A canticle of a psalm for David himself.

My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready: I will sing, and will give praise, with my glory.

Arise, my glory; arise, psaltery and harp: I will arise in the morning early.

I will praise thee, O Lord, among the people: and I will sing unto thee among the nations.

For thy mercy is great above the heavens: and thy truth even unto the clouds.

Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens, and thy glory over all the earth:

That thy beloved may be delivered. Save with thy right hand and hear me.

God hath spoken in his holiness. I will rejoice, and I will divide Sichem and I will mete out the vale of tabernacles.

Galaad is mine: and Manasses is mine and Ephraim the protection of my head. Juda is my king:

Moab the pot of my hope. Over Edom I will stretch out my shoe: the aliens are become my friends.

Who will bring me into the strong city? who will lead me into Edom?

Wilt not thou, O God, who hast cast us off? and wilt not thou, O God, go forth with our armies?

O grant us help from trouble: for vain is the help of man.

Through God we shall do mightily: and he will bring our enemies to nothing.

Unto the end, a psalm for David.

O God, be not thou silent in my praise: for the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful man is opened against me.

They have spoken against me with deceitful tongues; and they have compassed me about with words of hatred; and have fought against me without cause.

Instead of making me a return of love, they detracted me: but I gave myself to prayer.

And they repaid me evil for good: and hatred for my love.

Set thou the sinner over him: and may the devil stand at his right hand.

When he is judged, may he go out condemned; and may his prayer be turned to sin.

May his days be few: and his bishopric let another take.

May his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.

Let his children be carried about vagabonds, and beg; and let them be cast out of their dwellings.

May the usurer search all his substance: and let strangers plunder his labours.

May there be none to help him: nor none to pity his fatherless offspring.

May his posterity be cut off; in one generation may his name be blotted out.

May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered in the sight of the Lord: and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.

May they be before the Lord continually, and let the memory of them perish from the earth:

because he remembered not to shew mercy,

But persecuted the poor man and the beggar; and the broken in heart, to put him to death.

And he loved cursing, and it shall come unto him: and he would not have blessing, and it shall be far from him. And he put on cursing, like a garment: and it went in like water into his entrails, and like oil in his bones.

May it be unto him like a garment which covereth him; and like a girdle with which he is girded continually.

This is the work of them who detract me before the Lord; and who speak evils against my soul.

But thou, O Lord, do with me for thy name’s sake: because thy mercy is sweet. Do thou deliver me,

For I am poor and needy, and my heart is troubled within me.

I am taken away like the shadow when it declineth: and I am shaken off as locusts.

My knees are weakened through fasting: and my flesh is changed for oil.

And I am become a reproach to them: they saw me and they shaked their heads.

Help me, O Lord my God; save me; according to thy mercy.

And let them know that this is thy hand: and that thou, O Lord, hast done it.

They will curse and thou wilt bless: let them that rise up against me be confounded: but thy servant shall rejoice.

Let them that detract me be clothed with shame: and let them be covered with their confusion as with a double cloak.

I will give great thanks to the Lord with my mouth: and in the midst of many I will praise him.

Because he hath stood at the right hand of the poor, to save my soul from persecutors.

A psalm for David. The Lord said to my Lord: Sit thou at my right hand: Until I make thy enemies thy footstool.

The Lord will send forth the sceptre of thy power out of Sion: rule thou in the midst of thy enemies.

With thee is the principality in the day of thy strength: in the brightness of the saints: from the womb before the day star I begot thee.

The Lord hath sworn, and he will not repent: Thou art a priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedech.

The Lord at thy right hand hath broken kings in the day of his wrath.

He shall judge among nations, he shall fill ruins: he shall crush the heads in the land of many.

He shall drink of the torrent in the way: therefore shall he lift up the head.

David being old and full of days, made Solomon his son king over Israel.

And he gathered together all the princes of Israel, and the priests and Levites.

And the Levites were numbered from the age of thirty years, and upwards: and there were found of them thirty-eight thousand men.

Of these twenty-four thousand were chosen, and distributed unto the ministry of the house of the Lord: and six thousand were the overseers and judges.

Moreover four thousand were porters: and as many singers singing to the Lord with the instruments, which he had made to sing with.

And David distributed them into courses by the families of the sons of Levi, to wit, of Gerson, and of Caath, and of Merari.

The sons of Gerson were Leedan and Semei.

The sons of Leedan: the chief Jahiel, and Zethan, and Joel, three.

The sons of Semei: Salomith, and Hosiel, and Aran, three: these were the heads of the families of Leedan.

And the sons of Semei were Leheth, and Ziza, and Jaus, and Baria: these were the sons of Semei, four.

And Leheth was the first, Ziza the second: but Jaus and Baria had not many children, and therefore they were counted in one family, and in one house.

The sons of Caath were Amram, and Isaar, Hebron, and Oziel, four.

The sons of Amram, Aaron, and Moses. And Aaron was separated to minister in the holy of holies, he and his sons for ever, and to burn incense before the Lord, according to his ceremonies, and to bless his name for ever.

The sons also of Moses, the man of God, were numbered in the tribe of Levi.

The sons of Moses were Gersom and Eliezer:

The sons of Gersom: Subuel the first.

And the sons of Eliezer were: Rohobia the first: and Eliezer had no more sons. But the sons of Rohobia were multiplied exceedingly.

The sons of Isaar: Salomith the first.

The sons of Hebron: Jeriau the first, Amarias the second, Jahaziel the third, Jecmaam the fourth.

The sons of Oziel: Micha the first, Jesia the second.

The sons of Merari: Moholi, and Musi. The sons of Moholi: Eleazar and Cis.

And Eleazar died, and had no sons but daughters: and the sons of Cis their brethren took them.

The sons of Musi: Moholi, and Eder, and Jerimoth, three.

These are the sons of Levi in their kindreds and families, princes by their courses, and the number of every head that did the works of the ministry of the house of the Lord from twenty years old and upward.

For David said: The Lord the God of Israel hath given rest to his people, and a habitation in Jerusalem for ever.

And it shall not be the office of the Levites to carry any more the tabernacle, and all the vessels for the service thereof.

So according to the last precepts of David, the sons of Levi are to be numbered from twenty years old and upward.

And they are to be under the hand of the sons of Aaron for the service of the house of the Lord, in the porches, and in the chambers, and in the place of purification, and in the sanctuary, and in all the works of the ministry of the temple of the Lord.

And the priests have the charge of the loaves of proposition, and of the sacrifice of fine flour, and of the unleavened cakes, and of the fryingpan, and of the roasting, and of every weight and measure.

And the Levites are to stand in the morning to give thanks, and to sing praises to the Lord: and in like manner in the evening,

As well in the oblation of the holocausts of the Lord, as in the sabbaths and in the new moons, and the rest of the solemnities, according to the number and ceremonies prescribed for every thing, continually before the Lord.

And let them keep the observances of the tabernacle of the covenant, and the ceremonies of the sanctuary, and the charge of the sons of Aaron their brethren, that they may minister in the house of the Lord.

Now these were the divisions of the sons of Aaron: The sons of Aaron: Nadab, and Abiu, and Eleazar, and Ithamar.

But Nadab and Abiu died before their father, and had no children: so Eleazar, and Ithamar did the office of the priesthood.

And David distributed them, that is, Sadoc of the sons of Eleazar, and Ahimelech of the sons of Ithamar, according to their courses and ministry.

And there were found many more of the sons of Eleazar among the principal men, than of the sons of Ithamar. And he divided them so, that there were of the sons of Eleazar, sixteen chief men by their families: and of the sons of Ithamar eight by their families and houses.

And he divided both the families one with the other by lot: for there were princes of the sanctuary, and princes of God, both of the sons of Eleazar, and of the sons of Ithamar.

And Semeias the son of Nathanael the scribe a Levite, wrote them down before the king and the princes, and Sadoc the priest, and Ahimelech the son of Abiathar, and the princes also of the priestly and Levitical families: one house, which was over the rest, of Eleazar: and another house, which had the rest under it, of Ithamar.

Now the first lot came forth to Joiarib, the second to Jedei,

The third to Harim, the fourth to Seorim,

The fifth to Melchia, the sixth to Maiman,

The seventh to Accos, the eighth to Abia,

The ninth to Jesua, the tenth to Sechenia,

The eleventh to Eliasib, the twelfth to Jacim,

The thirteenth to Hoppha, the fourteenth to Isbaab,

The fifteenth to Belga, the sixteenth to Emmer,

The seventeenth to Hezir, the eighteenth to Aphses,

The nineteenth to Pheteia, the twentieth to Hezechiel,

The one and twentieth to Jachin, the two and twentieth to Gamul,

The three and twentieth to Dalaiau, the four and twentieth to Maaziau.

These are their courses according to their ministries, to come into the house of the Lord, and according to their manner under the hand of Aaron their father: as the Lord the God of Israel had commanded.

Now of the rest of the sons of Levi, there was of the sons of Amram, Subael: and of the sons of Subael, Jehedeia.

Also of the sons of Rohobia the chief Jesias.

And the son of Isaar Salemoth, and the son of Salemoth Jahath:

And his son Jeriau the first, Amarias the second, Jahaziel the third, Jecmaan the fourth.

The son of Oziel, Micha: the son of Micha, Samir.

The brother of Micha, Jesia: and the son of Jesia, Zacharias.

The sons of Merari: Moholi and Musi: the son of Oziau: Benno.

The son also of Merari Oziau, and Soam, and Zacchur, and Hebri.

And the son of Moholi: Eleazar, who had no sons.

And the son of Cis, Jeramael.

The sons of Musi: Moholi, Eder, and Jerimoth. These are the sons of Levi according to the houses of their families.

And they also cast lots over against their brethren the sons of Aaron before David the king, and Sadoc, and Ahimelech, and the princes of the priestly and Levitical families, both the elder and the younger. The lot divided all equally.

Moreover David and the chief officers of the army separated for the ministry the sons of Asaph, and of Heman, and of Idithun: to prophesy with harps, and with psalteries, and with cymbals according to their number serving in their appointed office.

Of the sons of Asaph: Zacchur, and Joseph, and Nathania, and Asarela, sons of Asaph: under the hand of Asaph prophesying near the king.

And of Idithun: the sons of Idithun, Godolias, Sori, Jeseias, and Hasabias, and Mathathias, six, under the hand of their father Idithun, who prophesied with a harp to give thanks and to praise the Lord.

Of Heman also: the sons of Heman, Bocciau, Mathaniau, Oziel, Subuel, and Jerimoth, Hananias, Hanani, Eliatha, Geddelthi, and Romemthiezer, and Jesbacassa, Mellothi, Othir, Mahazioth:

All these were the sons of Heman the seer of the king in the words of God, to lift up the horn: and God gave to Heman fourteen sons and three daughters.

All these under their father’s hand were distributed to sing in the temple of the Lord, with cymbals, and psalteries and harps, for the service of the house of the Lord near the king: to wit, Asaph, and Idithun, and Heman.

And the number of them with their brethren, that taught the song of the Lord, all the teachers, were two hundred and eighty-eight.

And they cast lots by their courses, the elder equally with the younger, the learned and the unlearned together.

And the first lot came forth to Joseph, who was of Asaph. The second to Godolias, to him and his sons, and his brethren twelve.

The third to Zachur, to his sons and his brethren twelve.

The fourth to Isari, to his sons and his brethren twelve.

The fifth to Nathania, to his sons and his brethren twelve.

The sixth to Bocciau, to his sons and his brethren twelve.

The seventh to Isreela, to his sons and his brethren twelve.

The eighth to Jesaia, to his sons and his brethren twelve.

The ninth to Mathanaias, to his sons and his brethren twelve.

The tenth to Semeias, to his sons and his brethren twelve.

The eleventh to Azareel, to his sons and his brethren twelve.

The twelfth to Hasabia, to his sons and his brethren twelve.

The thirteenth to Subael, to his sons and his brethren twelve.

The fourteenth to Mathathias, to his sons and his brethren twelve.

The fifteenth to Jerimoth, to his sons and his brethren twelve.

The sixteenth to Hananias, to his sons and his brethren twelve.

The seventeenth to Jesbacassa, to his sons and his brethren twelve.

The eighteenth to Hanani, to his sons and his brethren twelve.

The nineteenth to Mellothi, to his sons and his brethren twelve.

The twentieth to Eliatha, to his sons and his brethren twelve.

The one and twentieth to Othir, to his sons and his brethren twelve.

The two and twentieth to Geddelthi, to his sons and his brethren twelve.

The three and twentieth to Mahazioth, to his sons and his brethren twelve.

The four and twentieth to Romemthiezer, to his sons and his brethren twelve.