David brings the Covenant Box to Jerusalem

6 David chose 30,000 of the best soldiers in Israel. ² He took them with him to Baalah, a town in Judah. He wanted to bring God's Covenant Box from there to Jerusalem. The Israelites called it by the name of the Lord Almighty. He sits as King between the two cherubs that are on the top of the Covenant Box. ³ They put the Covenant Box on a new cart. They took it out of Abinadab's house which was on the hill. Abinadab's sons, Uzzah and Ahio, were leading the new cart ⁴ which had the Covenant Box on it. Ahio walked in front of the Covenant Box. ⁵ David and all Israel's people were singing and dancing with all their strength to praise the Lord. They made music with harps, lyres, tambourines, shakers and cymbals.^[a]

⁶ They reached the place of Nacon's threshing floor. There the oxen that were pulling the cart almost fell. So Uzzah reached out to hold God's Covenant Box to stop it falling. ⁷ The Lord was very angry with Uzzah because he did not respect God's rules.^[b] He immediately knocked Uzzah down to the ground. Uzzah died there, beside the Covenant Box.

⁸ David was angry because the Lord had punished Uzzah. So he called that place ‘Perez Uzzah’. That is still its name today.^[c]

⁹ So David now became afraid of the Lord. He said, ‘The Lord's Covenant Box is too holy to come with me!’ ¹⁰ He no longer wanted to take the Lord's 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. ¹¹ The Lord's Covenant Box stayed in Obed-Edom's house for three months. During that time, the Lord blessed Obed-Edom and all the people in his house.

¹² People told King David, ‘The Lord has blessed Obed-Edom's family and everything that belongs to him, because of the Covenant Box.’

So David went back to Obed-Edom's house. He was now happy to bring the Covenant Box from there to the City of David. ¹³ The men who were carrying it walked six steps and they stopped. Then David offered a bull and a fat calf as sacrifices to God. ¹⁴ David was wearing a linen ephod.^[d] He danced with all his strength to worship the Lord. ¹⁵ He and all the Israelites brought the Lord's Covenant Box to Jerusalem. They shouted and they made a loud noise with trumpets.

¹⁶ While they were bringing the Lord's Covenant Box into the City of David, Saul's daughter Michal looked out through a window. She saw what King David was doing. He was jumping and dancing to worship the Lord. Michal felt ashamed of him.

¹⁷ David had put up a special tent for the Covenant Box, so they took it there. They put it in its place inside the tent. Then David offered burnt offerings and friendship offerings to the Lord.

¹⁸ After David had offered those sacrifices, he prayed that the Lord Almighty would bless the people. ¹⁹ Then he gave a gift to every man and woman in the crowd of Israelite people. Each person received a loaf of bread, some dates and some raisins. Then all the people went to their homes.

²⁰ David returned to his home to bless his own family. As he arrived, Saul's daughter Michal came out to meet him. She said, ‘The king of Israel has brought honour to himself today, has he? No, he has brought shame on himself! Even your officers' slave girls have seen how stupid you are. You have made your body bare like a useless fool!’

²¹ David said to Michal, ‘I was worshipping the Lord with joy! It was the Lord who chose me to be the ruler of his people, Israel. He chose me instead of your father or any of his family. ²² I am ready to bring even more shame on myself. Even I will be ashamed of myself! But the slave girls that you spoke about will still give me honour!’

²³ Saul's daughter Michal gave birth to no children all her life.