Whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the LORD, unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the LORD.
Ver. 4. Whither the tribes go up] Thrice a year all the males appeared before the Lord in Sion; the females also, as many as would (as Hannah, the Virgin Mary, &c.), but they were not bound. At which times there was such a general meeting as no city could show the like; a type of that great panegyris, Hebrews 12:22,23 .
Unto the testimony of lsrael] The ark was so called, in regard of the tables of the covenant kept therein, as two letters of contract between God and men, saith Aben Ezra, Exodus 15:16; those two tables are called the testimony.