2 Samuel 6:5-23

5 David and all Israel were celebrating with all their might before the LORD, with castanets,[a] harps, lyres, timbrels, sistrums and cymbals.
6 When they came to the threshing floor of Nakon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God, because the oxen stumbled.
7 The LORD’s anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act; therefore God struck him down, and he died there beside the ark of God.
8 Then David was angry because the LORD’s wrath had broken out against Uzzah, and to this day that place is called Perez Uzzah.[b]
9 David was afraid of the LORD that day and said, “How can the ark of the LORD ever come to me?”
10 He was not willing to take the ark of the LORD to be with him in the City of David. Instead, he took it to the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite.
11 The ark of the LORD remained in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite for three months, and the LORD blessed him and his entire household.
12 Now King David was told, “The LORD has blessed the household of Obed-Edom and everything he has, because of the ark of God.” So David went to bring up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with rejoicing.
13 When those who were carrying the ark of the LORD had taken six steps, he sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf.
14 Wearing a linen ephod, David was dancing before the LORD with all his might,
15 while he and all Israel were bringing up the ark of the LORD with shouts and the sound of trumpets.
16 As the ark of the LORD was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD, she despised him in her heart.
17 They brought the ark of the LORD and set it in its place inside the tent that David had pitched for it, and David sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings before the LORD.
18 After he had finished sacrificing the burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the LORD Almighty.
19 Then he gave a loaf of bread, a cake of dates and a cake of raisins to each person in the whole crowd of Israelites, both men and women. And all the people went to their homes.
20 When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, “How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, going around half-naked in full view of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!”
21 David said to Michal, “It was before the LORD, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the LORD’s people Israel—I will celebrate before the LORD.
22 I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor.”
23 And Michal daughter of Saul had no children to the day of her death.

2 Samuel 6:5-23 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO SECOND SAMUEL 6

In this chapter we are told that David fetched the ark from Baale of Judah, with an intent to bring it to his own city, 2Sa 6:1-5; but Uzzah being smitten for his error concerning it, David was displeased, and left it at the house of Obededom, where it remained three months, and proved a blessing to his house, 2Sa 6:6-11; which David hearing of, went and brought it from thence with great expressions of joy before it as it came along, and offered offerings to the Lord at the setting it in its place, and gave gifts to the people, 2Sa 6:12-19; but Michal his wife was displeased with some of his gestures on that occasion, which made some difference between them, and which, on Michal's part, was resented by the Lord himself; for she became barren for it to the time of her death, 2Sa 6:20-23.

Cross References 27

  • 1. S Exodus 15:20
  • 2. 1 Samuel 18:6-7; Ezra 3:10; Nehemiah 12:27; Psalms 150:5
  • 3. S Nu 4:15,19-20; 1 Chronicles 13:9
  • 4. 1 Chronicles 15:13-15
  • 5. S Exodus 19:22; S 1 Samuel 5:6; 1 Samuel 6:19; S 1 Samuel 25:38
  • 6. Psalms 7:11
  • 7. S Genesis 38:29
  • 8. S 1 Samuel 6:20; Psalms 119:120
  • 9. 1 Chronicles 13:13; 1 Chronicles 15:18; 1 Chronicles 26:4-5
  • 10. S Genesis 30:27; Genesis 39:5
  • 11. 1 Kings 8:1; 1 Chronicles 15:25
  • 12. 1 Kings 8:5,62; Ezra 6:17
  • 13. Exodus 19:6; S 1 Samuel 2:18
  • 14. S Exodus 15:20
  • 15. S Joshua 6:5
  • 16. Psalms 47:5; Psalms 98:6
  • 17. S 2 Samuel 5:7
  • 18. S 1 Samuel 18:27
  • 19. 1 Kings 8:6; 1 Chronicles 15:1; 2 Chronicles 1:4
  • 20. Leviticus 1:1-17; 1 Kings 8:62-64
  • 21. 1 Kings 8:22
  • 22. S Exodus 39:43
  • 23. Hosea 3:1
  • 24. Deuteronomy 26:13; Nehemiah 8:10
  • 25. ver 14,16; S 1 Samuel 19:24
  • 26. 1 Samuel 13:14; S 1 Samuel 15:28
  • 27. 2 Samuel 5:2; 2 Samuel 7:8; 1 Chronicles 5:2; 1 Chronicles 17:7; Micah 5:2

Footnotes 2

  • [a]. Masoretic Text; Dead Sea Scrolls and Septuagint (see also 1 Chron. 13:8) "songs"
  • [b]. "Perez Uzzah" means "outbreak against Uzzah."
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