1 Chronicles 22–24

Chapter 22

Then David said: This is the house of God, And this is the altar for the holocaust of Israel.

²And he commanded to gather together all the proselytes of the land of Israel, and out of them he appointed stonecutters to hew stones and polish them, to build the house of God.

³And David prepared in abundance iron for the nails of the gates, and for the closures and joinings: and of brass an immense weight.

⁴And the cedar trees were without number, which the Sidonians, and Tyrians brought to David.

⁵And David said: Solomon my son is very young and tender, and the house which I would have to be built to the Lord, must be such as to be renowned in all countries: therefore I will prepare him necessaries. And therefore before his death he prepared all the charges.

⁶And he called for Solomon his son: and commanded him to build a house to the Lord the God of Israel.

⁷And David said to Solomon: My son, it was my desire to have built a house to the name of the Lord my God.

⁸But the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Thou hast shed much blood, and fought many battles, so thou cannot not build house to my name, after shedding so much blood before me:

⁹The son, that shall be born to thee, shall be a most quiet man: for I will make him rest from all his enemies round about: and therefore he shall be called Peaceable: and I will give peace and quietness to Israel all his days.

¹⁰He shall build a house to my name, and he shall be a son to me, and I will be a father to him: and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel for ever.

¹¹Now then, my son, the Lord be with thee, and do thou prosper, and build the house to the Lord thy God, as he hath spoken of thee.

¹²The Lord also give thee wisdom and understanding, that thou mayest be able to rule Israel, and to keep the law of the Lord thy God.

¹³For then thou shalt be able to prosper, if thou keep the commandments, and judgments, which the Lord commanded Moses to teach Israel: take courage and act manfully, fear not, nor be dismayed.

¹⁴Behold I in my poverty have prepared the charges of the house of the Lord, of gold a hundred thousand talents, and of silver a million of talents: but of brass, and of iron there is no weight, for the abundance surpasseth all account: timber also and stones I have prepared for all the charges.

¹⁵Thou hast also workmen in abundance, hewers of stones, and masons, and carpenters, and of all trades the most skilful in their work,

¹⁶In gold, and in silver, and in brass, and in iron, whereof there is no number. Arise then, and be doing, and the Lord will be with thee.

¹⁷David also charged all the princes of Israel, to help Solomon his son,

¹⁸Saying: You see, that the Lord your God is with you, and hath given you rest round about, and hath delivered all your enemies into your hands, and the land is subdued before the Lord, and before his people.

¹⁹Give therefore your hearts and your souls, to seek the Lord your God and arise, and build a sanctuary to the Lord God, that the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and the vessels consecrated to the Lord, may be brought into the house, which is built to the name of the Lord.

Chapter 23

David being old and full of days, made Solomon his son king over Israel.

²And he gathered together all the princes of Israel, and the priests and Levites.

³And the Levites were numbered from the age of thirty years, and upwards: and there were found of them thirty-eight thousand men.

⁴Of these twenty-four thousand were chosen, and distributed unto the ministry of the house of the Lord: and six thousand were the overseers and judges.

⁵Moreover four thousand were porters: and as many singers singing to the Lord with the instruments, which he had made to sing with.

⁶And David distributed them into courses by the families of the sons of Levi, to wit, of Gerson, and of Caath, and of Merari.

⁷The sons of Gerson were Leedan and Semei.

⁸The sons of Leedan: the chief Jahiel, and Zethan, and Joel, three.

⁹The sons of Semei: Salomith, and Hosiel, and Aran, three: these were the heads of the families of Leedan.

¹⁰And the sons of Semei were Leheth, and Ziza, and Jaus, and Baria: these were the sons of Semei, four.

¹¹And Leheth was the first, Ziza the second: but Jaus and Baria had not many children, and therefore they were counted in one family, and in one house.

¹²The sons of Caath were Amram, and Isaar, Hebron, and Oziel, four.

¹³The sons of Amram, Aaron, and Moses. And Aaron was separated to minister in the holy of holies, he and his sons for ever, and to burn incense before the Lord, according to his ceremonies, and to bless his name for ever.

¹⁴The sons also of Moses, the man of God, were numbered in the tribe of Levi.

¹⁵The sons of Moses were Gersom and Eliezer:

¹⁶The sons of Gersom: Subuel the first.

¹⁷And the sons of Eliezer were: Rohobia the first: and Eliezer had no more sons. But the sons of Rohobia were multiplied exceedingly.

¹⁸The sons of Isaar: Salomith the first.

¹⁹The sons of Hebron: Jeriau the first, Amarias the second, Jahaziel the third, Jecmaam the fourth.

²⁰The sons of Oziel: Micha the first, Jesia the second.

²¹The sons of Merari: Moholi, and Musi. The sons of Moholi: Eleazar and Cis.

²²And Eleazar died, and had no sons but daughters: and the sons of Cis their brethren took them.

²³The sons of Musi: Moholi, and Eder, and Jerimoth, three.

²⁴These are the sons of Levi in their kindreds and families, princes by their courses, and the number of every head that did the works of the ministry of the house of the Lord from twenty years old and upward.

²⁵For David said: The Lord the God of Israel hath given rest to his people, and a habitation in Jerusalem for ever.

²⁶And it shall not be the office of the Levites to carry any more the tabernacle, and all the vessels for the service thereof.

²⁷So according to the last precepts of David, the sons of Levi are to be numbered from twenty years old and upward.

²⁸And they are to be under the hand of the sons of Aaron for the service of the house of the Lord, in the porches, and in the chambers, and in the place of purification, and in the sanctuary, and in all the works of the ministry of the temple of the Lord.

²⁹And the priests have the charge of the loaves of proposition, and of the sacrifice of fine flour, and of the unleavened cakes, and of the fryingpan, and of the roasting, and of every weight and measure.

³⁰And the Levites are to stand in the morning to give thanks, and to sing praises to the Lord: and in like manner in the evening,

³¹As well in the oblation of the holocausts of the Lord, as in the sabbaths and in the new moons, and the rest of the solemnities, according to the number and ceremonies prescribed for every thing, continually before the Lord.

³²And let them keep the observances of the tabernacle of the covenant, and the ceremonies of the sanctuary, and the charge of the sons of Aaron their brethren, that they may minister in the house of the Lord.

Chapter 24

Now these were the divisions of the sons of Aaron: The sons of Aaron: Nadab, and Abiu, and Eleazar, and Ithamar.

²But Nadab and Abiu died before their father, and had no children: so Eleazar, and Ithamar did the office of the priesthood.

³And David distributed them, that is, Sadoc of the sons of Eleazar, and Ahimelech of the sons of Ithamar, according to their courses and ministry.

⁴And there were found many more of the sons of Eleazar among the principal men, than of the sons of Ithamar. And he divided them so, that there were of the sons of Eleazar, sixteen chief men by their families: and of the sons of Ithamar eight by their families and houses.

⁵And he divided both the families one with the other by lot: for there were princes of the sanctuary, and princes of God, both of the sons of Eleazar, and of the sons of Ithamar.

⁶And Semeias the son of Nathanael the scribe a Levite, wrote them down before the king and the princes, and Sadoc the priest, and Ahimelech the son of Abiathar, and the princes also of the priestly and Levitical families: one house, which was over the rest, of Eleazar: and another house, which had the rest under it, of Ithamar.

⁷Now the first lot came forth to Joiarib, the second to Jedei,

⁸The third to Harim, the fourth to Seorim,

⁹The fifth to Melchia, the sixth to Maiman,

¹⁰The seventh to Accos, the eighth to Abia,

¹¹The ninth to Jesua, the tenth to Sechenia,

¹²The eleventh to Eliasib, the twelfth to Jacim,

¹³The thirteenth to Hoppha, the fourteenth to Isbaab,

¹⁴The fifteenth to Belga, the sixteenth to Emmer,

¹⁵The seventeenth to Hezir, the eighteenth to Aphses,

¹⁶The nineteenth to Pheteia, the twentieth to Hezechiel,

¹⁷The one and twentieth to Jachin, the two and twentieth to Gamul,

¹⁸The three and twentieth to Dalaiau, the four and twentieth to Maaziau.

¹⁹These are their courses according to their ministries, to come into the house of the Lord, and according to their manner under the hand of Aaron their father: as the Lord the God of Israel had commanded.

²⁰Now of the rest of the sons of Levi, there was of the sons of Amram, Subael: and of the sons of Subael, Jehedeia.

²¹Also of the sons of Rohobia the chief Jesias.

²²And the son of Isaar Salemoth, and the son of Salemoth Jahath:

²³And his son Jeriau the first, Amarias the second, Jahaziel the third, Jecmaan the fourth.

²⁴The son of Oziel, Micha: the son of Micha, Samir.

²⁵The brother of Micha, Jesia: and the son of Jesia, Zacharias.

²⁶The sons of Merari: Moholi and Musi: the son of Oziau: Benno.

²⁷The son also of Merari Oziau, and Soam, and Zacchur, and Hebri.

²⁸And the son of Moholi: Eleazar, who had no sons.

²⁹And the son of Cis, Jeramael.

³⁰The sons of Musi: Moholi, Eder, and Jerimoth. These are the sons of Levi according to the houses of their families.

³¹And they also cast lots over against their brethren the sons of Aaron before David the king, and Sadoc, and Ahimelech, and the princes of the priestly and Levitical families, both the…