Then David made houses for himself in the city of David; and he prepared a place for the ark of God and ^apitched a tent for it. 2 And David said, “^aNo one is to carry the ark of God but the Levites; for Yahweh chose them to carry the ark of ¹God and to minister to Him forever.” 3 Then ^aDavid assembled all Israel at Jerusalem to bring up the ark of Yahweh ^bto its place which he had prepared for it. 4 And David gathered together the sons of Aaron and ^athe Levites:

11 Then David called for ^aZadok and ^bAbiathar the priests, and for the Levites, for Uriel, Asaiah, Joel, Shemaiah, Eliel and Amminadab, 12 and said to them, “You are the heads of the fathers’ households of the Levites; ^aset yourselves apart as holy, both you and your relatives, that you may bring up the ark of Yahweh, the God of Israel, ^bto the place that I have prepared for it. 13 ^aBecause you did not carry it at the first, Yahweh our God broke out against us, for we did not seek Him according to the legal judgment.” 14 ^aSo the priests and the Levites set themselves apart as holy to bring up the ark of Yahweh, the God of Israel. 15 And the sons of ^athe Levites carried the ark of God on their shoulders with the poles thereon, as Moses had commanded according to the word of Yahweh.

16 Then David said to the chiefs of the Levites ^ato appoint their relatives the singers, with instruments of music, harps, lyres, loud-sounding cymbals, to raise a sound of gladness. 17 So ^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, 18 and 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. 19 So the singers, Heman, Asaph and Ethan were appointed to sound aloud cymbals of bronze; 20 and Zechariah, Aziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Maaseiah, and Benaiah, with ¹harps set according to ^aalamoth; 21 and Mattithiah, Eliphelehu, Mikneiah, Obed-edom, Jeiel, and Azaziah, to lead with ¹lyres set according to ^athe sheminith. 22 Chenaniah, chief of the Levites, was in charge of the ¹singing; he gave instruction in singing because he had understanding. 23 Berechiah and Elkanah were gatekeepers for the ark. 24 Shebaniah, 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.

25 ^aSo it was David, with the elders of Israel and the commanders over thousands, who went to bring up the ark of the covenant of Yahweh from ^bthe house of Obed-edom with gladness. 26 Now this happened because God was helping the Levites who were carrying the ark of the covenant of Yahweh. And they sacrificed ^aseven bulls and seven rams. 27 Now David was clothed with a robe of fine linen with all the Levites who were carrying the ark, as well as the singers and Chenaniah the leader of the singing with the singers. ^aDavid also wore a linen ephod. 28 Thus all Israel was bringing up the ark of the covenant of Yahweh with shouting, and with sound of the ¹horn, with trumpets, with loud-sounding cymbals, with harps, and lyres.

29 Now it happened as the ark of the covenant of Yahweh 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.