David went in, sat before the Lord, and said: “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my family, ¹  that you should have brought me to this point?

You made Israel your very own nation for all time. ¹  You, O Lord, became their God.

So now, O Lord, may the promise you made about your servant and his family become a permanent reality! ¹  Do as you promised, ² 

so ¹  it may become a reality ²  and you may gain lasting fame, ³  as people say, ⁴  ‘The Lord who commands armies is the God of Israel.’ ⁵  David’s dynasty ⁶  will be established before you,

So Hanun seized David’s servants and shaved their beards off. ¹  He cut off the lower part of their robes so that their buttocks were exposed ²  and then sent them away.

When David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David; he came out from the threshing floor and bowed to David with his face ¹  to the ground.

He will build a temple to honor me; ¹  he will become my son, and I will become his father. I will grant to his dynasty permanent rule over Israel.’ ² 

The men whose names are listed came during the time of King Hezekiah of Judah and attacked the Hamites’ settlements, ¹  as well as the Meunites they discovered there, and they wiped them out to this very day. They dispossessed them, ²  for they found pasture for their sheep there.

So the God of Israel stirred up ¹  King Pul of Assyria (that is, King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria), ²  and he carried away the Reubenites, Gadites, and half-tribe of Manasseh and took them to Halah, Habor, Hara, and the river of Gozan, where they remain to this very day.

They performed music ¹  before the sanctuary ²  of the meeting tent until Solomon built the Lord’s temple in Jerusalem. ³  They carried out their tasks according to regulations.

Also their neighbors, from as far away as Issachar, Zebulun, and Naphtali, were bringing food on donkeys, camels, mules, and oxen. There were large supplies of flour, fig cakes, raisins, wine, olive oil, beef, and lamb, ¹  for Israel was celebrating. ² 

Then David said, “Only the Levites may carry the ark of God, for the Lord chose them to carry the ark of the Lord and to serve before him perpetually.

As the ark of the Lord’s covenant entered the City of David, Michal, Saul’s daughter, looked out the window. When she saw King David jumping and celebrating, she despised him. ¹ 

Messengers ¹  came and told David what had happened to the men, so he summoned them, for the men were thoroughly humiliated. The king said, “Stay in Jericho ²  until your beards grow again; then you may come back.”

So now, in the sight of all Israel, the Lord’s assembly, and in the hearing of our God, I say this: ¹  Carefully observe ²  all the commands of the Lord your God, so that you may possess this good land and may leave it as a permanent inheritance for your children after you.

David said to his son Solomon: “Be strong and brave! Do it! Don’t be afraid and don’t panic! ¹  For the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will not leave you or abandon you before all the work for the service of the Lord’s temple is finished.