in the tops of the
balsams, act quickly, for then Jehovah will have gone out before you to
overthrow the army of the Philistines." David did as Jehovah commanded
him and drove the Philistines from Gibeon as far as Gezer.

JERUSALEM MADE THE CAPITAL CITY

David and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the people of
the land who had said to David, "You shall not come in here, for the
blind and the lame will turn you back," for they thought, "David cannot
come in here."

But David took the fortress of Zion, and lived there. He also built a
wall around it, and called it the City of David.

David continued to grow more powerful, for Jehovah of hosts was with
him. And Hiram, king of Tyre, sent messengers to him, and cedar-trees
and carpenters and masons, and they built a palace for him. So David
knew that Jehovah had made him ruler over Israel and his kingdom
powerful for the sake of his people Israel.

David again gathered all the chief men of Israel, thirty thousand in
all, and went with all the people to Baal-Judah, to bring up from there
the ark of God. They placed the ark of God upon a new cart and brought
it out of the house of Abinadab on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of
Abinadab, guided the cart. Uzzah went beside the ark of God, while Ahio
went before it. David and all the people of Israel danced before Jehovah
with all their might to the music of harps and lyres and drums and
castanets and cymbals.

When they came to the threshing-floor of Nachon, Uzzah stretched out his
hand to hold up the ark of God, for the oxen stumbled. Then the anger of
Jehovah was aroused against Uzzah and he struck him down there, because
he had stretched out his hand to the ark; so he died there in the
presence of God. David was afraid of Jehovah that day, and said, "How
can the ark of Jehovah come to me?" So David was not willing to remove
the ark of Jehovah to the City of David, but carried it aside to the
house of Obed-edom, the Gittite, and it remained there three months. But
Jehovah blessed Obed-edom and all his family.

When the report came to David, "Jehovah has blessed Obed-edom and all
his family because of the ark of God," David joyfully brought up the ark
from the house of Obed-edom to the City of David. When the bearers of
the ark of Jehovah had gone six paces, David offered an ox and a fat
animal as a sacrifice; and he danced before Jehovah with all his might,
and he had about his waist a priestly gar