⁴ He appointed some of the Levites to minister^(A) before the ark of the Lord, to extol,^[a] thank, and praise the Lord, the God of Israel: ⁵ Asaph was the chief, and next to him in rank were Zechariah, then Jaaziel,^[b] Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Mattithiah, Eliab, Benaiah, Obed-Edom and Jeiel. They were to play the lyres and harps, Asaph was to sound the cymbals, ⁶ and Benaiah and Jahaziel the priests were to blow the trumpets regularly before the ark of the covenant of God.

⁵ Four thousand are to be gatekeepers and four thousand are to praise the Lord with the musical instruments^(A) I have provided for that purpose.”^(B)

⁶ David separated^(A) the Levites into divisions corresponding to the sons of Levi:^(B) Gershon, Kohath and Merari.

The Musicians

25 David, together with the commanders of the army, set apart some of the sons of Asaph,^(A) Heman^(B) and Jeduthun^(C) for the ministry of prophesying,^(D) accompanied by harps, lyres and cymbals.^(E) Here is the list of the men^(F) who performed this service:^(G)

²⁵ He stationed the Levites in the temple of the Lord with cymbals, harps and lyres in the way prescribed by David^(A) and Gad^(B) the king’s seer and Nathan the prophet; this was commanded by the Lord through his prophets.