1 Chronicles 13:9-14

13:9 When they arrived at the threshing floor of Kidon, Uzzah reached out his hand to take hold of ¹  the ark, because the oxen stumbled. 13:10 The Lord was so furious with Uzzah, ²  he killed him, because he reached out his hand and touched the ark. ³  He died right there before God. ⁴ 

13:11 David was angry because the Lord attacked Uzzah; ⁵  so he called that place Perez Uzzah, ⁶  which remains its name to this very day. 13:12 David was afraid of God that day and said, “How will I ever be able to bring the ark of God up here?” 13:13 So David did not move the ark to the City of David; ⁷  he left it in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite. 13:14 The ark of God remained in Obed-Edom’s house for three months; the Lord blessed Obed-Edom’s family and everything that belonged to him.

¹ tn Or “to steady.”

² tn Heb “and the anger of the Lord burned against Uzzah.”

³ tn Heb “because he stretched out his hand over the ark.”

⁴ sn The modern reader might think God seemed to overreact here, but Israel needed a vivid object lesson of God’s holiness. By loading the ark on a cart, David had violated the instructions in God’s law (Exod 25:12-14; Num 4:5-6, 15). Uzzah’s action, however innocent it may seem, betrayed a certain lack of reverence for God’s presence. God had to remind his people that his holiness could not under any circumstances be violated.

⁵ tn Heb “because the Lord broke out [with] breaking out [i.e., an outburst] against Uzzah.”

⁶ sn The name Perez Uzzah means in Hebrew “the outburst [against] Uzzah.”

⁷ sn The phrase the City of David refers here to the fortress of Zion in Jerusalem, not to Bethlehem. See 2 Sam 5:7.