2 Samuel 6:1

1 David again gathered together all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand.

2 Samuel 6:1 Meaning and Commentary

2 Samuel 6:1

Again, David gathered together all [the] chosen [men] of
Israel, thirty thousand.
] Which was done by the advice of his officers, ( 1 Chronicles 13:1 ) ; the word "again" refers either to the gathering of them when they made him king in Hebron, as the Jewish writers generally observe; but then they gathered themselves, and not David: or rather to his gathering them to fight the Philistines a little while ago; and as they were the choice and young men that were gathered for war, as being the fittest, so now to fetch up the ark with dancing and singing, and to protect it; the Septuagint version says they were about seventy thousand; but the Targum, Syriac, and Arabic versions, have thirty thousand, agreeably to the Hebrew text.

2 Samuel 6:1 In-Context

1 David again gathered together all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand.

2 David arose, and went with all the people who were with him, from Baale-judah, to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the Name, even the name of Yahweh of Hosts who sits [above] the cherubim.

3 They set the ark of God on a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab that was in the hill: and Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, drove the new cart.

4 They brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was in the hill, with the ark of God: and Ahio went before the ark.

5 David and all the house of Israel played before Yahweh with all manner of [instruments made of] fir-wood, and with harps, and with psalteries, and with tambourines, and with castanets, and with cymbals.