Levites carry the Covenant Box properly

15 David built houses for himself in the City of David. He put up a tent as a place where he would put God's Covenant Box. ² Then David said, ‘Only the Levites may carry God's Covenant Box. The Lord chose them to do that. He chose them to serve him for ever.’

³ David brought all the Israelites together in Jerusalem. He said that they should bring the Lord's Covenant Box to the place that he had prepared for it. ⁴ Then David brought together the descendants of Aaron and the other Levites. They were:

¹¹ Then David told the priests Zadok and Abiathar to come to him. He also told these Levites to come: Uriel, Asaiah, Joel, Shemaiah, Eliel and Amminadab. ¹² David said to them, ‘You are the leaders of the Levites' clans. You and your relatives must make yourselves holy. Then you will be able to carry the Covenant Box of the Lord, Israel's God. You must bring it to the place that I have prepared for it. ¹³ The first time that we tried to bring it here, you did not carry it. Because of that, the Lord our God punished us. He did that because we did not ask him about the proper way to carry it.’

¹⁴ So the priests and the other Levites made themselves holy. Then they could carry the Covenant Box of the Lord, Israel's God. ¹⁵ The Levites carried God's Covenant Box with its poles on their shoulders. That is how God had commanded Moses that they should carry it.

¹⁶ David told the leaders of the Levites to choose some of their relatives to be musicians. Some would sing songs. Some would make music with lyres, harps and cymbals. They would sing loud and happy songs.

¹⁷ The Levites chose Joel's son Heman. They also chose Berekiah's son Asaph, who was a relative of Heman. And they chose Kushaiah's son Ethan, who belonged to Merari's clan. ¹⁸ They also chose another group of Levites to help them. They were: Zechariah, Ben, Jaaziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattithiah, Eliphelehu, Mikneiah, as well as two temple guards, Obed-Edom and Jeiel.

¹⁹ They chose these musicians to make music with bronze cymbals: Heman, Asaph and Ethan. ²⁰ They chose these musicians to make music in a special way with harps: Zechariah, Aziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Maaseiah and Benaiah.

²¹ They chose these musicians to make music in a special way with lyres: Mattithiah, Eliphelehu, Mikneiah, Obed-Edom, Jeiel and Azaziah. ²² Kenaniah was the leader of the musicians. They chose him to do that because he had good skill in music.

²³ Berekiah and Elkanah were guards to keep the Covenant Box safe.

²⁴ The priests Shebaniah, Joshaphat, Nethanel, Amasai, Zechariah, Benaiah and Eliezer walked in front of God's Covenant Box. They made a loud noise with trumpets as they went. Obed-Edom and Jehiah were also guards for the Covenant Box.

The Covenant Box arrives in Jerusalem

²⁵ So David, the leaders of Israel and the army officers went to fetch the Lord's Covenant Box from Obed-Edom's house. They were very happy as they took it from there to Jerusalem. ²⁶ The Lord helped the Levites who were carrying his Covenant Box. So they offered seven bulls and seven male sheep as sacrifices to the Lord. ²⁷ David was wearing a robe that was made of good linen. All the Levites who were carrying the Covenant Box also wore linen clothes. So did the musicians and Kenaniah, their leader. David also wore a linen ephod over his robe.^[a]

²⁸ In that way, all the Israelites brought the Lord's Covenant Box to Jerusalem. They were shouting. They were making loud music with trumpets, cymbals, lyres and harps.

²⁹ While they where bringing the Lord's Covenant Box into the City of David, Saul's daughter Michal looked out through a window. She saw that King David was dancing because he was so happy. Michal felt ashamed of him.