📖WEB · 1 Chronicles 13:3
What does 1 Chronicles 13:3 mean?
"Also, let us again bring the ark of our God back to us; for we didn’t seek it in the days of Saul.”"
— 1 Chronicles 13:3 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
David consulted with the captains of thousands and of hundreds, even with every leader.
David said to all the assembly of Israel, “If it seems good to you, and if it is of Yahweh our God, let us send word everywhere to our brothers who are left in all the land of Israel, with whom the priests and Levites are in their cities that have suburbs, that they may gather themselves to us.
Also, let us again bring the ark of our God back to us; for we didn’t seek it in the days of Saul.”
All the assembly said that they would do so; for the thing was right in the eyes of all the people.
So David assembled all Israel together, from the Shihor the brook of Egypt even to the entrance of Hamath, to bring God’s ark from Kiriath Jearim.
David went up with all Israel to Baalah, that is, to Kiriath Jearim, which belonged to Judah, to bring up from there God Yahweh’s ark that sits above the cherubim, that is called by the Name.
Explanation
First Chronicles 13:3 records King David speaking to the leaders and assembly of Israel shortly after he was established as king over the whole nation. In plain language, David is proposing a specific and urgent project: to formally bring the Ark of the Covenant—the sacred chest symbolizing God's presence, containing the tablets of the law—back into the center of Israel's national life. He notes with a kind of regret that during Saul's reign, the ark had been neglected; the nation had not "sought it," meaning they had not prioritized God's presence and the proper worship associated with it.
The historical background here is important
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