2 Samuel
Chapter 6
The Ark Is Transported to Jerusalem
David gathered together once more all the picked men of Israel, numbering thirty thousand in all.
Then he, and all the people with him in Baala-Judah, set forth to bring up from there the Ark of God on which the Lord of Hosts pronounced and put his Name, he who rests on the cherubim.
They placed the Ark of God on a new cart and brought it out of the house of Abinadab on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, sons of Abinadab, were guiding cart
with the Ark of the Lord, and Ahio was walking before it.
David and the Israelites celebrated joyfully before the Lord, singing and playing on lyres, harps, tambourines, castanets, and cymbals.
When they came to the threshing floor of Nodan, the oxen stumbled, and Uzzah stretched his hand to the Ark of God to hold it.
The Lord’s anger burned against Uzzah, and God struck him there; Uzzah died there beside the Ark of God.
David was angry because the Lord had struck Uzzah, and that place is called Perez-Uzzah to the present day.
David was afraid of the Lord that day and said: “How can the Ark of the Lord come to me?”
So David refused to take the Ark of the Lord into the city of David but had it brought, instead, to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite.
The Lord’s Ark remained there for three months; and the Lord blessed Obed-edom and all his household.
King David was told that the Lord had blessed the family of Obed-edom and all that belonged to him because of the Ark of God, so he went to bring up the Ark of God from the house of Obed-edom to the city of David, rejoicing.
After those who carried the Ark of the Lord had walked six paces, they sacrificed an ox and a fattened calf.
David whirled round dancing with all his heart before the Lord, wearing a linen ephod,
for he and all the Israelites brought up the Ark of the Lord, shouting joyfully and sounding the horn.
As the Ark of the Lord entered David’s city, Michal, Saul’s daughter, looked out the window. When she saw King David leaping and whirling around before the Lord, she despised him in her heart.
They brought the Ark of the Lord and laid it in its place in the tent David had pitched for it. Then David offered burnt and peace offerings before the Lord.
Once the offerings had been made, David blessed the people in the name of the Lord of Hosts,
and distributed to each of them, to each man and woman of the entire assembly of Israel, a loaf of bread, a portion of meat, and a raisin cake. With this, all the people left for their homes.
When David returned to bless his household, Michal, Saul’s daughter, met him and said: “How the king of Israel honored himself today, exposing himself before his servants’ maids as any vulgar fellow does!”
David told Michal: “I did that before the Lord who chose me instead of your father and his family, making me commander over Israel, the Lord’s people. I swear by the Lord’s life, I will dance and whirl again before him.
I will still humble myself, and you might look at me, but I will not be rejected by the maids you spoke about.”
And Michal, Saul’s daughter, had no child to the day she died.
Commentaries
The Ark Is Transported to Jerusalem.
For Jerusalem to hold unifying power, it must also serve as the religious center of the tribes. Saul overlooked this aspect. The Ark was in Shiloh during Eli’s time, was captured by the Philistines, and upon its return, went to Kiriath Jearim. The Ark is the ultimate religious object. David decides to move it to his new capital and gather the leading priests there. He aims to turn the move into a national religious event, an occasion to strengthen spiritual unity, with Jerusalem as its center from then on. A tragic accident (6s) is seen by those present as God’s punishment for a perceived desecration. Sacredness is still understood in a very concrete, almost physical way, although the author personalizes the deadly impact of the sacred. Just as man cannot see God without dying, the profane cannot touch the holy object without consequence; remember the sacredness of Mount Sinai. David’s response to Michal’s sarcasm (20-22) conveys a key principle of spirituality: David is a servant of God, which is why he feels compelled to dance—a seemingly trivial act that might seem humiliating to human pride. Yet David knows that the Lord has chosen him as his servant; his glory lies in honoring the sovereign, and ordinary people will recognize the importance of this gesture.