2 Samuel 6:4

6:1-5 God is present with the souls of his people, when they want the outward tokens of his presence; but now David is settled in the throne, the honour of the ark begins to revive. Let us learn hence, to think and to speak highly of God; and to think and speak honourably of holy ordinances, which are to us as the ark was unto Israel, the tokens of God's presence, Mt 28:20. Christ is our Ark; in and by him God manifests his favour, and accepts our prayers and praises. The ark especially typified Christ and his mediation, in which the name of Jehovah and all his glories are displayed. The priests should have carried the ark upon their shoulders. Philistines may carry the ark in a cart without suffering for it; but if Israelites do so, it is at their peril, because this was not what God appointed.

And they brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was at Gibeah,.... That is, the new cart, which is the last thing spoken of, 2 Samuel 6:3 ; and the bringing of the ark out of his house is mentioned before; though some take this to be the coffer in which were the presents of the Philistines, which was now brought out along with the ark, see 1 Samuel 6:8 , accompanying the ark of God; or "with the ark of God" (f); that is, they brought the new cart "from" the house of Abinadab on the hill, with the ark of God upon it: and Ahio went before the ark; guiding the oxen that drew it, and Uzzah might go behind, or on one side, to take care that the ark fell not out of it. (f) "cum arca Dei", Pagninus, Montanus, Tigurine version, Piscator.

So David gathered all Israel together,.... The principal of them, even 30,000 select men, 2 Samuel 6:1 . from Shihor of Egypt; or the Nile of Egypt, as the Targum and other Jewish writers, called Shihor from the blackness of its water, see Jeremiah 2:18 though some think the river Rhinocurura is meant, which both lay to the south of the land of Israel: even unto the entering of Hamath; which the Targum interprets of Antiochia, which lay to the north of the land; so that this collection of the people was made from south to north, the extreme borders of the land: to bring the ark of God from Kirjathjearim; where it then was, and had been a long time, see 1 Samuel 7:1, from hence to the end of the chapter the account is the same with 2 Samuel 6:1, see the notes there; what little variations there are, are there observed. See Gill on 2 Samuel 6:1, 2 Samuel 6:2, 2 Samuel 6:3, 2 Samuel 6:4, 2 Samuel 6:5, 2 Samuel 6:6, 2 Samuel 6:7, 2 Samuel 6:8, 2 Samuel 6:9, 2 Samuel 6:10, 2 Samuel 6:11

2 Samuel 6:4-5 . Accompanying the ark of God — That is, when it was brought out of the house of Abinadab, the people flocked together to attend it. It seems as if Eleazar, who had been sanctified to take care of the ark, was dead, or stayed at home to attend to his father, who was now grown old. David and all Israel played before the Lord — Who was present with the ark. Public joy should always be as before the Lord, with an eye to him, and terminating in him. Otherwise it is no better than public madness, and the source of all manner of wickedness.

Verse 4. - Accompanying (Hebrew, with ) the ark. The verse is evidently corrupt, and we have no aid from the parallel place in Chronicles, except the fact that it is omitted there. The most probable explanation is that the first half of the verse has been repeated from ver. 3 by the error of some copyist, and that the original words were "Uzzah and Ahio drove the new cart with the ark of God, and Ahio went before the ark." While Uzzah walked at the side, Ahio went before the oxen to guide and manage them, as the Basques may be seen at the present day doing in the south of France. 2 Samuel 6:4

The house of Abinadab in Gibeah - . Rather, on the hill (as in margin and 1 Samuel 7:1 ). It does not at all follow that Abinadab was still alive, nor can we conclude from Uzzah and Ahio being called sons of Abinadab, that they were literally his children. They may well have been sons of Eleazar and grandsons of Abinadab, or yet more remote descendants; since there is no distinct evidence that Abinadab was alive even when the ark was brought to Kirjath-jearim. The house may have retained the name of "the house of Abinadab" long after his death.

"They set the ark of God upon a new cart, and took it away from the house of Abinadab." הרכּיב means here "to put (load) upon a cart," and נשׂא dn to take away, i.e., drive off: for there are grammatical (or syntactical) reasons which make it impossible to render וישּׂאהוּ as a pluperfect ("they had taken"), on account of the previous וירכבו. The ark of the covenant had been standing in the house of Abinadab from the time when the Philistines had sent it back into the land of Israel, i.e., about seventy years (viz., twenty years to the victory at Ebenezer mentioned in 1 Samuel 7:1., forty years under Samuel and Saul, and about ten years under David: see the chronological table). The further statement, that "Uzzah and Ahio, sons of Abinadab, drove the cart," may easily be reconciled with this. These two sons were either born about the time when the ark was first taken to Abinadab's house, or at a subsequent period; or else the term sons is used, as is frequently the case, in the sense of grandsons. The words from חדשׁה (the last word in 2 Samuel 6:3) to Gibeah in 2 Samuel 6:4 are wanting in the Septuagint, and can only have been introduced through the error of a copyist, whose eye wandered back to the first עגלה in 2 Samuel 6:3, so that he copied a whole line twice over; for they not only contain a pure tautology, a merely verbal and altogether superfluous and purposeless repetition, but they are altogether unsuitable to the connection in which they stand.

Not only is there something very strange in the repetition of the חדשׁה without an article after העגלה; but the words which follow, ארון ה עם (with the ark of God), cannot be made to fit on to the repeated clause, for there is no sense whatever in such a sentence as this: "They brought it (the ark) out of the house of Abinadab, which is upon the hill, with the ark of God." The only way in which the words "with the ark" can be made to acquire any meaning at all, is by omitting the repetition referred to, and connecting them with the new cart in 2 Samuel 6:3 : "Uzzah and Ahio ... drove the cart with the ark of God, and Ahio went before the ark." נהג, to drive (a carriage), is construed here with an accusative, in 1 Chronicles 13:7 with בּ, as in Isaiah 11:6.