Page:The Books of Chronicles (1916).djvu/251

Rh these did the priests the Levites bring up. And king Solomon and all the congregation of Israel, that were assembled unto him, were before the ark, sacrificing sheep and oxen, that could not be told nor numbered for multitude. And the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the unto its place, into the oracle of the house, to the most holy place, even under the wings of the cherubim. For the cherubim spread forth their wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubim covered the ark and the staves thereof above. And the staves were so long that the ends of the staves were seen from the ark before the oracle; but they were not seen without: and there it is, unto this day. There was nothing in the ark save the two tables which Moses put there at Horeb, when the made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of Egypt.

Chronicler believed to have been in existence in the time of David and Solomon, and to have been at Gibeon (i. 3 f.). The parallel statement in Kings comes not from the early sources but from the hand of a late reviser.

the priests the Levites] here the older phrase, which does not indicate a distinction between Priests and Levites, has been allowed to stand, perhaps "because certain utensils might well have been borne by the priests" (so Curtis), or possibly through slight carelessness on the Chronicler's part. The parallel in Kings has "the priests and the Levites."

7. the priests brought in the ark] Only the priests might lawfully place the Ark within the Holy of Holies (cp. Num. iv. 5 ff.). The Chronicler therefore had no cause for changing priests into Levites here.

into the oracle] See iii. 16, note.

9. from the ark] Read (with LXX. and 1 Kin. viii. 8) from the holy place. One standing in the Holy Place and looking towards the Holy of Holies could see the heads of the staves.

and there it is, unto this day] These words are taken over with the loss of one letter (which here makes the difference between singular and plural) from 1 Kin. viii. 8, but they are out of place in Chron., for when the Chronicler wrote the Ark had long ago disappeared. The vessels which were brought back from the Babylonian captivity are specified in Ezra i. 9, 10, but the Ark of the covenant is not reckoned among them.

10. which Moses put there] Ex. xl. 20.

at Horeb] Deut. v. 2.