Saturday, 23 November

1.   David built houses for himself 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, "No one may carry the ark of God but the Levites, for the LORD has chosen them to carry the ark of God and to minister before Him forever." 3.   And David gathered all Israel together at Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the LORD to its place, which he had prepared for it. 4.   Then David assembled the children of Aaron and the Levites: 5.   of the sons of Kohath, Uriel the chief, and one hundred and twenty of his brethren; 6.   of the sons of Merari, Asaiah the chief, and two hundred and twenty of his brethren; 7.   of the sons of Gershom, Joel the chief, and one hundred and thirty of his brethren; 8.   of the sons of Elizaphan, Shemaiah the chief, and two hundred of his brethren; 9.   of the sons of Hebron, Eliel the chief, and eighty of his brethren; 10.   of the sons of Uzziel, Amminadab the chief, and one hundred and twelve of his brethren. 11.   And David called for Zadok and Abiathar the priests, and for the Levites: for Uriel, Asaiah, Joel, Shemaiah, Eliel, and Amminadab. 12.   He said to them, "You are the heads of the fathers’ houses of the Levites; sanctify yourselves, you and your brethren, that you may bring up the ark of the LORD God of Israel to the place I have prepared for it. 13.   "For because you did not do it the first time , the LORD our God broke out against us, because we did not consult Him about the proper order." 14.   So the priests and the Levites sanctified themselves to bring up the ark of the LORD God of Israel. 15.   And the children of the Levites bore the ark of God on their shoulders, by its poles, as Moses had commanded according to the word of the LORD. 16.   Then David spoke to the leaders of the Levites to appoint their brethren to be the singers accompanied by instruments of music, stringed instruments, harps, and cymbals, by raising the voice with resounding joy. 17.   So the Levites appointed Heman the son of Joel; and of his brethren, Asaph the son of Berechiah; and of their brethren, the sons of Merari, Ethan the son of Kushaiah; 18.   and with them their brethren of the second rank : Zechariah, Ben, Jaaziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattithiah, Elipheleh, Mikneiah, Obed–Edom, and Jeiel, the gatekeepers; 19.   the singers, Heman, Asaph, and Ethan, were to sound the cymbals of bronze; 20.   Zechariah, Aziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Maaseiah, and Benaiah, with strings according to Alamoth; 21.   Mattithiah, Elipheleh, Mikneiah, Obed–Edom, Jeiel, and Azaziah, to direct with harps on the Sheminith; 22.   Chenaniah, leader of the Levites, was instructor in charge of the music, because he was skillful; 23.   Berechiah and Elkanah were doorkeepers for the ark; 24.   Shebaniah, Joshaphat, Nethanel, Amasai, Zechariah, Benaiah, and Eliezer, the priests, were to blow the trumpets before the ark of God; and Obed–Edom and Jehiah, doorkeepers for the ark. 25.   So David, the elders of Israel, and the captains over thousands went to bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD from the house of Obed–Edom with joy. 26.   And so it was, when God helped the Levites who bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD, that they offered seven bulls and seven rams. 27.   David was clothed with a robe of fine linen, as were all the Levites who bore the ark, the singers, and Chenaniah the music master with the singers. David also wore a linen ephod. 28.   Thus all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the LORD with shouting and with the sound of the horn, with trumpets and with cymbals, making music with stringed instruments and harps. 29.   And it happened, as the ark of the covenant of the LORD came to the City of David, that Michal, Saul’s daughter, looked through a window and saw King David whirling and playing music; and she despised him in her heart.

1.   So they brought the ark of God, and set it in the midst of the tabernacle that David had erected for it. Then they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before God. 2.   And when David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the LORD. 3.   Then he distributed to everyone of Israel, both man and woman, to everyone a loaf of bread, a piece of meat , and a cake of raisins. 4.   And he appointed some of the Levites to minister before the ark of the LORD, to commemorate, to thank, and to praise the LORD God of Israel: 5.   Asaph the chief, and next to him Zechariah, then Jeiel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Mattithiah, Eliab, Benaiah, and Obed–Edom: Jeiel with stringed instruments and harps, but Asaph made music with cymbals; 6.   Benaiah and Jahaziel the priests regularly blew the trumpets before the ark of the covenant of God.

3.   They make a king glad with their wickedness, And princes with their lies. 4.   "They are all adulterers. Like an oven heated by a baker––He ceases stirring the fire after kneading the dough, Until it is leavened. 5.   In the day of our king Princes have made him sick, inflamed with wine; He stretched out his hand with scoffers. 6.   They prepare their heart like an oven, While they lie in wait; Their baker sleeps all night; In the morning it burns like a flaming fire. 7.   They are all hot, like an oven, And have devoured their judges; All their kings have fallen. None among them calls upon Me. 8.   "Ephraim has mixed himself among the peoples; Ephraim is a cake unturned. 9.   Aliens have devoured his strength, But he does not know it ; Yes, gray hairs are here and there on him, Yet he does not know it . 10.   And the pride of Israel testifies to his face, But they do not return to the LORD their God, Nor seek Him for all this. 11.   "Ephraim also is like a silly dove, without sense––They call to Egypt, They go to Assyria. 12.   Wherever they go, I will spread My net on them; I will bring them down like birds of the air; I will chastise them According to what their congregation has heard. 13.   "Woe to them, for they have fled from Me! Destruction to them, Because they have transgressed against Me! Though I redeemed them, Yet they have spoken lies against Me. 14.   They did not cry out to Me with their heart When they wailed upon their beds. "They assemble together for grain and new wine, They rebel against Me; 15.   Though I disciplined and strengthened their arms, Yet they devise evil against Me; 16.   They return, but not to the Most High; They are like a treacherous bow. Their princes shall fall by the sword For the cursings of their tongue. This shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.

1.   "Set the trumpet to your mouth! He shall come like an eagle against the house of the LORD, Because they have transgressed My covenant And rebelled against My law. 2.   Israel will cry to Me, ‘My God, we know You!’ 3.   Israel has rejected the good; The enemy will pursue him. 4.   "They set up kings, but not by Me; They made princes, but I did not acknowledge them . From their silver and gold They made idols for themselves––That they might be cut off. 5.   Your calf is rejected, O Samaria! My anger is aroused against them––How long until they attain to innocence? 6.   For from Israel is even this: A workman made it, and it is not God; But the calf of Samaria shall be broken to pieces. 7.   "They sow the wind, And reap the whirlwind. The stalk has no bud; It shall never produce meal. If it should produce, Aliens would swallow it up. 8.   Israel is swallowed up; Now they are among the Gentiles Like a vessel in which is no pleasure. 9.   For they have gone up to Assyria, Like a wild donkey alone by itself; Ephraim has hired lovers. 10.   Yes, though they have hired among the nations, Now I will gather them; And they shall sorrow a little, Because of the burden of the king of princes. 11.   "Because Ephraim has made many altars for sin, They have become for him altars for sinning. 12.   I have written for him the great things of My law, But they were considered a strange thing. 13.   For the sacrifices of My offerings they sacrifice flesh and eat it, But the LORD does not accept them. Now He will remember their iniquity and punish their sins. They shall return to Egypt. 14.   "For Israel has forgotten his Maker, And has built temples; Judah also has multiplied fortified cities; But I will send fire upon his cities, And it shall devour his palaces."

1.   "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2.   "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3.   "You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4.   "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. 5.   "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 6.   "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7.   "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 8.   "By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples. 9.   "As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. 10.   "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. 11.   "These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. 12.   "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13.   "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. 14.   "You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. 15.   "No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. 16.   "You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. 17.   "These things I command you, that you love one another. 18.   "If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. 19.   "If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20.   "Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. 21.   "But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me. 22.   "If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23.   "He who hates Me hates My Father also. 24.   "If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father. 25.   "But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’ 26.   "But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. 27.   "And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.