¹ Hear, O Israel: Thou shalt go over the Jordan this day; to possess nations very great, and stronger than thyself, cities great, and walled up to the sky,

² A People great and tall, the sons of the Enacims, whom thou hast seen, and heard of, against whom no man is able to stand.

³ Thou shalt know therefore this day that the Lord thy God himself will pass over before thee, a devouring and consuming fire, to destroy and extirpate and bring them to nothing before thy face quickly, as he hath spoken to thee.

⁴ Say not in thy heart, when the Lord thy God shall have destroyed them in thy sight: For my justice hath the Lord brought me in to possess this land, whereas these nations are destroyed for their wickedness.

⁵ For it is not for thy justices, and the uprightness of thy heart that thou shalt go in to possess their lands: but because they have done wickedly, they are destroyed at thy coming in: and that the Lord might accomplish his word, which he promised by oath to thy fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

⁶ Know therefore that the Lord thy God giveth thee not this excellent land in possession for thy justices, for thou art a very stiffnecked people.

⁷ Remember, and forget not how then provokedst the Lord thy God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day that thou camest out of Egypt unto this place, thou hast always strove against the Lord.

⁸ For in Horeb also thou didst provoke him, and he was angry, and would have destroyed thee,

⁹ When I went up into the mount to receive the tables of stone, the tables of the covenant which the Lord made with you: and I continued in the mount forty days and nights, neither eating bread, nor drinking water.

¹⁰ And the Lord gave me two tables of stone written with the finger of God, and containing all the words that he spoke to you in the mount from the midst of the Are, when the people were assembled together.

¹¹ And when forty days were passed, and as many nights, the Lord gave me the two tables of stone, the tables of the covenant,

¹² And said to me: Arise, and go down from hence quickly: for thy people, which thou hast brought out of Egypt, have quickly forsaken the way that thou hast shewn them, and have made to themselves a molten idol.

¹³ And again the Lord said to me: I see that this people is stiffnecked:

¹⁴ Let me alone that I may destroy them, and abolish their name from under heaven, and set thee over a nation, that is greater and stronger than this.

¹⁵ And when I came down from the burning mount, and held the two tables of the covenant with both hands,

¹⁶ And saw that you had sinned against the Lord your God, and had made to yourselves a molten calf, and had quickly forsaken his way, which he had shewn you:

¹⁷ I cast the tables out of my hands, and broke them in your sight.

¹⁸ And I fell down before the Lord se before, forty days and nights neither eating bread, nor drinking water, for all your sins, which you had committed against the Lord, and had provoked him to wrath:

¹⁹ For I feared his indignation and anger, wherewith being moved against you, he would have destroyed you. And the Lord heard me this time also.

²⁰ And he was exceeding angry against Aaron also, and would have destroyed him, and I prayed in like manner for him.

²¹ And your sin that you had committed, that is, the calf, I took, and burned it with fire, and breaking it into pieces, until it was as small as dust, I threw it into the torrent, which cometh down from the mountain.

²² At the burning also, and at the place of temptation, and at the graves of lust you provoked the Lord:

²³ And when he sent you from Cadesbarne, saying: Go up, and possess the land that I have given you, and you slighted the commandment of the Lord your God, and did not believe him, neither would you hearken to his voice:

²⁴ But were always rebellious from the day that I began to know you.

²⁵ And I lay prostrate before the Lord forty days and nights, in which I humbly besought him, that he would not destroy you as he had threatened:

²⁶ And praying, I said: 0 Lord God, destroy not thy people, and thy inheritance, which thou hast redeemed in thy greatness, whom thou hast brought out of Egypt with a strong hand.

²⁷ Remember thy servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: look not on the stubbornness of this people, nor on their wickedness and sin:

²⁸ Lest perhaps the inhabitants of the land, out of which thou hast brought us, say: The Lord could not bring them into the land that he promised them, and he hated them: therefore he brought them out, that he might kill them in the wilderness,

²⁹ Who are thy people and thy inheritance, whom thou hast brought out by thy great strength, and in thy stretched out arm.

¹ He made also houses for himself in the city of David: and built a place for the ark of God, and pitched a tabernacle for it.

² Then David said: No one ought to carry the ark of God, but the Levites, whom the Lord hath chosen to carry it, and to minister unto himself for ever.

³ And he gathered all Israel together into Jerusalem, that the ark of God might be brought into its place, which he had prepared for it.

⁴ And the sons of Aaron also, and the Levites.

⁵ Of the children of Caath, Uriel was the chief, and his brethren a hundred and twenty.

⁶ Of the sons of Merari, Asaia the chief, and his brethren two hundred and twenty.

⁷ Of the sons of Gersom, Joel the chief, and his brethren a hundred and thirty.

⁸ Of the sons of Elisaphan, Semeias the chief: and his brethren two hundred.

⁹ Of the sons of Hebron, Eliel the chief: and his brethren eighty.

¹⁰ Of the sons of Oziel, Aminadab the chief: and his brethren a hundred and twelve.

¹¹ And David called Sadoc, and Abiathar the priests, and the Levites, Uriel, Asaia, Joel, Semeia, Eliel, and Aminadab:

¹² And he said to them: You that are the heads of the Levitical families, be sanctified with your brethren, and brine the ark of the Lord the God of Israel to the place, which is prepared for it:

¹³ Lest as the Lord at first struck us, because you were not present, the same should now also come to pass, by our doing some thing against the law.

¹⁴ So the priests and the Levites were sanctified, to carry the ark of the Lord the God of Israel.

¹⁵ And the sons of Levi took the ark of God as Moses had commanded, according to the word of the Lord, upon their shoulders, with the staves.

¹⁶ And David spoke to the chiefs of the Levites, to appoint some of their brethren to be singers with musical instruments, to wit, on psalteries, and harps, and cymbals, that the joyful noise might resound on high.

¹⁷ And they appointed Levites, Hemam the son of Joel, and of his brethren Asaph the son of Barachias: and of the sons of Merari, their brethren: Ethan the son of Casaia.

¹⁸ And with them their brethren: in the second rank, Zacharias, and Ben, and Jaziel, and Semiramoth, and Jahiel, and Ani, and Eliab, and Banaias, and Maasias, and Mathathias, and Eliphalu, and Macenias, and Obededom, and Jehiel, the porters.

¹⁹ Now the singers, Heman, Asaph, and Ethan, sounded with cymbals of brass.

²⁰ And Zacharias, and Oziel, and Semiramoth, and Jehiel, and Ani, and Eliab, and Maasias, and Banaias, sung mysteries upon psalteries.

²¹ And Mathathias, and Eliphalu, and Macenias and Obededom, and Jehiel and Ozaziu, sung a song of victory for the octave upon harps.

²² And Chonenias chief of the Levites, presided over the prophecy, to give out the tunes: for he was very skilful.

²³ And Barachias, and Elcana, were doorkeepers of the ark.

²⁴ And Sebenias, and Josaphat, and Nathanael, and Amasai, and Zacharias, and Banaias, and Eliezer the priests, sounded with trumpets, before the ark of God: and Obededom and Jehias were porters of the ark.

²⁵ So David and all the ancients of Israel, and the captains over thousands, went to bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the house of Obededom with joy.

²⁶ And when God had helped the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, they offered in sacrifice seven oxen, and seven rams.

²⁷ And David was clothed with a robe of fine linen, and all the Levites that carried the ark, and the singing men, and Chonenias the ruler of the prophecy among the singers: and David also had on him an ephod of linen.

²⁸ And all Israel brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord with joyful shouting, and sounding with the sound of the comet, and with trumpets, and cymbals, and psalteries, and harps.

²⁹ And when the ark of the covenant of the Lord was come to the city of David, Michol the daughter of Saul looking out at a window, saw king David dancing and playing, and she despised him in her heart.