1 Chronicles 20

1 At the beginning of the following year, the time when kings go to war, Joab led the army out in force, laid waste the land of the Ammonites, and went on to besiege Rabbah, while David himself remained in Jerusalem. When Joab had attacked Rabbah and destroyed it,
2 David took the crown of Milcom from the idol's head. It was found to weigh a talent of gold; and it contained precious stones, which David wore on his own head. He also brought out a great amount of booty from the city.
3 He deported the people of the city and set them to work with saws, iron picks, and axes. Thus David dealt with all the cities of the Ammonites. Then he and his whole army returned to Jerusalem.
4 Afterward there was another battle with the Philistines, at Gezer. At that time, Sibbecai the Hushathite slew Sippai, one of the descendants of the Raphaim, and the Philistines were subdued.
5 Once again there was war with the Philistines, and Elhanan, the son of Jair, slew Lahmi, the brother of Goliath of Gath, whose spear shaft was like a weaver's heddle-bar.
6 In still another battle, at Gath, they encountered a giant, also a descendant of the Raphaim, who had six fingers to each hand and six toes to each foot; twenty-four in all.
7 He defied Israel, and Jonathan, the son of Shimea, David's brother, slew him.
8 These were the descendants of the Raphaim of Gath who died at the hands of David and his servants.

1 Chronicles 21

1 A satan rose up against Israel, and he enticed David into taking a census of Israel. Therefore David said, This is the house of the LORD God, and this is the altar of holocausts for Israel.
2 David therefore said to Joab and to the other generals of the army, Go, find out the number of the Israelites from Beer-sheba to Dan, and report back to me that I may know their number.
3 But Joab replied: May the LORD increase his people a hundredfold! My lord king, are not all of them my lord's subjects? Why does my lord seek to do this thing? Why will he bring guilt upon Israel?
4 However, the king's command prevailed over Joab, who departed and traversed all of Israel, and then returned to Jerusalem.
5 Joab reported the result of the census to David: of men capable of wielding a sword, there were in all Israel one million one hundred thousand, and in Judah four hundred and seventy thousand.
6 Levi and Benjamin, however, he did not include in the census, for the king's command was repugnant to Joab.
7 This command displeased God, who began to punish Israel.
8 Then David said to God, I have sinned greatly in doing this thing. Take away your servant's guilt, for I have acted very foolishly.
9 Then the LORD spoke to Gad, David's seer, in these words:
10 Go, tell David: Thus says the LORD: I offer you three alternatives; choose one of them, and I will inflict it on you.
11 Accordingly, Gad went to David and said to him; Thus says the LORD: Decide now--
12 will it be three years of famine; or three months of fleeing your enemies, with the sword of your foes ever at your back; or three days of the LORD'S own sword, a pestilence in the land, with the LORD'S destroying angel in every part of Israel? Therefore choose: What answer am I to give him who sent me?
13 Then David said to Gad: I am in dire straits. But I prefer to fall into the hand of the LORD, whose mercy is very great, than into the hands of men.
14 Therefore the LORD sent pestilence upon Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel died.
15 God also sent an angel to destroy Jerusalem; but as he was on the point of destroying it, the LORD saw and decided against the calamity, and said to the destroying angel, Enough now! Stay your hand!The angel of the LORD was then standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
16 When David raised his eyes, he saw the angel of the LORD standing between earth and heaven, with a naked sword in his hand stretched out against Jerusalem. David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, prostrated themselves face to the ground,
17 and David prayed to God: Was it not I who ordered the census of the people? I am the one who sinned, I did this wicked thing. But these sheep, what have they done? O LORD, my God, strike me and my father's family, but do not afflict your people with this plague!
18 Then the angel of the LORD commanded Gad to tell David to go up and erect an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
19 David went up at Gad's command, given in the name of the LORD.
20 While Ornan was threshing wheat, he turned around and saw the king, and his four sons who were with him, without recognizing them.
21 But as David came on toward him, he looked up and saw that it was David. Then he left the threshing floor and bowed down before David, his face to the ground.
22 David said to Ornan: Sell me the ground of this threshing floor, that I may build on it an altar to the LORD. Sell it to me at its full price, that the plague may be stayed from the people.
23 But Ornan said to David: Take it as your own, and let my lord the king do what seems best to him. See, I also give you the oxen for the holocausts, the threshing sledges for the wood, and the wheat for the cereal offering. I give it all to you.
24 But King David replied to Ornan: No! I will buy it from you properly, at its full price. I will not take what is yours for the LORD, nor offer up holocausts that cost me nothing.
25 So David paid Ornan six hundred shekels of gold for the place.
26 David then built an altar there to the LORD, and offered up holocausts and peace offerings. When he called upon the LORD, he answered him by sending down fire from heaven upon the altar of holocausts.
27 Then the LORD gave orders to the angel to return his sword to its sheath.
28 Once David saw that the LORD had heard him on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he continued to offer sacrifices there.
29 The Dwelling of the LORD, which Moses had built in the desert, and the altar of holocausts were at that time on the high place at Gibeon.
30 But David could not go there to worship God, for he was fearful of the sword of the angel of the LORD.

1 Chronicles 22

1 (OMITTED TEXT)
2 David then ordered that all the aliens who lived in the land of Israel be brought together, and he appointed them stonecutters to hew out stone blocks for building the house of God.
3 He also laid up large stores of iron to make nails for the doors of the gates, and clamps, together with so much bronze that it could not be weighed,
4 and cedar trees without number. The Sidonians and Tyrians brought great stores of cedar logs to David,
5 who said: My son Solomon is young and immature; but the house that is to be built for the LORD must be made so magnificent that it will be renowned and glorious in all countries. Therefore I will make preparations for it. Thus before his death David laid up materials in abundance.
6 Then he called for his son Solomon and commanded him to build a house for the LORD, the God of Israel.
7 David said to Solomon: My son, it was my purpose to build a house myself for the honor of the LORD, my God.
8 But this word of the LORD came to me: 'You have shed much blood, and you have waged great wars. You may not build a house in my honor, because you have shed too much blood upon the earth in my sight.
9 However, a son is to be born to you. He will be a peaceful man, and I will give him rest from all his enemies on every side. For Solomon shall be his name, and in his time I will bestow peace and tranquillity on Israel.
10 It is he who shall build a house in my honor; he shall be a son to me, and I will be a father to him, and I will establish the throne of his kingship over Israel forever.'
11 Now, my son, the LORD be with you, and may you succeed in building the house of the LORD your God, as he has said you shall.
12 May the LORD give you prudence and discernment when he brings you to rule over Israel, so that you keep the law of the LORD, your God.
13 Only then shall you succeed, if you are careful to observe the precepts and decrees which the LORD gave Moses for Israel. Be brave and steadfast; do not fear or lose heart.
14 See, with great effort I have laid up for the house of the LORD a hundred thousand talents of gold, a million talents of silver, and bronze and iron in such great quantities that they cannot be weighed. I have also stored up wood and stones, to which you must add.
15 Moreover, you have available an unlimited supply of workmen, stonecutters, masons, carpenters, and every kind of craftsman
16 skilled in gold, silver, bronze, and iron. Set to work, therefore, and the LORD be with you!
17 David also commanded all of Israel's leaders to help his son Solomon:
18 Is not the LORD your God with you? Has he not given you rest on every side? Indeed, he has delivered the occupants of the land into my power, and the land is subdued before the LORD and his people.
19 Therefore, devote your hearts and souls to seeking the LORD your God. Proceed to build the sanctuary of the LORD God, that the ark of the covenant of the LORD and God's sacred vessels may be brought into the house built in honor of the LORD.

1 Chronicles 23

1 When David had grown old and was near the end of his days, he made his son Solomon king over Israel.
2 He then gathered together all the leaders of Israel, together with the priests and the Levites.
3 The Levites thirty years old and above were counted, and their total number was found to be thirty-eight thousand men.
4 Of these, twenty-four thousand were to direct the service of the house of the LORD, six thousand were to be officials and judges,
5 four thousand were to be gatekeepers, and four thousand were to praise the LORD with the instruments which David had devised for praise.
6 David divided them into classes according to the sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.
7 To the Gershonites belonged Ladan and Shimei.
8 The sons of Ladan: Jehiel the chief, then Zetham and Joel; three in all.
9 The sons of Shimei were Shelomoth, Haziel, and Haran; three. These were the heads of the families of Ladan.
10 The sons of Shimei were Jahath, Zizah, Jeush, and Beriah; these were the sons of Shimei, four in all.
11 Jahath was the chief and Zizah was second to him; but Jeush and Beriah had not many sons, and therefore they were classed as a single family, fulfilling a single office.
12 The sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel; four in all.
13 The sons of Amram were Aaron and Moses. Aaron was set apart to be consecrated as most holy, he and his sons forever, to offer sacrifice before the LORD, to minister to him, and to bless his name forever.
14 As for Moses, however, the man of God, his sons were counted as part of the tribe of Levi.
15 The sons of Moses were Gershom and Eliezer.
16 The sons of Gershom: Shubael the chief.
17 The sons of Eliezer were Rehabiah the chief--Eliezer had no other sons, but the sons of Rehabiah were very numerous.
18 The sons of Izhar: Shelomith the chief.
19 The sons of Hebron: Jeriah, the chief, Amariah, the second, Jahaziel, the third, and Jekameam, the fourth.
20 The sons of Uzziel: Micah, the chief, and Isshiah, the second.
21 The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi. The sons of Mahli: Eleazar and Kish.
22 Eleazar died leaving no sons, only daughters; the sons of Kish, their kinsmen, married them.
23 The sons of Mushi: Mahli, Eder, and Jeremoth; three in all.
24 These were the sons of Levi according to their ancestral houses, the family heads as they were enrolled one by one according to their names. They performed the work of the service of the house of the LORD from twenty years of age upward,
25 David said: The LORD, the God of Israel, has given rest to his people, and has taken up his dwelling in Jerusalem.
26 Henceforth the Levites need not carry the Dwelling or any of its furnishings or equipment.
27 for David's final orders were to enlist the Levites from the time they were twenty years old.
28 Rather, their duty shall be to assist the sons of Aaron in the service of the house of the LORD, having charge of the courts, the chambers, and the preservation of everything holy: they shall take part in the service of the house of God.
29 They shall also have charge of the showbread, of the fine flour for the cereal offering, of the wafers of unleavened bread, and of the baking and mixing, and of all measures of quantity and size.
30 They must be present every morning to offer thanks and to praise the LORD, and likewise in the evening;
31 and at every offering of holocausts to the LORD on sabbaths, new moons, and feast days, in such numbers as are prescribed, they must always be present before the LORD.
32 They shall observe what is prescribed for them concerning the meeting tent, the sanctuary, and the sons of Aaron, their brethren, in the service of the house of the LORD.