Preparing to Move the Ark

¹David constructed buildings for himself in the City of David, and he prepared a place for the ark of God and pitched a tent for it.

²Then David said, “No one but the Levites may carry the ark of God, because the LORD has chosen them to carry the ark of the LORD and to minister before Him forever.”

³And David assembled all Israel in Jerusalem to bring up the ark of the LORD to the place he had prepared for it.

⁴Then he gathered together the descendants of Aaron and the Levites:

⁵From the Kohathites, Uriel the chief and 120 of his relatives;

⁶from the Merarites, Asaiah the chief and 220 of his relatives;

⁷from the Gershomites,Joel the chief and 130 of his relatives;

⁸from the Elizaphanites, Shemaiah the chief and 200 of his relatives;

⁹from the Hebronites, Eliel the chief and 80 of his relatives;

¹⁰and from the Uzzielites, Amminadab the chief and 112 of his relatives.

¹¹David summoned the priests Zadok and Abiathar and the Levites Uriel, Asaiah, Joel, Shemaiah, Eliel, and Amminadab.

¹²And he said to them, “You are the heads of the Levitical families. You and your relatives must consecrate yourselves so that you may bring the ark of the LORD, the God of Israel, to the place I have prepared for it.

¹³It was because you Levites were not with us the first time that the LORD our God burst forth in anger against us. For we did not consult Him about the proper order.”

The Priests and Levites Carry the Ark

¹⁴So the priests and Levites consecrated themselves to bring up the ark of the LORD, the God of Israel.

¹⁵And the Levites carried the ark of God on their shoulders with the poles, as Moses had commanded in accordance with the word of the LORD.

¹⁶David also told the leaders of the Levites to appoint their relatives as singers to lift up their voices with joy, accompanied by musical instruments—harps, lyres, and cymbals.

¹⁷So the Levites appointed Heman son of Joel; from his brothers, Asaph son of Berechiah; from their brothers the Merarites, Ethan son of Kushaiah;

¹⁸and with them their brothers next in rank: Zechariah,Jaaziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattithiah, Eliphelehu, Mikneiah, and the gatekeepers Obed-edom and Jeiel.

¹⁹The musicians Heman, Asaph, and Ethan were to sound the bronze cymbals.

²⁰Zechariah, Aziel,Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Maaseiah, and Benaiah were to play the harps according to Alamoth.

²¹And Mattithiah, Eliphelehu, Mikneiah, Obed-edom, Jeiel, and Azaziah were to lead the music with lyres according to Sheminith.

²²Chenaniah the head Levite was the director of the music because he was highly skilled.

²³Berechiah and Elkanah were to be guardiansof the ark.

²⁴Shebaniah, Joshaphat, Nethanel, Amasai, Zechariah, Benaiah, and Eliezer—the priests—were to blow the trumpets before the ark of God. Obed-edom and Jehiah were also to be guardians of the ark.

Moving the Ark to Jerusalem

²⁵So David, the elders of Israel, and the commanders of thousands went with rejoicing to bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD from the house of Obed-edom.

²⁶And because God helped the Levites who were carrying the ark of the covenant of the LORD, they sacrificed seven bulls and seven rams.

²⁷Now David was dressed in a robe of fine linen, as were all the Levites who were carrying the ark, as well as the singers and Chenaniah, the director of music for the singers. David also wore a linen ephod.

²⁸So all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the LORD with shouting, with the sounding of rams’ horns and trumpets, and with cymbals and the music of harps and lyres.

Michal’s Contempt for David

²⁹As the ark of the covenant of the LORD was entering the City of David, Saul’s daughter Michal looked down from a window and saw King David dancing and celebrating, and she despised him in her heart.

Assurance of Victory

¹Hear, O Israel: Today you are about to cross the Jordan to go in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than you, with large cities fortified to the heavens.

²The people are strong and tall, the descendants of the Anakim. You know about them, and you have heard it said, “Who can stand up to the sons of Anak?”

³But understand that today the LORD your God goes across ahead of you as a consuming fire; He will destroy them and subdue them before you. And you will drive them out and annihilate them swiftly, as the LORD has promised you.

⁴When the LORD your God has driven them out before you, do not say in your heart, “Because of my righteousness the LORD has brought me in to possess this land.” Rather, the LORD is driving out these nations before you because of their wickedness.

⁵It is not because of your righteousness or uprightness of heart that you are going in to possess their land, but it is because of their wickedness that the LORD your God is driving out these nations before you, to keep the promise He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

⁶Understand, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the LORD your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people.

The Golden Calf

⁷Remember this, and never forget how you provoked the LORD your God in the wilderness. From the day you left the land of Egypt until you reached this place, you have been rebelling against the LORD.

⁸At Horebyou provoked the LORD, and He was angry enough to destroy you.

⁹When I went up on the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the LORD made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I ate no bread and drank no water.

¹⁰Then the LORD gave me the two stone tablets, inscribed by the finger of God with the exact words that the LORD spoke to you out of the fire on the mountain on the day of the assembly.

¹¹And at the end of forty days and forty nights, the LORD gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant.

¹²And the LORD said to me, “Get up and go down from here at once, for your people, whom you brought out of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. How quickly they have turned aside from the way that I commanded them! They have made for themselves a molten image.”

¹³The LORD also said to me, “I have seen this people, and they are indeed a stiff-necked people.

¹⁴Leave Me alone, so that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven. Then I will make you into a nation mightier and greater than they are.”

¹⁵So I went back down the mountain while it was blazing with fire, with the two tablets of the covenant in my hands.

¹⁶And I saw how you had sinned against the LORD your God; you had made for yourselves a molten calf. You had turned aside quickly from the way that the LORD had commanded you.

¹⁷So I took the two tablets and threw them out of my hands, shattering them before your eyes.

¹⁸Then I fell down before the LORD for forty days and forty nights, as I had done the first time. I did not eat bread or drink water because of all the sin you had committed in doing what was evil in the sight of the LORD and provoking Him to anger.

¹⁹For I was afraidof the anger and wrath that the LORD had directed against you, enough to destroy you. But the LORD listened to me this time as well.

²⁰The LORD was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him, but at that time I also prayed for Aaron.

²¹And I took that sinful thing, the calf you had made, and burned it in the fire. Then I crushed it and ground it to powder as fine as dust, and I cast it into the stream that came down from the mountain.

²²You continued to provoke the LORD at Taberah,at Massah,and at Kibroth-hattaavah.

²³And when the LORD sent you out from Kadesh-barnea, He said, “Go up and possess the land that I have given you.”But you rebelled against the command of the LORD your God. You neither believed Him nor obeyed Him.

²⁴You have been rebelling against the LORD since the day I came to know you.

²⁵So I fell down before the LORD for forty days and forty nights, because the LORD had said He would destroy you.

²⁶And I prayed to the LORD and said, “O Lord GOD, do not destroy Your people, Your inheritance, whom You redeemed through Your greatness and brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

²⁷Remember Your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Overlook the stubbornness of this people and the wickedness of their sin.

²⁸Otherwise, those in the land from which You brought us out will say, ‘Because the LORD was not able to bring them into the land He had promised them, and because He hated them, He has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.’

²⁹But they are Your people, Your inheritance, whom You brought out by Your great power and outstretched arm.”

The Golden Calf

¹Now when the people saw that Moses was delayed in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him!”

²So Aaron told them, “Take off the gold earrings that are on your wives and sons and daughters, and bring them to me.”

³Then all the people took off their gold earrings and brought them to Aaron.

⁴He took the gold from their hands, and with an engraving tool he fashioned it into a molten calf. And they said, “These, O Israel, are your gods, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”

⁵When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before the calf and proclaimed: “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD.”

⁶So the next day they arose, offered burnt offerings, and presented peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.

⁷Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go down at once, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.

⁸How quickly they have turned aside from the way that I commanded them! They have made for themselves a molten calf and have bowed down to it. They have sacrificed to it and said, ‘These, O Israel, are your gods, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.’”

⁹The LORD also said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and they are indeed a stiff-necked people.

¹⁰Now leave Me alone, so that My anger may burn against them and consume them. Then I will make you into a great nation.”

¹¹But Moses sought the favor of the LORD his God, saying, “O LORD, why does Your anger burn against Your people, whom You brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand?

¹²Why should the Egyptians declare, ‘He brought them out with evil intent, to kill them in the mountains and wipe them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your fierce anger and relent from doing harm to Your people.

¹³Remember Your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, to whom You swore by Your very self when You declared, ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, and I will give your descendants all this land that I have promised, and it shall be their inheritance forever.’”

¹⁴So the LORD relented from the calamity He had threatened to bring on His people.

¹⁵Then Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands. They were inscribed on both sides, front and back.

¹⁶The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.

¹⁷When Joshua heard the sound of the people shouting, he said to Moses, “The sound of war is in the camp.”

¹⁸But Moses replied:“It is neither the cry of victory nor the cry of defeat;I hear the sound of singing!”

¹⁹As Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, he burned with anger and threw the tablets out of his hands, shattering them at the base of the mountain.

²⁰Then he took the calf they had made, burned it in the fire, ground it to powder, and scattered the powder over the face of the water. Then he forced the Israelites to drink it.

²¹“What did this people do to you,” Moses asked Aaron, “that you have led them into so great a sin?”

²²“Do not be enraged, my lord,” Aaron replied. “You yourself know that the people are intent on evil.

²³They told me, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him!’

²⁴So I said to them, ‘Whoever has gold, let him take it off,’ and they gave it to me. And when I threw it into the fire, out came this calf!”

²⁵Moses saw that the people were out of control, for Aaron had let them run wild and become a laughingstockto their enemies.

²⁶So Moses stood at the entrance to the camp and said, “Whoever is for the LORD, come to me.”And all the Levites gathered around him.

²⁷He told them, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Each of you men is to fasten his sword to his side, go back and forth through the camp from gate to gate, and slay his brother, his friend, and his neighbor.’”

²⁸The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people fell dead.

²⁹Afterward, Moses said, “Today you have been ordainedfor service to the LORD, since each man went against his son and his brother; so the LORD has bestowed a blessing on you this day.”

³⁰The next day Moses said to the people, “You have committed a great sin. Now I will go up to the LORD; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.”

³¹So Moses returned to the LORD and said, “Oh, what a great sin these people have committed! They have made gods of gold for themselves.

³²Yet now, if You would only forgive their sin.... But if not, please blot me out of the book that You have written.”

³³The LORD replied to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot out of My book.

³⁴Now go, lead the people to the place I described. Behold, My angel shall go before you. But on the day I settle accounts, I will punish them for their sin.”

³⁵And the LORD sent a plague on the people because of what they had done with the calf that Aaron had made.

O God, Be Not Silent

¹O God, be not silent; be not speechless;be not still, O God.

²See how Your enemies rage,how Your foes have reared their heads.

³With cunning they scheme against Your peopleand conspire against those You cherish,

⁴saying, “Come, let us erase them as a nation;may the name of Israel be remembered no more.”

⁵For with one mind they plot together;they form an alliance against You—

⁶the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites,of Moab and the Hagrites,

⁷of Gebal, Ammon, and Amalek,of Philistia with the people of Tyre.

⁸Even Assyria has joined them,lending strength to the sons of Lot.Selah

⁹Do to them as You did to Midian,as to Sisera and Jabin at the River Kishon,

¹⁰who perished at Endorand became like dung on the ground.

¹¹Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb,and all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,

¹²who said, “Let us possess for ourselvesthe pastures of God.”

¹³Make them like tumbleweed, O my God,like chaff before the wind.

¹⁴As fire consumes a forest,as a flame sets the mountains ablaze,

¹⁵so pursue them with Your tempest,and terrify them with Your storm.

¹⁶Cover their faces with shame,that they may seek Your name, O LORD.

¹⁷May they be ever ashamed and terrified;may they perish in disgrace.

¹⁸May they know that You alone,whose name is the LORD,are Most High over all the earth.