And cedar-trees without number, for the Zidonians and the men of Tyre came with a great amount of cedar-trees for David.

And David said, Solomon my son is young and untested, and the house which is to be put up for the Lord is to be very great, a thing of wonder and glory through all countries; so I will make ready what is needed for it. So David got ready a great store of material before his death.

Then he sent for his son Solomon, and gave him orders for the building of a house for the Lord, the God of Israel.

And David said to Solomon, My son, it was my desire to put up a house for the name of the Lord my God.

But the word of the Lord came to me saying, You have taken lives without number and made great wars; I will not let you be the builder of a house for my name, because of the lives you have taken on the earth before my eyes.

But you will have a son who will be a man of rest; and I will give him rest from wars on every side. His name will be Solomon, and in his time I will give Israel peace and quiet;

He will be the builder of a house for my name; he will be to me a son, and I will be to him a father; and I will make the seat of his rule over Israel certain for ever.

Now, my son, may the Lord be with you; and may you do well, and put up the house of the Lord your God, as he has said of you.

Only may the Lord give you wisdom, and knowledge of his orders for Israel, so that you may keep the law of the Lord your God.

And all will go well for you, if you take care to keep the laws and the rules which the Lord gave to Moses for Israel: be strong and take heart; have no fear and do not be troubled.

Now see, poor though I am, I have got ready for the house of the Lord a hundred thousand talents of gold and a million talents of silver; and a weight of brass and iron greater than may be measured; and wood and stone have I made ready, and you may put more to it.

And you have a great number of workmen, cutters and workers of stone and wood, and experts in every sort of work,

Then David gave orders to all the chiefs of Israel to give their help to Solomon his son, saying,

Is not the Lord your God with you? and has he not given you rest on every side? for the Lord has given the people of the land into my hands, and the land is overcome before the Lord and before his people.

Now give your heart and soul to the worship of the Lord your God; and get to work on the building of the holy place of the Lord God, so that you may put the ark of the Lord's agreement and the holy vessels of God in the house which is to be made for the name of the Lord.

Now David was old and full of days; and he made his son Solomon king over Israel.

And he got together all the chiefs of Israel, with the priests and the Levites.

And the Levites, all those of thirty years old and over, were numbered; and the number of them, by heads, man by man, was thirty-eight thousand.

Of these, twenty-four thousand were to be overseers of the work of the house of the Lord, and six thousand were judges and men of authority

And David put them into divisions under the names of the sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

Of the Gershonites: Ladan and Shimei.

The sons of Ladan: Jehiel the chief, and Zetham and Joel, three.

The sons of Shimei: Shelomoth and Haziel and Haran, three; these were the heads of the families of Ladan.

And the sons of Shimei: Jahath, Zizah and Jeush and Beriah; these four were the sons of Shimei.

Jahath was the chief and Zizah the second; but Jeush and Beriah had only a small number of sons, so they were grouped together as one family.

The sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel, four.

The sons of Amram: Aaron and Moses; and Aaron was made separate and holy, he and his sons for ever, for the care of the most holy things and the burning of offerings before the Lord, to do his work and give blessings in his name for ever.

And the sons of Moses, the man of God, were put into the list of the tribe of Levi

The sons of Moses: Gershom and Eliezer.

The sons of Gershom: Shebuel the first.

And the sons of Eliezer: Rehabiah the first; and Eliezer had no other sons, but Rehabiah had a great number.

The sons of Izhar: Shelomith the first.

The sons of Hebron: Jeriah the first, Amariah the second, Jahaziel the third, and Jekameam the fourth

The sons of Uzziel: Micah the first, and Isshiah the second.

The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi; the sons of Mahli: Eleazar and Kish

And at his death Eleazar had no sons, but only daughters, and their relations, the sons of Kish, took them as wives.

The sons of Mushi: Mahli and Eder and Jeremoth, three.

These were the sons of Levi, grouped by families, the heads of the families of those who were numbered by name, by heads, all those of twenty years old and over who did the work of the house of the Lord.

For David said, The Lord, the God of Israel, has given his people rest, and he has made his resting-place in Jerusalem for ever;

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.

So among the last acts of David was the numbering of the sons of Levi, from twenty years old and over.

Their place was by the side of the sons of Aaron in all the work of the house of the Lord, in the open spaces and in the rooms, in the making clean of all the holy things, in doing all the work of the house of the Lord,

The holy bread was in their care, and the crushed grain for the meal offering, of unleavened cakes or meal cooked over the fire or in water; they had control of all sorts of weights and measures;

At every offering of burned offerings to the Lord, on Sabbaths, and at the new moons, and on the regular feasts, in the number ordered by the law, at all times before the Lord;

And they had the care of the Tent of meeting and the holy place, under the direction of the sons of Aaron their brothers, for the work of the house of the Lord.

Now the divisions into which the sons of Aaron were grouped were these: the sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.

But Nadab and Abihu came to their end before their father, and had no children; so Eleazar and Ithamar did the work of priests.

And David, with Zadok of the sons of Eleazar, and Ahimelech of the sons of Ithamar, made distribution of them into their positions for their work.

And there were more chiefs among the sons of Eleazar than among the sons of Ithamar; and this is how they were grouped: of the sons of Eleazar there were sixteen, all heads of families; and of the sons of Ithamar, heads of families, there were eight.

So they were put into groups, by the Lord's decision, one with another; for there were rulers of the holy place and rulers of the house of God among the sons of Eleazar and the sons of Ithamar.

And Shemaiah, the son of Nethanel the scribe, who was a Levite, put down their names in writing, the king being present with the rulers, and Zadok the priest, and Ahimelech, the son of Abiathar, and the heads of families of the priests and the Levites; one family being taken for Eleazar and then one for Ithamar, and so on.

Now the first name to come out was that of Jehoiarib; the second Jedaiah,

So they were put into their different groups, to take their places in the house of the Lord, in agreement with the rules made by Aaron their father, as the Lord, the God of Israel, had given him orders.

And of the rest of the sons of Levi: of the sons of Amram, Shubael; of the sons of Shubael, Jehdeiah.

Of Rehabiah; of the sons of Rehabiah, Isshiah the chief.

Of the Izharites, Shelomoth; of the sons of Shelomoth, Jahath.

And the sons of Hebron: Jeriah the chief, Amariah the second, Jahaziel the third, Jekameam the fourth.

The sons of Uzziel, Micah; of the sons of Micah, Shamir.

The brother of Micah, Isshiah; of the sons of Isshiah, Zechariah.

The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi; the sons of Jaaziah.

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

Of Mahli: Eleazar, who had no sons.

Of Kish: the sons of Kish, Jerahmeel.

And the sons of Mushi: Mahli and Eder and Jerimoth. These were the sons of the Levites by their families.

Selection was made of these in the same way as of their brothers the sons of Aaron, David the king being present, with Zadok, and Ahimelech, and the heads of families of the priests and of the Levites; the families of the chief in the same way as those of his younger brother.

Further, David and the chiefs of the servants of the holy place made selection of certain of the sons of Asaph and of Heman and of Jeduthun for the work of prophets, to make melody with corded instruments and brass; and the number of the men for the work they had to do was:

Of the sons of Asaph: Zaccur and Joseph and Nethaniah and Asharelah, sons of Asaph; under the direction of Asaph, acting as a prophet under the orders of the king;

Of Jeduthun: the six sons of Jeduthun, Gedaliah and Zeri and Jeshaiah, Hashabiah and Mattithiah; under the direction of their father Jeduthun who, acting as a prophet, with corded instruments gave praise and glory to the Lord.

Of Heman, the sons of Heman: Bukkiah, Mattaniah, Uzziel, Shebuel and Jerimoth, Hananiah, Hanani, Eliathah, Giddalti and Romamti-ezer, Joshbekashah, Mallothi, Hothir, Mahazioth;

All these were sons of Heman, the king's seer in the words of God. And to make great his power God gave Heman fourteen sons and three daughters.

All these, under the direction of their father, made music in the house of the Lord, with brass and corded instruments, for the worship of the house of God; Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman being under the orders of the king.

And the number of them, with their brothers who were trained and expert in making melody to the Lord, was two hundred and eighty-eight.

And selection was made of them for their special work, all having equal chances, small as well as great, the teacher as the learner.

Now of the group of Asaph, the first name to come out was Joseph; the second Gedaliah; he and his brothers and sons were twelve?

For the divisions of the door-keepers: of the Korahites, Meshelemiah, the son of Kore, of the sons of Ebiasaph.

Ammiel the sixth, Issachar the seventh, Peullethai the eighth; for the blessing of God was on him.

And Shemaiah his son had sons, rulers over the family of their father, for they were able men.

The sons of Shemaiah: Othni and Rephael and Obed, Elzabad, whose brothers were great men of war, Elihu and Semachiah.

All these were sons of Obed-edom: they and their sons and their brothers, able men and strong for the work; sixty-two sons of Obed-edom.

And Hosah, a son of the children of Merari, had sons: Shimri the chief (for though he was not the oldest, his father made him chief);

Of these were the divisions of the door-keepers, men of authority, having responsible positions like their brothers to be servants in the house of the Lord.

And the families were taken by the decision of the Lord for every door; the small family had the same chance as the great.

And the care of the door on the east came out for Shelemiah. Then the name of Zechariah his son, a man wise in discussion, came out, and the door on the north was given to him.

To Hosah, the door on the west, by the door of Shallecheth, at the footway which goes up, watch by watch.

These were the divisions of door-keepers, of the sons of the Korahites and of the sons of Merari.

And the Levites their brothers were responsible for the stores of the house of God and the holy things.

The sons of Ladan: sons of the Gershonites of the family of Ladan, heads of families of Ladan the Gershonite, Jehieli.

The sons of Jehieli: Zetham and Joel, his brother, had the care of the stores of the house of the Lord.

Of the Amramites, of the Izharites, of the Hebronites, of the Uzzielites:

And Shebuel, the son of Gershom, the son of Moses, was controller of the stores.

And his brothers: of Eliezer, Rehabiah his son, and Jeshaiah his son, and Joram his son, and Zichri his son, and Shelomoth his son.

Shelomoth and his brothers were responsible for all the store of holy things which David the king and the heads of families, the captains of thousands and of hundreds, and the captains of the army, had given to the Lord.

From the goods taken in war, they gave, as a holy offering, materials for the building of the house of the Lord.

And everything Samuel the prophet and Saul, the son of Kish, and Abner, the son of Ner, and Joab, the son of Zeruiah, had made holy; whatever anyone had given, it was under the care of Shelomoth and his brothers.

Of the Izharites, Chenaniah and his sons had to do all the public business of Israel, in relation to judges and men in authority.

Of the Hebronites, Hashabiah and his brothers, seventeen hundred able men, were overseers of Israel on the other side of the Jordan, to the west, being responsible for all the work of the Lord's house and for the work done by the king's servants.

Of the Hebronites, Jerijah was the chief of all the Hebronites, in their generations by families. In the fortieth year of the rule of David a search was made, and able men were seen among them at Jazer of Gilead.

And his brothers were two thousand, seven hundred able men, heads of families, whom King David made overseers over the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, in everything to do with God, and for the king's business.

Now the number of the children of Israel, that is, the heads of families, and the captains of thousands and of hundreds, and the men in authority who were servants of the king in anything to do with the divisions which came in and went out month by month through all the months of the year, in every division were twenty-four thousand.

Over the first division for the first month was Ishbaal, the son of Zabdiel; and in his division were twenty-four thousand.