The Ark and the Promise

The whole assembly agreed, because everyone thought it was right. So David brought all Israel together, from the Shihor River of Egypt to the entrance of Hamath, to fetch God’s ark from Kiriath Jearim. Once again he gathered Israel’s chosen men, thirty thousand of them.

The ark had been in Kiriath Jearim a long time. The men of the town had carried it into the house of Abinadab, on the hill, and set apart his son Eleazar to take care of it.

David and all the people with him went up to Baalah in Judah, which is Kiriath Jearim, to bring God’s ark up from there. That ark was called by the Name, the name of the Lord of Armies, the one who sits above the cherubim.

They set God’s ark on a new cart and brought it out of Abinadab’s house on the hill. Abinadab’s sons, Uzzah and Ahio, drove the new cart, and Ahio walked in front of the ark.

David and all Israel celebrated in the Lord’s presence with all kinds of instruments made of cypress wood: harps and other stringed instruments, tambourines, castanets and cymbals. The book of Chronicles says they celebrated with all their might, with songs, and with trumpets as well.

David was upset that the Lord had broken out against Uzzah. He named the place Perez Uzzah, which means “outbreak against Uzzah,” and it is called that to this day.

That day David was afraid of the Lord. “How can I bring the Lord’s ark home to me?” he said. So he would not move the ark to be with him in David’s city. Instead he had it carried aside to the home of Obed-Edom the Gittite.

The ark of the Lord stayed three months in Obed-Edom’s house, with his family. The Lord blessed Obed-Edom, his household and everything he owned.

In Jerusalem David took more wives and had more sons and daughters. Chronicles names thirteen sons born to him there, Solomon among them.

When the Philistines heard that David was anointed king over all Israel, every one of them came up to hunt for him, and David went out against them. They had raided the Valley of Rephaim. David asked God whether he should go up against them, and the Lord told him, “Go up. I will hand them over to you.”

So they came up to Baal Perazim, and David beat them there. “God has used me to burst through my enemies, like water breaking out,” he said. That is why the place was named Baal Perazim, “the Lord who breaks out.” The Philistines left their gods behind there, and on David’s orders they were burned.

The Philistines raided the valley again, and again David asked God. This time God told him not to go up after them, but to turn away from them and come at them opposite the mulberry trees. When he heard the sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees, he was to go out to battle, because God had gone out ahead of him to strike the Philistine army. David did as God commanded, and they attacked the Philistine army from Gibeon to Gezer. David’s fame spread to every land, and the Lord made every nation afraid of him.

David built houses for himself in David’s city, and he prepared a place for God’s ark and pitched a tent for it. Then he said, “No one is to carry God’s ark except the Levites. The Lord chose them to carry God’s ark and to serve him forever.”

He gathered all Israel at Jerusalem to bring the Lord’s ark up to the place he had made ready for it. He also gathered Aaron’s descendants and the Levites: the families of Kohath, Merari and Gershom, and of Elizaphan, Hebron and Uzziel, six chiefs with 862 of their relatives.

David sent for Zadok and Abiathar the priests, and for the six Levite chiefs, Uriel, Asaiah, Joel, Shemaiah, Eliel and Amminadab. “You are the heads of the Levite families,” he told them. “Make yourselves holy, you and your relatives, and bring the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel, up to the place I have prepared for it. The first time, you didn’t carry it, and so the Lord our God broke out in anger against us, because we didn’t seek him the way he commanded.”

So the priests and Levites made themselves holy, ready to bring up the ark of the God of Israel. Then the Levites took the ark of God on their shoulders by its poles, the way Moses had commanded, as the Lord had said.

Long before, when Moses gave the Levites wagons and oxen for their work, he gave none to Kohath’s family, because the care of the holy things belonged to them, and they carried them on their shoulders.

David told the Levite chiefs to appoint some of their relatives as singers, with stringed instruments, harps and cymbals, to play loudly and lift their voices with joy. So the Levites chose Heman son of Joel; Asaph son of Berechiah, one of his relatives; and from Merari’s family, Ethan son of Kushaiah. These three singers were given bronze cymbals to sound. With them were their relatives who were next in rank, Obed-Edom and Jeiel the doorkeepers among them. Eight of these played stringed instruments, and six played harps and led the music.

Chenaniah, chief of the Levites, was in charge of the singing. He taught the singers, because he was skilled at it. Berechiah and Elkanah were doorkeepers for the ark, and so were Obed-Edom and Jehiah. Seven priests blew the trumpets in front of the ark of God.

When the men carrying the Lord’s ark had gone six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fattened calf. The book of Chronicles says that when God helped the Levites who carried the ark, they sacrificed seven bulls and seven rams.

David danced in the Lord’s presence with all his might. He wore a robe of fine linen, and so did all the Levites who carried the ark, the singers, and Chenaniah, who led the singing. David also wore a linen ephod.

So David and all Israel brought the ark of the Lord’s covenant up with shouting and the sound of the horn and trumpets, while cymbals, stringed instruments and harps played loudly.

As the Lord’s ark came into David’s city, Michal, Saul’s daughter, looked out of a window. She saw King David leaping and dancing in the Lord’s presence, and in her heart she despised him.

They brought the Lord’s ark in and set it in its place in the middle of the tent that David had pitched for it, and they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings in God’s presence.

When David had finished offering the burnt offerings and peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of Armies. He gave everyone in the whole crowd of Israel, men and women alike, a portion of bread, dates and raisins. The book of Chronicles says each one was given a loaf of bread, a portion of meat and a cake of raisins.

It spoke to the offspring of Israel, God’s servant, and to the children of Jacob, his chosen ones. It called on them to remember the wonders he had done and the judgments he had spoken. He is the Lord our God, it said, and his judgments reach the whole earth.

It told them to remember his covenant forever, the word he commanded for a thousand generations. He made that covenant with Abraham and swore it to Isaac. He made it a firm law for Jacob, and a covenant for Israel that lasts forever. He said, “I will give you the land of Canaan as the share you will inherit.” Back then they were only a few, very few, and foreigners in the land, going from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people. But he let no one do them wrong. For their sake he warned kings: “Don’t touch my anointed ones! Don’t harm my prophets!”

Then it called on the whole earth to sing to the Lord, to tell of his saving help day after day, and to declare his glory and his wonderful works among all the nations and peoples. The Lord is great, it said, and worthy of great praise; he should be feared more than any god. All the gods of the peoples are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Honor and majesty are in his presence, and strength and gladness are where he is.

It called on all the families of the peoples to praise the Lord for his glory and strength, and to give his name the glory it deserves. They were to bring an offering, come before him and worship him. All the earth was to tremble before him. The world is set firm, it said, and cannot be moved.

It told them to pray, “Save us, God who saves us! Gather us together and rescue us from the nations, so that we can thank your holy name and take pride in praising you.” And it closed with a blessing: “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting even to everlasting.”

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

David left Asaph and his relatives there in front of the ark of the Lord’s covenant, to serve at the ark every day, as each day’s work required. Obed-Edom was there too, with sixty-eight of their relatives. Obed-Edom son of Jeduthun and Hosah served as doorkeepers.

He left Zadok the priest and the other priests, his relatives, at the Lord’s tabernacle on the high place at Gibeon. They were to offer burnt offerings to the Lord on the altar of burnt offering every morning and evening, just as it is written in the law the Lord gave Israel. Heman and Jeduthun were there with them, with the others who had been chosen by name, to give thanks to the Lord, “because his loving kindness lasts forever.” Heman and Jeduthun had the trumpets and cymbals for the loud music and the instruments for the songs of God, and Jeduthun’s sons were the gatekeepers.

Michal, Saul’s daughter, came out to meet him. “How grand the king of Israel looked today,” she said, “uncovering himself in front of his servants’ maids, like some worthless fellow with no shame!”

“I did it in the Lord’s presence,” David told Michal. “He chose me over your father and over all his family, and made me ruler over the Lord’s people Israel. So I will celebrate in the Lord’s presence. I will make myself even less dignified than this, and count myself as nothing. But those maids you talked about will honor me.”

And Michal, Saul’s daughter, had no children to the day she died.

Nathan said to the king, “Go and do whatever is in your heart, because the Lord is with you.”

But that same night the Lord’s word came to Nathan: “Go and tell my servant David that the Lord says this: Should you build me a house to live in?

“I have not lived in a house from the time I brought the people of Israel up out of Egypt, right up to today. I have moved around in a tent and a tabernacle. I commanded leaders from the tribes of Israel to be shepherds of my people Israel. In all the places I have gone with all the people of Israel, did I ever say to any of them, ‘Why didn’t you build me a house of cedar?’

“Now tell my servant David that the Lord of Armies says this: I took you from the sheep pen, from following the sheep, to lead my people Israel. I have been with you wherever you went, and I have destroyed all your enemies in front of you. I will make you famous, like the great ones of the earth.

“I will choose a place for my people Israel and plant them there, so that they can live in their own place and never have to move again. Wicked people will not crush them anymore, as they did at first, and ever since the day I put judges over my people Israel. I will let you rest from all your enemies. And the Lord tells you this: the Lord will build you a house.

“When your life comes to an end and you go to rest with your ancestors, I will set up your offspring after you, one who will come from your own body, and I will make his kingdom firm. He will build a house for my name, and I will make the throne of his kingdom firm forever.

“I will be his father, and he will be my son. If he does wrong, I will correct him with the rod men use, with the blows that people give. But I will not take my loving kindness away from him, as I took it from Saul, who came before you and whom I removed.

“Your house and your kingdom will be made secure forever. Your throne will stand firm forever.”

Nathan told David all these words, just as they had come to him in the vision.

The book of Chronicles gives the message a little differently. There the Lord says, “You are not to build me a house to live in,” and the promise ends with David’s son: “I will settle him in my house and in my kingdom forever. His throne will stand firm forever.”

“For the sake of your word, and because it was in your heart, you have done this great thing and let me know it. So you are great, Lord God, because there is no one like you. There is no other God besides you. Everything we have heard with our own ears says so.

“And is there any other nation on earth like your people Israel? God went to set them free to be his own people and to make a name for himself. He did great and awesome things for your land, in front of your people. You rescued them from Egypt for yourself, from the nations and their gods. You made Israel your own people forever, and you, Lord, became their God.

“Now, Lord God, you have made a promise about me and my house. Make it stand firm forever, and do what you have said. May your name be great forever, and may people say, ‘The Lord of Armies is God over Israel!’ And may my house, the house of David, stand firm in your presence. You, Lord of Armies, God of Israel, have made this known to me: ‘I will build you a house.’ That is why I have dared to pray this prayer to you.

“Now, Lord God, you are God. What you say is true, and you have promised me this good thing. So now, please bless my house, so that it goes on forever in your presence, because you, Lord God, have said it. Let my house be blessed forever with your blessing.”

The book of Chronicles tells David’s prayer more briefly. There David says that God has looked on him as a man of great importance, and he ends by saying that the Lord has blessed his house, and it is blessed forever.