The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Samuel — Section 144

Ver. 9.-David wu afraid. This was his walls. There were no country houses in next feeling. Neither he nor Uzzah had a region lately twice ravaged by the l'liillB- off"nrled wilrully, and eo severe a punish- tines. But there is an objection to this ment for an •• e1Tor" made l1im dread the view, namely, thBt it is not tlie sense or the presenoe of ao dangerous 11. thing as the ark Hebrew. What is there B'e.id is thBt at seemed to be. Inste11.d, therefore, of tll.kl.ng stBrting, after stepping six paces, David it into " the city of D11.vid," he turns aside sacrificed 11.n ox and a fatling (by tho hands, and leaves it in the house of the nc11.rest of course, of the priests), to ask e. blessing Levite. In both his 11.nger and his dread upon the removal or the ark, and avert all David manifests himself to us as one whose misfortune. In Chronicles we ree.d nothing ideas about God were somewhat childish. of this, but of a sacrifice of seven bullocks He regards Jehovah as a powerful and ca- and seven rams offered by the Levites. pricious Being, who mast be appeased. He The one was David's offering made at the had attained to juster views in Ps. xvi. e.nd beginning, to consecrate the removal; the other such trustful hvmns. other was made at the end, and was a thank Ver. 10.-0bed-Edom. We find two Levites offering of the Lllvites, beoause they h11d of this name among David's officials--0ne oarried the ark safely (1 Chron. xv. 26). belonging to the family of Merari, a singer The Vulge.te has a remarkable addition and doo1·keeper for the ark (1 Chron. xv. 18, to ver. 12, ta.ken doubtless by Jerome 21, 24); the other of the family of Kora.h from manuscripts which existed in his (1 Chron. xxvi. 4, 5). And as it is there day. It is as follows: "There were with !!aid that "God blessed him,'' he probably David seven choruses and a ea.If as victim." it was into whose honse the ark wa.s taken. The fact is not in itself improbable, a.nd He is called a Gittite. because he belonged means that the musicians and dancers t.o Gatl,-Rimmon, a Levitical city in the were divided into bands which mutu11.lly tribe of Dan (Josh. :xi.x. 45 ; xxi. 24 ). relieved one another. And as a sacrifice Yer. 11.-Jehovah bl888ed 0bed-Edom. So was also a feast, eaoh band ha.d a co.If far from there being anything unlucky in provided for it. '.fhe LXX. omits the thir- the ark, its presence brings with it a manifest teenth verse altogether, and substitutes for bleasing, and thus David's fears are allayed. it, "And seven choruses accompanied him, But before he returns to his purpose, he bearing the ark, o.nd a calf and lambs as commands that proper inquiry be me.de. a sacrilice." The priests must examine the holy hook, Ver. 14.-And David danoed. The word and. having learned from it where his former used means the springing round in half- conduct was wrong, he assembles the people circles lo the sound of music. Conder has once again to carry the ark to its home given a very interesting account of the (1 Chron. xv. 2, 12--15). dancing of the Malawiyeh, which consisted Ver. 12.-With gladness. The words in turning round in whole circles, resting meau, "in a joyfnl procession with music on the heel of the left foot (' Heth and and dancing." Moab,' p. 65, etc.). As David do.need with 'Ver. 13.-When they that bare the ark of all his !11.ight, be was evidently strongly 1ehovah had gone m paoes, he sacrifioed excited with religious fervour. We have oxen and fatlingll; Hebrew, an oz and a the expression of his feelings in the psalm falling. Many snppose that David 11&cri- composed for this occasion (1 Ohron. xvi. 1iced an ox and a fatting every six paces 7-36); subsequently it seems to have been along the whole way from the honse of rearranged for the temple service, as it is Obed-Edom, which was probably near or broken up into Ps. xcvi. and ov. 1-15. even in Jemsalem, unto the tent prepared Dancing was usually the office of the women for the ark in Zion. "Evidently the way (Exod.xv.20; Judg.xi.34; xxi.21; I Sam. to the boly city was a way of blood. The xviii. 6); but men may also have often taken stained streets of Zion, the rivers of blood, part in it,as Michal's objeotiou·was that it was the slaughtered heapa and the blaze of altar- unbefitting a king. David was girded with fires formed a strange contrast to the danc- a linen ephod. David wore this as a tightly ing, the singing, and the harping of the fitting garment, which left him free to exert mnltitudes who crowded the city" (Sime, himself in the dance. So far Crom the use ' Kingdom of All Israel,' p. 288). It is not of it being an assumption or the priestly necessary to suppose, with some objectors, office, it was regarded by Michal as an act that the ark waited till each 11&eri.fice was of humiliation, as it was e. dross wom evon completed, or that the roe.d thus lined with by a child when admitted to service in victims was many miles in length. The a priest's family (1 Sam. ii. 18). Probably ark did not remain at Perez-Uzzah, but was David did mean to rank himself for the carried in silent awe to the house of a time among the inferior servitors of the ark. Levite; and such a house probably was not He might have claimed more. In the theo- to be found until they were inside the city cracy he was the representutivll of Jehovah, ClR, VI, 1-23.] THE SECOND BOOK OF SAMUEL. 117