2 Samuel 6:1-23
6 And again David brought together all the picked men in Israel, thirty thousand of them;
2 and David and all the people that were with him went to Baal-Judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which wears the name of Jehovah of Armies who sits upon the cherubs.
3 * And they put the ark of God in a new cart and moved it out of Abinadab’s house at Gibeah; and Abinadab’s sons, ʽUzzah and Ahjo, were driving the cart
4 * with the ark of God, and Ahjo was walking in front of the ark,
5 * and David and all the house of Israel were playing before Jehovah with all energy and with songs and with lyres and harps and tambourines and sistrums and cymbals.
6 * And they came to Nacon’s threshing-floor, and ʽUzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, because the oxen jolted it.
7 ** And Jehovah was angry with ʽUzzah, and God smote him down on the shal, and he died there beside the ark of God.
8 And David was shocked at Jehovah’s having scathed ʽUzzah, and called that place ʽUzzah’s Scathe, which name it bears to this day.
9 And David became afraid of Jehovah that day, and said “How can the ark of Jehovah come to my home?”
10 And David was unwilling to move the ark of Jehovah to David’s City; and David took it into the house of ʽObed-Edom the Gathite.
11 And the ark of Jehovah remained in the house of ʽObed-Edom the Gathite three months, and Jehovah blessed ʽObed-Edom and all his house.
12 And King David was told “Jehovah has blessed ʽObed-Edom and all that belongs to him on account of the ark of God”; and David went and brought up the ark of God from ʽObed-Edom’s house to David’s City with festivity.
13 And when the bearers of the ark of Jehovah had taken six steps, he sacrificed a bull and a stall-fed calf;
14 ** and David was whirling with all energy before Jehovah, with a linen ephod belted round him,
15 while David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of Jehovah with cheering and blasts of ram-horns.
16 And when the ark of Jehovah came to David’s City, Mical the daughter of Saul looked out through the window and saw King David capering and whirling before Jehovah, and felt a contempt for him.
17 And they brought the ark of Jehovah in and set it in its place in the tent David had pitched for it; and David offered burnt-offerings before Jehovah, and welfare-sacrifices.
18 And when David finished offering the burnt-offering and the welfare-sacrifices he blessed the people in the name of Jehovah of Armies,
19 * and distributed to all the people, all the host of Israel, women as well as men, a ritual-cake of bread apiece and a steak and a cake of raisins; and all the people went to their homes.
20 And David went home to bless his house, and Mical the daughter of Saul came out to meet David and said “How glorious today was the king of Israel, who exposed himself today before the eyes of his subjects’ slave-women just as any of the riffraff would go and expose himself!”
21 And David said to Mical “Before the presence of Jehovah, who chose me in preference to your father and all his family, appointing me warden over Jehovah’s people Israel; so I play before Jehovah,
22 * and do things still more ignominious, and am low in my own eyes; but among the slave-women that you speak of, among them I am respected.”
23 And Mical the daughter of Saul never had a child till the day of her death.
Footnotes
^ 6:3 Or ʽUzzah and his brother . . . and his brother was walking
^ 6:4 Codd. omit and Ahjo was walking
^ 6:5 (with all energy) Unc.; perhaps the name of a dance
^ 6:6 Unc.; or the oxen slipped or the oxen tilted it or the oxen jerked him
^ 6:7 See 1 Samuel. 13:21
^ [6:7 (On the shal) Some translators view the Hebrew expression here as uncertain in meaning. This rendering simply transfers the Hebrew expression shal, untranslated, into the English text.—Publisher’s Note.]
^ 6:14 See note on verse 5
^ 6:14 Or tied round him
^ 6:19 (steak) Unc.
^ 6:22 Var. in your eyes
