ould, without delay, go out to gain what was
an already prepared and evident victory; for the several ranks of the
enemy's army did not sustain him, but retreated at the first onset, whom
he closely followed, and slew them as he went along, and pursued them
to the city Gaza [which is the limit of their country]: after this he
spoiled their camp, in which he found great riches; and he destroyed
their gods.

2. When this had proved the event of the battle, David thought it
proper, upon a consultation with the elders, and rulers, and captains of
thousands, to send for those that were in the flower of their age out
of all his countrymen, and out of the whole land, and withal for the
priests and the Levites, in order to their going to Kirjathjearim, to
bring up the ark of God out of that city, and to carry it to Jerusalem,
and there to keep it, and offer before it those sacrifices and those
other honors with which God used to be well-pleased; for had they done
thus in the reign of Saul, they had not undergone any great misfortunes
at all. So when the whole body of the people were come together, as they
had resolved to do, the king came to the ark, which the priest brought
out of the house of Aminadab, and laid it upon a new cart, and permitted
their brethren and their children to draw it, together with the oxen.
Before it went the king, and the whole multitude of the people with him,
singing hymns to God, and making use of all sorts of songs usual among
them, with variety of the sounds of musical instruments, and with
dancing and singing of psalms, as also with the sounds of trumpets and
of cymbals, and so brought the ark to Jerusalem. But as they were come
to the threshing-floor of Chidon, a place so called, Uzzah was slain by
the anger of God; for as the oxen shook the ark, he stretched out his
hand, and would needs take hold of it. Now, because he was not a priest
[7] and yet touched the ark, God struck him dead. Hereupon both the
king and the people were displeased at the death of Uzzah; and the place
where he died is still called the Breach of Uzzah unto this day. So
David was afraid; and supposing that if he received the ark to himself
into the city, he might suffer in the like manner as Uzzah had suffered,
who, upon his bare putting out his hand to the ark, died in the manner
already mentioned, he did not receive it to himself into the city, but
he took it aside unto a certain place belonging to a righteous man,
whose