1 Chronicles 16–18

The Ark Placed in the Tabernacle

16So ^athey brought the ark of God, and set it in the midst of the tabernacle that David had erected for it. Then they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before God. ²And when David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the peace offerings, ^bhe blessed the people in the name of the Lord. ³Then he distributed to everyone of Israel, both man and woman, to everyone a loaf of bread, a piece of meat, and a cake of raisins.

⁴And he appointed some of the Levites to minister before the ark of the Lord, to ^ccommemorate, to thank, and to praise the Lord God of Israel: ⁵Asaph the chief, and next to him Zechariah, then ^dJeiel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Mattithiah, Eliab, Benaiah, and Obed-Edom: Jeiel with stringed instruments and harps, but Asaph made music with cymbals; ⁶Benaiah and Jahaziel the priests regularly blew the trumpets before the ark of the covenant of God.

David’s Song of Thanksgiving

⁷On that day ^eDavid ^ffirst delivered this psalm into the hand of Asaph and his brethren, to thank the Lord:

^8gOh, give thanks to the Lord!

Call upon His name;

Make known His deeds among the peoples!

⁹Sing to Him, sing psalms to Him;

Talk of all His wondrous works!

¹⁰Glory in His holy name;

Let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the Lord!

¹¹Seek the Lord and His strength;

Seek His face evermore!

¹²Remember His marvelous works which He has done,

His wonders, and the judgments of His mouth,

¹³O seed of Israel His servant,

You children of Jacob, His chosen ones!

¹⁴He is the Lord our God;

His ^hjudgments are in all the earth.

¹⁵Remember His covenant forever,

The word which He commanded, for a thousand generations,

¹⁶The ⁱcovenant which He made with Abraham,

And His oath to Isaac,

¹⁷And ^jconfirmed it to ^kJacob for a statute,

To Israel for an everlasting covenant,

¹⁸Saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan

As the allotment of your inheritance,”

¹⁹When you were ^lfew in number,

Indeed very few, and strangers in it.

²⁰When they went from one nation to another,

And from one kingdom to another people,

²¹He permitted no man to do them wrong;

Yes, He ^mrebuked kings for their sakes,

²²Saying, ⁿ“Do not touch My anointed ones,

And do My prophets no harm.”

^23oSing to the Lord, all the earth;

Proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day.

²⁴Declare His glory among the nations,

His wonders among all peoples.

²⁵For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised;

He is also to be feared above all gods.

²⁶For all the gods ^pof the peoples are ¹idols,

But the Lord made the heavens.

²⁷Honor and majesty are before Him;

Strength and gladness are in His place.

²⁸Give to the Lord, O families of the peoples,

Give to the Lord glory and strength.

²⁹Give to the Lord the glory due His name;

Bring an offering, and come before Him.

Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness!

³⁰Tremble before Him, all the earth.

The world also is firmly established,

It shall not be moved.

³¹Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad;

And let them say among the nations, “The Lord reigns.”

³²Let the sea roar, and all its fullness;

Let the field rejoice, and all that is in it.

³³Then the ^qtrees of the woods shall rejoice before the Lord,

For He is ^rcoming to judge the earth.

^34sOh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!

For His mercy endures forever.

^35tAnd say, “Save us, O God of our salvation;

Gather us together, and deliver us from the Gentiles,

To give thanks to Your holy name,

To triumph in Your praise.”

^36uBlessed be the Lord God of Israel

From everlasting to everlasting!

And all ^vthe people said, “Amen!” and praised the Lord.

Regular Worship Maintained

³⁷So he left ^wAsaph and his brothers there before the ark of the covenant of the Lord to minister before the ark regularly, as every day’s work ^xrequired; ³⁸and ^yObed-Edom with his sixty-eight brethren, including Obed-Edom the son of Jeduthun, and Hosah, to be gatekeepers; ³⁹and Zadok the priest and his brethren the priests, ^zbefore the tabernacle of the Lord ^aat the ²high place that was at Gibeon, ⁴⁰to offer burnt offerings to the Lord on the altar of burnt offering regularly ^bmorning and evening, and to do according to all that is written in the Law of the Lord which He commanded Israel; ⁴¹and with them Heman and Jeduthun and the rest who were chosen, who were designated by name, to give thanks to the Lord, ^cbecause His mercy endures forever; ⁴²and with them Heman and Jeduthun, to sound aloud with trumpets and cymbals and the musical instruments of God. Now the sons of Jeduthun were gatekeepers.

^43dThen all the people departed, every man to his house; and David returned to bless his house.

God’s Covenant with David

17Now ^ait came to pass, when David was dwelling in his house, that David said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of the covenant of the Lord is under tent curtains.”

²Then Nathan said to David, “Do all that is in your heart, for God is with you.”

³But it happened that night that the word of God came to Nathan, saying, ⁴“Go and tell My servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord: “You shall ^bnot build Me a house to dwell in. ⁵For I have not dwelt in a house since the time that I brought up Israel, even to this day, but have gone from tent to tent, and from one tabernacle to another. ⁶Wherever I have moved about with all Israel, have I ever spoken a word to any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd My people, saying, ‘Why have you not built Me a house of cedar?’ ” ’ ⁷Now therefore, thus shall you say to My servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: “I took you ^cfrom the sheepfold, from following the sheep, to be ¹ruler over My people Israel. ⁸And I have been with you wherever you have gone, and have cut off all your enemies from before you, and have ²made you a name like the name of the great men who are on the earth. ⁹Moreover I will appoint a place for My people Israel, and will ^dplant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own and move no more; nor shall the sons of wickedness oppress them anymore, as previously, ¹⁰since the time that I commanded judges to be over My people Israel. Also I will subdue all your enemies. Furthermore I tell you that the Lord will build you a ³house. ¹¹And it shall be, when your days are ^efulfilled, when you must ⁴go to be with your fathers, that I will set up your ^fseed after you, who will be of your sons; and I will establish his kingdom. ^12gHe shall build Me a house, and I will establish his throne forever. ^13hI will be his Father, and he shall be My son; and I will not take My mercy away from him, ⁱas I took it from him who was before you. ¹⁴And ^jI will establish him in My house and in My kingdom forever; and his throne shall be established forever.” ’ ”

¹⁵According to all these words and according to all this vision, so Nathan spoke to David.

^16kThen King David went in and sat before the Lord; and he said: “Who am I, O Lord God? And what is my house, that You have brought me this far? ¹⁷And yet this was a small thing in Your sight, O God; and You have also spoken of Your servant’s house for a great while to come, and have regarded me according to the rank of a man of high degree, O Lord God. ¹⁸What more can David say to You for the honor of Your servant? For You know Your servant. ¹⁹O Lord, for Your servant’s sake, and according to Your own heart, You have done all this greatness, in making known all these great things. ²⁰O Lord, there is none like You, nor is there any God besides You, according to all that we have heard with our ears. ^21lAnd who is like Your people Israel, the one nation on the earth whom God went to redeem for Himself as a people—to make for Yourself a name by great and awesome deeds, by driving out nations from before Your people whom You redeemed from Egypt? ²²For You have made Your people Israel Your very own people forever; and You, Lord, have become their God.

²³“And now, O Lord, the word which You have spoken concerning Your servant and concerning his house, let it be established forever, and do as You have said. ²⁴So let it be established, that Your name may be magnified forever, saying, ‘The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, is Israel’s God.’ And let the house of Your servant David be established before You. ²⁵For You, O my God, ⁵have revealed to Your servant that You will build him a house. Therefore Your servant has found it in his heart to pray before You. ²⁶And now, Lord, ⁶You are God, and have promised this goodness to Your servant. ²⁷Now You have been pleased to bless the house of Your servant, that it may continue before You forever; for You have blessed it, O Lord, and it shall be blessed forever.”

David’s Further Conquests

18After this ^ait came to pass that David ¹attacked the Philistines, subdued them, and took Gath and its towns from the hand of the Philistines. ²Then he ²defeated ^bMoab, and the Moabites became David’s ^cservants, and brought tribute.

³And ^dDavid ³defeated ⁴Hadadezer king of Zobah as far as Hamath, as he went to establish his power by the River Euphrates. ⁴David took from him one thousand chariots, ⁵seven thousand horsemen, and twenty thousand foot soldiers. Also David ⁶hamstrung all the chariot horses, except that he spared enough of them for one hundred chariots.

⁵When the ^eSyrians of Damascus came to help Hadadezer king of Zobah, David killed twenty-two thousand of the Syrians. ⁶Then David put garrisons in Syria of Damascus; and the Syrians became David’s servants, and brought tribute. So the Lord preserved David wherever he went. ⁷And David took the shields of gold that were on the servants of Hadadezer, and brought them to Jerusalem. ⁸Also from ⁷Tibhath and from ⁸Chun, cities of ⁹Hadadezer, David brought a large amount of ^fbronze, with which ^gSolomon made the bronze ¹Sea, the pillars, and the articles of bronze.

⁹Now when ²Tou king of Hamath heard that David had ³defeated all the army of Hadadezer king of Zobah, ¹⁰he sent ⁴Hadoram his son to King David, to greet him and bless him, because he had fought against Hadadezer and ⁵…