Commentaria in II Regum (II Samuelis)
Moreover this dance of David was military, as of a soldier fighting for the ark of God, exulting and triumphing. The Roman Salii imitated David, who were priests of Mars, so called because they used to dance in carrying the ancilia (sacred shields); for dancing denotes a soldier lively, ready and spirited. Hence Ovid, book III of the Fasti:
Now let them have given the Salii names derived from the dance.
Hence also by Virgil, book VIII of the Aeneid, they are called “the exulting Salii.” Hear Livy, book I: “Numa likewise chose twelve Salii for Mars Gradivus, and gave them the badge of the embroidered tunic, and over the tunic a bronze covering for the breast, and commanded them to carry the heavenly shields (which are called ancilia) and to go through the city singing songs with leaping dances and solemn dancing.”
Finally our Serarius here: Those who today, he says, come to us from Syria testify that the Christians who live in those regions come on the day of the Lord’s Resurrection, and on other celebrated feasts, to church with lyres and harps, and sing psalms among themselves, and dance together, soberly and modestly however; the men, they say, dance apart, and the women apart. So in Spain and India boys before the Blessed Sacrament perform sacred choruses and dances.
Anagogically, while the slothful grow numb in idleness, the fervent leap up to many and great works of virtue, that by them they may leap into heaven. “That glorious dance of the wise man, says St. Ambrose, book IV, epistle 30 to Sabinus, which David danced, and therefore he ascended by the height of a spiritual dance to the seat of Christ, that he might see and hear the Lord saying to his Lord: Sit thou at my right hand.” The same St. Ambrose, book II On Penance, chap. 6 (tome III): “Everything becomes, he says, that is offered to religion, so that we should blush at no service that profits towards the worship and observance of Christ. This dance is not therefore proclaimed as the companion of delights and luxury; but that by which each one lifts up the body unsluggishly, and suffers not the limbs to lie idle on the ground, or grow numb with slow steps. Paul danced spiritually when he stretched himself out for us, and forgetting the things that are behind, and reaching forth to those that are before, pressed towards the prize of Christ. Thou also, when thou comest to Baptism, art bidden to lift up thy hands; to have swifter feet by which thou mayest climb to eternal things. This dance is the companion of faith, the comrade of grace. This is therefore the mystery: We have sung to you, namely a canticle of the New Testament, and you have not danced, that is, you have not lifted up your mind to spiritual grace,” Luke chap. 7. The same Ambrose, book VI on Luke, chap. 7, teaches that this dance of David was not wanton, theatrical or histrionic, but honourable, modest and pious. “That dance is honourable, he says, in which the soul leaps for joy, and the body is raised up by good works.”
NOW DAVID WAS GIRDED WITH A LINEN EPHOD,—or “of fine linen,” as is said in 1 Paralipomenon 15:27; for fine linen is made from the whitest and finest flax. For the embroidered ephod was the vestment of the High Priest alone, Exodus 28:6 [sic]. But priests and Levites were clothed with a linen ephod, from which this ephod of David, as a layman’s, was different.
15. AND BROUGHT THE ARK OF THE COVENANT OF THE LORD WITH JOYFUL SHOUTING, AND WITH SOUND OF TRUMPET.—Josephus adds, book VIII [sic], chap. 4, and says: “They go up thither with victims, both the king and all the people and the Levites, pouring out the way with libations and much blood of sacrifices, and burning an infinite quantity of perfumes, so that all the air round about was filled with sweetness, perceived even by those far away.” And he adds that “all were so strengthened by divine help in this supplication that no one grew weary, from which the opinion of all was constant that God was coming to dwell in the newly built place dedicated to him; for neither those singing hymns nor those leading dances felt weariness until they reached the temple.”
Allegorically, the ark signified the Church of the New Testament militant, which Christ established in Sion, and to which he led all nations by the Apostles, and will lead the Jews at the end of the world. Hear Eucherius: “David brings the ark into the city of David; because the Lord, with Henoch and Elias preaching, will convert the hearts of the fathers to the children, sacrificing oxen and rams, that is, those who thresh the ark of the Lord and bear the leadership of his sheep, crowning them with the blood of martyrdom, and himself also openly manifesting the example of his incarnation and passion, hitherto not believed by the Jews. For this signifies that David himself was girded with a linen ephod, which, produced from the earth with manifold labour, comes to the whiteness of a garment, and so shows the truth of the human flesh triumphing amid scourges.”
Anagogically, the ark signified the Church of the Blessed triumphant, which Christ led in triumph to the heavenly Sion, especially when he himself ascended into it in glory, with all the holy Patriarchs and Prophets, on the fortieth day after the resurrection. Nay, the ark of the Testament represented the glorious humanity of Christ, in which, as in an ark, his divinity was contained and hidden. Again, the ark signified the Blessed Virgin, whom the true David, that is Christ, led and took up into heaven with the jubilation of all Angels and Saints.
17. AND THEY SET IT IN ITS PLACE IN THE MIDST OF THE TABERNACLE WHICH DAVID HAD PITCHED FOR IT.—This tabernacle of David was new, and different from that which Moses had made, Exodus 25. For that Mosaic one was in Gabaon. It was therefore erected by David in Sion, that he might place the ark in it honourably, and at the same time he erected before it an altar of holocausts on which to sacrifice victims; for the altar made by Moses remained with the tabernacle in Gabaon, and afterwards was transferred by Solomon to the temple built by him, as is clear from book 1 of Paralipomenon.
AND DAVID OFFERED HOLOCAUSTS AND PEACE OFFERINGS BEFORE THE LORD,—namely before the ark of the Lord. Moreover David then composed, and had sung, Psalm 28: “Bring to the Lord, O ye sons of God, bring to the Lord the offspring of rams,” as is clear from the title of the psalm, which is: At the completion of the tabernacle. Then likewise he appointed Levites to sing before the ark the psalm: “Give glory to the Lord, and call upon his name,” which is recounted in 1 Paralipomenon 16:8, and is compounded from Psalms 104 and 95, and besides other psalms.
18. HE BLESSED THE PEOPLE,—that is, he prayed well for the people. It is likely that the high priest Abiathar on so great a solemnity likewise blessed the people, saying: “The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord shew his face to thee, and have mercy on thee. The Lord turn his countenance to thee, and give thee peace,” as God had prescribed, Numbers 6:23.
19. AND HE DISTRIBUTED, &c., TO EVERY ONE A CAKE OF BREAD.—The collyris was a loaf of bread or cake, with sweets mixed in for delight of taste. Hear Rhodiginus, book IX of Antiquities, chap. 16: “Little loaves which were wont to be given to children were called collyra. Elsewhere, however, collyria are called lalangia (wafers); whence also the verb kollyrizein, by which the cooking of wafers in a pan is signified.”
AND A PIECE OF ROASTED BEEF (that is, of the ox; wrongly therefore is bubalae read in the Royal Bibles; for it is not about buffaloes but about oxen that the discourse is here).—So it is eshpar, which is compounded of esh, that is fire (as if to say, roasted by fire) and par, that is, a bullock; or, as Marinus in his Lexicon, made up of echad, that is, one, shesh, that is, six, and par, that is, a bullock, as if to say, one of six parts of a bullock; Pagninus renders, a fair piece of flesh.