(5) These did the priests and the Levites bring up.--Heb., the priests the Levites (which some explain "the Levitical priests," as in Joshua 3:3) brought them up. But some Hebrew MSS. LXX., and Syriac, read "the priests and the Levites;" Arab., "the Levites and the priests;" and Vulg., "the priests with the Levites." Above all, 1Kings 8:4 has, "And the priests and the Levites brought them up." It appears, therefore, that the conjunction is rightly supplied by the Authorised Version.

Verse 5. - In the parallel (1 Kings 8:4), the "and" in the last line of this verse does not need the italic type, but is found in the Hebrew text, confirming our version of ver. 4 foregoing. The tabernacle of the congregation; or, tent of meeting, designs here the tabernacle of Moses from Gibeon (comp. 1 Kings 3:4; 1 Samuel 21:6; 1 Chronicles 16:39, 40; 2 Chronicles 1:3), and not the tent of Mount Zion (2 Samuel 6:17). This tabernacle, then, and these holy vessels all, are carried into the new temple, as venerated relics and sacred mementoes of a memorable past of vicissitude. But the ark had still its ministry to perform (ver. 7).

5:1-10 The ark was a type of Christ, and, as such, a token of the presence of God. That gracious promise, Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world, does, in effect, bring the ark into our religious assemblies, if we by faith and prayer plead that promise; and this we should be most earnest for. When Christ is formed in a soul, the law written in the heart, the ark of the covenant settled there, so that it becomes the temple of the Holy Ghost, there is true satisfaction in that soul.See Chapter Introduction