It shall be, when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees, that then you shall go out to battle; for God is gone out before you to strike the host of the Philistines.
The writer then goes back to the story of the ark and shows how, after the earlier setback, it was finally brought to Jerusalem. Nothing disastrous happened this time, because the ark was transported in the proper manner and handled with fitting reverence. It was carried on the shoulders of the Levites, who themselves were ceremonially cleansed (15:1-15; see notes on 2 Samuel 6:12-15).