Then the king said to Zadok, “Return the ark of God to the city. If I find favor in the eyes of the LORD, He will bring me back and let me see both it and His dwelling place again.
Parallel translations
- WEB The king said to Zadok, “Carry God’s ark back into the city. If I find favor in Yahweh’s eyes, he will bring me again, and show me both it, and his habitation;
- KJV And the king said unto Zadok, Carry back the ark of God into the city: if I shall find favour in the eyes of the LORD, he will bring me again, and shew me both it, and his habitation:
- NKJV 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 show me both it and His dwelling place.
- NASB And the king said to Zadok, “Return the ark of God to the city. If I find favor in the sight of the Lord, then He will bring me back and show me both it and His habitation.
- NLT Then the king instructed Zadok to take the Ark of God back into the city. “If the Lord sees fit,” David said, “he will bring me back to see the Ark and the Tabernacle again.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
David orders the ark returned to Jerusalem, trusting God to restore him if he finds favor. He refuses to manipulate God's presence for his own security.
Overview
Rather than carry the ark as a good-luck charm, David sends it back, entrusting his future to God's grace. His confidence that the Lord can bring him home reflects genuine faith rather than presumption. This humble reliance on God's favor, not on religious objects, marks the heart of true worship.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- Jer 25:30So you are to prophesy all these words against them and say to them: ‘The LORD will roar from on high; He will raise His voice from His holy habitation. He will roar loudly over His pasture; like those who tread the grapes, He will call out with a shout against all the inhabitants of the earth.
- Ps 84:10For better is one day in Your courts than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
- Ps 26:8O LORD, I love the house where You dwell, the place where Your glory resides.
- Exod 15:13With loving devotion You will lead the people You have redeemed; with Your strength You will guide them to Your holy dwelling.
- Ps 43:3–4Send out Your light and Your truth; let them lead me. Let them bring me to Your holy mountain, and to the place where You dwell.
- 2 Sam 6:17So they brought the ark of the LORD and set it in its place inside the tent that David had pitched for it. Then David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD.
- 2 Sam 12:10–11Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you have despised Me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’
- Isa 38:22And Hezekiah had asked, “What will be the sign that I will go up to the house of the LORD?”
- Ps 63:1–2A Psalm of David, when he was in the Wilderness of Judah. O God, You are my God. Earnestly I seek You; my soul thirsts for You. My body yearns for You in a dry and weary land without water.
- Ps 122:9For the sake of the house of the LORD our God, I will seek your prosperity.
- Ps 122:1A song of ascents. Of David. I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the LORD.”
- Ps 42:1–2For the choirmaster. A Maskil of the sons of Korah. As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul longs after You, O God.
- 1 Sam 4:3–11When the troops returned to the camp, the elders of Israel asked, “Why has the LORD brought defeat on us before the Philistines today? Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD from Shiloh, so that it may go with us to save us from the hand of our enemies.”
- Ps 27:4–5One thing I have asked of the LORD; this is what I desire: to dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the LORD and seek Him in His temple.
- Jer 7:4Do not trust in deceptive words, chanting: ‘This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.’
- Ps 84:1–3For the choirmaster. According to Gittith. A Psalm of the sons of Korah. How lovely is Your dwelling place, O LORD of Hosts!
- 2 Sam 7:2he said to Nathan the prophet, “Here I am, living in a house of cedar, while the ark of God remains in a tent.”
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Christ at the center
God's covenant with David — a son whose throne and kingdom would last forever (7:12–16) — finds its yes in Jesus, the Son of David who reigns without end.
How 2 Samuel 15:25 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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