David starts to bring the Covenant Box to Jerusalem

13 David spoke with the officers of his army. Some of them were the leaders of 1,000 men. Other officers were the leaders of 100 men. ² Then David said to all the Israelites who were present, ‘I think that we should send a message to our relatives in all the regions of Israel. That should include the priests and the Levites in the towns where they live. We should ask all those people to meet with us here. We will do it if you agree that it is a good idea, and if the Lord our God wants us to do it. ³ We should bring back the Covenant Box of our God. While Saul was king, we did not use it to ask God about things.’

⁴ All the people there agreed that this was a good idea. They realized that it was the right thing to do.

⁵ So David brought together all the Israelites. They came from everywhere in Israel, from the Shihor River in Egypt, and as far as Lebo-Hamath. They came to bring God's Covenant Box back from Kiriath-Jearim.^{[a] 6} David and all the Israelites went to Baalah, a town in Judah. (Baalah is also called Kiriath-Jearim.) They went to bring the Covenant Box of God from there to Jerusalem. The Israelites called it by the name of the Lord. He sits as King between the two cherubs that are on the top of the Covenant Box.

⁷ The people put God's Covenant Box on a new cart. They took it out of Abinadab's house. Uzzah and Ahio were leading the cart. ⁸ David and all the Israelites were singing and dancing with all their strength to praise God. They made music with harps, lyres, tambourines, cymbals and trumpets.

⁹ They reached the place of Kidon's threshing floor. There the oxen that were pulling the cart almost fell. So Uzzah reached out to hold the Covenant Box to stop it falling. ¹⁰ The Lord was very angry with Uzzah because he had touched the Covenant Box. He knocked Uzzah down to the ground. Uzzah died there, beside God's Covenant Box.^[b]

¹¹ David was angry because the Lord had punished Uzzah. So he called that place ‘Perez Uzzah’. That is still its name today.^[c]

¹² So David now became afraid of God. He said, ‘God's Covenant Box is too holy to take with me.’ ¹³ So he did not take the Covenant Box to the City of David to be with him there. Instead, he took it to the house of Obed-Edom, who came from Gath. ¹⁴ God's Covenant Box stayed in the home of Obed-Edom's family for three months. During that time, the Lord blessed Obed-Edom's family and everything that he had.