And all the congregation said that they would do so,.... They unanimously agreed to the motion:

for the thing was right in the eyes of all the people; they saw the propriety, necessity, and usefulness of it.

As the whole assembly approved of David's design (כּן לעשׂות, it is to do so equals so much we do), David collected the whole of Israel to carry it out. "The whole of Israel," from the southern frontier of Canaan to the northern; but of course all are not said to have been present, but there were numerous representatives from every part, - according to 2 Samuel 6:1, a chosen number of 30,000 men. The מצרים שׁיחור, which is named as the southern frontier, is not the Nile, although it also is called שׁחר (Isaiah 23:3 and Jeremiah 2:18), and the name "the black river" also suits it (see Del. on Isaiah, loc. cit.); but is the שׁיחור before, i.e., eastward from Egypt (מצרים על־פּני אשׁר), i.e., the brook of Egypt, מצרים נחל, the Rhinocorura, now el Arish, which in all accurate statements of the frontiers is spoken of as the southern, in contrast to the neighbourhood of Hamath, which was the northern boundary: see on Numbers 34:5. For the designation of the northern frontier, חמת לבוא, see on Numbers 34:8. Kirjath-jearim, the Canaanitish Baalah, was known among the Israelites by the name Baale Jehudah or Kirjath-baal, as distinguished from other cities named after Baal, and is now the still considerable village Kureyeh el Enab; see on Joshua 9:17. In this fact we find the explanation of י אל ק בּעלתה, 1 Chronicles 13:6 : to Baalah, to Kirjath-jearim of Judah. The ark had been brought thither when the Philistines sent it back to Beth-shemesh, and had been set down in the house of Abinadab, where it remained for about seventy years; see 1 Samuel 6 and 1 Samuel 7:1-2, and the remarks on 2 Samuel 6:3. שׁם נקרא אשׁר is not to be translated "which is named name," which gives no proper sense. Translating it so, Bertheau would alter שׁם into שׁם, according to an arbitrary conjecture of Thenius on 2 Samuel 6:2, "who there (by the ark) is invoked." But were שׁם the true reading, it could not refer to the ark, but only to the preceding משּׁם, since in the whole Old Testament the idea that by or at the resting-place of the ark Jahve was invoked (which שׁם אשׁר would signify) nowhere occurs, since no one could venture to approach the ark. If שׁם referred to משּׁם, it would signify that Jahve was invoked at Kirjath-baal, that there a place of worship had been erected by the ark; but of that the history says nothing, and it would, moreover, be contrary to the statement that the ark was not visited in the days of Saul. We must consequently reject the proposal to alter שׁם into שׁם as useless and unsuitable, and seek for another explanation: we must take אשׁר in the sense of ὡς, which it sometimes has; cf. Ew. 333, a.: "as he is called by name," where שׁם does not refer only to יהוה, but also to the additional clause הכּרוּבים יושׁב, and the meaning is that Jahve is invoked as He who is enthroned above the cherubim; cf. Psalm 80:2; Isaiah 37:16. - On the following 1 Chronicles 13:7-14, cf. the commentary on 2 Samuel 6:3-11.

And all the congregation said that they would do so: for the thing was right in the eyes of all the people.

13:1-5 David said not, What magnificent thing shall I do now? or, What pleasant thing? but, What pious thing? that he might have the comfort and benefit of that sacred oracle. Let us bring the ark to us, that it may be a blessing to us. Those who honour God, profit themselves. It is the wisdom of those setting out in the world, to take God's ark with them. Those are likely to go on in the favour of God, who begin in the fear of God.