1 Chronicles 15:2 Darby English Bible (DARBY)

2 Then David said, None ought to carry the ark of God but the Levites, for them has Jehovah chosen to carry the ark of God, and to serve him for ever.

Cross Reference

Deuteronomy 10:8 DARBY

At that time Jehovah separated the tribe of Levi, to bear the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, to stand before Jehovah to do service unto him, and to bless in his name, unto this day.

Deuteronomy 31:9 DARBY

And Moses wrote this law, and delivered it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who bore the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, and to all the elders of Israel.

Numbers 4:2-15 DARBY

Take the sum of the sons of Kohath from among the sons of Levi, after their families, according to their fathers' houses, from thirty years old and upward even unto fifty years old, all that enter into the service, to do the work in the tent of meeting. This shall be the service of the sons of Kohath in the tent of meeting: it is most holy. And when the camp setteth forward, Aaron and his sons shall go in, and they shall take down the veil of separation and cover the ark of testimony with it; and shall put thereon a covering of badgers' skin, and shall spread over it a cloth wholly of blue, and shall put its staves [to it]. And upon the table of shewbread they shall spread a cloth of blue; and put thereon the dishes, and the cups, and the bowls, and goblets of the drink-offering; and the continual bread shall be thereon. And they shall spread upon them a cloth of scarlet, and cover it with a covering of badgers' skin, and shall put its staves [to it]. And they shall take a cloth of blue, and cover the candlestick of the light, and its lamps, and its snuffers, and its snuff-trays, and all the oil vessels thereof, wherewith they perform its service; and they shall put it and all the utensils thereof within a covering of badgers' skin, and shall put it upon a pole. And upon the golden altar they shall spread a cloth of blue, and cover it with a covering of badgers' skin, and shall put its staves [to it]. And they shall take all the instruments of service, wherewith they serve in the sanctuary, and put them in a cloth of blue, and cover them with a covering of badgers' skin, and shall put them upon a pole. And they shall cleanse the altar of the ashes, and spread a purple cloth thereon; and they shall put upon it all the utensils thereof, wherewith they perform service about it: the firepans, the forks, and the shovels, and the bowls, -- all the utensils of the altar; and they shall spread upon it a covering of badgers' skin, and put its staves [to it]. And when Aaron and his sons have ended covering the sanctuary, and all the utensils of the sanctuary, when the camp setteth forward, then afterwards the sons of Kohath shall come to carry it; but they shall not touch the holy things, lest they die. This is what the sons of Kohath have to carry in the tent of meeting.

Numbers 4:19-20 DARBY

but this shall ye do unto them, that they may live, and not die, when they draw near unto the most holy things: Aaron and his sons shall go in, and appoint them every one to his service and to his burden; but they shall not go in and see for a moment the holy things, lest they die.

Numbers 7:9 DARBY

But unto the sons of Kohath he gave none, for the service of the sanctuary was upon them: they bore [what they carried] upon the shoulder.

Numbers 8:13-14 DARBY

And thou shalt set the Levites before Aaron, and before his sons, and offer them as a wave-offering to Jehovah. And thou shalt separate the Levites from among the children of Israel, that the Levites may be mine.

Numbers 8:24-26 DARBY

This is that which concerneth the Levites: from twenty-five years old and upward shall he come to labour in the work of the service of the tent of meeting. And from fifty years old he shall retire from the labour of the service, and shall serve no more; but he shall minister with his brethren in the tent of meeting, and keep the charge, but he shall not serve [in] the service. Thus shalt thou do unto the Levites with regard to their charges.

Numbers 18:1-8 DARBY

And Jehovah said to Aaron, Thou and thy sons and thy father's house with thee shall bear the iniquity of the sanctuary; and thou and thy sons with thee shall bear the iniquity of your priesthood. And thy brethren also, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of thy father, bring near with thee, that they may unite with thee, and minister unto thee; but thou and thy sons with thee [shall serve] before the tent of the testimony. And they shall keep thy charge, and the charge of the whole tent: only they shall not come near to the vessels of the sanctuary and to the altar, that they may not die, and you as well as they. And they shall unite with thee, and keep the charge of the tent of meeting, for all the service of the tent; and no stranger shall come near to you. And ye shall keep the charge of the sanctuary, and the charge of the altar; that there come no wrath any more upon the children of Israel. And I, behold, I have taken your brethren, the Levites, from among the children of Israel; to you are they given as a gift for Jehovah to perform the service of the tent of meeting. But thou and thy sons with thee shall attend to your priesthood for all that concerneth the altar, and for that which is inside the veil; and ye shall perform the service: I give you your priesthood as a service of gift, and the stranger that cometh near shall be put to death. And Jehovah spoke to Aaron, And I, behold, I have given thee the charge of my heave-offerings, of all the hallowed things of the children of Israel; to thee have I given them, because of the anointing, and to thy sons by an everlasting statute.

Joshua 3:3 DARBY

and they commanded the people, saying, When ye see the ark of the covenant of Jehovah your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then remove from your place, and go after it;

Joshua 6:6 DARBY

And Joshua the son of Nun called the priests, and said to them, Carry the ark of the covenant, and seven priests shall carry seven blast-trumpets before the ark of Jehovah.

2 Chronicles 35:3 DARBY

And he said to the Levites, that taught all Israel, [and] who were holy to Jehovah, Put the holy ark in the house that Solomon the son of David, king of Israel, built; ye have not to carry it upon your shoulders. Serve now Jehovah your God, and his people Israel;

Isaiah 66:21 DARBY

And I will also take of them for priests [and] for Levites, saith Jehovah.

Jeremiah 33:17-22 DARBY

For thus saith Jehovah: There shall never fail to David a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel; neither shall there fail to the priests the Levites a man before me to offer up burnt-offerings, and to burn oblations, and to do sacrifice continually. And the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah, saying, Thus saith Jehovah: If ye can break my covenant [in respect] of the day, and my covenant [in respect] of the night, so that there should not be day and night in their season, [then] shall also my covenant be broken with David my servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne; and with the Levites, the priests, my ministers. As the host of the heavens cannot be numbered, nor the sand of the sea measured, so will I multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levites that minister unto me.

Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » John Gill's Exposition of the Bible » Commentary on 1 Chronicles 15

Commentary on 1 Chronicles 15 John Gill's Exposition of the Bible


Introduction

INTRODUCTION TO 1 CHRONICLES 15

David, having prepared a place for the ark of God, gathered the Israelites, Levites, and priests, to assist in the bringing of it up thereunto, 1 Chronicles 15:1 and which was done in a very honourable and joyful manner, 1 Chronicles 15:24, though David, for his behaviour, was despised by Michal his wife in her heart, 1 Chronicles 15:29.


Verse 1

And David made him houses in the city of David,.... With the help of the masons and carpenters Hiram sent him, 1 Chronicles 14:1, the royal palace is meant, with all the apartments in it, which were many and large, as so great a family he had required, and with all the out houses to it necessary for his servants, and their offices:

and prepared a place for the ark of God, and pitched for it a tent; see 2 Samuel 6:17.


Verse 2

Then David said,.... Either within himself, or to his ministers and courtiers about him:

none ought to carry the ark of God but the Levites; he saw his former mistake in employing those that were not Levites in bringing up the ark from Kirjathjearim, and bringing it in a cart, and not on the shoulders of the Levites, and so miscarried in his attempt, 2 Samuel 6:1 and, perhaps, had since more diligently consulted the law of God about this matter:

for them hath the Lord chosen to carry the ark of God, and to minister unto him for ever; as long as the Levitical dispensation lasted, as appears from Numbers 1:50.


Verse 3

And David gathered all Israel together to Jerusalem,.... The chief and heads of the people:

to bring up the ark of the Lord; from the house of Obededom, where it had been three months, and for the sake of which his house was blessed, and which David heard of; and this encouraged him to take this step to fetch it from thence: unto his place, which he had prepared for it; 1 Chronicles 15:1.


Verses 4-10

And David assembled the children of Aaron, and the Levites. Whose business it was to bear the ark when there was any occasion for it: and from hence to the end of 1 Chronicles 15:10 an account is given of the Levites, and their number employed in this affair:

of the sons of Kohath; a son of Levi, that is, of his posterity; for his immediate sons, and so those of the rest after mentioned, had been dead ages ago; the principal of those, at this present time, was Uriel, and his kindred, or those of the same family with him, were one hundred and twenty: of those of Merari, another son of Levi, the chief was Asaiah, with two hundred and twenty of his relations: of those of Gershon, another son of Levi, was Joel, and his brethren were one hundred and thirty: of the posterity of Elizaphan, a grandson of Kohath, Exodus 5:18, the most noted was Shemaiah, who had two hundred of his family with him: and of those of Hebron, the son of Kohath, Exodus 6:18, Eliel was the most famous, and he had eighty of his kindred with him: and of those of Uzziel, another son of Kohath in a different line from Elizaphan, who also was a son of Uzziel, was Amminadab the chief, who had one hundred and twelve of his kindred with him: the number of Levites, in all, gathered together, were eight hundred and sixty two, besides their chiefs.


Verse 11

And David called for Zadok and Abiathar the priests,.... See 2 Samuel 8:17.

and for the Levites, for Uriel, Asaiah, and Joel, Shemaiah, and Eliel, and Amminadab; the six chiefs before mentioned.


Verse 12

And he said unto them, ye are the chief of the fathers of the Levites,.... Of the families of the Levites, heads of their fathers' houses:

sanctify yourselves, both ye and your brethren; respectively under each, whose numbers are before given, by washing their bodies and clothes, and abstaining from their wives:

that you may bring up the ark of the Lord God of Israel unto the place that I have prepared for it; 2 Samuel 6:17.


Verse 13

For because ye did it not at the first,.... Did not sanctify themselves, as the supplement in our version directs; but rather the sense is, ye were not there at first, when the ark was brought from Kirjathjearim as far as the house of Obededom, as they should have been; they were not then employed, as was their business, and therefore

the Lord our God made a breach upon us; by smiting Uzzah with death, who was no Levite, and touched the ark, which is called his "error", and for which God smote him, 2 Samuel 6:7 on which place Lud. Capellus observes, the word "shal", we there render "error", signifies a "disease" in the Arabic language, and might formerly design a sudden one with the Hebrew; as an apoplexy; and so the sense be, that God smote Uzzah with an apoplexy, of which he suddenly died:

for that we sought him not after the due order; but, instead of employing the Levites to carry the ark on their shoulders, it was put upon a cart.


Verse 14

So the priests and the Levites sanctified themselves,.... As they were ordered, and in the manner they should:

to bring up the ark of the Lord God of Israel; for though it was chiefly the work of the Levites, yet the priests might do it, and sometimes did, see Joshua 3:13.


Verse 15

And the children of the Levites bare the ark of God upon their shoulders, with the staves thereon, as Moses commanded, according to the word of the Lord. Not only bare it on their shoulders, but with the staves in it, which rested on their shoulders, see Numbers 7:9, the reason of this command, that the ark should be carried on men's shoulders, and not in any carriage, according to MaimonidesF8Moreh Nevochim, par. 3. c. 45. p. 479. , was both for the honour of it, and lest its form and structure should be any ways damaged.


Verse 16

And David spake to the chief of the Levites,.... The six before mentioned, 1 Chronicles 15:11.

to appoint their brethren to be the singers; before the ark, as they brought it up:

with instruments of music, psalteries, and harps, and cymbals; which were used in those times, see 2 Samuel 6:5.

sounding by lifting up the voice with joy; the instrumental music was to be attended with vocal music, and that very sonorous and loud, and performed with all tokens of inward joy and gladness, as the occasion required.


Verse 17

So the Levites appointed Heman the son of Joel,.... The grandson of Samuel the prophet, 1 Chronicles 6:33.

and of his brethren, Asaph the son of Berechiah; a famous singer, often mentioned in the Psalms, 1 Chronicles 6:39.

and of the sons of Merari their brethren, Ethan the son of Kushaiah; the same with the son of Kishi, 1 Chronicles 6:44, these were the chief of the singers.


Verse 18

And with them their brethren of the second degree,.... Who were next unto them, both in office and skill in singing:

the fourteen following, Zechariah, Ben, and Jaaziel, and Shemiramoth, and Jehiel, and Unni, Eliab, and Benaiah, and Maaseiah, and Mattithiah, and Elipheleh, and Mikneiah, and Obededom, and Jeiel, the porters; who, when they were not employed in singing, were doorkeepers of the sanctuary; either they had been porters at the tabernacle in Gibeon, or were so after the ark was placed in the tabernacle David prepared for it.


Verse 19

So the singers, Heman, Asaph, and Ethan,.... The three principal of them: these were appointed

to sound with cymbals of brass; for as there were three sorts of musical instruments, 1 Chronicles 15:16 these three chief singers had one of those instruments appropriated to them, one of which were the cymbals of brass, to which the apostle alludes, 1 Corinthians 13:1.


Verse 20

And Zechariah, and Aziel, and Shemiramoth, and Jehiel, and Unni, and Eliab, and Maaseiah, and Benaiah,.... Who were eight of the second degree; Aziel is the same with Jaaziel, 1 Chronicles 15:18 and Ben is left out, in whose room Azaziah, in the next verse, seems to be put; Ben is thought to be sick or dead before they came to execute their office, and whom the father of Kimchi takes to be the same with him who is expressed in the title of Psalm 9:1 which title is, "on Muthlabben", or the death of Ben: these were appointed to sound

with psalteries on Alamoth; psalteries were another kind of instruments of music; and Alamoth was either the beginning of a song, to the tune of which those instruments played, or the tune itself, and the note of it; either the treble or counter tenor, a shrill sound, like that of organs, which this word sometimes signifies, see Psalm 46:1.


Verse 21

And Mattithiah, and Elipheleh, and Mikneiah, and Obededom, and Jeiel, and Azaziah,.... These six were appointed to sound:

with harps on the Sheminith to excel; which Sheminith some take to be an harp with eight strings, or the beginning of a song, or a musical tone, the bass; see the title of Psalm 6:1.


Verse 22

And Chenaniah chief of the Levites was for song,.... But the chief for the song were Heman, Asaph, and Ethan; rather

for the burden, as the Targum; for the lifting up and bearing the ark:

he instructed about the song; or about the taking up and bearing the burden, the ark; directing when to take it up, and how far to go with it, and then rest:

because he was skilful; a wise and prudent man in all things, and so proper to direct in this business.


Verse 23

And Berechiah, and Elkanah, were doorkeepers for the ark,.... Either while it was at Kirjathjearim, and at Obededom's house; or rather after it was put in the tabernacle David had prepared for it; though it may be best of all to understand it, that those, as it was carrying, went before it, to keep the people from pressing to it, and gazing on it.


Verse 24

And Shebaniah, and Jehoshaphat, and Nethaneel, and Amasai, and Zechariah, and Benaiah, and Eliezer, the priests, did blow with the trumpets before the ark of God,.... With the silver trumpets; one use of which was to blow with when the camps and ark of the Lord moved, Numbers 10:5.

and Obededom and Jehiah were doorkeepers for the ark; they went behind it, as the others before it, for the same purpose, as it was bringing up.


Verse 25

So David and the elders of Israel, and the captains over thousands,.... He and the principal men of the nation, and the officers of the army or militia:

went to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the house of Obededom with joy; with all demonstrations of it; for which purpose such a band of music was prepared, as before described.


Verse 26

And it came to pass, when God helped the Levites that bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord,.... Not merely granted them bodily strength to carry it, which did not require a great deal; but helped them to carry it with cheerfulness, and without fear, and so as to commit no error, nor in any respect provoke his displeasure, as when it was brought before from Kirjathjearim:

that they offered seven bullocks and seven rams; by way of thanksgiving, besides what David offered; and this was done by the way, see 2 Samuel 6:13.


Verse 27

And David was clothed with a robe of fine linen,.... For though a king, he, being among the singers, was clothed as they; for so it follows:

and all the Levites that bare the ark, and the singers, and Chenaniah the master of the song; or of those that bore the burden, the ark, as the Targum:

with the singers; all were clothed in robes of fine linen:

David also had upon him an ephod of linen; which he had besides his linen robe, and was over it; and being a shorter and tighter garment, it bound the other closer to him; though some think this is explanative of the former, and designs the same, and is what others, besides priests, were, on occasion, allowed to wear, see 1 Samuel 2:18.


Verse 28

Thus all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the Lord with shouting,.... See 2 Samuel 6:15.


Verse 29

And it came to pass, as the ark of the covenant of the Lord came to the city of David, that Michal the daughter of Saul, looking out at a window,.... Of the palace, to see the procession, see 2 Samuel 6:16 where not only this circumstance is related, and the inward contempt she had David in, because of his behaviour, but also what she said, and what David returned in answer to it.