saul’s days.”

So David assembled all Israel, from the Shihor of Egypt to the entrance of Hamath, to bring the ark of God from Kiriath-jearim.

David and all Israel went to Baalah (that is, Kiriath-jearim that belongs to Judah) to take the ark of God from there, which is called by the name of the Lord who dwells between the cherubim.

At Abinadab’s house they set the ark of God on a new cart. Uzzah and Ahio were guiding the cart.

David and all Israel were celebrating with all their might before God with songs and with lyres, harps, tambourines, cymbals, and trumpets.

Then the Lord’s anger burned against Uzzah, and He struck him dead because he had reached out to the ark. So he died there in the presence of God.

David feared God that day and said, “How can I ever bring the ark of God to me?”

So David did not move the ark of God home to the city of David; instead, he took it to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite.

The ark of God remained with Obed-edom’s family in his house for three months, and the Lord blessed his family and all that he had.

so David inquired of God, “Should I go to war against the Philistines? Will You hand them over to me?”

The Lord replied, “Go, and I will hand them over to you.”

So the Israelites went up to Baal-perazim, and David defeated the Philistines there. Then David said, “Like a bursting flood, God has used me to burst out against my enemies.” Therefore, they named that place the Lord Bursts Out.

So David again inquired of God, and God answered him, “Do not pursue them directly. Circle around them and attack them opposite the balsam trees.

When you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, then march out to battle, for God will have marched out ahead of you to attack the camp of the Philistines.”

So David did exactly as God commanded him, and they struck down the Philistine army from Gibeon to Gezer.

David built houses for himself in the city of David, and he prepared a place for the ark of God and pitched a tent for it.

Then David said, “No one but the Levites may carry the ark of God, because the Lord has chosen them to carry the ark of the Lord and to minister before Him forever.”

He said to them, “You are the heads of the Levite families. You and your relatives must consecrate yourselves so that you may bring the ark of the Lord God of Israel to the place I have prepared for it.

For the Lord our God burst out in anger against us because you Levites were not with us the first time, for we didn’t inquire of Him about the proper procedures.”

So the priests and the Levites consecrated themselves to bring up the ark of the Lord God of Israel.

Then the Levites carried the ark of God the way Moses had commanded according to the word of the Lord: on their shoulders with the poles.

The priests, Shebaniah, Joshaphat, Nethanel, Amasai, Zechariah, Benaiah, and Eliezer, were to blow trumpets before the ark of God. Obed-edom and Jehiah were also to be gatekeepers for the ark.

While the Levites were carrying the ark of the covenant of the Lord, with God’s help, they sacrificed seven bulls and seven rams.

They brought the ark of God and placed it inside the tent David had pitched for it. Then they offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings in God’s presence.

David appointed some of the Levites to be ministers before the ark of the Lord, to celebrate the Lord God of Israel, and to give thanks and praise to Him.

and the priests Benaiah and Jahaziel blew the trumpets regularly before the ark of the covenant of God.

He is the Lord our God;
His judgments govern the whole earth.

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good;
His faithful love endures forever.

And say: “Save us, God of our salvation;
gather us and rescue us from the nations
so that we may give thanks to Your holy name
and rejoice in Your praise.

May Yahweh, the God of Israel, be praised
from everlasting to everlasting.”

Then all the people said, “Amen” and “Praise the Lord.”

Heman and Jeduthun had with them trumpets and cymbals to play and musical instruments of God. Jeduthun’s sons were at the gate.

So Nathan told David, “Do all that is on your heart, for God is with you.”

But that night the word of God came to Nathan:

Then King David went in, sat in the Lord’s presence, and said,

Who am I, Lord God, and what is my house that You have brought me this far?

This was a little thing to You, God, for You have spoken about Your servant’s house in the distant future. You regard me as a man of distinction, Lord God.

Lord, there is no one like You, and there is no God besides You, as all we have heard confirms.

And who is like Your people Israel? God, You came to one nation on earth to redeem a people for Yourself, to make a name for Yourself through great and awesome works by driving out nations before Your people You redeemed from Egypt.

You made Your people Israel Your own people forever, and You, Lord, have become their God.

Let Your name be confirmed and magnified forever in the saying, “Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel, is God over Israel.” May the house of Your servant David be established before You.

Since You, my God, have revealed to Your servant that You will build him a house, Your servant has found courage to pray in Your presence.

Yahweh, You indeed are God, and You have promised this good thing to Your servant.

So Hanun took David’s emissaries, shaved them, cut their clothes in half at the hips, and sent them away.

Be strong! We must prove ourselves strong for our people and for the cities of our God. May the Lord’s will be done.”

This command was also evil in God’s sight, so He afflicted Israel.

David said to God, “I have sinned greatly because I have done this thing. Now, please take away Your servant’s guilt, for I’ve been very foolish.”

Then the Lord instructed Gad, David’s seer,

So Gad went to David and said to him, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Take your choice:

David answered Gad, “I’m in anguish. Please, let me fall into the Lord’s hands because His mercies are very great, but don’t let me fall into human hands.”

Then God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it, but when the angel was about to destroy the city, the Lord looked, relented concerning the destruction, and said to the angel who was destroying the people, “Enough, withdraw your hand now!” The angel of the Lord was then standing at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

David said to God, “Wasn’t I the one who gave the order to count the people? I am the one who has sinned and acted very wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? My Lord God, please let Your hand be against me and against my father’s family, but don’t let the plague be against Your people.”

So the angel of the Lord ordered Gad to tell David to go and set up an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

David went up at Gad’s command spoken in the name of the Lord.

but David could not go before it to inquire of God, because he was terrified of the sword of the Lord’s angel.

>

Then David said, “This is the house of the Lord God, and this is the altar of burnt offering for Israel.”

So David gave orders to gather the foreigners that were in the land of Israel, and he appointed stonecutters to cut finished stones for building God’s house.

Then he summoned his son Solomon and instructed him to build a house for the Lord God of Israel.

“My son,” David said to Solomon, “It was in my heart to build a house for the name of Yahweh my God,

But a son will be born to you; he will be a man of rest. I will give him rest from all his surrounding enemies, for his name will be Solomon, and I will give peace and quiet to Israel during his reign.

“Now, my son, may the Lord be with you, and may you succeed in building the house of the Lord your God, as He said about you.

Above all, may the Lord give you insight and understanding when He puts you in charge of Israel so that you may keep the law of the Lord your God.

“The Lord your God is with you, isn’t He? And hasn’t He given you rest on every side? For He has handed the land’s inhabitants over to me, and the land has been subdued before the Lord and His people.

Now determine in your mind and heart to seek the Lord your God. Get started building the Lord God’s sanctuary so that you may bring the ark of the Lord’s covenant and the holy articles of God to the temple that is to be built for the name of Yahweh.”

As for Moses the man of God, his sons were named among the tribe of Levi.

For David said, “The Lord God of Israel has given rest to His people, and He has come to stay in Jerusalem forever.

“but their duty will be to assist the sons of Aaron with the service of the Lord’s temple, being responsible for the courts and the chambers, the purification of all the holy things, and the work of the service of God’s temple—

They were assigned by lot, for there were officers of the sanctuary and officers of God among both Eleazar’s and Ithamar’s descendants.

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.

All these sons of Heman, the king’s seer, were given by the promises of God to exalt him, for God had given Heman fourteen sons and three daughters.

All these men were under their own fathers’ authority for the music in the Lord’s temple, with cymbals, harps, and lyres for the service of God’s temple. Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman were under the king’s authority.

Ammiel the sixth,
Issachar the seventh, and Peullethai the eighth,
for God blessed him.

They cast lots for each gate according to their ancestral houses, young and old alike.

The lot for the east gate fell to Shelemiah. They also cast lots for his son Zechariah, an insightful counselor, and his lot came out for the north gate.

Obed-edom’s was the south gate, and his sons’ lot was for the storehouses;