2 Chronicleschapter 5
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Speaks with:1 Kings 8×72 Samuel 6×22 Chronicles 1×22 Chronicles 7×21 Chronicles 15×21 Chronicles 6×2
Summary
Chapter summary
The work is finished, David's dedicated silver and gold brought into the treasuries, and the ark comes up from Zion in the seventh month. The staves stay in place, and nothing is in the ark 'save the two tables which Moses put there at Horeb.' Then the moment the Chronicler has been building toward for two books: the Levite singers in white linen with cymbals and psalteries and harps, a hundred and twenty priests with trumpets, all sounding 'as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking Jehovah,' and the refrain 'for he is good; for his lovingkindness endureth for ever'. And the cloud fills the house so the priests cannot stand to minister.
Context
History · Ezra — 2 Chronicles overview
- A. 1–10 The ark carried in, with nothing in it but the two tables
- B. 11–14 One voice of praise, and a cloud the priests cannot stand in
The outline
A.The ark carried in, with nothing in it but the two tablesvv. 1 to 10
Read vv. 1 to 10 →B.One voice of praise, and a cloud the priests cannot stand invv. 11 to 14
Read vv. 11 to 14 →
The world behind this chapter
2 Chronicles 5The history
The timing is deliberate. The ark is brought up in the seventh month, at the feast — the autumn festival of Tabernacles, when the harvest was in and the whole nation was already traveling to Jerusalem. A dedication was scheduled for the week the crowds would be there anyway.
The Levites carry the ark and the priests bring it into the innermost room, under the wings of the great cherubim. The poles are left in place, and their ends could be seen from just outside the veil but not from the outer court — a detail recorded because a worshipper standing in the holy place could see them, so the writer knew what he was describing.
The note that nothing was in the ark but the two stone tablets Moses put there is a statement about what the whole house was built around.
Then the music: a hundred and twenty priests with trumpets, together with the singers of Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun dressed in white linen, with cymbals, harps, and lyres, standing at the east end of the altar. The phrase used of them is that the trumpeters and singers were 'as one, to make one sound.' At that moment the cloud filled the house so that the priests could not stand to minister.
What it meant to them
The book of Ezra describes the founding of the second temple with the priests in their vestments and trumpets, and the Levites of Asaph with cymbals, singing the same refrain — and old men weeping while young men shouted.
That is the ache under this chapter for its first hearers. The trumpets were the same and the cloud did not come. The writer sets down what happened once, without pretending, and leaves the longing where it belongs.
Sources cited
- Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions
- Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Chronicles
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on 2 Chronicles 5. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.