1 Chronicleschapter 13
14 verses · Ezra, by tradition · 450 to 400 BC · History
When they came to the threshing floor of Chidon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark, because the oxen had stumbled.
Introduction
Ezra, by tradition, History, 1 Chronicles Overview.
This chapter was written for a community that had rebuilt its altar and temple and was learning to worship by the rule God gave. The compiler sets this story early in David's reign, before his palace and his wars, to show what the king cared about first. It tells of a great procession with music and a new cart. Listen for how the plan is agreed, and then for the moment the celebration stops. The first hearers learned that a holy thing is done the way God commanded, whatever joy and good intentions surround it.
Context
- Who
- A community that had just rebuilt an altar and a temple by careful rule
- What
- David's first attempt to bring the ark of God to Jerusalem, the death of Uzza, and the ark left at the house of Obed-edom.
- Where
- Kiriath-jearim in the hills west of Jerusalem, and the threshing floor of Chidon on the road.
- When
- About 1003 BC, in the first year of David's reign over the whole nation.
- Why
- To show that the ark must be handled as God commanded, however sincere the worshippers are.
Historical context
1 Chronicles names no author, and it names its own sources at 29:29, the histories of Samuel the seer, Nathan the prophet and Gad the seer. The Babylonian Talmud at tractate Bava Batra 15a assigns the book to Ezra the scribe, and C. F. Keil follows that tradition. Sara Japhet, H. G. M. Williamson and Gary Knoppers hold instead that an anonymous writer of the Persian period compiled it. The attempt falls in David's first year over the whole nation, about 1003 BC on that same reckoning. The places are Kiriath-jearim in the hills west of Jerusalem and the threshing floor of Chidon on the road down. A first hearer knew the ark had stood at Kiriath-jearim for about twenty years, since the Philistines returned it, while the tabernacle and the bronze altar stood at Gibeon. He knew the law assigned the ark to poles on the shoulders of Kohathite Levites and forbade touching it on pain of death. He knew that a cart drawn by cattle was how the Philistines had sent the ark back, so the method was borrowed from them. A threshing floor was a flat patch of exposed bedrock on a rise, chosen for the wind that separated grain from chaff, and it made uneven ground for a cart. Obed-edom is called the Gittite, which most take to mean he came from Gath-rimmon, a Levite town, so the ark went to a house that was allowed to hold it.
Significance
The first hearers had rebuilt an altar in the seventh month and laid a foundation with priests in their vestments and Levites with cymbals, by the direction of David king of Israel. They were a community learning obedience by the book and arguing over who was qualified to do what. This chapter told them that sincerity and celebration and thirty thousand men still leave the method to be got right. The procession was joyful, the ark was real, the method was borrowed from the Philistines, and it ended in a grave.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The first attempt to bring up the ark has no place in the synagogue year. The site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts printed parashot total 0 and haftarah uses total 0 for this book, and no festival reading.
The corpus joins the chapter to the weeks in which the ark and its carrying are taught. Under the first verse it carries Bamidbar Rabbah 4:20, and under the sixth Bamidbar Rabbah 4:21 with Pesikta Rabbati 40:1 and Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vayera 45:2. Bamidbar Rabbah 4 is the chapter of that work on the duties of the Levites in carrying the holy things, which is the law this chapter breaks.
How it is read
Rashi is the one commentator on this chapter whose English the corpus carries, quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. He reads David's opening speech as a rebuke turned on the whole assembly. They had already seen to the business that served them, since they had a king to save them, and now they were to see to the honour of God (Rashi on I Chronicles 13:1:1). The word about the matter being opened he takes as a fence opened, since no one had inquired of God until then (Rashi on I Chronicles 13:2:1).
The note on the new cart is the one that carries the weight of the chapter. Rashi asks the question directly. Why did David set the ark on a cart rather than have the Levites carry it, as he did when he brought it up the second time? The answer he gives is that David matched the way it had come to him, on the new cart the Philistines had made when they sent it back in 1 Samuel 6:11. Rashi closes the note in four words. Therefore he was punished (Rashi on I Chronicles 13:7:1). The death of Uzza is read there as the consequence of a decision taken before the procession set out. This site sets out the six standing questions on this book, the death of Uzza among them, in the book dossier at src/components/book/dossier-content/1-chronicles.ts, and the ark itself at /featured/the-ark-of-the-covenant. The card states the classical reading and leaves the argument to them.
Two notes keep the holiness of the object in front of the reader. The name of the Lord of Hosts was called upon the ark. Rashi says the name stayed on it through its exile among the Philistines, because it was hallowed (Rashi on I Chronicles 13:6:2). The blow itself he explains as a matter of the Hebrew word in 2 Samuel 6:7, read as the stretching out of Uzza's hand (Rashi on I Chronicles 13:10:1). David's fear he reads as a practical one. The question in his mouth is how he will bring the ark to himself at all (Rashi on I Chronicles 13:12:1).
The music of the procession gets the longest technical note in the chapter, and it matters for how Jewish worship is described. This verse says the people played with all their might, while 2 Samuel 6:5 has a word meaning wood, which Rashi reads as instruments of every kind of wood. He then separates the cymbals from the rest. They were used to make a sound rather than to carry a tune, like the drum struck with sticks that he names in German. He proves the use from three later verses of this book (Rashi on I Chronicles 13:8:1 and 13:8:2).
One identification closes the chapter and explains why the ark could rest where it did. Obed-Edom is called the Gittite because he had lived in Gath. Rashi holds that he was a Levite, proving it from chapter 15, where he stands among the singers and the gatekeepers of the ark (Rashi on I Chronicles 13:13:1).
The corpus carries ten further notes on this chapter without an English text, each marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. Five stand cited and unquoted at Radak on I Chronicles 13:1:1, 13:3:1, 13:4:1, 13:9:1 and 13:12:1. Four stand at Metzudat David on I Chronicles 13:3:1, 13:5:2, 13:11:1 and 13:14:1, and one at a further note of Rashi on I Chronicles 13:2:2.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries seven rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. It is the smallest run of the fifteen chapters this lane read. On the first verse, David's conference with the captains, it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 4:20. On the sixth, the going up to Kiriath-jearim, it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 4:21, Pesikta Rabbati 40:1 and Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vayera 45:2.
The threshing floor where the ark stopped carries the rest. On the ninth verse the corpus holds Sotah 35a:16 and Sotah 35b:5, which is the passage of that tractate on the carrying of the ark. On the tenth, the death of Uzza, it holds Midrash Tehillim 15:2. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on I Chronicles 13:1:1 to 13:13:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Radak, Radak on I Chronicles 13:1:1, 13:3:1, 13:4:1, 13:9:1 and 13:12:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on I Chronicles 13:3:1, 13:5:2, 13:11:1 and 13:14:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/1-chronicles/13.json, the 7 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, printing no portion, no Haftarah and no festival reading for this book, and src/components/book/dossier-content/1-chronicles.ts, the difficulties section carrying the question of the death of Uzza.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
David gathers all Israel to bring the ark home
1 Chronicles 13:1-3
the commanders of hundreds and of thousands: David conferred with all his leaders, then put the plan to the whole assembly of Israel. Samuel's account only reports David gathering thirty thousand chosen men. The reason in verse 3, for we did not inquire of Him in the days of Saul, reaches back to 10:13 to 14.
1 Chronicles 13:1
“During the reign of the late king, the ark had been left in culpable neglect. Consequently the people had, to a great extent, been careless about the ordinances of divine worship, or had contented themselves with offering sacrifices at Gibeon, without any thought of the ark, though it was the chief and most vital part of the tabernacle.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
This consultation appears only in Chronicles, and 2 Samuel 6:1 moves straight to David gathering thirty thousand chosen men. David asks the assembly's consent and calls the priests and Levites from their towns. Henry notes that the ark was their charge.
1 Chronicles 13:2
“Let those that are left be quickened by late judgments, and present mercies, to seek unto God. (3.) He takes care that the priests and Levites especially should be summoned to attend the ark; for it was their province in a particular manner. Thus Christian magistrates should stir up ministers to do their duty when they see them remiss.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
we did not inquire of: The neglect of inquiry echoes the verdict on Saul in 10:14, where he failed to inquire of the LORD. The ark had stood at Kiriath-jearim since its return from the Philistines (1 Samuel 7:1 to 2). Gill calls it the symbol of the divine Presence.
1 Chronicles 13:3
“And let us bring again the ark of our God to us,.... The symbol of the divine Presence, than which nothing was more desirable to David, and he chose to begin his reign overall Israel with it: for we inquired not at it in the days of Saul; he being indifferent to religion, and careless about it, and the enjoyment of the presence of God, and having direction from him; and the people also content with worship at the tabernacle at Gibeah, though the token of the divine Presence was absent.”
1 Chronicles 13:4-6
this proposal seemed right to all the people: David assembled all Israel, from the River Shihor in Egypt to Lebo-hamath. The ark had rested at Kiriath-jearim since the men of that town received it back from the Philistines. Verse 6 gives its full title, the ark of God the LORD, who is enthroned between the cherubim.
1 Chronicles 13:4
“And all the congregation said that they would do so,.... They unanimously agreed to the motion: for the thing was right in the eyes of all the people; they saw the propriety, necessity, and usefulness of it.”
from the River Shihor in: Shihor is the stream at Egypt's edge named in Joshua 13:3, and Lebo-hamath is the northern limit of the land in Numbers 34:8. The same bounds frame Solomon's assembly at the temple's dedication in 1 Kings 8:65. All Israel means every region.
1 Chronicles 13:5
“From Shihor of Egypt even unto the entering of Hemath - “Therefore David gathered all Israel, from the Nile, נילוס Nilos, of Egypt, even to the entrance of Antioch.” - T.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
1 Chronicles 13:5
“When the light of religion shines out of obscurity, when it is openly and freely professed, is brought into reputation, and countenanced by princes and great ones, it is such a happy omen to a people as is worthy to be welcomed with all possible expressions of joy.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Chronicles 13:5
“Shihor - See the marginal reference and the 1Ki 8:65 note.”
went up to Baalah of: Baalah is the older name of Kiriath-jearim (Joshua 15:9), called Baale-judah in 2 Samuel 6:2. Clarke takes the Name as invoked at the ark, and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown render the phrase as the LORD worshipped there. The cherubim formed His throne.
1 Chronicles 13:6
“David went up, and all Israel, to Baalah--(See on 2Sa 6:1-11). whose name is called on it--rather, "who is worshipped there" (2Sa 6:2).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 13:6
“Whose name is called on it - “Where his name is invoked.” - T. And so the Hebrew, אשר נקרא שם asher nikra shem, should be understood, his name was not called on it, but invoked at it.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
the house of Abinadab on a new cart: The Law had the ark carried on poles, by Levites (Exodus 25:14 and Numbers 4:15). The Philistine priests had sent the ark home on a new cart in 1 Samuel 6:7. The rule waits for 15:2: No one but the Levites may carry the ark of God.
1 Chronicles 13:7
“In a new cart - Lest it should be profaned by being placed on any carriage that had been employed about common uses. Uzza and Ahio - All the versions understand אחיו achyo as signifying brother or brothers; so does Jarchi, who observes, from 2Sa 6:3, that these were the sons of Abinadab.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
celebrating before God with all their might: David and all the Israelites were celebrating before God with all their might, with songs and on harps and lyres, with trumpets. The same instruments will order the Levitical choirs in chapters 15 and 16. The chapter sets this worship beside a breach of the Law in the carrying.
1 Chronicles 13:8
“DAVID had, in his heart, an intense love to God. During Saul's reign, God had been well-nigh forgotten in the land. The ordinances of His house had been almost, if not entirely, neglected, and when David found himself firmly seated upon his throne, one of his first thoughts was concerning the revival of religion, the reestablishment of that form of worship which God had ordained in the wilderness by the mouth of His servant Moses.”
Charles Spurgeon · written before 1892 · The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2855: “The Lesson of Uzza” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition)Particular Baptist
Uzza's hand, David's fear, and blessing on Obed-edom
1 Chronicles 13:9-11
the threshing floor of Chidon: Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark, and the Law's penalty fell on him. Chronicles names the site Chidon where 2 Samuel 6:6 names it Nacon. David named the place Perez-uzzah, and he returns to it at 15:13: the LORD our God burst forth in anger against us.
1 Chronicles 13:9
“5 So David gathered all Israel together, from Shihor of Egypt even unto the entering of Hemath, to bring the ark of God from Kirjath-jearim. 6 And David went up, and all Israel, to Baalah, that is, to Kirjath-jearim, which belonged to Judah, to bring up thence the ark of God the L ORD , that dwelleth between the cherubims, whose name is called on it.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
1 Chronicles 13:9
“Uzza put forth his hand - See this transaction explained 2Sa 6:6 (note), etc.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
the anger of the LORD: Chronicles names what Uzzah did: he had put his hand on the ark, where 2 Samuel 6:7 has one obscure Hebrew word. Numbers 4:15 warned that the Levites who carried the holy things must not touch them, or they would die.
1 Chronicles 13:10
“Put his hand, &c. - Let the case of Uzza warn us, to take heed of presumption or rashness with regard to holy things; and not to think, that a right intention will justify a wrong action.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
David became angry because the: The verb for the LORD bursting forth gives the place its name, and the same word returns in 14:11, where God bursts out at Baal-perazim. The breach and the victory stand one chapter apart. Wesley warns against quarrelling with God under His rebuke.
1 Chronicles 13:11
“Perez-uzza - That is, the breach of Uzza. Let David's displeasure on this occasion caution us, to watch over our spirit, lest when God reproves us, instead of submitting to God, we quarrel with him.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 Chronicles 13:12-14
David feared God and asked: That day David feared God and asked how he could bring the ark to him. He took it aside to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite, and it stayed there three months. The LORD blessed his household and everything he owned.
he took it aside to: The City of David was the fortress taken in 11:5 to 7, where David meant the ark to rest. He pitches a tent for it there in 15:1 and brings it up by the Levites. The parallel account is 2 Samuel 6:10.
the LORD blessed his household: In 2 Samuel 6:12 David hears of this blessing and goes to fetch the ark. Chronicles sets the three months beside chapter 14, where God also blesses David's house and his wars. Wesley calls the ark a guest no one loses by.
1 Chronicles 13:14
“And the Lord blessed,&c. - Let this encourage us to welcome God's ordinance into our houses, believing the ark is a guest no body shall lose by. Nor let it be the less precious to us, for its being to others a rock of offense.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
How this psalm is built
The form: Narrative, a national deliberation followed by a procession that breaks off, as table classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Inquired not, said of Saul and then said of the nation | The verdict on Saul at 1 Chronicles 10:14 is that he failed to inquire of the LORD. At verse 3 David's reason for fetching the ark is that Israel inquired not at it in the days of Saul. The same charge is moved from one man to the whole people, and the first act of the new reign is set to answer it. The site's published exposition reads David's first move as correcting exactly the failure the book has already named. | 1 Chronicles 13:3, 1 Chronicles 10:14 |
| Perez-uzza, a place named for its own disaster | Verse 11 records that David called the place Perez-uzza, the breach of Uzza, from the breaking forth the verse has just described. The name is used again at 15:13, where David takes it into his own confession that the LORD had made a breach upon them because they sought him not after the due order. John Wesley reads David's displeasure at the name as a warning against quarrelling with a reproof.John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, on 1 Chronicles 13:11. | 1 Chronicles 13:11, 1 Chronicles 15:13 |
| Every instrument Israel owns, listed at once | Verse 8 sounds singing, harps, psalteries, timbrels, cymbals and trumpets together. The site's published exposition notes that this is the same list of instruments that organises the Levitical choirs David founds in chapters 15 and 16. The catalogue is therefore a forward link as well as a description, and what the procession lacks is stated only at 15:2. | 1 Chronicles 13:8 |
Why Uzza died
9 more paragraphs on the patterns
The dossier for this book carries the question as one of its six contested points, with a door at /featured/the-ark-of-the-covenant. It sets out the instruction that was broken. The ark travels on poles carried on the shoulders of the sons of Kohath, and of the holy things Numbers 4:15 says they must not touch them or they will die. It names the new cart as the Philistine method of 1 Samuel 6:7. It cites David's own later verdict at 15:13, that they sought him not according to the ordinance, which puts the fault on the nation and on David inside it.
Uzza's hand moves by instinct, to steady the ark when the oxen stumble rather than to seize it, and the penalty falls anyway. The site's published exposition states the point plainly, that the ark's holiness did not depend on his motive. John Wesley draws the lesson the chapter itself carries, that a right intention does not justify a wrong action. David's anger and his fear stand recorded without excuse.
The page states no verdict and sends the reader to the feature page, where the question is argued in full.
Chidon and Nachon
This account names the threshing floor Chidon where 2 Samuel 6:6 names it Nachon. The commentators treat the difference as two names for one place rather than two separate events, and the site's published exposition records it that way.
The genuine worship and the real breach, held together
Verse 8 has every instrument in Israel sounding at once, and the chapter does not resolve the tension before Uzza's hand reaches for the ark two verses later. Charles Spurgeon preached the scene as The Lesson of Uzza and read the zeal of the players as no substitute for the obedience the law required. The row keeps both halves, because the chapter keeps both.
What a first hearer brought to it
The ark had stood at Kiriath-jearim, called Baalah here, for about twenty years, since the men of that town received it back from the Philistines. The tabernacle and the bronze altar meanwhile stood at Gibeon. John Wesley reads the neglect as people contenting themselves with Gibeon while the ark lay elsewhere. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the whole reign of Saul as culpable neglect that had left the people careless about the ordinances of worship. The site's published historical-context row for this chapter carries the threshing floor as a working place, a flat patch of exposed bedrock chosen for the wind, which is also uneven ground for a cart.
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, on 1 Chronicles 13:6; This site's published book guide, src/components/book/guides/1-chronicles/Book1ChroniclesGuide.tsx, the BANDS table, the band "The Ark, and the Covenant" at 13:1 to 17:27 and This site's published book sections table, src/lib/bible/book-sections.ts, the entry "1 Chronicles": "history".
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Berean Standard Bible; Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2855: The Lesson of Uzza; Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil, The Books of the Chronicles and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.