ael 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."
An accident leading to serious consequences brought the procession to
a standstill; the oxen stumbled, and their sacred burden threatened to
fall: Uzzah, putting forth his hand to hold the ark, was smitten by the
Lord, "and there he died before the Lord." David was disturbed at this,
feeling some insecurity in dealing with a Deity who had thus seemed to
punish one of His worshippers for a well-meant and respectful act.**

* The text of 1 Sam. vi. 21, vii. 1, gives the reading
Kirjath-jearim, whereas the text of 2 Sam. vi. 2 has Baale-
Judah, which should be corrected to Baal-Judah. Baal-Judah,
or, in its abbreviated form, Baala, is another name for
Kirjath-jearim (Josh. xv. 9-11; cf. 1 Ghron. xiii. 6).
Similarly, we find the name Kirjath-Baal (Josh. xv. 60).
Kirjath-jearim is now Kharbet-el-Enab.

** The transport of the ark from Kirjath-jearim to Jerusalem
is related in 2 Sam. vi. and in 1 Ghron. xiii., xv., xvi.

He "was afraid of the Lord that day," and "would not remove the ark" to
Jerusalem, but left it for three months in the house of a Philistine,
Obed-Edom of Gath; but finding that its host, instead of experiencing
any evil, was blessed by the Lord, he carried out his original
intention, and brought the ark to Jerusalem. "David, girded with a linen
ephod, danced with all his might before the Lord," and "all the house of
Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting, and with the sound
of the trumpet." When the ark had been placed in the tent that David had
prepared for it, he offered up burnt offerings and peace offerings, and
at the end of the festival there were dealt out to the people gifts of
bread, cakes, and wine (or flesh). There is inserted in the narrative*
an account of the conduct of Michal his wife, who looking out of the
window and seeing the king dancing and playing, despised him in
her heart, and when David returned to his house, congratulated him
ironically--"How glorious was the King of Israel to-day, who uncovered
himself in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants!"

* Renan would consider this to have been inserted in the
time of Hezekiah. It appeared to him to answer "to the
antipathy of Hamutal and the ladies of the court to the
worship of Jahveh, and to that form