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.

² Then David said, “No one but the Levites^(A) may carry^(B) the ark of God, because the Lord chose them to carry the ark of the Lord and to minister^(C) before him forever.”

⁶ So Joshua son of Nun called the priests and said to them, “Take up the ark of the covenant of the Lord and have seven priests carry trumpets in front of it.”^(A)

¹⁵ “After Aaron and his sons have finished covering the holy furnishings and all the holy articles, and when the camp is ready to move,^(A) only then are the Kohathites^(B) to come and do the carrying.^(C) But they must not touch the holy things^(D) or they will die.^(E) The Kohathites are to carry those things that are in the tent of meeting.