2 Samuelchapter 6
23 verses · BSB2 Samuel book hub →
Key verse
When they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God, because the oxen had stumbled.
It stands in scene A of the chapter, verses 1 to 11.
The chapter
Chapter summary
The ark comes home in two stages, and the first goes badly. Carried on a new cart rather than on the priests' shoulders, it shakes at the threshing-floor of Nacon; Uzzah puts out his hand to steady it and God smites him there. David is angry, then afraid, and asks how the ark shall come to him; it lodges three months with Obed-edom, whose whole house is blessed. Hearing that, David brings it up with sacrifice every six paces, shouting and the sound of the trumpet, dancing before Jehovah with all his might, girded with a linen ephod. Michal despises him from the window, and his answer is unrepentant: it was before Jehovah, and I will be yet more vile than this.
Context
History · Nathan, Gad · 2 Samuel overview
Where the chapter sits
2 Samuel 6 falls in Rise: David over all Israel (chapters 1–10). Lament for Saul; anointing at Hebron; capture of Jerusalem; ark brought up; the Davidic covenant (ch. 7); Nathan's oracle; the Ammonite wars.
The ark brought up. Uzzah struck down; David dancing before the LORD; Michal's contempt.
After it: The Fall: Bathsheba and Uriah, chapters 11–12.
The whole shape of 2 Samuel→The world behind this chapter
2 Samuel 6The history
The ark had spent about twenty years parked in a private house after the Philistines sent it back. The Law was specific about how it moved: poles through rings, carried on the shoulders of one particular Levite clan, never touched, never looked into.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
David's first attempt uses a new cart pulled by oxen, which is exactly how the Philistines had shipped it home. Copying a pagan neighbor's handling of a holy object is the error underneath the whole scene. On the uneven ground of a threshing floor, where the oxen would have stumbled on the packed stone, Uzzah steadies it with his hand and dies. Threshing floors were flat open rock surfaces on high ground where the wind could carry off the chaff; they show up again and again in Scripture as public places where serious things happen.
The second attempt is done by the book, with sacrifices offered after the first six steps and a procession of shouting, horns, and dance. David wears a linen ephod, the plain sleeveless garment of someone serving before God, not royal robes. That is Michal's complaint: a king had stripped down to the clothing of a servant in front of the whole city.
What it meant to them
Bringing the ark to Jerusalem made the new capital the religious center as well as the political one, which is what the older shrines at Shiloh, Nob, and Gibeon had been. The first hearers watched their king fuse the two.
And they were given a hard lesson in the same chapter. Sincerity is not the standard; God said how the holy thing was to be handled, and the first trip was done Philistine-style with the best intentions.
Sources cited
- Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions
- Keil & Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel
A. A new cart, a steadying hand, and Uzzah struck down
1. (vv. 1-2)
a.David's first act after securing Jerusalem is to gather thirty thousand chosen men and go for the ark, which had rested at Kirjath-jearim, called here Baale of Judah, for nearly fifty years since the days of 1 Samuel 7, as Jamieson, Fausset and Brown reckon it. The full name given the ark, the Lord of hosts that dwelleth between the cherubims, carries a title that first entered Scripture at 1 Samuel 1:3 and now returns with the ark itself toward the throne city. Barnes reads the gathering as part of the same consolidation that filled the two chapters before this one, a king moving to secure his capital's worship as he had already secured its walls.
2 Samuel 6:1, 1 voiceWhat preachers and commentators have said about these verses, in their own words.
2 Samuel 6:1
“Again, David gathered together all the chosen men of Israel--(See 2Sa 5:1). The object of this second assembly was to commence a national movement for establishing the ark in Jerusalem, after it had continued nearly fifty years in the house of Abinadab (see on 1Ch 13:1).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 Samuel 6:2, 2 voices
2 Samuel 6:2
“From Baale of Judah - This is supposed to be the same city which, in Jos 15:60, is called Kirjah-baal or Kirjath-jearim; (see 1Ch 13:6); or Baalah, Jos 15:9. Whose name is called by the name of the Lord - That is, The ark is called the ark of the Lord of hosts. But this is not a literal version; the word שם shem, Name, occurs twice together; probably one of them should be read שם sham, There. There the name of the Lord of hosts was invoked, etc.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Samuel 6:2
“To think and speak highly of God. He is the name above every name, the Lord of hosts, that has all the creatures in heaven and earth at his command, and receives homage from them all, and yet is pleased to dwell between the cherubim, over the propitiatory or mercy-seat, graciously manifesting himself to his people, reconciled in a Mediator, and ready to do them good.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2. (vv. 3-4)
a.David's men set the ark upon a new cart, the exact expedient the Philistines used to send it home from their own territory at 1 Samuel 6:7; the words occur only three times in Scripture, the third in the parallel account at 1 Chronicles 13:7. Numbers 4:15 and 7:9 had assigned the ark to the Kohathites' shoulders under bars, never to a cart or oxen, on pain of death for touching the holy things. Uzzah and Ahio, sons of Abinadab in whose house the ark had rested, drive the cart from a household grown used to the ark's presence, which is part of why the danger goes unnoticed until Nachon's threshingfloor.
2 Samuel 6:3, 2 voices
2 Samuel 6:3
“The house of Abinadab in Gibeah - . Rather, on the hill (as in margin and 1Sa 7:1). It does not at all follow that Abinadab was still alive, nor can we conclude from Uzzah and Ahio being called sons of Abinadab, that they were literally his children. They may well have been sons of Eleazar and grandsons of Abinadab, or yet more remote descendants; since there is no distinct evidence that Abinadab was alive even when the ark was brought to Kirjath-jearim. The house may have retained the name of “the house of Abinadab” long after his death.”
2 Samuel 6:3
“Philistines may cart the ark with impunity; but, if Israelites do so, they do it at their peril. And it mended the matter very little that it was a new cart; old or new, it was not what God had appointed. I wonder how so wise and good a man as David was, that conversed so much with the law of God, came to be guilty of such an oversight.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
3. (v. 5)
a.The procession moves before the Lord on harps, psalteries, timbrels, cornets and cymbals, the first of several times this chapter repeats that phrase, before the Lord, across David's dancing, Michal's window and David's own answer to her. The joy of this verse stands over against the fear that will follow at verse 9, a whole nation's instruments bracketing the disaster still to come. Clarke and Wesley both read the range of instruments as evidence of a full national festival rather than a private rite.
2 Samuel 6:5, 1 voice
2 Samuel 6:5
“Played - i. e. danced to music vocal and instrumental (see Jdg 16:25 note). Cornets - Rather, from the etymology of the Hebrew word (to shake), and their being coupled with the cymbals, and being rendered sistra in the Vulgate, some kind of instrument with bells or rings, which gave a sound by being shaken.”
4. (vv. 6-8)
a.Uzzah reaches out to steady the ark when the oxen stumble at Nachon's threshingfloor, called Chidon in the parallel at 1 Chronicles 13:9, one of the small naming variants between the two histories. His hand breaks the very prohibition Numbers 4:15 had stated as a matter of life and death, and the anger of the Lord answers it there at the threshingfloor. David's own word for it, error, is left to the reader; the readings divide over whether the fault is Uzzah's presumption alone or David's failure to have the Levites carry the ark as commanded, and both stand in the commentators without one displacing the other. He names the place Perez-uzzah, the breach of Uzzah, a name that stayed on the map to the narrator's own day.
2 Samuel 6:6, 3 voices
2 Samuel 6:6
“And when they came to Nachon's threshingfloor,.... Who is called Chidon, 1Ch 13:9; he seems to have had two names; or it was a place that had two names, as say the Jews (h); according to a tradition of theirs (i), Chidon is the name of the place where it was said to Joshua, stretch out the spear or shield in thine hand towards Ai, Jos 8:18; so indeed the word signifies, nor was it unusual to stretch out the shield as a signal on occasion.”
2 Samuel 6:6
“Uzzah put forth his hand - In Num 4:15-20, the Levites are forbidden to touch the ark on pain of death, this penalty was inflicted upon Uzzah, and he was the first that suffered for a breach of this law.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Samuel 6:6
“The critics are not agreed about the signification of the original word: They stumbled (so our margin); they kicked (so some), perhaps against the goad with which Uzzah drove them; they stuck in the mire, by some. By some accident or other the ark was in danger of being overthrown.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 Samuel 6:7, 3 voices
2 Samuel 6:7
“When the ark of the Lord was being transferred to Jerusalem, and the oxen kicked and made the wagon lean to one side, Uzzah, the Levite, reached out his hand to support the ark that had been tipped, and there follow immediately these words: "And the indignation of the Lord was enkindled against Uzzah, and God struck him there for his ignorance, and he died before the ark of God.”
Jerome· written before 420· Against the Pelagians 1.33patristic
2 Samuel 6:7
“For his error - The Hebrew is difficult, and some prefer the reading of the parallel passage, “because ... ask” 1Ch 13:10.”
2 Samuel 6:7
“He will let us know that he can and will secure his ark, and needs not any man's sin to help him to do it. If it was so great a crime for one to lay hold on the ark of the covenant that had no right to do so, what is it for those to lay claim to the privileges of the covenant that come not up to the terms of it?”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 Samuel 6:8, 2 voices
2 Samuel 6:8
“Displeased - Grief allied to anger seems to be intended. Compare 1Sa 15:11 note. On the name of the place, compare 2Sa 5:20.”
2 Samuel 6:8
“Displeased - Or, grieved, both for the sin, and for God's heavy judgment; whereby their hopes were dashed, and their joys interrupted. Perez-uzzah - That is, the breach of Uzzah.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
5. (vv. 9-11)
a.David's fear is not defiance but the shock of a plan that has just killed a man, and for three months he leaves the ark in the house of Obed-edom rather than risk it further. Obed-edom is called the Gittite, most likely a Levite connected to Gath-rimmon rather than a Philistine of Goliath's city, and 1 Chronicles 15:18 and 24 to 25 place a man of that name among the gatekeepers David later appoints. The report that the Lord has blessed his house for the ark's sake is what turns David back toward Jerusalem, and 1 Chronicles 15:13 preserves his own later confession of what the first attempt had lacked: we sought him not after the due order.
2 Samuel 6:10, 2 voices
2 Samuel 6:10
“But David carried it aside - The house of Obed-edom appears to have been very near the city, which they were about to enter, but were prevented by this accident, and lodged the ark with the nearest friend.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Samuel 6:10
He saw Uzzah struck dead; yet invites it to his house, and opens his doors without fear, knowing it was a savour of death, only to them that treated it ill. "O the courage, says Bishop Hall, of an honest and faithful heart! Nothing can make God otherwise than amiable to him: even his justice is lovely."
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 Samuel 6:11, 1 voice
2 Samuel 6:11
“The Lord blessed, &c. - The same hand that punished Uzzah's presumption, rewarded Obed-edom's humble boldness. None ever had, or ever shall have reason to say, that it is in vain to serve God. Piety is the best friend to prosperity.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
B. David dances the ark into the city
1. (vv. 12-13)
a.David goes up a second time with gladness rather than a cart; the parallel at 1 Chronicles 15:15 states what this chapter leaves the reader to infer, that the Levites now bear the ark on their own shoulders with the staves, as Moses had commanded. Six paces is a short first stage of the way home, and the ox and fatling offered there mark relief that the ark has moved at all without a second death. Blaikie and Keil and Delitzsch both read the change of method, not any change in the ark itself, as the real difference between this procession and the one that ended at Perez-uzzah.
2 Samuel 6:12, 3 voices
2 Samuel 6:12
“So David - brought up the ark - The Vulgate adds to this verse: And David had seven choirs, and a calf for a sacrifice. The Septuagint make a greater addition: “And he had seven choirs carrying the ark, a sacrifice, a calf, and lambs.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Samuel 6:12
“It was transported now on the shoulders of the priests, who had been carefully prepared for the work, and the procession was distinguished by extraordinary solemnities and demonstrations of joy.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 Samuel 6:12
“It was an evidence that the ark was not such a burdensome stone as it was taken to be, but, on the contrary, happy was the man that had it near him. Christ is indeed a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, to those that are disobedient; but to those who believe he is a corner-stone, elect, precious, 1 Pet. ii.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 Samuel 6:13, 1 voice
2 Samuel 6:13
“The meaning is, not that they sacrificed oxen and fatlings every six steps, which would have been impossible, but that when - after the arrangement made by David for the Levites to carry the ark 1Ch 15:2, 1Ch 15:12, 1Ch 15:15 they had borne it successfully and with visible tokens of God’s favor, out of the house of Obed-edom and six “steps” on the road to the city of David to the sound of the musical instruments - then they stopped and offered solemn sacrifices.”
2. (vv. 14-15)
a.A linen ephod is not royal dress but the garment of consecrated service: the child Samuel wore one at Shiloh, 1 Samuel 2:18, and the eighty-five priests Doeg killed at Nob wore it too, 1 Samuel 22:18, and now the king wears it before the ark. David dances with all his might, and the older writers read the phrase as a king setting aside the dignity of a throne he has worn barely a year for the sake of the ark's homecoming. The whole house of Israel brings it up with shouting and the sound of the trumpet, the public and unrestrained counterpart to the fear that turned the first procession back.
2 Samuel 6:14, 3 voices
2 Samuel 6:14
“But it was unquestionably done as an act of religious homage, his attitudes and dress being symbolic, as they have always been in Oriental countries, of penitence, joy, thankfulness, and devotion. [See on 1Ch 15:27.]”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 Samuel 6:14
“Linen ephod - The usual habit of the priests and Levites, in their sacred ministrations yet sometimes worn by others, as it was by the young child Samuel; and so David, who laid by his royal robes, and put on this robe to declare, that although he was king of Israel, yet he willingly owned himself to be the Lord's minister and servant.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 Samuel 6:14
“It is a pleasure to a good man to see his errors rectified and himself in the way of his duty. His dancing, I suppose, was not artificial, by any certain rule or measure, nor do we find that any danced with him; but it was a natural expression of his great joy and exultation of mind.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
3. (v. 16)
a.The narrator names her Michal Saul's daughter, not David's wife, and that choice announces the conflict before it happens: what she despises is the house of Saul watching the house of David triumph. A window carried her once before, at 1 Samuel 19:12, when she let David down through one to save his life from her father; now she looks through a window and the same woman who once acted for him watches him and judges him. Despised him in her heart is the narrator's own verdict on what is coming, stated before Michal speaks a word.
2 Samuel 6:16, 2 voices
2 Samuel 6:16
“But even the dancing of the body is considered praiseworthy in honor of God. In fact, David danced before the Ark of the Lord and Michal, the daughter of Saul, saw him dancing and playing musical instruments in the presence of the Lord. After he returned home, she said to him, 'How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today! He has exposed himself in the sight of the maidservants of his servants, as one of the rabble might shamelessly expose himself!'”
Ambrose of Milan· written before 397· Exposition On Psalm 118, 7.27patristic
2 Samuel 6:16
“She despised him in her heart - She did not blame him outwardly; she thought he had disgraced himself, but she kept her mind to herself.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
4. (vv. 17-19)
a.The tabernacle David pitches for the ark in Zion is a new tent, not the tabernacle of Moses, which 1 Chronicles 16:39 and 21:29 still locate at Gibeon; for the rest of David's reign Israel's worship runs in two places until Solomon brings both together at the temple. David blesses the people in the name of the Lord of hosts, the same title given the ark back at verse 2, now spoken over the crowd that carried it home. Every person in Israel, women included, receives bread, a portion of meat and a cake of wine, a national meal that turns the ark's homecoming into a feast every household shares.
2 Samuel 6:17, 1 voice
2 Samuel 6:17
“David had pitched - For Moses tabernacle was still at Gibeon, 1 Chron. xvi, 39; xxi, 29; 2 Chron. i, 3, which David left there, because he designed to build a temple at Jerusalem with all speed.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 Samuel 6:18, 2 voices
2 Samuel 6:18
“And as soon as David had made an end of offering burnt offerings and peace offerings,.... Or these were performed according to his order: he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts; not as a priest, but as a prince, as the common father of them, wishing them all happiness and prosperity outward and inward, praying to God to bless them with all blessings temporal and spiritual, who is the God of armies above and below, and can do what he pleases, and more than his people can ask or think.”
2 Samuel 6:18
“He blessed the people in the name of the Lord - David acted here as priest, for it was the general prerogative of the priests to bless the people, but it appears, by both David and Solomon, that it was the prerogative of the kings also.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Samuel 6:19, 1 voice
2 Samuel 6:19
“A good piece of flesh - The word thus paraphrased is only found here and in marginal reference A piece of meat from the peace offerings is probably meant. From the fact that the chronicler explains the preceding cake by the more common word loaf, but leaves this obscure word unexplained, one might infer that it was already obsolete and unknown in his time.”
C. Michal's scorn and her empty womb
1. (vv. 20-22)
a.Michal's word glorious is sarcasm, and her charge that David uncovered himself plays against the very ephod verse 14 already described; a linen ephod covered the body, and the commentators read her complaint as wounded royal dignity rather than a report of actual exposure. David's answer sets God's choice against her father's house in one breath, it was before the Lord, which chose me before thy father, and before all his house, turning her rebuke back on the reason he dances at all. His last word to her, I will yet be more vile than thus, and will be base in mine own sight, answers contempt with a deliberate choice: honour from the very maidservants she named in scorn.
2 Samuel 6:20, 2 voices
2 Samuel 6:20-22
“But the things which viewed corporeally are unseemly, when viewed in regard to holy religion become venerable, so that they who blame such things will involve their own souls in the net of blame. Thus Michal reproves David for his dancing and says to him, How glorious was the king of Israel to day, who uncovered himself to day in the eyes of his handmaids!”
Ambrose of Milan· written before 397· Letter 58.6patristic
2 Samuel 6:20
“To bless his household - This was according to the custom of the patriarchs, who were priests in their own families. It is worthy of remark, that David is called patriarch by Stephen, Act 2:29, though living upwards of four hundred years after the termination of the patriarchal age. How glorious was the king of Israel - This is a strong irony. From what Michal says, it is probable that David used some violent gesticulations, by means of which some parts of his body became uncovered.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Samuel 6:21, 2 voices
2 Samuel 6:21
“Play - See 2Sa 6:5 note. The speech might be paraphrased, Before the Lord which chose me, etc., yea, before the Lord have I danced. He humbles Michal’s pride by the allusion to her father’s rejection, and shows by Saul’s example how little pride contributes to the stability of greatness. Therefore, for his part, he will not think anything done for the glory of God too mean for him; and if he cannot have honor from Saul’s daughter, he will be content to be honored by the maid-servants.”
2 Samuel 6:21
“Before the Lord - In his presence and service, which though contemptible to thee, is, and ever shall be honourable in mine eyes. Who chose - Who took away the honour from him and his, and transferred it unto me, whereby he hath obliged me to love and serve him with all my might.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 Samuel 6:22, 2 voices
2 Samuel 6:22
On the contrary, when David despised the power of his kingdom by dancing before the ark of the Lord's covenant, he said: "I will play and become more vile than I have become, and I will be humble in my own eyes."
Gregory the Dialogist· written before 604· Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 7patristic
2 Samuel 6:22
“The greatest of men is less than the least of the ordinances of Jesus Christ. (3.) He doubted not but even this would turn to his reputation among those whose reproach Michal pretended to fear: Of the maid-servants shall I be had in honour.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2. (v. 23)
a.The narrator's last word closes her story on his own terms: not David's wife but Saul's daughter, and childless to the end. A later verse, 2 Samuel 21:8, names five sons of Michal in the Hebrew text as it stands, and many Hebrew manuscripts, the Syriac, and several English translations read Merab there instead, Michal's sister who was given to Adriel; Keil and Delitzsch and most of the bench take the correction as resolving rather than contradicting this verse. Whatever the resolution, 6:23 stands as the verse the narrator meant to be read on its own: the woman who once loved David and saved his life dies with no place in the house God is building.
2 Samuel 6:23, 1 voice
2 Samuel 6:23
“Therefore Michal the daughter of Saul had no child until the day of her death. The children she brought up for Adriel were not her own, but adopted ones, or Adriel's by another woman, 2Sa 21:8; however, she had none after this time, whatever she had before, and it does not appear that she had any, though the Jews say she was Eglah, and Ithream her son; see Gill on 2Sa 3:”
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on 2 Samuel 6. 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 14 works. Open for the list.
This page draws on Adam Clarke; Albert Barnes; Alfred Edersheim, Bible History: Old Testament; Ambrose of Milan; Calvin, Sermons on 2 Samuel; Gregory the Dialogist, Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 7; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871); Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Against the Pelagians 1.33; John Gill; John Wesley; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel; Matthew Henry and W. G. Blaikie, The Second Book of Samuel (Expositor's Bible).
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