1. DAVID MADE for himself houses in the City of David, and he prepared a place for the ark of God and pitched a tent for it.
2. Then David said, None should carry the ark of God but the Levites, for the Lord chose them to carry the ark of God and to minister to Him forever.
3. And David assembled all Israel at Jerusalem to bring up the ark of the Lord to its place, which he had prepared for it.
4. And David gathered together the sons of Aaron and the Levites:
5. Of the sons of Kohath, Uriel the chief, with 120 kinsmen;
6. Of the sons of Merari, Asaiah the chief, with 220 kinsmen;
7. Of the sons of Gershom, Joel the chief, with 130 kinsmen;
8. Of the sons of Elizaphan, Shemaiah the chief, with 200 kinsmen;
9. Of the sons of Hebron, Eliel the chief, with 80 kinsmen;
10. Of the sons of Uzziel, Amminadab the chief, with 112 kinsmen.
11. And David called for Zadok and Abiathar the priests, and for the Levites–Uriel, Asaiah, Joel, Shemaiah, Eliel, and Amminadab,
12. And said to them, You are the heads of the fathers' houses of the Levites; sanctify yourselves, both you and your brethren, that you may bring up the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel, to the place that I have prepared for it.
13. For because you bore it not [as God directed] at the first, the Lord our God broke forth upon us–because we did not seek Him in the way He ordained. [Num. 1:50; I Chron. 13:7-10.]
14. So the priests and the Levites sanctified themselves to bring up the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel.
15. The Levites carried the ark of God on their shoulders with the poles, as Moses commanded by the word of the Lord.