1 Chronicles 13 - Introduction

1 Chronicles 13:1-14 (2 Samuel 6:1-11). Removal of the Ark from Kiriath-jearim to the House of Obed-edom. Death of Uzzah

The connexion of the removal of the ark with the preceding events is more clearly seen in the account given in Samuel. David captures the stronghold of Zion from the Jebusites (2 Samuel 5:7), makes it his capital (ib.2 Samuel 5:9), builds himself a palace there (ib.2 Samuel 5:11), increases his state by taking more wives (ib.2 Samuel 5:13), beats off the Philistines, who attack him through fear of his growing power (ib.2 Samuel 5:17-25), and then in an interval of rest seeks to obtain religious sanction for his new capital by bringing the ark into it (ib.2 Samuel 6:1-19).

It is to be noticed that the Chronicler believes the Tabernacle (Mishkan) of the Lord (Exodus 35-40) "which Moses made in the wilderness" (1 Chronicles 21:29) to be in existence in David's day and to be standing at Gibeon (1 Chronicles 16:39). Yet when the ark was taken into the city of David it was placed, not in the Mishkan, but "in the tent (Ohel) which David pitched for it" (ib.1 Chronicles 16:1 = 2 Samuel 6:17). Thus in Chron. the two holy things, the ark and the Tabernacle, are represented as separated, and a separate daily service is connected with each; Asaph and his brethren minister before the ark in the city of David (1 Chronicles 16:37), and Zadok and his brethren before the Tabernacle at Gibeon (ib.1 Chronicles 16:39). Nothing however is said of this in Sam., and it is more probable that Moses" Tabernacle was destroyed before David's day, perhaps at the time of the death of Eli and his sons (cp. Psalms 78:60). The passage 1 Kings 8:4, which asserts that the "tabernacle of the congregation" (tent of meeting, R.V.) was "brought up by the Levites" with the ark at the dedication of Solomon's Temple, is probably an interpolation, for neither the tent of meetingnor the Levitesare mentioned elsewhere in Kings.