The four head gatekeepers, who were Levites, were assigned to guard the storerooms and treasuries in God’s sanctuary.

When they arrived at the threshing floor of Kidon, Uzzah reached out his hand to take hold of the ark, because the oxen stumbled.

David was angry because the Lord attacked Uzzah; so he called that place Perez Uzzah, which remains its name to this very day.

When you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the trees, then attack. For at that moment the Lord is going before you to strike down the army of the Philistines.”

Joining them were Heman, Jeduthun, and the rest of those chosen and designated by name to give thanks to the Lord. (For his loyal love endures!)

For I have not lived in a house from the time I brought Israel up from Egypt to the present day. I have lived in a tent that has been in various places.

When the time comes for you to die, I will raise up your descendant, one of your own sons, to succeed you, and I will establish his kingdom.

David went in, sat before the Lord, and said: “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my family, that you should have brought me to this point?

for you, my God, have revealed to your servant that you will build a dynasty for him. That is why your servant has had the courage to pray to you.

Now you are willing to bless your servant’s dynasty so that it may stand permanently before you, for you, O Lord, have blessed it and it will be blessed from now on into the future.”

When King Tou of Hamath heard that David had defeated the entire army of King Hadadezer of Zobah,

When Joab saw that the battle would be fought on two fronts, he chose some of Israel’s best men and deployed them against the Arameans.

When the Ammonites saw the Arameans flee, they fled before Joab’s brother Abishai and withdrew into the city. Joab went back to Jerusalem.

So the Lord’s messenger told Gad to instruct David to go up and build an altar for the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

But David could not go before it to seek God’s will, for he was afraid of the sword of the Lord’s messenger.

Eleazar died without having sons; he had only daughters. The sons of Kish, their cousins, married them.

They divided them by lots, for there were officials of the holy place and officials designated by God among the descendants of both Eleazar and Ithamar.

Hosah, one of the descendants of Merari, had sons: The firstborn Shimri (he was not actually the firstborn, but his father gave him that status),

David did not count the males twenty years old and under, for the Lord had promised to make Israel as numerous as the stars in the sky.

But God said to me, ‘You must not build a temple to honor me, for you are a warrior and have spilled blood.’