Chapter XIII

=1‒14= (= 2 Samuel vi. 1‒11).
REMOVAL OF THE ARK FROM KIRIATH-JEARIM TO THE HOUSE
OF OBED-EDOM. DEATH OF UZZA.

In harmony with his conviction that the acts of David in promoting or instituting the religious ceremonial of Israel were the supremely important events of his reign, the Chronicler represents the removal of the Ark from Kiriath-jearim as being the first concern of the new monarch and his first action subsequent to the capture of Jerusalem. David’s building of a royal residence for himself and his family in Jerusalem, and his victories over the Philistines, which in 2 Samuel _precede_ the removal of the Ark, are relegated to the second place in Chronicles (see chapter xiv. ). The transposition of order is effected by means of the introductory verses 1‒4, which are from the Chronicler’s own hand.

It is convenient to draw attention here to a matter of some importance in the narrative of Chronicles, viz. that the Chronicler believed the Tabernacle (_Mishkān_) of the Lord (Exodus xxxv.‒xl.) “which Moses made in the wilderness” (1 Chronicles xxi. 29) to be in existence in David’s day and to be standing at Gibeon (see xvi. 39, and 2 Chronicles i. 3). Yet when the Ark was taken into the city of David it was placed not in the _Mishkān_ but “in the tent (_Ohel_) which David pitched for it” (xvi. verse 1 = 2 Samuel vi. 17). Thus in Chronicles the two holy things, the Ark and the Tabernacle, are represented as separated, and a separate daily service has to be instituted for each; Asaph and his brethren being said to minister before the Ark in the city of David (1 Chronicles xvi. 37), and Zadok and his brethren before the Tabernacle at Gibeon (xvi. verse 39). The worship at Gibeon as well as Jerusalem entailed a manifest breach of the Deuteronomic law that at one sanctuary only must worship be offered. It is hard to say what the Chronicler thought of David’s strange disregard of a stringent law which (on the Chronicler’s theory) was well known to David, and which the Chronicler used as one of the criteria distinguishing the good from the evil kings from Solomon onwards. Doubtless David’s ecclesiastical arrangements were regarded as temporary, pending the building of the Temple, but surely the _Mishkān_ could have been removed to Jerusalem almost as easily as the Ark. Why then does the perfect king fail in this duty? The Chronicler ignores the difficulty completely, probably because he was unable to see or conjecture any adequate explanation of David’s conduct. It goes without saying that in reality the Deuteronomic law of the one sanctuary was of much later origin than the time of David, and the difficulty is an unreal one.

¹And David consulted with the captains of thousands and of
hundreds, even with every leader.

=1.= _David consulted with the captains_, etc.] The Chronicler is fond of associating the people with the king in religious measures so as to minimise the appearance of arbitrary power which is suggested by the language of the books of Samuel and of Kings; compare verse 4 (_the assembly said that they would do so_), also 2 Chronicles xxx. 2, 4. Similarly in xxviii. 2 the king addresses the elders as _My brethren_. Doubtless the Chronicler had in mind Deuteronomy xvii. 20.

²And David said unto all the assembly of Israel, If it seem good
unto you, and if it be of the LORD our God, let us send abroad
every where unto our brethren that are left in all the land¹ of
Israel, with² whom the priests and Levites are in their cities
that have suburbs³, that they may gather themselves unto us: and
let us bring again the ark of our God to us:

¹ Hebrew _lands_.

² Or, _and with them to the priests and Levites which are &c._

³ Or, _pasture lands_.

=2.= _let us send abroad every where_] The Hebrew phrase is peculiar; _let us spread, let us send_, i.e. let the invitation be sent far and wide throughout the land and not limited to the southern tribes.

_the priests and Levites_] In Samuel no mention of the Levites is made in the account of the removal of the Ark. The Chronicler retells the story in accordance with the conviction that the complete Levitical ceremonial with which he was familiar was actually in operation in the days of David.

_in their cities that have suburbs_] or, as margin, =... that have pasture lands=; i.e. following the provision that cities are to be assigned to the Levites with “suburbs for their cattle and for their substance, and for all their beasts” (Numbers xxxv. 2‒7; compare Joshua xiv. 4, xxi. 2).

³for we sought not unto it in the days of Saul. ⁴And all the
assembly said that they would do so: for the thing was right in
the eyes of all the people.

=3.= _we sought not unto it_] The meaning is _to seek with care, to care for_. Compare xv. 13.

⁵So David assembled all Israel together, from Shihor _the brook_
of Egypt even unto the entering in of Hamath, to bring the ark
of God from Kiriath-jearim.

=5.= _from Shihor_ the brook _of Egypt_] _Shihor_ was the name of the brook (now _wady el-Arish_) which divided Palestine from Egypt (Joshua xiii. 3, xv. 4; Jeremiah ii. 18).

_the entering in of Hamath_] _Hamath_ (now _Hama_) is on the Orontes, see note on xviii. 5. _The entering in of Hamath_ is to be identified with the Beḳā‘a, a broad valley between Lebanon and Anti-Libanus watered by the Orontes, Bädeker, _Palestine_⁵, p. 372. It is mentioned as on the northern frontier of Israel in Joshua xiii. 5; 1 Kings viii. 65, and elsewhere.

⁶And David went up, and all Israel, to Baalah, _that is_, to
Kiriath-jearim, which belonged to Judah, to bring up from thence
the ark of God, the LORD that sitteth¹ upon the cherubim, which²
is called by the Name.

¹ Or, _dwelleth between_.

² Or, _where the Name is called on_.

=6.= _to Baalah_, that is, _to Kiriath-jearim_] A Gibeonite city, probably _Ḳaryet el-‘Enab_ (“City of Grapes”) some 7 miles north-west of Jerusalem. Compare Joshua xv. 9; in Joshua xv. 60 _Kiriath-baal_.

_sitteth upon the cherubim_] Compare Ezekiel i. 26.

_which is called by the Name_] The God whose is the Ark is here distinguished from the gods of the nations as the God who bears the ineffable Name.

⁷And they carried the ark of God upon a new cart, _and brought
it_ out of the house of Abinadab: and Uzza and Ahio drave the
cart.

=7.= _a new cart_] A new cart was chosen as one which had not been profaned by common work. So (Judges xvi. 11, 12) new ropes “wherewith no work hath been done” were used in the attempt to bind the consecrated man, Samson. So also (Mark xi. 2, 7) our Lord rode into Jerusalem on a colt “whereon no man ever yet sat.”

_the house of Abinadab_] Compare 1 Samuel vii. 1, 2; also 2 Samuel vi. 3. Here the Ark had been since the Philistines restored it to Israelite territory.

⁸And David and all Israel played before God with all their might:
even with songs, and with harps, and with psalteries, and with
timbrels, and with cymbals, and with trumpets.

=8.= _played_] The Hebrew word means _to sport, to dance_ (compare xv. 29).

_with all their might: even with songs_] A better reading than that of 2 Samuel vi. 5, _with all manner of_ instruments made of _fir wood_.

_psalteries_] The instrument here meant (Hebrew _nēbhel_) “is generally identified at the present day with an instrument called the _santir_ still in use among the Arabs. This consists of a long box with a flat bottom covered with a somewhat convex sounding-board over which the strings are stretched.” (Nowack, _Hebräische Archäologie_, I. 275.) The “harp” (Hebrew _kinnōr_) was a simpler instrument (like the Greek _Kithara_), a _lyre_ rather than a true harp.

For a full discussion of _nēbhel_ and _kinnōr_ see Driver, _Amos_, p. 234, or the articles _Music_ in _Encyclopedia Biblia_ or Hastings’ _Dictionary of the Bible_.

⁹And when they came unto the threshing-floor of Chidon, Uzza put
forth his hand to hold the ark; for the oxen stumbled¹.

¹ Or, _were restive_ Or, _threw_ it _down_.

=9.= _the threshing-floor of Chidon_] LXX. (B) omits _of Chidon_. In 2 Samuel vi. 6, _Nacon’s threshing-floor_. Nacon is probably a textual blunder.

_to hold the ark_] The Chronicler from a feeling of reverence shrinks from saying, _and took hold of it_ (2 Samuel vi. 6).

_stumbled_] margin _threw_ it _down_, but the meaning is perhaps rather, _let it go_, i.e. let the cart on which the Ark was slip backwards. The same Hebrew word is used 2 Kings ix. 33; there Jehu in his mocking humour says not, _Throw her down_, but, _Let her go_, an ambiguous command meant to throw as much responsibility as possible upon those who obeyed it.

¹⁰And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Uzza, and he
smote him, because he put forth his hand to the ark: and there
he died before God.

=10.= _before God_] In 2 Samuel vi. 7, _by the ark of God_.

¹¹And David was displeased, because the LORD had broken forth
upon Uzza: and he called that place Perez-uzza¹, unto this day.
¹²And David was afraid of God that day, saying, How shall I
bring the ark of God home to me?

¹ That is, _The breach of Uzza_.

=11.= _was displeased_] Rather, =was wroth=, presumably against his advisers for not warning him that the method adopted for the removal of the Ark was wrong; compare xv. 13.

_had broken forth_] Literally as Authorized Version, _had made a breach upon Uzza_. Compare Exodus xix. 22.

_Perez-uzza_] The meaning of the name is given by the margin _The breach of Uzza._

¹³So David removed not the ark unto him into the city of David,
but carried it aside into the house of Obed-edom the Gittite.

=13.= _Obed-edom the Gittite_] As _Gittite_ means man of Gath, Obed-edom was doubtless of Philistine origin; perhaps he attached himself to David during David’s sojourn among the Philistines. In xv. 18, 24, xvi. 38, xxvi. 4 an Obed-edom is mentioned as a Levite and a porter (doorkeeper) for the Ark, and elsewhere (xv. 21, xvi. 5) as a singer (see the notes on xv. 18, and xvi. 38).

¹⁴And the ark of God remained with the family of Obed-edom
in his house three months: and the LORD blessed the house of
Obed-edom, and all that he had.

=14.= _with the family of Obed-edom in his house_] Render, =by= (i.e. near) =the house of Obed-edom in its own house=. The Chronicler (regarding Obed-edom as a foreigner if not also an idolater) finds it necessary to alter the expression found in 2 Samuel vi. 11, “in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite.” (On the significance of the name――literally _servant of Edom_――see Driver, _Samuel_², pp. 268, 269.)

_blessed_] Targum _blessed with sons and sons’ sons_.