⁴ When all the elders of Israel had arrived, the Levites took up the ark,

³ When all the elders of Israel had arrived, the priests^(A) took up the ark,

⁶ Joshua said to the priests, “Take up the ark of the covenant and pass on ahead of the people.” So they took it up and went ahead of them.

⁷ The priests then brought the ark^(A) of the Lord’s covenant to its place in the inner sanctuary of the temple, the Most Holy Place, and put it beneath the wings of the cherubim.

¹² He said to them, “You are the heads of the Levitical families; you and your fellow Levites are to consecrate^(A) yourselves and bring up the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel, to the place I have prepared for it. ¹³ It was because you, the Levites,^(B) did not bring it up the first time that the Lord our God broke out in anger against us.^(C) We did not inquire of him about how to do it in the prescribed way.^(D)” ¹⁴ So the priests and Levites consecrated themselves in order to bring up the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel.