2 Samuel 6:1-11

Evangelical Heritage Version

David Brings the Ark to Jerusalem

6 David once again gathered all of the thirty thousand specially chosen men of Israel. ² Then David and all the people who were with him set out and went to Baale Judah^[a] to bring up the Ark of God, who is called by the name “The Lord of Armies, who sits above the cherubim.”

³ They transported the Ark of God on a new cart. They brought it out from Abinadab’s house, which was on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, were guiding the new cart ⁴ ⎣⎦^[b] with the Ark of God on it. Ahio was walking in front of the ark.

⁵ David and all the house of Israel were celebrating before the Lord with all kinds of instruments, castanets,^[c] lyres, harps, hand drums, rattles,^[d] and cymbals.

⁶ But when they came to the threshing floor of Nakon, Uzzah reached out for the Ark of God and grabbed it because the oxen stumbled. ⁷ The anger of the Lord burned against Uzzah, and God struck him there for his irreverence. So he died there beside the Ark of God.

⁸ David was angry because the Lord had burst out so violently against Uzzah, and he called that place Perez Uzzah,^[e] as it is called to this day. ⁹ David was afraid of the Lord on that day. He said, “How can the Ark of the Lord come to me?” ¹⁰ David was not willing to move the Ark of the Lord to himself in the City of David.

So David diverted the ark to the house of Obed Edom the Gittite. ¹¹ The Ark of the Lord remained at the house of Obed Edom the Gittite for three months, and the Lord blessed Obed Edom and his whole household.