1 Chronicles 15:16–16:6

¹⁶Then David spoke to the chiefs of the Levites ^ato appoint their relatives the singers, with instruments of music, harps, lyres, loud-sounding cymbals, to raise sounds of joy.

¹⁷So ^athe Levites appointed Heman the son of Joel, and from his relatives, Asaph the son of Berechiah; and from the sons of Merari their relatives, Ethan the son of Kushaiah,

¹⁸and with them their relatives of the second rank, Zechariah, ¹Ben, Jaaziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattithiah, Eliphelehu, Mikneiah, Obed-edom and Jeiel, the gatekeepers.

¹⁹So the singers, Heman, Asaph and Ethan were appointed to sound aloud cymbals of bronze;

²⁰and Zechariah, Aziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Maaseiah and Benaiah, with ¹harps tuned to ^aalamoth;

²¹and Mattithiah, Eliphelehu, Mikneiah, Obed-edom, Jeiel and Azaziah, to lead with ¹lyres tuned to ^athe sheminith.

²²Chenaniah, chief of the Levites, was in charge of the singing; he gave instruction in singing because he was skillful.

²³Berechiah and Elkanah were gatekeepers for the ark.

²⁴Shebaniah, Joshaphat, Nethanel, Amasai, Zechariah, Benaiah and Eliezer, the priests, ^ablew the trumpets before the ark of God. Obed-edom and Jehiah also were gatekeepers for the ark.

^25aSo it was David, with the elders of Israel and the captains over thousands, who went to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord from ^bthe house of Obed-edom with joy.

²⁶Because God was helping the Levites who were carrying the ark of the covenant of the Lord, they sacrificed ^aseven bulls and seven rams.

²⁷Now David was clothed with a robe of fine linen with all the Levites who were carrying the ark, and the singers and Chenaniah the leader of the singing with the singers. ^aDavid also wore an ephod of linen.

²⁸Thus all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the Lord with shouting, and with sound of the horn, with trumpets, with loud-sounding cymbals, with harps and lyres.

²⁹It happened when the ark of the covenant of the Lord came to the city of David, that ^aMichal the daughter of Saul looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and celebrating; and she despised him in her heart.

Chapter 16

A Tent for the Ark

¹And they brought in the ark of God and ^aplaced it inside the tent which David had pitched for it, and they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before God.

²When David had finished offering the burnt offering and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord.

³He distributed to everyone of Israel, both man and woman, to everyone a loaf of bread and a portion of meat and a raisin cake.

⁴He appointed some of the Levites as ministers before the ark of the Lord, even to celebrate and to thank and praise the Lord God of Israel:

⁵Asaph the chief, and second to him Zechariah, then ¹Jeiel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Mattithiah, Eliab, Benaiah, Obed-edom and Jeiel, with musical instruments, harps, lyres; also Asaph played loud-sounding cymbals,

⁶and Benaiah and Jahaziel the priests blew trumpets continually before the ark of the covenant of God.