(4) The Levites.--Kings has the priests; and so Syr. and Arab, here; but LXX. and Vulg., Levites. The latter term, as the tribal name, may of course be used to include the priests or Aaronites, as well as their inferior brethren. 2 Chronicles 5:7 shows that the priests are intended here.
Verse 4. - The Levites. So see Numbers 4:15, 19, 20, which, with our vers. 5, 7, throw this statement into sufficient harmony with that of the parallel (1 Kings 8:3), which purports to say that the priests only, unaided by the Kohathite Levites, performed the service.
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.