1 Chronicles 13:9-14
New English Translation
9 When they arrived at the threshing floor of Kidon, Uzzah reached out his hand to take hold of[a] the ark, because the oxen stumbled. 10 The Lord was so furious with Uzzah,[b] he killed him, because he reached out his hand and touched the ark.[c] He died right there before God.[d]
11 David was angry because the Lord attacked Uzzah;[e] so he called that place Perez Uzzah,[f] which remains its name to this very day. 12 David was afraid of God that day and said, “How will I ever be able to bring the ark of God up here?” 13 So David did not move the ark to the City of David;[g] he left it in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite. 14 The ark of God remained in Obed-Edom’s house for three months; the Lord blessed Obed-Edom’s family and everything that belonged to him.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 1 Chronicles 13:9 tn Or “to steady.”
- 1 Chronicles 13:10 tn Heb “and the anger of the Lord burned against Uzzah.”
- 1 Chronicles 13:10 tn Heb “because he stretched out his hand over the ark.”
- 1 Chronicles 13:10 sn The modern reader might think God seemed to overreact here, but Israel needed a vivid object lesson of God’s holiness. By loading the ark on a cart, David had violated the instructions in God’s law (Exod 25:12-14; Num 4:5-6, 15). Uzzah’s action, however innocent it may seem, betrayed a certain lack of reverence for God’s presence. God had to remind his people that his holiness could not under any circumstances be violated.
- 1 Chronicles 13:11 tn Heb “because the Lord broke out [with] breaking out [i.e., an outburst] against Uzzah.”
- 1 Chronicles 13:11 sn The name Perez Uzzah means in Hebrew “the outburst [against] Uzzah.”
- 1 Chronicles 13:13 sn The phrase the City of David refers here to the fortress of Zion in Jerusalem, not to Bethlehem. See 2 Sam 5:7.
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