The heralds here, in Hebrew and Greek, are of the same names as [those] which, [in] ch. 1 v. 10, were rendered by our Latin Interpreter “chiefs of the people [principes populi]” — about which [there is] enough [said] there, quest. 3. The time of the advance, indeed, is the taking-up and carrying-off of the ark of the Lord by the priests, v. 3: “When you shall see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests of the Levitical stock carrying it, you too rise up.” But of what sort this ark was, of what parts, and how constructed, and why [it is] called “the ark of the covenant of the Lord,” [has been] sufficiently expounded in Exodus, where the construction of the tabernacle [is] set before the eyes. Three [things], therefore, only now are to be said.
The first is: Why must the ark now be carried by the priests? For this was otherwise the office of the Levites — and not of all of them, but of the Kohathites — as [is] handed down [in] Num. 4. I answered elsewhere, in the booklet On the Joshuan priests ch. 3 num. 35, in these words:
“The priests carry the Ark — the most holy of all the vessels which the Old Testament had — in which then [was] the golden urn holding manna, and the rod of Aaron which had budded, and the tablet of the covenant, as [it were] of the Decalogue; to which also the book of Deuteronomy, placed in the same ark, is to be referred. In the wilderness hitherto this burden was carried by the lower Levites; but when that blessed land was soon to be entered, it is laid upon the priests — partly, so that, as God’s greater benefits appeared day by day, thereby the greater veneration should be paid [to God] by pious and grateful minds; partly, so that [it] might be signified [that], in the Evangelical and final law — which bears [us] nearest to the heavenly land — it is chiefly of the priestly office to handle sacred things: to touch the divine Eucharist, in which is contained the sweetest manna of very many both mysteries and benefits; to bear the rod of their priestly power as a symbol and mark [character]; to unroll always the divine laws and books, and, by teaching and explaining, to convey [them] to the minds of others also.”
(col. 396)
But [that] a carrying of the ark of this sort — out of [the usual] order, by the priests — happened three times, the Talmudists note in [tractate] Sota. Yet they ought to have said four times, as Radak too confessed. For first it was done here; then below, ch. 6, in the circuit of Jericho; thirdly, when the same ark was brought into David’s house from the house of Obed-edom the Gittite (1 Chron. 15); lastly, when it was carried back to Jerusalem from the flight of David, [as he was] yielding to Absalom (2 Sam. [Reg.] 15).
The second. Did the priests alone then carry the ark? The Seventy [LXX] and the Chaldee Paraphrast seem to deny [it], because in the words of the text already cited they interpose a conjunctive particle, thus: “When you shall see the Priests AND the Levites carrying it”; and the same [is] related [by] Josephus, bk. 5 ch. 1. And [it] can be confirmed [thus]: because, when [it] is said “Priests, of the Levitical stock,” [it] seems to be signified [that] there are other priests of another stock, from whom these are to be distinguished in that way. Yet [it is] to be said: 1. [that] at this time the priests alone carried the ark, because the Hebrew put no conjunction, but only said “Priests, Levites”; and because in those words there is a certain apposition, our text expressed it by rendering “of the Levitical stock.” 2. [that] either the Levites carried [it] together with the priests, or succeeded them. Not the former — because very few men (as will be said below) were needed to carry that ark; and a coupling of men unequal in rank and dignity would have been less fitting. For not ineptly [did] a certain one of the ancients [say]:
“Not well do unequal bullocks come to the plough.”
Nor yet the latter — because the text [did] not say either that the Priests should begin the carrying of the ark and the Levites succeed [them when] wearied, or, on the contrary, that the Levites should begin and the Priests themselves relieve [them when] wearied; or certainly, in general, that both should carry the ark by turns. Then, the journeys to be made then were not so long, nor was the ark of such bulk and weight as to tire its bearers much. And [even] granted it did tire [them] — [is there] not, in honour of GOD, some labour to be borne? And elsewhere too, when priests alone are in question, the name of “Levites” is still wont to be joined to them — so that in the scriptures the Rabbis, in Bereshith Rabba, noted this forty-five times. But [it] is joined, neither so that these be distinguished from other priests, nor so that [it] be shown [that] the Hebrew name of “priests” here is not taken for “Princes” (as [in] 2 Sam. [Reg.] 8, in the way it seemed to Abulensis here); but so that God’s singular benefit toward the Levitical family might be repeatedly recalled, and impressed upon the priests themselves — and [likewise] their kinship with the other Levites, and [their] same origin — lest they set themselves too much before these, [and] despise them, but rather love them more and more, as [being] kinsmen. But if anyone will have it that this was done altogether for the sake of distinction, let it be so indeed — yet so that they were distinguished from other priests: not [those] who then were among the people of the Hebrews, but [those] who once had been, and among other peoples still were (if any worshipped the true GOD) — namely, the firstborn.
The third. Why did the Lord now will [that] the priestly carrying of the ark be the sign of setting-out? Because [that] which was wont before to be the admonisher and Leader of the journeys — the cloud — he now willed [to be] taken away. And he willed [it thus], because that [cloud], in inhabited and cultivated lands (in which thenceforth [there was] not so much wandering to be done as dwelling), was neither necessary, nor, as in the wilderness, very suitable: since here the ways were well-trodden, and easily known to anyone with modest care; and the time of setting-out was to be prudently observed — from the occasions of affairs and the crises of hostile counsels — by Joshua himself, [who was] then to signify [it] to the priests, so that they could take up the ark. [One] may, if [he] please, see Abulensis quaest. 6 & 7, and, in the booklet On the Joshuan priests cited before, ch. 3 num. 38.
(col. 397)