1 Chronicleschapter 13
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Speaks with:2 Samuel 6×71 Chronicles 15×4Numbers 4×31 Samuel 6×21 Chronicles 26×22 Chronicles 29×1
Summary
Chapter summary
David's first act as king is to seek the ark, 'for we sought not unto it in the days of Saul.' All Israel from Shihor of Egypt to the entrance of Hamath gathers to bring it up from Kiriath-jearim, with singing and harps and trumpets, but they carry it on a new cart, the Philistine method rather than the Mosaic one. The oxen stumble, Uzza puts out his hand to the ark, and the anger of Jehovah is kindled against him. David is displeased and afraid, names the place Perez-uzza, and leaves the ark in the house of Obed-edom, where God blesses that household three months. Zeal without obedience is not enough.
Context
History · Ezra — 1 Chronicles overview
- A. 1–8 David gathers all Israel to bring the ark home
- B. 9–14 Uzza's hand, David's fear, and blessing on Obed-edom
The outline
A.David gathers all Israel to bring the ark homevv. 1 to 8
Read vv. 1 to 8 →B.Uzza's hand, David's fear, and blessing on Obed-edomvv. 9 to 14
Read vv. 9 to 14 →
The world behind this chapter
1 Chronicles 13The history
The ark had been sitting at Kiriath-jearim for roughly twenty years, ever since the Philistines sent it back after it brought them nothing but trouble. It was out of sight and out of use — the sanctuary at Gibeon still had the tabernacle and the bronze altar, but the ark was in a private house on a hill.
The new cart was the mistake, and its origin makes it worse. A cart drawn by cattle was precisely how the Philistines had returned the ark. It was foreign practice, and it was efficient, and it was wrong. The Law was explicit: the ark was carried on poles, on the shoulders of Kohathite Levites, and no one touched it, on pain of death.
A threshing floor was a flat, exposed patch of bedrock on a rise, chosen for the wind that separated grain from chaff. It was also uneven ground for a cart. When the oxen stumbled, Uzza did the instinctive thing and steadied the ark with his hand — and died there.
Obed-edom, who then housed it for three months, is called 'the Gittite,' which most take to mean he came from Gath-rimmon, a Levite town. That matters: the ark went to a house that was allowed to have it.
What it meant to them
The first hearers had rebuilt an altar in the seventh month, laid a foundation with priests in their vestments and Levites with cymbals 'according to the direction of David king of Israel,' and argued over who was qualified to do what. They were a community learning obedience by the book.
This chapter told them that sincerity and celebration and thirty thousand men are not a substitute for doing it the way God said. The procession was joyful and the ark was real and the method was borrowed from the Philistines, and it ended in a grave.
Sources cited
- Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions
- Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Chronicles
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on 1 Chronicles 13. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.