📖WEB · 1 Chronicles 13:5
What does 1 Chronicles 13:5 mean?
"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."
— 1 Chronicles 13:5 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
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.
They carried God’s ark on a new cart, and brought it out of Abinadab’s house; and Uzza and Ahio drove the cart.
David and all Israel played before God with all their might, even with songs, with harps, with stringed instruments, with tambourines, with cymbals, and with trumpets.
Explanation
This verse opens the account of David's first attempt to bring the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem after becoming king over a united Israel. In plain terms, it says that David called together the entire nation, from its southernmost border (the Shihor, near Egypt) to its northernmost border (Lebo-Hamath), for the specific purpose of retrieving the Ark from the town of Kiriath Jearim, where it had been kept for years
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