The Fallible Synthetic Study Bible — 1 Chronicles 13:8

✦ Public-domain source — quoted & attributed⚙ AI synthesis — generated, verify

1 Chronicles 13:8–14 — Uzzah Touches the Ark. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

The Voices✦ 4 public domain

Charles EllicottCommentary for English Readers1878

Played. —Were dancing (to music) . With all their might, and with singing. —So LXX. and Syriac. Samuel has “with all woods of cypresses;” a strange expression, probably due to confusion of similar letters, and transposition.

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Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges—1880s

psalteries ] The instrument here meant (Heb. nçbhel ) “is generally identified at the present day with an instrument called the santir still in use among the Arabs. This consists of a long box with a flat bottom covered with a somewhat convex sounding-board over which the strings are stretched.” (Nowack, Hebräische Arckäologie , I. 275.) The “harp” (Heb. kinnôr ) was a simpler instrument, a lyre rather than a true harp.

Cambridge is quoting Nowack's Hebräische Archäologie and pointing to Driver; the identification of the nebel with the santir is a nineteenth-century scholarly proposal, not a datum of the text.

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The Pulpit CommentarySpence & Exell, eds.1880s

With all their might . See the evident mistake of the parallel ("on all manner of instruments made of firwood," literally, with all firwoods ) through similarity of the Hebrew characters.

Pulpit calls the Samuel reading "the evident mistake." That is a judgment, not a finding: the manuscripts do not say which way the confusion ran, only that the two consonantal strings are close.

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Geneva Study BibleMarginal Notes1599

(d) That is, before the Ark, where God showed himself: so that the sign is taken for the thing signified, which is common to all sacraments both in the old and new testaments.

Geneva imports a Reformed sacramental category (sign and thing signified) into the Hebrew narrative. It is a real reading of what "before God" means here, but the category is the commentator's, not the Chronicler's.

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David and all the Israelites were celebrating before God with all their might, with songs and on harps and lyres, with tambourines, cymbals, and trumpets.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

wə·ḏā·wîḏ wə·ḵāl yiś·rā·’êl mə·śa·ḥă·qîm lip̄·nê hā·’ĕ·lō·hîm bə·ḵāl ‘ōz ū·ḇə·šî·rîm ū·ḇə·ḵin·nō·rō·wṯ ū·ḇin·ḇā·lîm ū·ḇə·ṯup·pîm ū·ḇim·ṣil·ta·yim ū·ḇa·ḥă·ṣō·ṣə·rō·wṯ

Word by word14 · parsed

וְדָוִ֣ידwə·ḏā·wîḏDavidH1732

√ Dâvid — David, the youngest son of JesseConjunctive wawNounpropermasculine singular

וְכָל־wə·ḵāland allH3605

√ kôl — properly, the wholeConjunctive wawNounmasculine singular construct

יִשְׂרָאֵ֗לyiś·rā·’êlthe IsraelitesH3478

√ Yisrâʼêl — Jisrael, a symbolical name of JacobNounpropermasculine singular

מְשַׂחֲקִ֛יםmə·śa·ḥă·qîmwere celebratingH7832

√ sâchaq — to laugh (in pleasure or detraction)VerbPielParticiplemasculine plural

sâchaq: to laugh, sport, dance (Piel participle) A participle, not a finite verb: the whole nation is caught mid-motion, ongoing and unfinished, when the narrative breaks it off at the threshing floor. Pulpit tracks the root through laughing, sporting and jesting into dancing (citing 1 Samuel 18:7 and Jeremiah 31:4) and notes the same ambiguity our own idiom carries. The Chronicler places this participle four words before the cart tips, so that the reader's ear still has the music in it when Uzzah dies.

לִפְנֵ֥יlip̄·nêbeforeH6440

√ pânîym — the face (as the part that turns)Preposition-lNouncommon plural construct

pânîym: face, presence Before here is to the face of. The phrase is the hinge of the whole unit: Israel makes merry lip̄nê hā-ʼĕlōhîm in v. 8, and Uzzah dies lip̄nê ʼĕlōhîm in v. 10. Ellicott observes that the Chronicler's "before God" in v. 10 stands where Samuel has "by the ark of God," and says this explains the same phrase here: the ark is where the face is.

הָאֱלֹהִ֖יםhā·’ĕ·lō·hîmGodH430

√ ʼĕlôhîym — gods in the ordinary senseArticleNounmasculine plural

ʼĕlôhîym: God (with the article) The Chronicler writes hā-ʼĕlōhîm, "the God," where 2 Samuel 6:5 has the covenant name. Ellicott states the pattern plainly: "Samuel has Jehovah. The chronicler or his authority has avoided the frequent use of that most holy Name." The substitution is a post-exilic reverence, and it is the same reverence that will make the Chronicler soften Uzzah's grasp in v. 9.

בְּכָל־bə·ḵālwith allH3605

√ kôl — properly, the wholePreposition-bNounmasculine singular construct

עֹ֑ז‘ōztheir mightH5797

√ ʻôz — strength in various applications (force, security, majesty, praise)Nounmasculine singular

ʻôz: strength, force, majesty Israel gives everything it has. The word is not a blank intensifier; it names force, and force is exactly what the episode is about to redefine. Four verses later the same procession has no strength at all, and the ark goes to a stranger's house.

וּבְשִׁירִ֤יםū·ḇə·šî·rîmwith songsH7892

√ shîyr — a songConjunctive waw, Preposition-bNounmasculine plural

With songs: the first of six terms in the list of praise.

וּבְכִנֹּרוֹת֙ū·ḇə·ḵin·nō·rō·wṯand on harpsH3658

√ kinnôwr — a harpConjunctive waw, Preposition-bNounmasculine plural

kinnôwr: harp, lyre Cambridge, following Driver, corrects the traditional English: the kinnôr "was a simpler instrument, a lyre rather than a true harp."

וּבִנְבָלִ֣יםū·ḇin·ḇā·lîmand lyresH5035

√ nebel — a skin-bag for liquids (from collapsing when empty)Conjunctive waw, Preposition-bNounmasculine plural

nebel: skin-bag, lute, psaltery The root sense is a skin-bag for liquids, from collapsing when empty, the shape of the resonating body giving the instrument its name. Cambridge, citing Nowack, identifies it with the Arab santir, a long flat box strung across a convex sounding-board.

וּבְתֻפִּ֔יםū·ḇə·ṯup·pîmwith tambourinesH8596

√ tôph — a tambourineConjunctive waw, Preposition-bNounmasculine plural

וּבִמְצִלְתַּ֖יִםū·ḇim·ṣil·ta·yimcymbalsH4700

√ mᵉtsêleth — (only dual) double tinklers, iConjunctive waw, Preposition-bNouncd

mᵉtsêleth: double tinklers (dual) A dual noun: the instrument exists only in pairs. Ellicott notes this is the later Hebrew term, replacing Samuel's çilçelîm, one of the small lexical fingerprints by which Pulpit argues that Chronicles and Samuel drew on different written sources.

וּבַחֲצֹצְרֽוֹת׃ū·ḇa·ḥă·ṣō·ṣə·rō·wṯand trumpetsH2689

√ chătsôtsᵉrâh — a trumpet (from its sundered or quavering note)Conjunctive waw, Preposition-b, ArticleNounfeminine plural

chătsôtsᵉrâh: trumpet (from its quavering note) The priestly silver trumpet of Numbers 10, the instrument of assembly and of war. It closes the list of six and is the only one in it that is a sanctuary instrument by ordinance. The irony the unit will develop is that the procession has the priestly trumpets and not the priestly bearers.

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-David and-all Israel making-merry before the-God with-all might, and-with-songs and-with-harps and-with-lyres, and-with-tambourines and-with-cymbals and-with-trumpets.

Where the English smooths the original

מְשַׂחֲקִ֛ים מְשַׂחֲקִים (mə·śa·ḥă·qîm, Piel participle of sâchaq, H7832) is rendered "were celebrating." The root gloss in Strong's is simply to laugh (in pleasure or detraction). Pulpit traces the sense from "to laugh" through "sporting" and "jesting" to "dancing," and says its deepest idea is "to make merry." Cambridge renders it "to sport, to dance." The English "celebrating" is decorous; the Hebrew is bodily and loud.
לִפְנֵ֥י לִפְנֵי (lip̄·nê, H6440, the construct plural of pânîym, "face") is "before," literally to the faces of. English flattens it to a location word. Geneva insists the phrase means "before the Ark, where God showed himself." The same two words return at v. 10 over Uzzah's corpse, and the identical phrase covers both the dancing and the dying.
עֹ֑ז עֹז (ʻōz, H5797) is glossed by Strong's as strength in various applications (force, security, majesty, praise). "Their might" reads as human exertion only, but the noun is the same one used of God's own strength; in a procession for the ark the ambiguity is not accidental. Ellicott and Pulpit both note that the parallel in 2 Samuel 6:5 reads instead "with all woods of cypresses," a near-identical consonantal string.
וּבִמְצִלְתַּ֖יִם וּבִמְצִלְתַּיִם (ū·ḇim·ṣil·ta·yim, H4700, parsed "Noun - cd," a dual) is "cymbals," literally double tinklers: the dual form is the instrument, a pair struck together. English "cymbals" loses the built-in twoness. Ellicott notes the Chronicler uses this later term (meçiltayim) where Samuel has çilçelîm.

The Voices✦ 4 public domain

Charles EllicottCommentary for English Readers1878

Put forth his hand to hold the ark. —An explanatory paraphrase of the more ancient text, “Uzza put forth unto the ark of God, and held thereon” (Samuel).

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Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges—1880s

to hold the ark ] The Chronicler from a feeling of reverence shrinks from saying, and took hold of it

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The Pulpit CommentarySpence & Exell, eds.1880s

The oxen stumbled . In the parallel place the Authorized Version renders "shook it." The Hebrew verb is the same ( שָׁמַט ) in both places. Its elementary meanings are "to strike" and "to throw down." Perhaps the meaning is near the Vulgate rendering, c alcitrabant , and equivalent to the rendering, became restive.

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Matthew HenryConcise Commentary on the Whole Bible1706

Let the sin of Uzza warn all to take heed of presumption, rashness, and irreverence, in dealing with holy things; and let none think that a good design will justify a bad action.

Henry's note is written across 13:6-14 as one block, so it is a comment on the episode rather than on this verse alone.

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When they came to the threshing floor of Chidon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark, because the oxen had stumbled.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

way·yā·ḇō·’ū ‘aḏ- gō·ren kî·ḏōn ‘uz·zā ’eṯ- yā·ḏōw way·yiš·laḥ le·’ĕ·ḥōz ’eṯ- hā·’ā·rō·wn kî hab·bā·qār šā·mə·ṭū

Word by word14 · parsed

וַיָּבֹ֖אוּway·yā·ḇō·’ūWhen they cameH935

√ bôwʼ — to go or come (in a wide variety of applications)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine plural

עַד־‘aḏ-toH5704

√ ʻad — as far (or long, or much) as, whether of space (even unto) or time (during, while, until) or degree (equally with)Preposition

גֹּ֣רֶןgō·renthe threshing floorH1637

√ gôren — a threshing-floor (as made even)Nounproper

gôren: threshing-floor (as made even) A beaten circle of hard ground, a landmark by nature (Pulpit cites Genesis 50:10 and 2 Samuel 24:16). The Chronicler will send David to another threshing floor, Ornan's, to stop another plague. Here the level ground is where the cart faltered; the text does not explain how, and neither will we.

כִּידֹ֑ןkî·ḏōnof ChidonH3592

√ Kîydôwn — Kidon, a place in PalestineNounproper

Chidon: the parallel at 2 Samuel 6:6 has Nachon. Ellicott judges "the Nachon of Samuel seems right"; Pulpit says there is nothing to determine which form is the corruption. Cambridge notes LXX (B) omits the name entirely.

עֻזָּ֜א‘uz·zāUzzahH5798

√ ʻUzzâʼ — Uzza or Uzzah, the name of five IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular

אֶת־’eṯ-H853

√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object marker

יָד֗וֹyā·ḏōwH3027

√ yâd — a hand (the open one (indicating power, means, direction, etcNounfeminine singular constructthird person masculine singular

yâd: hand (the open one, indicating power, means, direction) Strong's root sense is the open hand, the hand as power and agency. This is the word on which the whole verdict of v. 10 turns: not Uzzah's motive but his hand.

וַיִּשְׁלַ֨חway·yiš·laḥreached outH7971

√ shâlach — to send away, for, or out (in a great variety of applications)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

shâlach: to send out, send away Consecutive imperfect, driving the narrative forward. The Hebrew does not say Uzzah reached; it says he sent his hand. Verse 10 repeats the verb in the perfect as the stated ground of the sentence: ʻal ʼăsher šālaḥ yāḏōw, "because he sent his hand." The act and the indictment use one lexeme.

לֶאֱחֹז֙le·’ĕ·ḥōzand took holdH270

√ ʼâchaz — to seize (often with the accessory idea of holding in possession)Preposition-lVerbQalInfinitive construct

ʼâchaz: to seize, to hold in possession An infinitive construct of purpose: he sent the hand in order to seize. Strong's records the accessory idea of holding in possession, and that is the theological edge the narrative leaves exposed. Cambridge notes that the Chronicler, out of reverence, refuses the blunter wording of 2 Samuel 6:6, "and took hold of it," so what stands here is already the mitigated version.

אֶת־’eṯ-ofH853

√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object marker

הָ֣אָר֔וֹןhā·’ā·rō·wnthe arkH727

√ ʼârôwn — a boxArticleNouncommon singular

The ark: definite, article-bearing, the object of the seizing. Strong's root for ʼârôwn is nothing more than a box.

כִּ֥יkîbecauseH3588

√ kîy — (by implication) very widely used as a relative conjunction or adverb (as below)Conjunction

Because: the conjunction supplies the narrator's stated cause for the reaching, not for the striking.

הַבָּקָֽר׃hab·bā·qārthe oxenH1241

√ bâqâr — beef cattle or an animal of the ox family of either gender (as used for plowing)ArticleNounmasculine singular

שָֽׁמְט֖וּšā·mə·ṭūhad stumbledH8058

√ shâmaṭ — to fling downVerbQalPerfectthird person common plural

shâmaṭ: to fling down, let drop A rare verb (eight verses in the canon), and the three best witnesses in this brief disagree about what it means here. Ellicott: "or, plunged," used transitively at 2 Kings 9:33. Cambridge: rather let it go, noting that at 2 Kings 9:33 Jehu's command is deliberately ambiguous so as to shift responsibility onto those who obey. Pulpit: perhaps "became restive," near the Vulgate calcitrabant. We record the disagreement rather than resolve it.

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-they-came as-far-as the-threshing-floor-of Chidon, and-stretched-out Uzzah his-hand to-take-hold-of the-ark, for the-oxen let-it-slip.

Where the English smooths the original

וַיִּשְׁלַ֨ח וַיִּשְׁלַח (way·yiš·laḥ, H7971, Qal consecutive imperfect) is "reached out." The root is to send away, for, or out. The Hebrew idiom is he sent his hand: the hand is dispatched like a messenger. That is precisely the charge God brings in v. 10, where the same verb returns in the perfect.
לֶאֱחֹז֙ לֶאֱחֹז (le·ʼĕ·ḥōz, H270, Qal infinitive construct) is "took hold." Strong's: to seize, often with the accessory idea of holding in possession. The English "took hold" sounds like steadying; the lexeme carries seizure. Cambridge observes that the Chronicler has already softened the parallel: "The Chronicler from a feeling of reverence shrinks from saying, and took hold of it." So even the seizing verb here is the gentler of the two accounts.
שָֽׁמְט֖וּ שָׁמְטוּ (šā·mə·ṭū, H8058) is "had stumbled," but Strong's gloss is to fling down. Ellicott says "or, plunged," and notes the verb is used transitively in 2 Kings 9:33. Cambridge argues the sense is rather let it go, the same ambiguity Jehu exploits over Jezebel. Pulpit suggests "became restive." The English verb chooses a reading the Hebrew leaves open: whether the oxen slipped, bolted, or let the cart go.
גֹּ֣רֶן גֹּרֶן (gō·ren, H1637) is "the threshing floor," literally a threshing-floor as made even. Pulpit describes it: a circular plot of hard ground fifty to a hundred feet across, which is why threshing floors served as landmarks. The ark is struck down at the flattest, most public ground in the district.

The Voices✦ 4 public domain

Charles EllicottCommentary for English Readers1878

Because he put his hand to the ark. —“Because he put” is in the Heb., ‘al ’asher shalah. For this Samuel has ’al hashshal, an obscure phrase, occurring nowhere else in the Old Testament.

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Geneva Study BibleMarginal Notes1599

(f) Before the Ark for usurping that which did not belong to his calling: for this charge was given to the priests, Nu 4:15, so that here all good intentions are condemned, unless they are commanded by the word of God.

Geneva turns the verse into the Reformed regulative principle for worship. The appeal to Numbers 4:15 is the text's own kind of argument; the general rule drawn from it is Geneva's inference.

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The Pulpit CommentarySpence & Exell, eds.1880s

There seems some little uncertainty as to why Uzza was to blame in a desire that would appear both praiseworthy and instinctive, to steady the ark or save it from actually falling. Uzza was probably not a priest or Levite, and it is so distinctly said his sin consisted in putting his hand to the ark , that perhaps the direction of Numbers 4:15 may be sufficient account of the matter.

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Keil & DelitzschBiblical Commentary on the Old Testament1860s

in the whole Old Testament the idea that by or at the resting-place of the ark Jahve was invoked (which שׁם אשׁר would signify) nowhere occurs, since no one could venture to approach the ark.

Keil is not commenting on Uzzah here. This sentence comes from his text-critical argument on 13:6 about the phrase "whose name is called," and the remark about approaching the ark is a premise in that argument. We cite it because the premise bears directly on this verse, but the provenance should be known.

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And the anger of the LORD burned against Uzzah, and He struck him down because he had put his hand on the ark. So he died there before God.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

’ap̄ Yah·weh way·yi·ḥar- bə·‘uz·zā way·yak·kê·hū ‘al ’ă·šer- šā·laḥ yā·ḏōw ‘al- hā·’ā·rō·wn way·yā·māṯ šām lip̄·nê ’ĕ·lō·hîm

Word by word15 · parsed

אַ֤ף’ap̄And the angerH639

√ ʼaph — properly, the nose or nostrilNounmasculine singular construct

ʼaph: the nose, the nostril; hence anger The construct ʼap̄ YHWH is the flared nostril of God. Hebrew does not have a bloodless word for wrath here; it has a face. Read with the lip̄nê ("to the face of") that closes the verse, the text sets Uzzah's death in front of the very face whose nostril burned.

יְהוָה֙Yah·wehof the LORDH3068

√ Yᵉhôvâh — Jehovah, Jewish national name of GodNounpropermasculine singular

וַיִּֽחַר־way·yi·ḥar-burnedH2734

√ chârâh — to glow or grow warmConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

chârâh: to glow, to grow warm Consecutive imperfect, the narrative tense: the heat is an event, not a disposition. Verse 11 will use the identical verb of David, and the Chronicler gives no word of criticism or approval of David's flare. He simply lets the same fire appear twice with two subjects.

בְּעֻזָּ֔אbə·‘uz·zāagainst UzzahH5798

√ ʻUzzâʼ — Uzza or Uzzah, the name of five IsraelitesPreposition-bNounpropermasculine singular

וַיַּכֵּ֕הוּway·yak·kê·hūand He struck himH5221

√ nâkâh — to strike (lightly or severely, literally or figuratively)Conjunctive wawVerbHifilConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singularthird person masculine singular

nâkâh: to strike, lightly or severely (Hifil) Causative stem with a third masculine singular suffix: the blow is delivered and the object is a man. Ellicott records that the Chronicler has abridged Samuel's "and God smote him there." Nothing in the Hebrew tells us the manner of death, and the commentators in this brief do not supply one either.

עַ֛ל‘aldownH5921

√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPreposition

אֲשֶׁר־’ă·šer-becauseH834

√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative

Because that: ʻal ʼăsher, the stated legal ground of the sentence. Ellicott notes that Samuel here has the obscure ʻal hashshal, "occurring nowhere else in the Old Testament," and that whether the Chronicler preserved an older reading or guessed at it "cannot be determined."

שָׁלַ֥חšā·laḥhe had putH7971

√ shâlach — to send away, for, or out (in a great variety of applications)VerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular

shâlach: to send out The perfect of the very verb used of Uzzah in v. 9. The indictment quotes the act back word for word. What is charged is not fear, not irreverence of intent, not failure to trust: it is the sending of the hand.

יָד֖וֹyā·ḏōwhis handH3027

√ yâd — a hand (the open one (indicating power, means, direction, etcNounfeminine singular constructthird person masculine singular

yâd: hand, the open hand of power The single noun on which the verdict hangs. Geneva reads the death as punishment "for usurping that which did not belong to his calling," pointing to Numbers 4:15, where the Kohathites are warned not to touch the holy things lest they die. Pulpit adds the further statute of Exodus 25:14-15, that the poles were never to be removed from the rings, so that the ark was designed never to need a steadying hand.

עַל־‘al-onH5921

√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPreposition

הָאָר֑וֹןhā·’ā·rō·wnthe arkH727

√ ʼârôwn — a boxArticleNouncommon singular

וַיָּ֥מָתway·yā·māṯSo he diedH4191

√ mûwth — to die (literally or figuratively)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

mûwth: to die Plain, unglossed, unexplained. The Chronicler offers no theodicy and neither will we.

שָׁ֖םšāmthereH8033

√ shâm — there (transferring to time) thenAdverb

There: at the threshing floor, in the open, in front of the whole procession of v. 8.

לִפְנֵ֥יlip̄·nêbeforeH6440

√ pânîym — the face (as the part that turns)Preposition-lNouncommon plural construct

pânîym: face, presence The same construct as v. 8 verse-word 4. What Israel danced in front of, Uzzah died in front of. The location did not change; the man's relation to it did.

אֱלֹהִֽים׃’ĕ·lō·hîmGodH430

√ ʼĕlôhîym — gods in the ordinary senseNounmasculine plural

ʼĕlôhîym: God Here without the article, where v. 8 had hā-ʼĕlōhîm. Ellicott notes that the Chronicler's "before God" stands where Samuel has "by the ark of God," and that this explains the same phrase back in v. 8: for the Chronicler, at the ark is before God.

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-burned the-nostril-of YHWH against-Uzzah, and-He-struck-him because that he-sent his-hand upon the-ark; and-he-died there before God.

Where the English smooths the original

אַ֤ף אַף (ʼap̄, H639) is translated "the anger," but Strong's gives the root as properly, the nose or nostril. Anger in Hebrew is the flaring, heating nostril. The English abstracts a bodily image into an emotion word and loses the reason the next verb is "burned."
וַיִּֽחַר־ וַיִּחַר (way·yi·ḥar, H2734) is "burned." Strong's: to glow or grow warm. Held together with ʼap̄ the clause is literally the nostril of YHWH grew hot. The same verb opens v. 11 with David as its subject, and English uses two different words there ("became angry"), hiding the fact that David catches fire at exactly the point where God did.
וַיַּכֵּ֕הוּ וַיַּכֵּהוּ (way·yak·kê·hū, H5221, Hifil with suffix) is "He struck him down." The Hifil of nâkâh is causative: He caused a striking upon him. Ellicott notes this is abridged from Samuel's fuller "and God smote him there." The agent is unnamed in the Chronicler's clause and supplied only from the preceding ʼap̄ YHWH.
לִפְנֵ֥י אֱלֹהִֽים לִפְנֵי אֱלֹהִים (lip̄·nê ʼĕ·lō·hîm) is "before God." Samuel reads "by the ark of God" (so Ellicott, and Cambridge on this verse). The Chronicler's substitution is theological, not merely stylistic: he puts the same two words over the corpse that he put over the dancing in v. 8.

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The Pulpit CommentarySpence & Exell, eds.1880s

Displeased . The Hebrew root. ( חָרָה ) betokens a mixture of anger and grief. It is the word used of Jonah (Jonah 4:1, 9), and perhaps our English word "vexed" or "hurt," would convey its meaning.

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Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges—1880s

was displeased ] Rather, was wroth , presumably against his advisers for not warning him that the method adopted for the removal of the ark was wrong

Cambridge marks its own guess with "presumably." The object of David's anger is not stated in the verse; the cross-reference to 1 Chronicles 15:13 is the strongest evidence for Cambridge's reading, and it comes from two chapters later.

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Charles EllicottCommentary for English Readers1878

To this day. —It is not implied necessarily that the place was known by this name in the days of the Chronicles. The same phrase occurs in the parallel verse of Samuel, and the chronicler has merely given a exact transcript of his source.

source ↗

Then David became angry because the LORD had burst forth against Uzzah. So he named that place Perez-uzzah, as it is called to this day.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

lə·ḏā·wîḏ way·yi·ḥar kî- Yah·weh p̄ā·raṣ pe·reṣ bə·‘uz·zā way·yiq·rā ha·hū lam·mā·qō·wm pe·reṣ ‘uz·zā ‘aḏ haz·zeh hay·yō·wm

Word by word15 · parsed

לְדָוִ֔ידlə·ḏā·wîḏThen DavidH1732

√ Dâvid — David, the youngest son of JessePreposition-lNounpropermasculine singular

וַיִּ֣חַרway·yi·ḥarbecame angryH2734

√ chârâh — to glow or grow warmConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

chârâh: to glow, to grow warm The same verb that took YHWH's nostril in v. 10 now takes David, and the Hebrew construction is impersonal (it burned to David). Pulpit hears in the root "a mixture of anger and grief," the verb used of Jonah at Jonah 4:1, 9. Cambridge reads the anger as directed "against his advisers for not warning him that the method adopted for the removal of the ark was wrong," citing 1 Chronicles 15:13, where David himself later says the LORD broke out against them because they did not seek Him according to the ordinance.

כִּֽי־kî-becauseH3588

√ kîy — (by implication) very widely used as a relative conjunction or adverb (as below)Conjunction

יְהוָ֛הYah·wehthe LORDH3068

√ Yᵉhôvâh — Jehovah, Jewish national name of GodNounpropermasculine singular

פָרַ֧ץp̄ā·raṣhad burst forthH6555

√ pârats — to break out (in many applications, direct and indirect, literal and figurative)VerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular

pârats: to break out, break through (a wall) The verb of a breached fortification. Ellicott notes that the same verb recurs at 1 Chronicles 14:11, where David names Baal-perazim after a victory: God bursts through Israel's enemies there, and bursts through Israel here, with one lexeme. Ellicott also points to Exodus 19:22, the warning at Sinai that the LORD would break out against priests who did not consecrate themselves.

פֶּ֖רֶץpe·reṣ. . .H6556

√ perets — a break (literally or figuratively)Nounmasculine singular construct

perets: a breach The cognate accusative, the noun of the verb it follows. Hebrew intensifies by repetition where English reaches for an adverb; Pulpit supplies the missing force with "fiercely." The image is architectural: something that was holding has given way.

בְּעֻזָּ֑אbə·‘uz·zāagainst UzzahH5798

√ ʻUzzâʼ — Uzza or Uzzah, the name of five IsraelitesPreposition-bNounpropermasculine singular

וַיִּקְרָ֞אway·yiq·rāSo he namedH7121

√ qârâʼ — to call out to (iConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

qârâʼ: to call out, to name Ellicott notes the Hebrew is impersonal, "and he (one) called that place," so the namer may be David or may be common usage.

הַהוּא֙ha·hūthatH1931

√ hûwʼ — he (she or it)ArticlePronounthird person masculine singular

לַמָּק֤וֹםlam·mā·qō·wmplaceH4725

√ mâqôwm — properly, a standing, iPreposition-l, ArticleNounmasculine singular

mâqôwm: a standing place From the root to stand: the place as where a thing stands. The ground where the ark stopped becomes a permanent marker of the stopping.

פֶּ֣רֶץpe·reṣvvvH6560

√ Perets ʻUzzâʼ — Perets-Uzza, a place in Palestine

עֻזָּ֔א‘uz·zāPerez-uzzahH6560

√ Perets ʻUzzâʼ — Perets-Uzza, a place in PalestineNounproperfeminine singular

Perets ʻUzzâʼ: Breach-of-Uzzah The name is the sentence. Israel's map now carries the memory of a man who helped and died, and it will carry it past the Chronicler's own time. The Chronicler, writing for a restored community rebuilding its worship, keeps the marker rather than the music of v. 8.

עַ֖ד‘aḏas it is [called] toH5704

√ ʻad — as far (or long, or much) as, whether of space (even unto) or time (during, while, until) or degree (equally with)Preposition

As far as: ʻaḏ, the preposition of extent, here of time.

הַזֶּֽה׃haz·zehthisH2088

√ zeh — the masculine demonstrative pronoun, this or thatArticlePronounmasculine singular

הַיּ֥וֹםhay·yō·wmdayH3117

√ yôwm — a day (as the warm hours), whether literal (from sunrise to sunset, or from one sunset to the next), or figurative (a space of time defined by an associated term), (often used adverb)ArticleNounmasculine singular

yôwm: day The "to this day" formula. Pulpit reads it as marking "the lapse of time from the historical point of time to the point of record"; Ellicott warns it may belong to the source rather than to the Chronicler's present. Either way it is a claim about the durability of the memory, not about the durability of the name.

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-it-burned to-David because YHWH broke-forth a-breaking-forth against-Uzzah; and-he-called the-place that Perez-Uzzah, unto the-day the-this.

Where the English smooths the original

וַיִּ֣חַר וַיִּחַר (way·yi·ḥar, H2734) is rendered "became angry," but it is the identical verb used of God's nostril in v. 10. Hebrew sets the two burnings side by side; English separates them into "burned" and "became angry." Pulpit says the root "betokens a mixture of anger and grief," the word used of Jonah, and suggests "vexed" or "hurt." Cambridge prefers "was wroth."
פָרַ֧ץ פֶּ֖רֶץ פָרַץ פֶּרֶץ (p̄ā·raṣ pe·reṣ, H6555 with H6556) is a cognate accusative: he broke-forth a breaking-forth. BSB gives only "had burst forth," dropping the doubled noun. Pulpit renders it literally, "had broken forth a breaking forth on Uzza; i.e. had fiercely broken forth on Uzza." The figure is a wall giving way, not a bolt from heaven.
פֶּ֣רֶץ עֻזָּ֔א פֶּרֶץ עֻזָּא (Pe·reṣ ʻUz·zā, H6560) is transliterated "Perez-uzzah" and so becomes an opaque label in English. In Hebrew the place name simply repeats the verb of the clause before it: Breach-of-Uzzah. The naming is the whole point; David turns the event into geography.
עַ֖ד הַיּ֥וֹם הַזֶּֽה עַד הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה (ʻaḏ hay·yō·wm haz·zeh) is "as it is called to this day." Ellicott cautions that the formula does not establish that the name was current in the Chronicler's own day: "the chronicler has merely given a exact transcript of his source." The bracketed "[called]" in the English supplies a verb the Hebrew does not have here.

That day David feared God and asked, “How can I ever bring the ark of God to me?”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

ha·hū bay·yō·wm ḏā·wîḏ ’eṯ- way·yî·rā hā·’ĕ·lō·hîm lê·mōr hêḵ ’ā·ḇî ’ă·rō·wn hā·’ĕ·lō·hîm ’ê·lay ’êṯ

Word by word13 · parsed

הַה֖וּאha·hūThatH1931

√ hûwʼ — he (she or it)ArticlePronounthird person masculine singular

That: the demonstrative binds the fear to the day of the death, not to David's character.

בַּיּ֥וֹםbay·yō·wmdayH3117

דָוִיד֙ḏā·wîḏDavidH1732

√ Dâvid — David, the youngest son of JesseNounpropermasculine singular

אֶת־’eṯ-H853

√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object marker

וַיִּירָ֤אway·yî·rāfearedH3372

√ yârêʼ — to fearConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

yârêʼ: to fear Consecutive imperfect: a new state entered on a named day. The Chronicler has now used three emotion verbs in five verses, and all three are reactions to one act: God's nostril burns (v. 10), David burns (v. 11), David is afraid (v. 12). The narrative moves from celebration through rage into terror without ever telling the reader what to feel.

הָ֣אֱלֹהִ֔יםhā·’ĕ·lō·hîmGodH430

√ ʼĕlôhîym — gods in the ordinary senseArticleNounmasculine plural

ʼĕlôhîym: God (with the article) Ellicott records that where the Chronicler writes God here and in vv. 8 and 14, "Samuel has Jehovah. The chronicler or his authority has avoided the frequent use of that most holy Name." In a chapter about a man killed for handling what was too holy to handle, the scribal avoidance of the Name is itself a commentary.

לֵאמֹ֑רlê·mōrand askedH559

√ ʼâmar — to say (used with great latitude)Preposition-lVerbQalInfinitive construct

Saying: infinitive construct of ʼâmar, introducing direct speech. Ellicott notes Samuel has instead "and said."

הֵ֚יךְhêḵHowH1963

√ hêyk — how?Interrogative

hêyk: how? An extremely rare interrogative, appearing in only two verses in the canon; the other is Daniel 10:17, where a man flattened by a vision asks how he can speak at all. Ellicott flags it as an Aramaic form and suspects a transcriber. Whatever its origin, it is a strange word in a strange mouth: David, who has just watched the ark strike, reaches for a particle that sounds like exile.

אָבִ֣יא’ā·ḇîcan I ever bringH935

√ bôwʼ — to go or come (in a wide variety of applications)VerbHifilImperfectfirst person common singular

bôwʼ: to come, to go (Hifil: to bring) Causative, first person, imperfect: how shall I cause it to come. The verb concedes nothing; David still assumes the ark's coming depends on him. Chapter 15 will supply the answer he is missing, that the Levites must bear it on their shoulders.

אֲר֥וֹן’ă·rō·wnthe arkH727

√ ʼârôwn — a boxNouncommon singular construct

ʼârôwn: a box In construct with hā-ʼĕlōhîm. Strong's root sense is bare: a box. Everything dangerous about it is what is in it and whose it is.

הָאֱלֹהִֽים׃hā·’ĕ·lō·hîmof GodH430

√ ʼĕlôhîym — gods in the ordinary senseArticleNounmasculine plural

אֵלַ֔י’ê·layto meH413

√ ʼêl — near, with or amongPrepositionfirst person common singular

ʼêl: near, with, among The preposition of nearness with a first person suffix. David's question is not "how shall the ark go to Jerusalem" but "how shall it come near me."

אֵ֖ת’êṯH853

√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Preposition

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-feared David the-God on-that day, saying, How shall-I-bring to-me the-ark of-the-God?

Where the English smooths the original

וַיִּירָ֤א וַיִּירָא (way·yî·rā, H3372) is "feared." English "David feared God" can be heard as piety, the settled reverence of the wise. Here the consecutive imperfect makes it an event on a dated day, immediately after a death: this is fright that has just happened, not a virtue David possessed.
הֵ֚יךְ הֵיךְ (hêḵ, H1963) is "How." It is not the ordinary Hebrew ʼêḵ; Ellicott calls it "an Aramaic form, perhaps due to a transcriber rather than to the author." The word occurs in only two verses in the whole canon. English "How can I ever" smooths over a foreign-sounding particle at the exact moment David's speech breaks down.
אָבִ֣יא אָבִיא (ʼā·ḇî, H935, Hifil imperfect first person) is "can I ever bring," a causative: shall I cause to come. Ellicott notes that Samuel has instead "shall come," a different voice of the same verb. The Chronicler's form puts David back in the position of agent, which is precisely the position that has just proved fatal.
אֵלַ֔י אֵלַי (ʼê·lay, H413) is "to me." Strong's root sense is near, with or among. The pronoun is the wound in the sentence: David's plan was to have the ark near him, and that possessive nearness is what the breach has called into question.

The Voices✦ 3 public domain

Charles EllicottCommentary for English Readers1878

Obed-edom the Gittite. —As, according to 1Chronicles 26:1-4 , Obed-edom was a Korhitic Levite, the term “Gittite” is generally assumed to mean native of Gathrimmon, a Levitical township ( Joshua 21:24 ) belonging to the great clan of Kohath, which was charged with the carriage of the Ark

Ellicott reaches his conclusion by harmonizing this verse with a genealogy thirteen chapters later. That is a legitimate move, but it is a harmonization, and Cambridge refuses it.

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Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges—1880s

Obed-edom the Gittite ] As Gittite means man of Gath, Obed-edom was doubtless of Philistine origin; perhaps he attached himself to David during David’s sojourn among the Philistines.

"Doubtless" overstates what the verse supplies. Cambridge's strongest actual argument is the negative one it gives next: that the Chronicler himself does not identify this man with the Levite of 1 Chronicles 15:18.

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Geneva Study BibleMarginal Notes1599

(g) Who was a Levite, and called Gittite, because he dwelt at Gath.

Geneva asserts both halves at once, with no argument offered. We record it as a third standing position rather than as evidence.

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So he did not move the ark with him to the City of David; instead, he took it aside to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

dā·wîḏ ’eṯ- wə·lō- hê·sîr hā·’ā·rō·wn ’ê·lāw ‘îr dā·wîḏ way·yaṭ·ṭê·hū ’el- ’el- bêṯ ‘ō·ḇêḏ- ’ĕ·ḏōm hag·git·tî

Word by word15 · parsed

דָּוִ֧ידdā·wîḏSo [he]H1732

√ Dâvid — David, the youngest son of JesseNounpropermasculine singular

אֶת־’eṯ-H853

√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object marker

וְלֹֽא־wə·lō-did notH3808

√ lôʼ — not (the simple or absConjunctive wawAdverbNegative particle

Did not: the negative particle governs the whole first clause. What the verse reports first is an abandonment of the original plan.

הֵסִ֨ירhê·sîrmoveH5493

√ çûwr — to turn off (literal or figurative)VerbHifilPerfectthird person masculine singular

çûwr: to turn off, turn aside (Hifil) Causative perfect. Ellicott translates it literally, "And David caused not the ark to turn aside unto himself," and notes the Chronicler has slightly abridged Samuel here. The ark is not said to be forbidden entry; David simply does not make it come.

הָאָר֛וֹןhā·’ā·rō·wnthe arkH727

√ ʼârôwn — a boxArticleNouncommon singular

אֵלָ֖יו’ê·lāwwith himH413

√ ʼêl — near, with or amongPrepositionthird person masculine singular

ʼêl: near, with, among The pronoun of v. 12, now third person. David's "to me" has become the narrator's "to himself," and the answer to his question is deferred by three months.

עִ֣יר‘îrto the CityH5892

√ ʻîyr — a city (a place guarded by waking or a watch) in the widest sense (even of a mere encampment or post)Nounfeminine singular construct

ʻîyr: a city, a guarded place Strong's root is a place kept by a watch. The City of David is the destination the ark will not reach in this chapter.

דָּוִ֑ידdā·wîḏof DavidH1732

√ Dâvid — David, the youngest son of JesseNounpropermasculine singular

וַיַּטֵּ֕הוּway·yaṭ·ṭê·hūinstead, he tookH5186

√ nâṭâh — to stretch or spread outConjunctive wawVerbHifilConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singularthird person masculine singular

nâṭâh: to stretch out, to turn aside (Hifil) Causative with a suffix: he caused it to swerve. The same consonantal root family that describes stretching out a hand describes here the redirection of the whole enterprise. Chapter 15 will show David learning that the problem was never the destination but the carriage.

אֶל־’el-it asideH413

√ ʼêl — near, with or amongPreposition

אֶל־’el-toH413

√ ʼêl — near, with or amongPreposition

בֵּ֥יתbêṯthe houseH1004

√ bayith — a house (in the greatest variation of applications, especially family, etcNounmasculine singular construct

bayith: a house, in its widest application including family The single word that carries the rest of the unit. In v. 14 the same noun will appear three times over: the family, the house, the household blessed.

עֹבֵֽד־‘ō·ḇêḏ-vvvH5654

√ ʻÔbêd ʼĔdôwm — Obed-Edom, the name of five Israelites

אֱדֹ֖ם’ĕ·ḏōmof Obed-edomH5654

√ ʻÔbêd ʼĔdôwm — Obed-Edom, the name of five IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular

ʻÔbêd ʼĔdôwm: Obed-Edom Strong's identifies the name as borne by five Israelites. The name itself means servant of Edom, and Edom is the standing hostile brother-nation, which is the second oddity in a verse already odd for the word Gittite.

הַגִּתִּֽי׃hag·git·tîthe GittiteH1663

√ Gittîy — a Gittite or inhabitant of GathArticleNounpropermasculine singular

Gittîy: a Gittite, inhabitant of Gath Three positions stand in this brief and none can claim the text. Cambridge holds he was "doubtless of Philistine origin," possibly attached to David during the Ziklag years, and stresses that the Chronicler does not identify him with the Levite porter of 1 Chronicles 15:18. Ellicott, from 1 Chronicles 26:1-4, takes him for a Korahite Levite and reads Gittite as a man of Gath-rimmon, a Levitical town of the Kohathites, the clan charged with carrying the ark. Geneva takes the middle: "a Levite, and called Gittite, because he dwelt at Gath." Pulpit records the difficulty and suggests marriage into a Kohathite city as a way through. The reading matters, because if Cambridge is right the ark goes from a dead Israelite to a living foreigner.

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-not turned-aside David the-ark to-himself, to the-city-of David; and-he-made-it-swerve to the-house-of Obed-Edom the-Gittite.

Where the English smooths the original

הֵסִ֨יר הֵסִיר (hê·sîr, H5493, Hifil perfect) is "did not move." Strong's root is to turn off, turn aside, and the Hifil is causative. Ellicott renders the clause exactly: "And David caused not the ark to turn aside unto himself." English "move" loses the picture of a procession changing direction.
וַיַּטֵּ֕הוּ וַיַּטֵּהוּ (way·yaṭ·ṭê·hū, H5186, Hifil with suffix) is "he took it aside." The root nâṭâh is to stretch or spread out, and in the Hifil, to turn or incline something away. Ellicott calls it "a different verb from that in 1 Chronicles 13:12." The two verbs of this verse are both causatives of turning, one denied and one performed: David does not turn it to himself, he turns it elsewhere.
אֵלָ֖יו אֵלָיו (ʼê·lāw, H413) is rendered "with him," but it is the same preposition of nearness David used of himself in v. 12, now in the third person: unto himself. The English "with him" makes it a matter of company; the Hebrew makes it a matter of possession, which is the thing David has just stopped claiming.
הַגִּתִּֽי הַגִּתִּי (hag·git·tî, H1663) is "the Gittite," an inhabitant of Gath. The English label is neutral; in the Hebrew narrative world it is loaded, and the commentators divide sharply over it. Cambridge: "Obed-edom was doubtless of Philistine origin." Ellicott and Geneva: a Levite, named for the Levitical town Gath-rimmon. The text does not decide.

The Voices✦ 3 public domain

Charles EllicottCommentary for English Readers1878

With the family. —By (near) the house. The preposition is wanting in Samuel, according to older usage. In his house. —In its own house (shrine).

source ↗

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges—1880s

Render, by (i.e. near) the house of Obed-edom in its own house . The Chronicler (regarding Obed-edom as a foreigner if not also an idolater) qualifies the expression found in 2 Samuel 6:11

Cambridge's parenthesis, that the Chronicler regards Obed-edom "as a foreigner if not also an idolater," is an inference about the Chronicler's attitude drawn from a preposition. The preposition is in the text; the attitude is Cambridge's reconstruction.

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Matthew HenryConcise Commentary on the Whole Bible1706

If the gospel be to some a savour of death unto death, as the ark was to Uzza, yet let us receive it in the love of it, and it will be to us a savour of life unto life.

Henry is reading the chapter through 2 Corinthians 2:16. The verse makes the same ark deadly and fruitful, so the apostolic phrase fits, but the fit is Henry's construction, not a citation the Chronicler makes.

source ↗

Thus the ark of God remained with the family of Obed-edom in his house for three months, and the LORD blessed his household and everything he owned.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

’ă·rō·wn hā·’ĕ·lō·hîm way·yê·šeḇ ‘im- bêṯ ‘ō·ḇêḏ ’ĕ·ḏōm bə·ḇê·ṯōw šə·lō·šāh ḥo·ḏā·šîm Yah·weh ’eṯ- way·ḇā·reḵ ‘ō·ḇêḏ- ’ĕ·ḏōm wə·’eṯ- bêṯ kāl- ’ă·šer- lōw

Word by word20 · parsed

אֲר֨וֹן’ă·rō·wnThus the arkH727

√ ʼârôwn — a boxNouncommon singular construct

ʼârôwn: a box The subject of the sentence is the object no one may touch, and here it is the thing that acts by simply being present.

הָאֱלֹהִ֜יםhā·’ĕ·lō·hîmof GodH430

√ ʼĕlôhîym — gods in the ordinary senseArticleNounmasculine plural

וַיֵּשֶׁב֩way·yê·šeḇremainedH3427

√ yâshab — properly, to sit down (specifically as judgeConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

yâshab: to sit down, to sit as judge, to dwell The narrative verb of settling. The unit's arc is carried by four verbs about position: Uzzah sends his hand (v. 9), David turns the ark aside (v. 13), the ark sits (v. 14), and YHWH kneels-and-blesses (v. 14). Only the first is a human initiative, and only the first ends in death.

עִם־‘im-withH5973

√ ʻim — adverb or preposition, with (iPreposition

בֵּ֨יתbêṯthe familyH1004

√ bayith — a house (in the greatest variation of applications, especially family, etcNounmasculine singular construct

bayith: house, household, family In construct: the house-of Obed-Edom. Ellicott reads the preposition strictly, "by (near) the house," and Cambridge argues the Chronicler is deliberately keeping a distance that 2 Samuel 6:11 did not keep.

עֹבֵ֥ד‘ō·ḇêḏvvvH5654

√ ʻÔbêd ʼĔdôwm — Obed-Edom, the name of five Israelites

אֱדֹ֛ם’ĕ·ḏōmof Obed-edomH5654

√ ʻÔbêd ʼĔdôwm — Obed-Edom, the name of five IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular

בְּבֵית֖וֹbə·ḇê·ṯōwin his houseH1004

√ bayith — a house (in the greatest variation of applications, especially family, etcPreposition-bNounmasculine singular constructthird person masculine singular

bayith: house With a third masculine singular suffix. Ellicott and Cambridge both take the suffix as the ark's own: "in its own house (shrine)." If they are right, the ark received a dwelling of its own in a stranger's compound while the City of David waited.

שְׁלֹשָׁ֣הšə·lō·šāhfor threeH7969

√ shâlôwsh — threeNumbermasculine singular

shâlôwsh: three A bounded interval. The Chronicler is precise about how long the blessing ran, because 1 Chronicles 15 will report that David heard about it and came back for the ark with Levites and poles.

חֳדָשִׁ֑יםḥo·ḏā·šîmmonthsH2320

√ chôdesh — the new moonNounmasculine plural

chôdesh: the new moon, hence a month The word for month in Hebrew is the word for the new moon: time measured by a light that renews. Three of them pass between the striking and the blessing becoming public.

יְהוָ֛הYah·wehand the LORDH3068

√ Yᵉhôvâh — Jehovah, Jewish national name of GodNounpropermasculine singular

The covenant Name, used by the Chronicler for the blessing where he used "God" for the fear. The Name that struck is the Name that blesses, and the text does not soften the identity.

אֶת־’eṯ-H853

√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object marker

וַיְבָ֧רֶךְway·ḇā·reḵblessedH1288

√ bârak — to kneelConjunctive wawVerbPielConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

bârak: to kneel (Piel: to bless) The root is bodily: to kneel, and so to bless. The unit opened with Israel dancing before God and closes with God, so to speak, kneeling toward a household in Gath's shadow. The verb is Piel consecutive imperfect, an act in the narrative line, not a summary.

עֹבֵֽד־‘ō·ḇêḏ-vvvH5654

√ ʻÔbêd ʼĔdôwm — Obed-Edom, the name of five Israelites

אֱדֹ֖ם’ĕ·ḏōm[his]H5654

√ ʻÔbêd ʼĔdôwm — Obed-Edom, the name of five IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular

וְאֶת־wə·’eṯ-H853

√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Conjunctive wawDirect object marker

בֵּ֥יתbêṯhouseholdH1004

√ bayith — a house (in the greatest variation of applications, especially family, etcNounmasculine singular construct

bayith: household The third occurrence of the noun in one verse. Cambridge passes on the Targum's detail that the blessing was "with sons and sons' sons," the household reckoned at eighty-one persons. That is late Jewish tradition, not text.

כָּל־kāl-and everythingH3605

√ kôl — properly, the wholeNounmasculine singular construct

kôl: the whole The blessing is not partitioned. Everything he had. The same universal quantifier stood in v. 8 over all Israel and all their might, and there it purchased nothing.

אֲשֶׁר־’ă·šer-H834

√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative

לֽוֹ׃פlōwhe owned

Prepositionthird person masculine singular

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-dwelt the-ark of-the-God with the-house-of Obed-Edom in-his-house three months; and-blessed YHWH the-house-of Obed-Edom and-all that-was-to-him.

Where the English smooths the original

וַיֵּשֶׁב֩ וַיֵּשֶׁב (way·yê·šeḇ, H3427) is "remained," but Strong's root is properly, to sit down, specifically as judge, and hence to dwell, to be enthroned. The ark does not merely stay at Obed-Edom's; in the verb's own idiom it sits. English "remained" makes it luggage.
עִם־בֵּ֨ית עִם בֵּית (ʻim bêṯ) is "with the family." Ellicott corrects: "By (near) the house," and notes the preposition is absent in the Samuel parallel "according to older usage." Cambridge sharpens it further, arguing the Chronicler qualifies 2 Samuel 6:11 deliberately, keeping the ark beside rather than inside the household of a man he may regard as a foreigner.
בְּבֵית֖וֹ בְּבֵיתוֹ (bə·ḇê·ṯōw) is "in his house," but both Ellicott and Cambridge render it "in its own house," taking the suffix of the ark, not of Obed-Edom: the ark had its own shrine there. That single pronoun decides whether a Gittite housed the ark or merely hosted it.
וַיְבָ֧רֶךְ וַיְבָרֶךְ (way·ḇā·reḵ, H1288, Piel) is "blessed." The root bârak is to kneel; the Piel is the causative-intensive of that posture. The translation gives the effect and loses the gesture. It is the first act of YHWH in this unit since He struck, and the same ark stands behind both.

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. Six instruments and one cart — 13:8-9

The unit begins at full volume. מְשַׂחֲקִים (sâchaq, H7832) is a participle: Israel is not said to have celebrated but to be celebrating, mid-motion, when the sentence ends. Pulpit traces the root from laughing through sporting and jesting to dancing and settles on "to make merry." Cambridge glosses it "to sport, to dance." Six instruments follow, and Cambridge, leaning on Nowack and Driver, corrects the English vocabulary itself: the nebel is likely the flat-bottomed box-lute the Arabs call a santir, and the kinnôr is "a lyre rather than a true harp." Ellicott and Pulpit both notice that the Chronicler's "with all their might" stands where Samuel has "with all woods of cypresses," two consonantal strings close enough that one is a corruption of the other; Pulpit calls Samuel's "the evident mistake," which is a judgment the manuscripts do not license.

⚙ What the Chronicler has built is a wall of praise with nothing load-bearing in it. Every noun in v. 8 is an offering of energy: all Israel, all might, songs, harps, lyres, tambourines, cymbals, trumpets. There is no priest in the sentence and no pole. Then v. 9 arrives at a threshing floor, which Pulpit describes as a beaten circle fifty to a hundred feet across, a landmark by its own flatness, and on the flattest ground in the district the cart falters. The verb is שָׁמְטוּ (shâmaṭ, H8058), a word appearing in only eight verses, and our three best witnesses cannot agree what it did: Ellicott says "plunged," Cambridge says let it go, Pulpit says "became restive." We do not know how the oxen failed. We only know that Uzzah sent his hand, and that Cambridge has already caught the Chronicler flinching from the older wording, "The Chronicler from a feeling of reverence shrinks from saying, and took hold of it."

ii. The nostril, the breach, and a name on the map — 13:10-11

Verse 10 is four Hebrew clauses and no explanation. אַף יְהוָה is not "the anger of the LORD" but the nostril of the LORD (H639, Strong's: "properly, the nose or nostril"), and it grew hot (chârâh, H2734). Then the Hifil וַיַּכֵּהוּ, abridged, Ellicott notes, from Samuel's fuller "and God smote him there." The stated ground is a quotation of v. 9: ʻal ʼăsher šālaḥ yāḏōw, because he sent his hand. Geneva names the statute behind the verdict, Numbers 4:15, and reads Uzzah's death as punishment "for usurping that which did not belong to his calling." Pulpit adds Exodus 25:14-15, that the carrying poles were never to leave the rings, so that the ark was built never to require a hand. Keil, arguing a different point entirely about 13:6, states the background assumption flatly: in the Old Testament "no one could venture to approach the ark."

Then the same verb catches David. Verse 11 opens וַיִּחַר, the identical root that burned in God's nostril one verse earlier, and Pulpit hears in it "a mixture of anger and grief," the word used of Jonah. Cambridge, reading forward to 1 Chronicles 15:13, guesses David was wroth "against his advisers for not warning him." The clause that names the cause is a cognate accusative: פָרַץ פֶּרֶץ, he broke forth a breaking forth, the language of a wall giving way, which Ellicott connects to Exodus 19:22 at Sinai and to 1 Chronicles 14:11, where the identical verb breaks out on David's enemies instead. David turns the day into a place name, Perez-Uzzah, Breach-of-Uzzah, and Ellicott cautions that the "to this day" formula may be copied from the source rather than asserted by the Chronicler.

iii. The question that stalls, and the blessing that lands elsewhere — 13:12-14

David's fear in v. 12 is an event with a date, not a disposition, and his question uses הֵיךְ (hêyk, H1963), a word found in only two verses in the canon; Ellicott calls it "an Aramaic form, perhaps due to a transcriber rather than to the author." The verb is a Hifil, shall I cause to come, and Ellicott notes Samuel has the plainer "shall come." David is still the agent in his own question, which is exactly the posture that has just proved lethal. Henry puts the pastoral turn here: "Let the punishment of Uzza teach us not to dare to trifle with God in our approaches to him; yet let us, through Christ, come boldly to the throne of grace."

Then the procession swerves. Two causative verbs of turning govern v. 13, one refused and one performed: David does not cause the ark to turn aside unto himself (Ellicott's literal rendering of çûwr), and he does cause it to incline (nâṭâh) toward the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite. On who that man was, this brief holds three irreconcilable positions. Cambridge: "Obed-edom was doubtless of Philistine origin," and the Chronicler pointedly does not identify him with the Levite porter of 1 Chronicles 15:18. Ellicott, harmonizing with 1 Chronicles 26:1-4: a Korahite Levite of Gath-rimmon, a Kohathite town of the clan "charged with the carriage of the Ark." Geneva splits the difference with no argument: "a Levite, and called Gittite, because he dwelt at Gath." Pulpit records the tangle and floats marriage as a solution. We cannot settle it.

⚙ What we can read is the shape. The ark sits (yâshab, H3427, a verb that also means to sit as judge) for three months, and Ellicott and Cambridge both take the following suffix as the ark's own, "in its own house (shrine)." Cambridge argues the Chronicler even keeps his preposition at a distance, "by (near) the house," qualifying what 2 Samuel 6:11 said plainly. And there, at that careful distance, YHWH blesses: וַיְבָרֶךְ, a Piel of bârak, whose root is to kneel. The same ark, unmoved and untouched, killed a man at Chidon and enriched a household at Gath-rimmon in the same season. The variable was never the ark's mood.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ Read only against Scripture, the offense in this chapter is not that Uzzah felt too little reverence but that Israel assumed too much competence. Verse 8 is a catalogue of what the nation brought: all Israel, all their might, six kinds of instrument. Verse 9 records what it had not brought, and the text never says it outright, it only lets the cart do the telling. The indictment in v. 10 is not psychological. It names one noun, יָדוֹ, his hand, and one verb, he sent. God does not weigh Uzzah's motive in the verse, which is why Henry's warning stands: "let none think that a good design will justify a bad action."

⚙ What follows is stranger than the death, and easier to miss. David's question in v. 12 is a good question asked from the wrong chair: how shall I cause the ark to come to me? He gets no answer in this chapter. The ark goes instead to a house, and the man whose house it is may well be a Philistine (so Cambridge) or may be a Levite of the very clan ordained to carry it (so Ellicott), and the Chronicler declines to tell us which. Then for three months the thing that struck a man dead does nothing but bless, and it blesses a household, not a king. Our fallible reading is that the unit is not about God's volatility but about who is permitted to handle holiness and on whose terms: the ark is never in danger and never needs help, and the moment a man treats it as an object requiring his management, it becomes what it always was to unauthorized hands. David learns this and says so in 1 Chronicles 15:13. We may be wrong about the weight of the Gittite detail, since the commentators here cannot even agree on the man's tribe.

The ark was never the thing in danger at Chidon. (This is our own line, not a verse of Scripture.)

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

The same scene told twice: Chronicles and 2 Samuel 6 verbal / quotation: confirmed

Verses 9 to 11 stand in a near word-for-word relation to 2 Samuel 6:6-8, and the differences are the whole interest. The Verifier confirms the shared lexemes, including two rare ones: עֻזָּא (ʻUzzâʼ, H5798, in 14 verses) and שָׁמַט (shâmaṭ, H8058, in 8 verses), with chârâh (H2734) and bâqâr (H1241) alongside. The divergences are documented by the commentators, not invented here: Cambridge says the Chronicler "shrinks from saying, and took hold of it"; Ellicott says the phrase "because he put" replaces Samuel's otherwise unattested ʻal hashshal, and that whether the Chronicler preserved an old reading or guessed "cannot be determined"; Ellicott further notes the Chronicler writes God where Samuel writes the Name, and "before God" where Samuel writes "by the ark of God." Two inspired accounts, one event, and a visible editorial hand.

2 Samuel 6:6 · 2 Samuel 6:7 · 2 Samuel 6:8

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H5798 ʻUzzâʼ (in 14 vv) and H2734 chârâh (in 88 vv) at 2 Samuel 6:8 (score 0.82); H8058 shâmaṭ (in 8 vv), H270 ʼâchaz (in 63 vv), H1241 bâqâr (in 172 vv) at 2 Samuel 6:6. H5798 and H8058 are rare enough to carry a verbal tier, and the relation is a documented parallel narrative rather than a quotation formula.

A word that occurs twice in the canon: hêyk verbal / quotation: confirmed

David's "How can I ever bring the ark of God to me?" uses הֵיךְ (hêyk, H1963), which the Verifier finds in only two verses in the whole Hebrew canon. The other is Daniel 10:17, where a man face-down before a vision asks how he can possibly speak. Ellicott identifies the form here as Aramaic and suspects a transcriber; Daniel, of course, is the book where Aramaic is at home. ⚙ We do not claim either passage quotes the other, and no citation formula exists. What the shared rarity does give is a matched posture: in both texts a man who has just encountered unbearable holiness reaches for the same strange interrogative and cannot finish his sentence about his own capacity.

Daniel 10:17

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexeme H1963 hêyk, in 2 verses in the entire canon (score 0.50). The rarity is maximal, which is why the tier is verbal; there is no quotation and no citation formula, so the link is lexical only.

The statute the chapter never cites but every commentator does structural / thematic: confirmed

Numbers 4:15 forbids the Kohathites to touch the holy things on pain of death. The Chronicler does not quote it. Geneva supplies it as the ground of the verdict, reading Uzzah's death as "for usurping that which did not belong to his calling: for this charge was given to the priests, Nu 4:15." Pulpit reaches independently for the same text: "perhaps the direction of Numbers 4:15 may be sufficient account of the matter," adding Exodus 25:14-15, that the poles were to stay permanently in the rings. Ellicott cites Numbers 4:15 too, in connection with Obed-edom's Kohathite clan. ⚙ David himself supplies the missing legal reasoning two chapters later at 1 Chronicles 15:13. The link is real but the basis is commentator citation, not a Verifier lexeme pair.

Numbers 4:15 · Exodus 25:14 · 1 Chronicles 15:13

basis: Not a Verifier pair: no shared-Strong's basis was computed for these refs. The recorded basis is the explicit citation of Numbers 4:15 by Geneva and Pulpit on 13:10 and by Ellicott on 13:13, plus Pulpit's citation of Exodus 25:14-15. Tiered structural, never verbal, because the Chronicler makes no quotation.

The same orchestra, carried rightly structural / thematic: confirmed

Three of the six instruments of v. 8 reassemble at 1 Chronicles 16:5 when the ark finally reaches Jerusalem: kinnôwr (H3658), nebel (H5035) and mᵉtsêleth (H4700), with the trumpets of v. 8 (chătsôtsᵉrâh, H2689) reappearing in the Levites' hands at 1 Chronicles 15:24. ⚙ The Chronicler does not repent of the music. He repents of the cart. Between the two scenes stands 1 Chronicles 15:13, where David states what changed: the Levites bear the ark, on their shoulders, because the LORD broke out against them the first time for not seeking Him according to the ordinance. Same instruments, same king, same joy, different bearers.

1 Chronicles 16:5 · 1 Chronicles 15:24

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H3658 kinnôwr (in 41 vv), H4700 mᵉtsêleth (in 13 vv), H5035 nebel (in 37 vv) at 1 Chronicles 16:5 (score 0.26); H2689 chătsôtsᵉrâh (in 27 vv) with H727 ʼârôwn at 1 Chronicles 15:24. None of these lexemes is rare enough for a verbal tier, and the link is a repeated liturgical pattern within one author's work, not a quotation.

The garden of Uzza: a link we decline flagged: verify source

The Verifier returns 2 Kings 21:18 and 21:26 as candidates, along with 1 Chronicles 6:29, 1 Chronicles 8:7, Ezra 2:49 and Nehemiah 7:51. Every one of them rests on the single lexeme עֻזָּא (H5798, in 14 verses). ⚙ In 2 Kings the phrase is "the garden of Uzza," a burial ground for Manasseh and Amon; in Ezra and Nehemiah it is a family name among the temple servants; in the 1 Chronicles verses it is a Merarite and a Benjamite. Strong's itself records that ʻUzzâʼ is "the name of five Israelites." The shared string is a rare lexeme by frequency, which is exactly why an automatic verbal tier would be wrong here: a rare proper name shared across unrelated bearers is a homonym, not a link. We record the candidate and refuse the inference.

2 Kings 21:18 · 2 Kings 21:26 · Ezra 2:49

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexeme H5798 ʻUzzâʼ (in 14 vv) at 2 Kings 21:18, 2 Kings 21:26, Ezra 2:49, Nehemiah 7:51, 1 Chronicles 6:29 and 1 Chronicles 8:7 (scores 0.21). Flagged because the basis is a proper name that Strong's assigns to five distinct Israelites, so lexical rarity here does not establish any relation between the passages.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The same ark, death to one and life to another ancient/widely-held

Henry reads the chapter through Paul and says so plainly: "If the gospel be to some a savour of death unto death, as the ark was to Uzza, yet let us receive it in the love of it, and it will be to us a savour of life unto life." The text supports the structure: the identical, unmoved ark kills at Chidon in v. 10 and blesses at Obed-Edom's for three months in v. 14. Nothing about the ark changed between the two verses. ⚙ That is the same asymmetry 2 Corinthians 2:16 names of the apostolic message and 1 Peter 2:7-8 names of the cornerstone, which is precious to believers and a stone of stumbling to others. And it is why Henry's second clause is not a softening but the point: "let us, through Christ, come boldly to the throne of grace." The boldness of Hebrews 4:16 is not the boldness Uzzah showed. Uzzah's was a hand sent to manage what was never in danger; the boldness of Hebrews is the approach of those given a mediator and a right of access.

2 Corinthians 2:16 · Hebrews 4:16 · 1 Peter 2:7

The touch that kills and the touch that heals novel

⚙ The verdict of v. 10 is one noun and one verb: because he sent his hand upon the ark. In Mark 5:27-30 a woman ritually unclean by a twelve-year flow reaches through a crowd and takes hold of the garment of the Holy One of God, and power goes out of Him toward her instead of out of Him against her. The grammar of holiness has reversed direction. Under the old arrangement, contact transmitted death outward from the holy to the unclean; in the Gospels contact transmits life outward from the Holy One to the unclean, and He touches lepers (Mark 1:41) without becoming one.

⚙ We mark this novel, and we mark the limit of it. No commentator in this brief draws the comparison, and the Chronicler makes no such link. The connection is ours, offered to be tested, and it rests on a real structural observation rather than on a shared word: the Hebrew and Greek cannot share a lexeme, so nothing verbal is being claimed.

Mark 5:27 · Mark 1:41

A house in Gath's shadow, blessed before the City of David novel

⚙ If Cambridge is right that Obed-Edom was "doubtless of Philistine origin," then the ark of Israel spent three months resting in a foreigner's compound, in its own house, and the LORD blessed that household and everything he owned while Jerusalem waited. If Ellicott and Geneva are right that he was a Levite of Gath-rimmon, the reading is different and the thread thins considerably. We cannot decide between them, and we say so.

⚙ Taking Cambridge's reading as the possibility it is, the pattern it would form is the one Paul names at Ephesians 2:13, that those who were far off are brought near by the blood of Christ, and the one Jesus presses at Luke 4:26-27 by naming a Sidonian widow and a Syrian leper as the ones the prophets were sent to. Marked novel: it is our inference, it depends on an unsettled question of the man's tribe, and it must not be built upon.

Ephesians 2:13 · Luke 4:26

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
Keil & Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1860s)
Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

Text. Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible (CC0); the Hebrew, transliteration, Strong's numbers and parsing are the Berean interlinear as supplied in the brief. Several interlinear rows in this unit carry the glosses out of Hebrew word order (13:9 places the direct object marker and "his hand" before the verb; 13:11 and 13:13 split the compound names Perez-Uzzah and Obed-Edom across two rows, one of them marked "vvv" with no parse). Our literal renderings restore Hebrew order; the note keys follow the interlinear indices exactly as given.

Sources actually used. Ellicott, Cambridge, Pulpit, Geneva, Henry and Keil. Four of the ten authors present in the brief were not quoted, and the reason is that their entries for this unit do not address these verses: Barnes supplies only a one-line note on Shihor (13:5); JFB supplies a note on Baalah and 2 Samuel 6:2; Gill's entry is his comment on 13:5-7, ending with a referral to his own notes on 2 Samuel 6; and Poole has no text on any verse in this range. Keil's block is likewise his comment on 13:5-6, and we say so in the editorial note attached to the one sentence of his we quote. Cambridge has no entry for 13:12, which is why that verse carries two voices rather than three.

What is uncertain. Three things, and none of them can be resolved from this brief. (1) The meaning of shâmaṭ at 13:9: Ellicott reads "plunged," Cambridge reads let it go, Pulpit reads "became restive." We do not know how the oxen failed. (2) The identity of Obed-Edom: Cambridge holds him a Philistine, Ellicott a Korahite Levite of Gath-rimmon, Geneva a Levite resident at Gath, Pulpit undecided and suggesting marriage as a way through. Our third christ entry depends on this and is marked novel for that reason. (3) The relation between the Chronicles and Samuel texts at 13:10, where Ellicott states outright that whether the Chronicler preserved the original reading or guessed at it "cannot be determined."

Tiering. The Daniel 10:17 link is tiered verbal on the strength of a two-verse lexeme and nothing else; no quotation is claimed. The Numbers 4:15 thread has no Verifier basis at all and is tiered structural on commentator citation alone. The 2 Kings 21 and Ezra-Nehemiah candidates returned by the Verifier are flagged and refused, because the shared rare lexeme is a proper name Strong's assigns to five different men. The two novel christ readings are our own and carry no ancient attestation from this brief.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)