Then David said,.... Either within himself, or to his ministers and courtiers about him:
none ought to carry the ark of God but the Levites; he saw his former mistake in employing those that were not Levites in bringing up the ark from Kirjathjearim, and bringing it in a cart, and not on the shoulders of the Levites, and so miscarried in his attempt, 2 Samuel 6:1 and, perhaps, had since more diligently consulted the law of God about this matter:
for them hath the Lord chosen to carry the ark of God, and to minister unto him for ever; as long as the Levitical dispensation lasted, as appears from Numbers 1:50.