Page:The Books of Chronicles (1916).djvu/250

186 wit, of the temple, were of gold. Thus all the work that Solomon wrought for the house of the was finished. And Solomon brought in the things that David his father had dedicated; even the silver, and the gold, and all the vessels, and put them in the treasuries of the house of God. Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, and all the heads of the tribes, the princes of the fathers' houses of the children of Israel, unto Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of the out of the city of David, which is Zion. And all the men of Israel assembled themselves unto the king at the feast, which was in the seventh month. And all the elders of Israel came, and the Levites took up the ark. And they brought up the ark, and the tent of meeting, and all the holy vessels that were in the Tent;

were of gold] According to the more probable reading of 1 Kin. vii. 50 the hinges were of gold; the doors themselves were of olive wood overlaid with gold (1 Kin. vi. 31, 32).

1. all the vessels] the word may be taken to include weapons, spoils of war, cp. 2 Sam. viii. 7 ff.; 1 Chr. xviii. 11.

V. 2—VIII. 10.&emsp;

V. 2—10 (= 1 Kin. viii. 1—9).&emsp;

This section is taken almost verbatim from 1 Kings.

2. Then Solomon assembled] The same verb in the Hebrew as in 1 Chr. xv. 3 (see note there) and in 1 Chr. xxviii. 1.

the city of David] See 1 Chr. xi. 5, note on the strong hold of Zion.

3. the feast] i.e. the Feast of Tabernacles, i.e. after the fruit harvest.

in the seventh month] In 1 Kings the name of the month is given as Ethanim, but this word was perhaps obsolete when the Chronicler wrote; at any rate we know that in post-biblical times the seventh month was regularly called Tisri.

4. the Levites took up the ark] According to 1 Kings the priests performed this duty. In the days of David and Solomon all Levites were possible priests, Levi being the name of the priestly clan and not of a lower order of priests. At a later period the Levites were regarded as a class subordinate to the priests, having duties distinct from those of the priests—e.g. the task of bearing the tabernacle and all its furniture (see Num. i. 50, etc.). The Chronicler believing that this distinction had been in force from the time of Moses onwards "corrects" the text of Kings by changing "priests" into "Levites": cp. 1 Chr. xv. 2, 12, 13. See the special note on 1 Chr. vi., pp. 51 f.

5. the tent of meeting] i.e. the Mosaic tabernacle, which the