So how many different Obed-edoms are there? It seems impossible to tell with certainty, but the distinctions give some hints.
- “Obed-edom the Gittite” (including the qualifier “the Gittite”) is never mentioned by name in connection with worship as a Levite. The only sure knowledge we have of him relates to the ark staying at his house for three months and God’s blessing of him during that time.
- Of the Obed-edoms who are mentioned in connection with worship, there is one mention of “the son of Jeduthun” (1 Chronicles 16:38).
- Also in that verse, there is another Obed-edom with no other qualifier (1 Chronicles 16:38). He may have been the most famous: the Obed-edom. All other Obed-edoms (including “the Gittite”) needed qualifying.
- A 100-year time difference means that the Obed-edom mentioned in 2 Chronicles 25:24 must be distinct from any of those in David and Solomon’s time.
From this, it seems most likely that there were at least four men called Obed-edom, maybe more.
Possibly...
One other possibility to think about: sometimes when people migrate to another country that uses a different language and different names, they find that their name is difficult for their new friends to pronounce, so they choose a name that is more common in their new home. It is possible that Obed-edom the Gittite did that. We don’t know.
A Kohathite?
A little bit of background will help with understanding our next few steps in this investigation. God gave large areas of the land of Canaan to different tribes so that they would live together in family groups, but the tribe of Levi was to be different. They were to be spread throughout Israel with the responsibility of teaching and explaining God’s law to the people in all of the other tribes (Leviticus 10:8-11; Deuteronomy 17:9-11; 33:8-10). To achieve this, God gave
the Levites many towns spread all over Israel: a town here, a town there.
Some of these towns were given specifically to the priests (descendants of Aaron), while others were given to the other families of Levites.
Both of the towns called “Gath-rimmon” were given to the Levites, specifically the Kohathites (Joshua 21:20). However, they were definitely not given to the priests, since the priests’ towns are listed immediately beforehand in Joshua 21:13-19.
Kohathites were descendants of Levi’s son Kohath, which included Aaron and his descendants, the priests. Thus, all priests were Kohathites – but not all Kohathites were priests.
This is of interest because the Kohathites were to carry many of the items of the tabernacle (Numbers 4:15; 7:9; 10:21). However, the ark was a different matter.
Let’s look at examples to see who actually carried the ark before God.
When Israel crossed the Jordan into Canaan, it was the priests who carried the ark (Joshua 3:3, 8). When the people walked around Jericho so many times before the walls fell down, it was the priests who carried the ark (Joshua 6:6). When the people were gathered on Mt Ebal and Mt Gerizim, the priests carried the ark (Joshua 8:33).
Deuteronomy 31:9 also describes the priests as Levites who carried the ark (cf v 25, which only says “Levites” – but of course, all priests were Levites).
We can reasonably conclude that it was not just any Kohathites who were to carry the ark: it was to be carried by priests.
When David first arranged for the ark to be taken into Jerusalem, it was carried on a cart. This was wrong – as David acknowledged when he tried again later. The second time, he said that none but the Levites were to carry the ark (1 Chronicles 15:2). Does that mean just any Levites? 1 Chronicles 15:11-12 tells us that David called Zadok and Abiathar the priests and other leaders of the Levites and told them to arrange for the carrying of the ark, noting that God had
broken out against them and killed Uzzah because they had not done it correctly the first time (1 Chronicles 15:13). Verses 14-15 tell us that the priests and Levites consecrated themselves and the Levites carried the ark of God with the poles as Moses had commanded.
So who did carry the ark? Was it the priests or some other Levites?
From the commands in Numbers and Deuteronomy and the examples in Joshua, I would expect that the priests would have been required to carry the ark and that the Levites would have been praising God as they walked.
However, we also find one more hint and one more concrete example that, put together, tie up the loose ends and finally clinch the matter for me.
The hint is in 1 Kings 2:26. By that time, Solomon was king and Abiathar the priest was being dismissed from his position because he had supported Adonijah in trying take over the kingship. In this verse, Solomon mentions that Abiathar had carried the ark of God before David. His carrying of the ark could well have included the time when it was carried from Obed-edom’s house to the place David had prepared: at the very least, we know that he was involved in the planning.
The final example comes after the events with Obed-edom and shows that the lesson had been well and truly learned by David. Solomon built the temple for God on Mount Moriah (2 Chronicles 3:1) and had to move the ark of the covenant from the City of David into the temple. In 2 Chronicles 5:4 we are told that the Levites carried the ark, while v5 says it was the Levitical priests who brought it up. Once again, priests were Levites, so the first statement is not wrong, it is just
that the second is more specific. Verse 7 repeats that it was the priests who carried the ark and placed it in the inner sanctuary of the temple.
Overall, I would conclude that the intention from start to end was for the priests to carry the ark. Priests were Levites. They were also Kohathites (who carried most of the other holy items from the tabernacle).
Some suggest that if Obed-edom came from Gath-rimmon – a Kohathite town – then he could have looked after and even carried the ark, but the details above convince me that only priests could carry the ark. It was the most holy of all the holy items. Other items could be carried by Kohathites, but not the ark.
Conclusions
- Obed-edom the Gittite is most likely to have come from the Philistine town of Gath, probably one of the Gittites who came with David from Gath when he left king Achish to return to Israel. David inspired many foreigners to worship Yahweh.
- Even if a Gittite could come from Gath-rimmon (which cannot be substantiated), both of the towns that we know of with that name were given to non-priestly Kohathites, not to priests. Only priests could carry the ark, so a non-priestly Kohathite would have been no better qualified to look after the ark than a God-fearing Philistine from Gath.
