Page:The Books of Chronicles (1916).djvu/165

Rh out to battle: for God is gone out before thee to smite the host of the Philistines. And David did as God commanded him: and they smote the host of the Philistines from Gibeon even to Gezer. And the fame of David went out into all lands; and the brought the fear of him upon all nations. And David made him houses in the city of David; and he prepared a place for the ark of God, and pitched for it a tent. Then David said, None ought to carry the ark of God but the Levites: for them hath the chosen to carry the ark of God, and to minister unto him for ever. And David assembled all Israel at Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the unto its place, which he had prepared for it And David gathered together the sons of Aaron,

thou shalt go out to battle] Sam. has a more vivid phrase, thou shalt bestir thyself.

16. smote the host of the Philistines from Gibeon even to Gezer] This victory was decisive; the main army of the Philistines was routed.

Gezer] Cp. vi. 67, note.

XV 1—24.&emsp;

There is no parallel in Sam. to this section.

In 2 Sam. vi. 12 the reason given for the renewal of David's attempt to bring the Ark to Jerusalem is the report of the blessing which was said to have befallen Obed-edom, in whose house the Ark had been left. The Chronicler is not ignorant of this tradition since he refers to it incidentally in xiii. 14, but it would be very far from his sense of the fitness of things to adduce it as the motive for David's action. On the contrary he declares in this section that David was prompted by a realisation that the ill-success of the first attempt was due to failure to observe the regulations of the Levitical Law. Full attention now being given to the prescribed ritual, David succeeds in his pious purpose.

1. made him houses] Cp. 2 Sam. v. 9.

a tent] a new tent, not the old tabernacle which the Chronicler believed to be at Gibeon (see xvi. 39).

2. None but the Levites] Num. i. 50, vii. 9. Nothing is said in the parallel place (2 Sam. vi. 13) of the Levites, but bearers (and not a cart) are spoken of with regard to this second attempt. Cp. 2 Chr. v. 4, note.

3. assembled all Israel] It was a solemn religious assembly (Heb. Ḳāhāl, Greek ).