And the king said unto Zadok, carry back the ark of God into
the city
The reason of which is not easy to account for, since being carried back it would fall into the hands of the conspirators; and now the priests were with it to take care of it, and there might be occasion to inquire at it before the Lord; but David thought it being a sacred thing would not be violated by Absalom and his men, and that it would be safest in its own habitation or tabernacle, which David had built for it; for, that the reason of it should be, what Procopius Gazaeus suggests, cannot be given into, that he could not bear to carry about him the law, which accused of adulteries and murders:
if I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord:
if he will appear for me, be on my side, and deliver me from those who have risen up against me:
he will bring me again:
to Jerusalem, and to his palace there:
and show me [both] it and his habitation;
the ark, and the tabernacle he had erected for it, ( 2 Samuel 6:17 ) .