²⁴ Abiathar came up, and Zadok also, with all the Levites, carrying the ark of the covenant of God. They set down the ark of God until the people had all passed out of the city.^{(A) 25} Then the king said to Zadok, “Carry the ark of God back into the city. If I find favor in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me back and let me see both it and the place where it stays.^{(B) 26} But if he says, ‘I take no pleasure in you,’ here I am, let him do to me what seems good to him.”^{(C) 27} The king also said to the priest Zadok, “Look,^[a] go back to the city in peace, you and Abiathar,^[b] with your two sons, Ahimaaz your son and Jonathan son of Abiathar.^{(D) 28} See, I will wait at the fords of the wilderness until word comes from you to inform me.”^{(E) 29} So Zadok and Abiathar carried the ark of God back to Jerusalem, and they remained there.