Plans to Move the Ark to Jerusalem

1Now David built houses for himself in the city of David; and he prepared a place for the ark of God and pitched a tent for it. 2Then David said, “No one is to carry the ark of God except the Levites; for the LORD chose them to carry the ark of the LORD and to serve Him forever.” 3And David assembled all Israel at Jerusalem to bring up the ark of the LORD to its place which he had prepared for it. 4David gathered together the sons of Aaron and the Levites: 5of the sons of Kohath, Uriel the chief, and 120 of his relatives; 6of the sons of Merari, Asaiah the chief, and 220 of his relatives; 7of the sons of Gershom, Joel the chief, and 130 of his relatives; 8of the sons of Elizaphan, Shemaiah the chief, and two hundred of his relatives; 9of the sons of Hebron, Eliel the chief, and eighty of his relatives; 10of the sons of Uzziel, Amminadab the chief, and 112 of his relatives.

11Then David called for the priests Zadok and Abiathar, and for the Levites, for Uriel, Asaiah, Joel, Shemaiah, Eliel, and Amminadab; 12and he said to them, “You are the heads of the fathers’ households of the Levites; consecrate yourselves, you and your relatives, so that you may bring up the ark of the LORD God of Israel to the place that I have prepared for it. 13Because you did not carry it at the first, the LORD our God made an outburst against us, since we did not seek Him according to the ordinance.” 14So the priests and the Levites consecrated themselves to bring up the ark of the LORD God of Israel. 15The sons of the Levites carried the ark of God on their shoulders with the poles on them, just as Moses had commanded in accordance with the word of the LORD.

16Then David spoke to the chiefs of the Levites to appoint their relatives as the singers, with musical instruments, harps, lyres, and cymbals, playing to raise sounds of joy. 17So the 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, [a]Ben, 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 harps tuned to [b]alamoth; 21and Mattithiah, Eliphelehu, Mikneiah, Obed-edom, Jeiel, and Azaziah, to lead with [c]lyres tuned to the 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, blew the trumpets before the ark of God. Obed-edom and Jehiah also were gatekeepers for the ark.

25So it was David, with the elders of Israel and the captains of thousands, who went to bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD from the 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 seven 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. David also wore an ephod of linen. 28So all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the LORD with shouting, and with the sound of the horn, with trumpets, with loud-sounding cymbals, with harps, and lyres.

29When the ark of the covenant of the LORD came to the city of David, Michal the daughter of Saul looked out of the window and saw King David dancing and celebrating; and she despised him in her heart.