"I
have dwelt in no house since the day that I brought the children
of Israel out of Egypt, but have wandered about under tent and
covering." Nathan also, of course, has not in his eye the Mosaic
tabernacle as the present lodging of the ark, but David's tent upon
Zion. Now he does not say that the ark has formerly been always
in the tabernacle, and that its present harbourage is therefore in
the highest degree unlawful, but, on the contrary, that the present
state of matters is the right one,--that until now the ark has
invariably been housed under an equally simple and unpretentious
roof. As David's tent does not date back to the Exodus, Nathan is
necessarily speaking of changing tents and dwellings; the reading
of the parallel passage in 1Chron. xvii.5, therefore, correctly
interprets the sense. There could be no more fundamental
contradiction to the representation contained in the Pentateuch
than that embodied in these words: the ark has not as its
correlate a single definite sacred tent of state, but is quite
indifferent to the shelter it enjoys--has frequently changed its
abode, but never had any particularly fine one.
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