Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 1 Chronicles · About this commentary
The Ark Brought Up with Joy
1 Chronicles 15:25-16:6
25 So David, the elders of Israel, and the captains over thousands went to bring the ark of Yahweh’s covenant up out of the house of Obed-Edom with joy. · WEB
The ark arrives, and the first act of the new worship is to give every man and woman in Israel something to eat.
The second procession is described in one long sentence of noise: shouting, cornet, trumpets, cymbals, stringed instruments and harps 1 Chronicles 15:28. Nothing has been made quieter.
Two details in it are easy to pass. The sacrifice of seven bulls and seven rams is offered when God helped the Levites who bore the ark 1 Chronicles 15:26 — even carrying it correctly is described as assistance rather than achievement. And David is dressed in fine linen with a linen ephod 1 Chronicles 15:27, wearing what the carriers wear rather than what a king wears, walking in the procession instead of receiving it.
One person does not join. Michal watches from a window and despised him in her heart 1 Chronicles 15:29. She is identified not as David's wife but as the daughter of Saul, and the verse is left exactly there. No conversation follows and no reply is recorded. The only contempt in the chapter comes from the old house, and the writer lets it stand unanswered at the end of the procession.
The ark is set in the tent, and burnt offerings and peace offerings are made 1 Chronicles 16:1. Then the king blesses the people, and does something a triumph does not usually include.
He gives to everyone of Israel, both man and woman, to everyone a loaf of bread, a portion of meat, and a cake of raisins 1 Chronicles 16:3. The distribution is total and it is itemized. Women are named as recipients in their own right, which the muster lists and the genealogies almost never do.
A peace offering was eaten by those who brought it, so the meal is not an addition to the worship; it is the worship, extended to a whole nation at the king's expense. The first thing that happens once the ark is in place is that everybody is fed.
Then the ministry is appointed, and its three verbs are worth keeping: the Levites are set before the ark to commemorate, to thank, and to praise 1 Chronicles 16:4. The first of them looks backward. Asaph is put at the head with cymbals, and the priests are stationed with trumpets continually 1 Chronicles 16:6 — a day's celebration converted, in the same paragraph, into a standing appointment.
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