representatives from the whole land assembled to the number of thirty thousand, with whom he went to

bring in solemn procession the Ark from271 Baalah of Judah, as Kirjath-Jearim ("the city of the woods.") also

used to be called272 (Joshua 15:9; 1 Chronicles 13:6; comp. also Psalm 132:6).

One thing only David had omitted, but its consequences proved fatal. The act of David and of Israel was

evidently intended as a return to the Lord, and as submission to His revealed ordinances. But if so, the

obedience must be complete in every particular. Viewed symbolically and typically, all these ordinances

formed one complete whole, of which not the smallest detail could be altered without disturbing the

symmetry of all, and destroying their meaning. Viewed legally, and, so far as Israel was concerned, even

morally, the neglect of any single ordinance involved a breach of all, and indeed, in principle, that of

obedience and absolute submission to Jehovah, in consequence of which the people had already so terribly

suffered. Once more we must here place ourselves on the stand-point of the stage of religious development

then attained. For only thus can we understand either the grave fault committed by David, or the severity of

the punishment by which it was followed. The arrangements which David had made for the transport of the

Ark differed in one most important particular from those which God had originally prescribed. According to

God's ordinance (Numbers 6) the Ark was only to be handled by the Levites - for symbolical reasons on

which we need not now enter - nor was any other even to touch it (Numbers 4:15). Moreover the Levites

were to carry it on their shoulders, and not to place it in a wagon. But the arrangements which David had

made for the transport of the Ark were those of the heathen Philistines when they had restored it to Israel (1

Samuel 6:7, etc.), not those of the Divine ordinance. If such was the case on the part of the king, we can

scarcely wonder at the want of reverence on the part of the people. It was a question of the safe transport of

a sacred vessel, not of the reverent handling of the very symbol of the Divine Presence. It had been placed

in a new cart, driven by the sons of Abinadab,273 in whose house the Ark had been these many years, while

David and all Israel followed with every demonstration of joy,274 and with praise.

At a certain part of the road, by the threshing-floor of "the stroke" (Nachon, 2 Samuel 6:6; or, as in 1

Chronicles 13:9, Chidon, "accident"), the oxen slipped, when Uzzah, one of Abinadab's sons, took hold of

the Ark. It scarcely needs the comment on this act, so frequently made, that Uzzah was a type of those who

honestly but with unhallowed hands try to steady the ark of God when, as they think, it is in danger, to

show us that some lesson was needed alike by the king and his people to remind them that this was not

merely a piece of sacred furniture, but the very emblem of God's Presence among His people. It was a

sudden and terrible judgment which struck down Uzzah in his very act before all the people; and though

David was "displeased" at the unexpected check to his cherished undertaking, the more so that he must

have felt that the blame lay with himself, he seems also to have learnt its lesson at least thus far, to realize,

more than ever before, that holiness befitted every contact with God (2 Samuel 6:9).

The meaning of this judgment was understood by David. When three months later the Ark was fetched from

where it had been temporarily deposited in the house of Obed-Edom, a Levite of Gath-Rimmon (Joshua

21:24; 19:45), and of that family of that Korahites (1 Chronicles 26:4; comp. Exodus 6:21), to whom the

custody of the Ark was specially entrusted (1 Chronicles 15:18, 24), David closely observed the Divine

ordinance. Of this, as indeed of all the preparations made by David on this occasion, we have, as might be

expected, a very full account in 1 Chronicles 15:1-25. As the procession set forward a sacrifice of an ox and a

thank-offering of seven bullocks and seven rams was brought (1 Chronicles 15:26).

David himself, dressed as the representative of the priestly nation, in an ephod, took part in the festivities,

like one of the people. It is a sad sign of the decay into which the public services of the sanctuary had fallen

in the time of Saul, that Michal saw in this nothing but needless humiliation of the royal dignity. She had

loved the warrior, and she could honor the king, but "the daughter of Saul"  276 could neither understand nor

sympathize with such a demonstration as that in which David now took part.

As she looked from her window upon the scene below, and mentally contrasted the proud grandeur of her

father's court with what she regarded as the triumph of the despicable priesthood at the cost of royalty,