And for a long time Ephraim their father went on weeping for them, and his brothers came to give him comfort.

After that, he had connection with his wife, and she became with child and gave birth to a son, to whom his father gave the name of Beriah, because trouble had come on his family.

Their heritage and their living-places were Beth-el and its daughter-towns, and Naaran to the east, and Gezer to the west, with its daughter-towns, as well as Shechem and its daughter-towns as far as Azzah and its daughter-towns;

And Beriah and Shema, who were heads of the families of those who were living in Aijalon, who put to flight the people living in Gath;

So all Israel was listed by their families; and, truly, they are recorded in the book of the kings of Israel. And Judah was taken away as prisoners to Babylon because of their sin.

Now the first to take up their heritage in their towns were: Israel, the priests, the Levites, and the Nethinim.

Up till then they had been at the king's door to the east. They were door-keepers for the tents of the sons of Levi.

And Shallum, the son of Kore, the son of Ebiasaph, the son of Korah, and his brothers, of his family, the Korahites, were responsible for everything which had to be done in connection with the order of worship, keepers of the doors of the Tent; their fathers had had the care of the tents of the Lord, being keepers of the doorway.

There were two hundred and twelve whose business it was to keep the doorway. These were listed by families in the country places where they were living, whom David and Samuel the seer put in their responsible positions.

There were keepers of the doors on the four sides, to the east, west, north, and south.

And their brothers, in the country places where they were living, were to come in every seven days to be with them from time to time.

Certain of them had the care of the vessels used in worship, to keep an account of them when they came in and when they were taken out again.

And some of their brothers, sons of the Kohathites, were responsible for the holy bread which was put in order before the Lord, to get it ready every Sabbath.

And these were those who had the ordering of the music and songs, heads of families of the Levites, who were living in the rooms, and were free from other work, for their work went on day and night.

And the Philistines went hard after Saul and his sons, and put to death Jonathan and Abinadab and Malchi-shua, the sons of Saul.

Then Saul said to the servant who had the care of his arms, Take your sword and put it through me, before these men without circumcision come and make sport of me. But his servant, full of fear, would not do so. Then Saul took out his sword, falling on it himself.

And when his servant saw that Saul was dead, he did the same, and came to his death.

So death overtook Saul and his three sons; all his family came to an end together.

Now the day after, when the Philistines came to take their goods from the dead, they saw Saul and his sons dead in Mount Gilboa.

And they took everything off him, and took his head and his war-dress, and sent word into the land of the Philistines round about to give the news to their gods and to the people.

And when the news came to Jabesh-gilead of what the Philistines had done to Saul,

All the fighting-men came up and took away Saul's body and the bodies of his sons, and took them to Jabesh, and put their bones to rest under the oak-tree in Jabesh, and took no food for seven days.

So death came to Saul because of the sin which he did against the Lord, that is, because of the word of the Lord which he kept not; and because he went for directions to one who had an evil spirit,

And not to the Lord: for this reason, he put him to death and gave the kingdom to David, the son of Jesse.

Then all Israel came together to David at Hebron, and said, Truly, we are your bone and your flesh.

In the past, when Saul was king, it was you who went at the head of Israel when they went out or came in; and the Lord your God said to you, You are to be the keeper of my people Israel, and their ruler.

So all the responsible men of Israel came to the king at Hebron; and David made an agreement with them in Hebron before the Lord; and they put the holy oil on David and made him king over Israel, as the Lord had said by Samuel.

Then David and all Israel went to Jerusalem (which is Jebus); and the Jebusites, the people of the land, were there.

And the people of Jebus said to David, You will not come in here. But still, David took the strong place of Zion, which is the town of David.

And David said, The first to overcome the Jebusites will be chief and captain. And Joab, the son of Zeruiah, went up first, and became chief.

This is the list of David's men of war: Ishbaal, the son of a Hachmonite, the chief of the three: he put to death three hundred at one time with his spear.

And three of the thirty went down to David, to the rock, into the strong place of Adullam; and the army of the Philistines had taken up their position in the valley of Rephaim.

So the three, forcing a way through the Philistine army, got water from the water-hole of Beth-lehem, by the doorway into the town, and took it back to David; but David would not take it, but made an offering of it, draining it out to the Lord,

Saying, By my God, far be it from me to do this! How may I take as drink the life-blood of these men who have put their lives in danger? so he did not take it. These things did the three great men of war.

And Abishai, the brother of Joab, was chief of the thirty, for he put to death three hundred with his spear, but he had not a name among the three.

Of the thirty, he was the noblest, and was made their captain, but he was not equal to the first three.

Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, a fighting-man of Kabzeel, had done great acts; he put to death two young lions going into their secret place; and he went down into a hole and put a lion to death in time of snow.

And he made an attack on an Egyptian, a very tall man about five cubits high, armed with a spear like a cloth-worker's rod; he went down to him with a stick, and pulling his spear out of the hand of the Egyptian, put him to death with that same spear.

He was honoured over the thirty, but he was not equal to the first three: and David put him over his servants.

Now these are the men who came to David at Ziklag, while he was still shut up, because of Saul, the son of Kish; they were among the strong men, his helpers in war.

They were armed with bows, and were able to send stones, and arrows from the bow, with right hand or left: they were Saul's brothers, of Benjamin.

And some of the Gadites, siding with David, went to his strong place in the waste land, great and strong men, trained for war, expert in the use of arms, whose faces were like the faces of lions, and they were quick-footed like roes on the mountains;

It was they who went over Jordan in the first month, when the river was overflowing, and put to flight all the people of the valleys, to the east and to the west.

And some of the children of Benjamin and Judah came to David in his strong place.

And David went out to them, and said to them, If you have come in peace to give me help, my heart will be united with yours; but if you have come to give me up to those who would take my life, though my hands are clean from wrongdoing, then may the God of our fathers see it and give you punishment.

And some of the men of Manasseh came over to David, when he went with the Philistines to the war against Saul, but he gave them no help: for the lords of the Philistines, after discussion, sent him away, saying, He will go back to his master Saul, at the price of our lives.

Then when he went back to Ziklag, there came over to him, of the men of Manasseh, Adnah and Jozabad and Jediael and Michael and Jozabad and Elihu and Zillethai, captains of thousands from the armies of Manasseh.

And from day to day more supporters came to David, till he had a great army like the army of God.

These are the numbers of the chiefs of the armed men, ready for war, who came to David at Hebron, to give the kingdom of Saul into his hands, as the Lord had said.

And Zadok, a young man, great and strong in war, with twenty-two captains from his father's people.

And of the children of Benjamin, the brothers of Saul, three thousand; for up to that time the greater part of them had been true to Saul.

And from the half-tribe of Manasseh, eighteen thousand, listed by name, came to make David king.

And of the children of Issachar, there were two hundred chiefs, men who had expert knowledge of the times and what it was best for Israel to do, and all their brothers were under their orders.

Of Zebulun, there were fifty thousand men, who went out with the army, expert in ordering the fight, to give help with all sorts of arms; true-hearted men.

All these men of war, expert in ordering the fight, came to Hebron with the full purpose of making David king over all Israel; and all the rest of Israel were united in their desire to make David king.

And David said to all the men of Israel who had come together there, If it seems good to you and if it is the purpose of the Lord our God, let us send to all the rest of our brothers, everywhere in the land of Israel, and to the priests and the Levites in their towns and the country round them, and get them to come together here to us;

And let us get back for ourselves the ark of our God: for in the days of Saul we did not go to it for directions.

And all the people said they would do so, for it seemed right to them.

So David sent for all Israel to come together, from Shihor, the river of Egypt, as far as the way into Hamath, to get the ark of God from Kiriath-jearim.

And David went up, with all Israel, to Baalah, that is, to Kiriath-jearim in Judah, to get up from there the ark of God, over which the holy Name is named, the name of the Lord whose place is between the winged ones.

And when they came to the grain-floor of Chidon, Uzza put out his hand to keep the ark in its place, for the oxen were slipping.

And the wrath of the Lord, burning against Uzza, sent destruction on him because he had put his hand on the ark, and death came to him there before God.

And David was angry because of the Lord's outburst of wrath against Uzza, and he gave that place the name Perez-uzza, to this day.

And so great was David's fear of God that day, that he said, How may I let the ark of God come to me?

So David did not let the ark come back to him to the town of David, but had it turned away and put into the house of Obed-edom the Gittite.

And Hiram, king of Tyre, sent men to David with cedar-trees, and stoneworkers and woodworkers for the building of his house.

And David, desiring directions from God, said, Am I to go up against the Philistines? and will you give them into my hands? And the Lord said, Go up; for I will give them into your hands.

So they went up to Baal-perazim, and David overcame them there, and David said, God has let the forces fighting against me be broken by my hand, as a wall is broken down by rushing water; so they gave that place the name of Baal-perazim.

And David went for directions to God; and God said to him, You are not to go up after them; but, turning away from them, come face to face with them opposite the spice-trees.

And at the sound of footsteps in the tops of the trees, go out to the fight, for God has gone out before you to overcome the army of the Philistines.

Then David said, The ark of God may not be moved by any but the Levites, for they have been marked out by God to take the ark of God, and to do his work for ever.

And David made all Israel come together at Jerusalem, to take the ark of the Lord to its place, which he had got ready for it.

Of the sons of Merari: Asaiah the chief, and his brothers, two hundred and twenty;

Of the sons of Elizaphan: Shemaiah the chief, and his brothers, two hundred;

And said to them, You are the heads of the families of the Levites: make yourselves holy, you and your brothers, so that you may take the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel, to the place which I have made ready for it.

So the priests and the Levites made themselves holy to take up the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel.

And the sons of the Levites took up the ark of God, lifting it by its rods, as the Lord had said to Moses.

And David gave orders to the chief of the Levites to put their brothers the music-makers in position, with instruments of music, corded instruments and brass, with glad voices making sounds of joy.

And Zechariah and Aziel and Shemiramoth and Jehiel, Unni and Eliab and Maaseiah and Benaiah, with corded instruments put to Alamoth.

And Mattithiah and Eliphelehu and Mikneiah and Obed-edom and Jeiel and Azaziah, with corded instruments on the octave, to give the first note of the song.

So David, and the responsible men of Israel, and the captains over thousands, went with joy to get the ark of the agreement of the Lord out of the house of Obed-edom.

And when God gave help to the Levites who were lifting up the ark of the agreement of the Lord, they made an offering of seven oxen and seven sheep.

And when the ark of the agreement of the Lord came into the town of David, Michal, the daughter of Saul, looking out of the window, saw King David dancing and playing; and to her mind he seemed foolish.

And when David had come to an end of making the burned offerings and peace-offerings, he gave the people a blessing in the name of the Lord.

And he gave to everyone, every man and woman of Israel, a cake of bread, some meat, and a cake of dry grapes.

And he put some of the Levites before the ark of the Lord as servants, to keep the acts of the Lord in memory, and to give worship and praise to the Lord, the God of Israel:

Asaph the chief, and second to him Zechariah, Uzziel and Shemiramoth and Jehiel and Mattithiah and Eliab and Benaiah and Obed-edom and Jeiel, with corded instruments of music; and Asaph, with brass instruments sounding loudly;

Then on that day David first made the giving of praise to the Lord the work of Asaph and his brothers.

O give praise to the Lord; give honour to his name, talking of his doings among the peoples.

Let your search be for the Lord and for his strength; let your hearts ever be turned to him.

The agreement which he made with Abraham, and his oath to Isaac;

And he gave it to Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an eternal agreement;

Saying, To you will I give the land of Canaan, the measured line of your heritage:

When they went about from one nation to another, and from one kingdom to another people;

He would not let anyone do them wrong; he even kept back kings because of them,

Saying, Put not your hand on those who have been marked with my holy oil, and do my prophets no wrong.

Make songs to the Lord, all the earth; give the good news of his salvation day by day.

Make clear his glory to the nations, and his wonders to all the peoples.

For the Lord is great, and greatly to be praised; and he is more to be feared than all other gods.

Give to the Lord, O you families of the peoples, give to the Lord glory and strength.