2 Chronicles 35:3

3. The Levites that taught all Israel Certain Levites were especially intrusted with the work of teaching the people the law of God. 2 Chronicles 17:9.

Which were holy unto the Lord None but holy and consecrated ones could properly approach to or bear the ark.

Put the holy ark in the house When and how the ark had been removed from its proper place in the temple is not recorded. Keil’s explanation, that the words do not mean a material moving of the ark, but are to be understood in the sense of “Overlook, leave it in the temple, for you are no longer to carry it on your shoulders,” is far from satisfactory, and amounts to no more than “Leave it in the place where it has hitherto stood;” a sense which he himself admits the words cannot bear. Equally untenable is the rabbinical opinion, that the words are a command to remove the ark to some subterranean chamber of the temple, where it might be safe in case the temple were destroyed. The words clearly imply that the ark had, for some reason, been removed from its proper place in the oracle, or holy of holies, which Solomon the son of David king of Israel did build; and most interpreters suppose that this had taken place during the godless reign of Amon, or, perhaps, of Manasseh, when it was removed either by them to make room for idolatrous statues, or by some pious priests and Levites in order to protect it from profanation and destruction. The latter supposition is the more probable, for as the book of the law, whose proper place was in the ark, had been removed and hidden in a secret place of the temple, so the ark itself may also have been concealed.

It shall not be a burden upon your shoulders The Levites, perhaps, had the impression that it would be appropriate, and in keeping with most ancient usage, to bear the ark about the temple and its courts at the passover; but Josiah reminded them that since Solomon had built a settled place for the ark to abide in, it was no longer to be borne about.