2 Samuelchapter 6
23 verses · Samuel, Nathan and Gad, by tradition · 10th century BC · History
And when they came to Nachon’s threshingfloor, Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of God, and took hold of it; for the oxen shook it.
Introduction
Samuel, Nathan and Gad, by tradition, History, 2 Samuel Overview.
This chapter tells how the ark of God came to the new capital. Its first hearers had not seen the ark at the centre of national life for two generations. They knew the Law set out how the holy things were to be carried and who could carry them. The chapter holds great joy and sudden death side by side, and a quarrel at its close. Listen for the way the ark is moved the first time and the second, and for what changes between them. Watch the king's clothing, and the woman watching from a window.
Context
- Who
- Israelites who had not seen the ark at the centre of national life for two generations
- What
- Two attempts to bring the ark to Jerusalem, the death of Uzzah, the blessing on Obed-edom's house, and Michal's contempt for David.
- Where
- Baale of Judah, the threshing floor of Nacon, the house of Obed-edom, and the City of David.
- When
- About 1003 BC, early in the Jerusalem years and after the capture of the stronghold in chapter 5.
- Why
- To show that the LORD must be approached in the way He commanded, and to make Jerusalem the place of His presence as well as the seat of the king.
Historical context
2 Samuel names no author, and Samuel himself is dead before the book opens. The oldest internal lead is 1 Chronicles 29:29, which names the histories of Samuel the seer, Nathan the prophet and Gad the seer behind the acts of David. The chapter falls early in the Jerusalem years, about 1003 BC, its place fixed by the capture of the stronghold in chapter 5 rather than by a date in the text. It runs from Baale of Judah to the threshing floor of Nacon, then to the house of Obed-edom, then to the new city. A first hearer knew the ark had spent about twenty years in a private house after the Philistines sent it back. He knew the law was specific about how it moved, with poles through rings, one Levite clan carrying it on their shoulders, and nobody touching it or looking into it. He knew a new cart pulled by oxen was exactly how the Philistines had shipped it home, so copying a pagan neighbour's handling of a holy object is the error under the scene. He knew a threshing floor was a flat open rock surface on high ground where the wind carried off the chaff, and that packed stone is ground on which oxen stumble. He knew the linen ephod David wears was the plain sleeveless garment of someone serving before God rather than royal dress. That is the whole of Michal's complaint, since a king had stripped down to a servant's clothing in front of the city.
Significance
Bringing the ark to Jerusalem made the new capital the religious centre 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 join the two in one act. They were given a hard lesson in the same chapter, since sincerity is not the standard God set. He had said how the holy thing was to be handled, and the first attempt was made the Philistine way with the best intentions.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
This is one of only two chapters of 2 Samuel the yearly cycle reads at all, and it is heard as a Haftarah rather than read in course. Both the Ashkenazi and the Sephardi rite read it, which the site's own table records: the Ashkenazi reading carries on into chapter 7, and the Sephardi reading stops at the end of this chapter. That table is built from Sefaria's parashah index, from J. H. Hertz, The Pentateuch and Haftorahs, Soncino, 1937, and from The Stone Edition Chumash, Mesorah, 1993. The reference itself stands in the reading above. A congregation therefore meets this chapter once a year, on the Sabbath of the portion it accompanies. The cycle sets the death of Uzzah here beside the death of Nadab and Abihu in that morning's Torah portion. Why the two were set together is a teaching this lane found in no work it could open, so it is left unsaid here.
How it is read
The corpus for this chapter holds twenty-four commentary entries and forty rabbinic locators. Seventeen entries carry English text under a licence that permits quotation, sixteen of them Rashi in the Metsudah translation, Lakewood, N.J., CC-BY, and one Radak in the Sefaria Community Translation, CC0. Both are named here once and cited below by ref alone.
The classical commentators read the death of Uzzah as the consequence of a known error about how the ark travels. Rashi says outright that David made a mistake about a matter "that even children at their Rebbe's school know", since the sacred load was to be carried on the shoulder. He adds the Talmud's account of how a king came to forget it, tracing it to David having called the statutes songs (Rashi on II Samuel 6:3:1). The same comment records the correction: when the ark was brought up the second time, from the house of Obed-edom, it went by shoulder. Rashi then turns to Uzzah himself. He says Uzzah should have reasoned from the lighter case to the heavier, that the ark which carried its own bearers at the Jordan could carry itself (Rashi on II Samuel 6:7:1). A Christian reader meets here a tradition that holds both men responsible for a failure of study rather than for a failure of reverence. The site argues the question of Uzzah's death on its own page, The Ark of the Covenant, and states no verdict on the rabbinic reading here.
Two other comments shape how the chapter ends. Of the blessing on the house that kept the ark, Rashi records the tradition that the household bore sixty-two children, citing the genealogy in Chronicles and the Talmud (Rashi on II Samuel 6:11:1). Of Michal at the window, Radak explains her contempt as a judgment about kingship. She thought "it was not honorable for the king to behave in the manner of the common people, even before the ark" (Radak on II Samuel 6:16:2). Rashi reads her childlessness from that day forward rather than from the start of her life. That is how he squares this verse with the list of sons in chapter 3 (Rashi on II Samuel 6:23:1).
What the rabbis say
Forty locators stand on this chapter in the corpus, twenty-seven from the Midrash and thirteen from the Talmud, every one of them a locator without text. The cart and the death of Uzzah run through one tractate. Sotah 35a:17 and Sotah 35a:19 stand at the death itself, and Sotah 35b:3 and Sotah 35b:5 at the carrying and the slipping. Ein Yaakov, Sotah 7:12 and Ein Yaakov, Sotah 7:16 carry the same material. Pesikta Rabbati 46:1 and Midrash Lekach Tov, Numbers 7:9:1 stand at the same place, the second of them on the verse about carrying the sacred load on the shoulder. The blessing on the house that kept the ark draws Berakhot 63b:23 and Jerusalem Talmud Yevamot 4:12:3. David's dancing and Michal's contempt draw Sanhedrin 21a:16, Jerusalem Talmud Sukkah 5:4:4 and Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 2:4:4, and her childlessness draws Bamidbar Rabbah 8:4 and Bereshit Rabbah 82:7. The gathering that opens the chapter draws Midrash Shmuel 25:5 and Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 10:2:20, and the ark's own name draws Bava Batra 14b:4.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on II Samuel 6:3:1, 6:7:1, 6:11:1 and 6:23:1, The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J., CC-BY; Radak, Radak on II Samuel 6:16:2, Sefaria Community Translation, CC0; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on II Samuel 6:8:1, 6:9:1 and 6:12:1, cited only, no English version in the corpus; Malbim, Malbim on II Samuel 6:15:1, cited only; The annual cycle, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, the portion Shmini and its Haftarah, built from Sefaria's parashah index, J. H. Hertz, The Pentateuch and Haftorahs, Soncino, 1937, and The Stone Edition Chumash, Mesorah, 1993, 1937; The Midrash and the Talmud on this chapter, Sotah 35a:17, 35a:19, 35b:3 and 35b:5; Pesikta Rabbati 46:1; Berakhot 63b:23; Sanhedrin 21a:16; Jerusalem Talmud Sukkah 5:4:4; Bamidbar Rabbah 8:4; Bava Batra 14b:4, as the corpus records them.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A new cart, a steadying hand, and Uzzah struck down
2 Samuel 6:1-2
all the chosen men of Israel: 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
“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
Barnes renders the clause literally, the ark upon which the Name is called, so the ark of God bears the name of the LORD of Hosts. Clarke notes that the Hebrew word shem, name, stands twice, and he would read one as sham, there. Henry sets the LORD's throne over the mercy seat.
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
1 more voice on this verse
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 Samuel 6:3-4
upon a new cart: 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
“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.”
1 more voice on this verse
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
Ahio walks ahead of the ark while Uzzah guides the cart. Albert Barnes reads the two as later descendants of Abinadab, such as sons of his son Eleazar, and notes that the house may have kept the name of Abinadab long after his death. Matthew Henry sees the chosen men of Israel gathered to honour the ark.
2 Samuel 6:4
“All the chosen men of Israel are called together to grace the solemnity, to pay their respect to the ark, and to testify their joy in its restoration.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
on all manner of instruments: 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 6:6-8
Uzzah put forth his hand: 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
“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 more voices on this verse
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
“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
Barnes notes that the Hebrew behind for his irreverence is difficult, and some prefer 1 Chronicles 13:10, where God struck Uzzah for putting his hand on the ark. Clarke holds that Uzzah took hold of the ark in haste and ignorance, and his soul still found mercy. Jerome renders the word ignorance.
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 more voices on this verse
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
Barnes reads David's anger as grief mixed with anger, the same word used of Samuel at 1 Samuel 15:11. The breach on Uzzah recalls Baal-perazim in 5:20, where the LORD burst forth against David's enemies. Henry notes that this breach falls on David's own friends.
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
1 more voice on this verse
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 6:9-11
afraid of the Lord that day: 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.
the house of Obed–edom the Gittite: Adam Clarke places the house of Obed-edom near the city, the nearest friend's door to hand. John Wesley, quoting Bishop Hall, marks the courage of a man who opened his home to the ark that had just killed Uzzah. Albert Barnes adds that he later played the harp before it.
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
1 more voice on this verse
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
Three months under his roof brought blessing to Obed-edom and his whole house. John Wesley sets it against Uzzah: the same hand that struck presumption rewarded humble boldness. Matthew Henry calls the ark a guest none lose by welcoming.
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
David dances the ark into the city
2 Samuel 6:12-13
into the city of David with gladness: 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
“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 more voices on this verse
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 6:12
“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
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown report a view that altars stood every six paces. Barnes reads one sacrifice of an ox and a fattened calf, offered once the Levites had carried the ark six paces unharmed. First Chronicles 15:26 records seven bulls and seven rams.
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 Samuel 6:14-15
girded with a linen ephod: 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
“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
1 more voice on this verse
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
The ram's horn is the shofar of Israel's feasts and battles. Matthew Henry counts it a joy for a people when worship goes forward openly under its king's favour. Barnes notes that under Saul the ark had been neglected, citing 1 Chronicles 13:3.
looked through a window: 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
“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
1 more voice on this verse
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
2 Samuel 6:17-19
set it in his place: 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
“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
he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts: Clarke reads David's blessing as a priestly act, and Barnes notes that Solomon blessed the people the same way at 1 Kings 8:14. Gill reads David blessing the people as a king, the father of his people. Wesley hears it as a prayer for their good.
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.”
1 more voice on this verse
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
The date cake renders a rare Hebrew word. Barnes notes that it appears only here and at 1 Chronicles 16:3, and he took it as a portion of meat from the peace offerings David offered. Clarke notes that the flesh and wine of older English versions are supplied.
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.”
Michal's scorn and her empty womb
2 Samuel 6:20-22
uncovered himself to day: 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
“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
1 more voice on this verse
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
Clarke hears David answer Michal with sharpness. Barnes reads the mention of her father's house as a lesson to the daughter of Saul that pride gave that house no stability. Henry fixes on the words before the LORD, where David danced.
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.”
1 more voice on this verse
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
Gregory the Great reads the line as a king who counts his royal power as nothing before the ark of the LORD. Bernard, as Bonaventure quotes him, calls David's dancing a good game that angers Michal and delights God. Wesley draws from it resolve under mockery.
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
1 more voice on this verse
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
no child unto the day: 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.
How this psalm is built
The form: Narrative, a procession account in two attempts with a domestic quarrel closing it, as table classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Before the LORD, said over every scene | The phrase runs through the procession, the dancing, Michal's window and David's answer to her. The site's published exposition names it as the repetition that ties the chapter's parts together, first at verse 5 and last in David's reply at verse 21, where it becomes his whole defence. | 2 Samuel 6:5, 2 Samuel 6:14, 2 Samuel 6:16, 2 Samuel 6:21 |
| Two processions, one method changed | The first attempt uses a new cart and ends in a death. The second uses bearers and ends in a feast. W. G. Blaikie and Keil and Delitzsch both read the change of method, rather than any change in the ark, as the real difference between them. The parallel at 1 Chronicles 15:15 states what this chapter leaves the reader to infer.W. G. Blaikie, The Second Book of Samuel (The Expositor's Bible), on 2 Samuel 6:12. | 2 Samuel 6:3, 2 Samuel 6:12, 2 Samuel 6:13 |
| The place named for its own disaster | David names the threshing floor Perez-uzzah, the outbreak against Uzzah, from the verb the verse uses of the LORD's anger. The same habit named Baal-perazim at 5:20, and the narrator records that the name stayed on the map to his own day. | 2 Samuel 6:8 |
| Michal, named daughter of Saul and never wife of David | The narrator calls her Saul's daughter at verse 16, at verse 20 and at verse 23, and never David's wife in this chapter. The site's published exposition reads the naming as the verdict announced before she speaks, so what is despising David is the house of Saul watching the house of David triumph. | 2 Samuel 6:16, 2 Samuel 6:20, 2 Samuel 6:23 |
| A window, twice in one marriage | Michal let David down through a window at 1 Samuel 19:12 to save his life from her father. At verse 16 she looks through a window and despises him. The same woman and the same opening carry the start and the end of the marriage. | 2 Samuel 6:16 |
Why Uzzah died
11 more paragraphs on the patterns
The site's published dossier carries this as one of the seven contested points of the book, with the door at /featured/the-ark-of-the-covenant. The dossier 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 and 6:8, and it cites David's own later verdict at 1 Chronicles 15:13 that the failure was procedural and corporate.
The readings divide over where the fault falls. One holds it on Uzzah's presumption alone. The other holds it on David's failure to have the Levites carry the ark as the law commanded. The site's published exposition carries both without one displacing the other, and this row keeps them that way. The page states no verdict and sends the reader to the feature page, which argues the question in full.
The textual notes in the chapter
The threshing floor is called Nachon here and Chidon at 1 Chronicles 13:9, one of the small naming variants between the two histories. The kept commentary carries Albert Barnes on the rare word for the piece of flesh given out at verse 19, and Adam Clarke on the additions the Vulgate and the Septuagint carry at verse 12.
The hardest textual question the chapter raises is not in this chapter. Verse 23 says Michal had no child to the day of her death, and 2 Samuel 21:8 as the Hebrew stands names five sons of Michal. 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. John Gill offers his own resolution of the same apparent conflict. The row names the crux and passes no verdict.
A disagreement the commentators keep
At verse 18 David blesses the people in the name of the LORD of Hosts. Adam Clarke and John Gill disagree over whether he does it as priest or as prince, and the site's judgment file records the disagreement as genuine and kept. The question matters because it bears on what a king of Israel may do at an altar, which is the ground Saul lost at 1 Samuel 13.
The fathers on the dance and on the death
Ambrose of Milan defends the dancing twice. In his exposition of Psalm 118 he says plainly that the dancing of the body is praiseworthy in honour of God, and he names Michal's contempt in the same breath. In Letter 58 he argues that what looks unseemly viewed bodily becomes venerable viewed in regard to holy religion.
Gregory the Dialogist reads David's own words rather than the scene. In the Forty Gospel Homilies he quotes David's answer at verse 22 and takes it as the plainest statement of self-humbling in the Old Testament. In the Morals on the Book of Job he reads the same humility against the gifts David had been given.
Jerome takes the death rather than the dance. In Against the Pelagians he sets out Uzzah reaching for the tipping ark and the anger that followed, and he uses it in an argument about what human intention can and cannot excuse. Pacian of Barcelona reads the same verse in On Penitents as a man who touched the holy thing without having examined his conscience.
Keep studying
Studies2
Places1
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
This site's published book guide, src/components/book/guides/2-samuel/Book2SamuelGuide.tsx, act "The Triumphs: a United Kingdom", beat at chapter 6 and This site's published book sections table, src/lib/bible/book-sections.ts, the entry "2 Samuel": "history".
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Alfred Edersheim, Bible History: Old Testament; Bonaventure, Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 1; Calvin, Sermons on 2 Samuel; Gregory the Dialogist, Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 7; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Against the Pelagians 1.33; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Books of Samuel; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and W. G. Blaikie, The Second Book of Samuel (Expositor's Bible).