Dual Panel1DAVID consulted the officers over units of a thousand and a hundred on every matter brought forward.
2Then he said to the whole assembly of Israel, “If you approve, and if the LORD our God opens a way, let us send to our kinsmen who have stayed behind in all the districts of Israel, and also to the priests and Levites in the cities and towns where they have common lands, bidding them join us.
3Let us fetch the Ark of our God, for while Saul lived we never resorted to it.”
4With the approval of the whole nation the assembly resolved unanimously to do this.
5So David assembled all Israel from the Shihor in Egypt to Lebo-hamath, in order to fetch the Ark of God from Kiriath-jearim.
6David and all Israel went up to Baalah, to Kiriath-jearim, which belonged to Judah, to fetch from there the Ark of God, the LORD enthroned upon the cherubim, the Ark which bore his name.
7They mounted the Ark on a new cart and conveyed it from the house of Abinadab, with Uzza and Ahio guiding the cart.
8David and all Israel danced for joy before God with all their might to the sound of singing, of lyres, lutes, tambourines, cymbals, and trumpets.
9When they came to the threshing-floor of Kidon, the oxen stumbled, and Uzza reached out his hand to hold the Ark.
10The LORD was angry with Uzza and struck him down because he had put out his hand to the Ark. So he died there before God.
11David was vexed because the LORD's anger had broken out on Uzza, and he called the place Perez-uzza, the name it still bears.
12David was afraid of God that day and said, “How can the Ark of God come to me?”
13So he did not take the Ark with him into the City of David; he turned aside and carried it to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite.
14The Ark of God remained in its tent beside Obed-edom's house for three months, and the LORD blessed the family of Obed-edom and all that he had.